Tai woke up feeling a hand on his shoulder.
"Tai?" Tai's eyes shot open and he saw Sora crouched down in front of him. She smiled,
"Time to wake up." She said and Tai sat up and wiped some drool from the corner of his mouth. He felt sand on the side of his face and took a moment to wipe all the sand from his cheek. Tai watched Sora stand and he looked over the group. The fire was out and Tai could already feel the heat grow from the sun. He saw Agumon and Tentomon standing next to Izzy looking at something on the boys computer. Izzy then groaned,
"No!" He said and Tai stood and walked over to him,
"What's up Iz?" He asked crouching down next to the boy.
"My computer died, and I was pretty sure I was getting a read in that direction." He pointed over his laptop and Tai stood tall,
"We'll it might be worth checking out. Could get us out of the sun." Tai said with a shrug. He looked back at the others. Joe was handing out some food and Tai whistled for the group.
"Hey guys circle up." He said and Joe packed up the bag and the group gathered around Tai and Izzy.
"Izzy thinks there might be something this way." Tai pointed behind him and registered the groups reaction. Sora stood closely to a newly digivolved Biyomon. Joe stepped forward handing Tai some food.
"Well that gives us somewhere to go." The oldest teen said with a shrug. Tai took the food from Joe and took a minute to look over at Agumon,
"You eat buddy?" He asked and Agumon nodded, Tai then opened the package and started eating. He refocused on the group.
"So we agree? We head that way?" Tai asked wanting to hear input from everyone.
"If we could get away from sand I will be happy. I have so much in my shoes." Mimi moaned and she pulled her shoe off and emptied it as if to prove her point. Tai looked to TK, he was standing and was holding Patamon but had a blank look on his face. Matt spoke,
"Maybe we can find something that will tell us how to get home?" Tai looked into Matt's eyes and nodded. The two may have had a bit of a break through last night but Tai still felt they were a long way from becoming anything close to friends. Tai inhaled,
"Alright, housekeeping, anyone need to pee?" He asked and the group shook their head,
"Let's just move." Matt said and he and Gabumon walked past Tai. Tai decided to allow the others to pass him. Sora gave him a soft smile as she and Biyomon walked past him. He saw Izzy pack up his laptop and him and Tentomon followed behind Mimi and Palmon. Tai stepped aside allowing Joe and Gomamon to walk a head.
"Tai you coming?" Agumon asked. Tai looked down at his digimon,
"Go catch up with the others bud." He said and Agumon turned and ran up to Gomamon and Joe. Tai stepped next to TK and the boy looked at Tai confused,
"Everything okay Tai?" He asked. Tai nodded then quickly shook his head, the two started walking slowly behind the rest of group.
"Uhm, I'm not sure, I just wanted to check in with you." TK looked at Tai,
"Me?" He asked. Tai looked forward,
"Yeah, you just look a little zoned out." Tk was silent. Tai wiped his forehead feeling sweat form.
"I mean, I'm sorry I just have noticed you seem to have so many gaps in your memory. It's just strange." Tai said filling the silence. The two trudged through the sand. Tai could feel TK close up. He's hiding something, Tai thought.
"It was so dark, and I know I wasn't alone." TK said and Tai stopped walking his eyes wide.
"What did you say?" He asked feeling his throat dry. TK stopped and looked at Tai. Tai glanced at the group, they weren't too far ahead and no one noticed the two of them had stopped. TK put a hand to his forehead,
"I don't want to talk about this anymore Tai." TK said and he removed his hand from his forehead. Tai wanted to shake TK, force him to remember! He instead stood still watching TK carry Patamon and walk towards the others. Tai felt his face tighten, he was angry. Something wasn't right. They had been here in this world for a while and had no answers to why they were there. He looked at TK's back and then a thought came to him, Patamon? Why hasn't he said anything?
"Tai! You coming?!" Tai moved his eyes from TK and saw the rest of the group staring at him. Matt rose an eyebrow,
"Right," Tai said and he quickened his feet to catch up. After a while, the group finally felt their feet step off sand onto harder ground.
"What is this?" Sora asked and Tai felt relief from the sun as it hid behind a building. Tai adjusted his eyes and saw they were standing in front of a factory.
"Maybe someone's here, someone who can help us?" Mimi asked. Tai stepped forward,
"Let's split up," He was met with silence and he looked away from the factory to look at the others,
"Is that a good idea?" Joe asked breaking the silence. Tai stepped back, the factory area wasn't huge, they wouldn't be too far apart.
"Hey I think I see power!" Izzy announced and him and Tentomon moved towards a steam stack. TK took a step towards Izzy, "I think I'm going to go with him," The youngest member of the group stated and he followed Izzy and Tentomon. Matt stepped towards his brother, "TK wait!" Mimi grabbed Matt's hand,
"Actually you and I are gonna look this way." She said and Tai smirked as Mimi dragged Matt the opposite direction from TK and Izzy. Tai looked to Sora and Joe,
"Come on, let's explore." He said trying to bring a little fun to their day. Him, Joe and Sora and their digimon made their way through the factory grounds. There were stairs and walkways connecting steam stacks to small buildings. Joe and Gomamon ducked under a small bridge walkway and Tai went to follow, Sora pulled on his arm holding him back,
"You gonna talk to me now?" She asked and Tai motioned for Biyomon and Agumon to follow Joe and Gomamon. He turned to look at Sora,
"About what?" He asked honestly not sure what she was talking about.
"When we were at the lake, you didn't want to talk, but I think now is a good time. So talk." She said and she put her hands on her hips. Tai resisted the urge to call her a mother.
"I'm just surprised TK's back." Tai tried and Sora raised her eyebrow,
"Right, and that's why you are so anxious to talk to TK one on one." She said and Tai paused, he hadn't realized she had noticed.
"So you've been watching me?" He asked and Sora rolled her eyes,
"You're just not that sneaky." Sora said and Tai saw a small curl at the corner of her lips. Tai stepped back,
"So what, what's the big deal?" Tai said trying to sound casual. Sora stepped towards him,
"Tai don't forget I might be the only one here who actually knows you. Who also knows about-" Tai quickly cut her off,
"TK doesn't remember." Sora closed her mouth. She took a beat and then spoke,
"What? What doesn't he remember?" Tai ran a hand through his hair now feeling anxious,
"Kari! Kari! He doesn't remember Kari and I swore she wasn't here I friggen blocked it so far out of my mind because I couldn't deal! I couldn't deal." Tai could feel his body shaking. Sora put a hand to her chest,
"Do you think she's here?" She asked calmly. Tai shook his head and then looked to the sky,
"I don't know. I mean I don't know. I was wrong about TK and she could be! She could be here." Sora stepped forward and put a gentle hand on Tai's arm.
"So what do you want to do?" She asked and Tai pursed his lips,
"I want to find her. I need to find her but I think the only person who might know is TK and he's useless right now." Sora pulled a face,
"That's not very nice." Sora mumbled and Tai reacted,
"He is though! He said he doesn't even know who Kari is?! He keeps bringing things up, about darkness and another person being there,"
"Whoa, Tai, whoa." Sora tried but Tai ignored her,
"He didn't even really know me like, we just met but he had no clue who I was or who she was." Sora put both hands on Tai's arm and shook him,
"Tai stop!" Tai stopped and looked at Sora,
"stop." Sora said in a calmer voice. He watched her take a deep breath but kept her hands on his arms,
"TK doesn't remember Kari?" She asked and Tai nodded. He was about to go off again but Sora put her hand up silencing him,
"Tai look at me." Tai did,
"You might be right about something." Tai looked at her oddly,
"TK would never forget Kari." Tai narrowed his eyes,
"I need you to put your overprotectiveness to the side for a second and listen." She studied Tai for a moment and he could tell she was watching him making sure he was relatively calm.
"TK and Kari are close. Like really close. I won't go into details but him forgetting her is a big deal. And if that's the case then I think she is here and I think she's in danger. More then we realize." Tai felt his eyes go round and he felt his heart rate increase. He felt Sora put her arm back on his arm and squeeze,
"Calm Tai, try to stay calm. We don't know what's true right now. And what's worse is we might be in danger too." Tai heard her words but could only think of his sister. Sora shook him again,
"Tai please! Look where we are!" Tai looked at her eyes seeing she was pleading with him.
"We don't even know where we are. We're running out of food and every day we've been here something has attacked us." Tai inhaled but felt angry.
"Look this is good. I'll try to talk to TK. Theres no sense getting all worked up when we don't have a lot of information." she stopped and then continued
"I will say this makes me happy." Tai looked at Sora offended,
"What?! What about this could possibly make you happy?!" Tai asked and he was frustrated seeing Sora smirk,
"You're showing a bit more of yourself. I mean its a neurotic trait of yours but you obsessing over your sister is like the one thing that makes you you. I really haven't seen this side of you since like 9th grade." Tai felt his body relax he thought back to the 8th grade,
"She had the flu didn't she?" Tai asked but he could see his sister laying in her bed with a cold cloth on her forehead,
"Yeah she did. You were such a moron bouncing your leg like crazy. You couldn't wait to get out of class." Sora reminisced. Tai started to feel his anxiety leave his body as he nodded,
"Yeah she was home alone, I thought my parents we're crazy." Sora slowly removed her hands from Tai's arms,
"No, you were crazy, your parents were being practical." She smirked and Tai stepped back from Sora.
"Sora, I don't know how I'm going to focus on us when she could be in danger." Tai admitted and Sora nodded,
"Yeah I know. Just please try to focus on the now. Joe is probably wondering where we took off too and it would be nice to find an actual bathroom facility." Tai nodded, he couldn't shake his fears but it helped that Sora knew exactly what he was going through.
"I'm here for you Tai. We just, we can't lose are heads. We still need to survive this as well." She stepped back and gave him a look. Tai's lips parted, he hadn't thought of it that way but Sora had made a valid point. They were surviving. Sora started walking away and Tai took a deep breath. His hands clenched into fists and he calmed himself enough to follow Sora. The two found Joe who was staring at something in front of him.
"Joe?" Tai asked and Joe turned,
"Jesus there you two are." Joe said looking at him. Tai ran a hand through his hair,
"Yeah, sorry man." Tai said not willing to tell him the truth. Joe rolled his shoulders back and Tai looked down to see the Digimon inspecting something.
"What did you guys find?" Tai asked and Agumon looked up,
"Some sort of machine?" His digimon said. Tai looked down and saw it was a robot of some sort. It almost looked like a person with wires sticking out all over him.
"I think he's been pinned under this piece of metal." Joe said and Tai nodded,
"Well maybe he's a computer robot thing that might be able to tell us how to get out of here?" Tai theorized. Sora crouched down,
"Maybe we should pull him out. At least we can try to help him." Sora said and Tai and Joe knelt down and the three started to pull the robot out from under the metal beam. Tai pulled hard and soon the robot slid from under the metal beam and was freed. Tai dropped the robots arm and put his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.
"Jeeze." Sora huffed and Tai saw her and Joe trying to catch their breaths as well.
"Hey I think I know who this is." Gomamon said walking towards the robot. Joe looked down at his digimon,
"Who is it Gomamon?" Gomamon put a paw to his chin,
"I think it's Andromon. He's a powerful digimon who is an advanced computer form." Tai looked at Joe and Sora,
"Powerful eh? You think he can help us?" Tai asked and Gomamon nodded,
"Yeah, he knows everything." Tai nodded feeling motivated.
"We need to wake him up." Tai announced and he wound his leg back,
"Tai don't!" Sora yelled but Tai ignored her and kicked the side of Andromon. Andromon moved and Tai quickly jumped back. Tai felt the others join him as they all peered down at Andromon. Tai tilted his head wondering if the kick had actually done something or not. Tai lowered himself towards Andromon staring at the still face of the digimon. Andromon's eyes shot open and Tai quickly stood up. Andromon scanned his eyes from Tai, to Joe to Sora. Tai then watched Andromon's eyes turn red. He stepped back and then noticed Sora crouch down over him,
"You may have really hurt him Tai." Sora berated and then in a swift motion Andromon grabbed Sora's ankle and stood.
"Intruder alert." Andromon announced and Tai swore,
"Sora!" He yelled and Andromon spun around and threw Sora against the wall. Tai quickly got in the way and caught Sora. He fell backwards as Sora hit him and Tai heard Biyomon and Agumon attack,
"Spiral Twister!"
"Pepper Breath!" The attacks did little against Andromon and Tai quickly helped Sora to her feet.
"What do we do?!" Joe yelled and Tai focused on Andromon who was advancing towards himself and Sora. He looked up seeing some beams above them,
"Fire up there Agumon!" Tai yelled and Agumon aimed for above Andromon,
"Pepper breath!" He hit the beams and they started to crash towards Andromon and Tai quickly pulled Sora out of the way,
"Run!" He yelled and he grabbed Sora's hand and pulled her behind him as he started running. As the group made their way away from Andromon Tai noticed a change.
"Hey, weren't their lights on over there?" He asked pointing towards one of the steam stacks. The group stopped and Tai let go of Sora's hand.
"Yeah there were. Isn't that where Izzy and TK went?" Sora asked. Tai then heard loud heavy footsteps. He looked behind them and went wide eyed,
"Guys we better move!" He said.
"Lightning Blade!" Andromon yelled and Tai quickly tackled both Sora and Joe to the ground. The attack blew over their heads and Tai got to his feet. He felt someone grab his arm and he turned seeing Sora pull on him,
"Don't be a hero, we need to move together." Sora said and Tai sighed hating how well Sora knew him. Tai stood and pushed on Joe and Sora's back,
"GO!" Tai yelled and the group made their way towards a set of stairs. Tai heard Agumon and Biyomon throw attacks at Andromon as the rest of them made their way up the stairs.
"Matt!" Tai yelled and he saw Matt and Mimi step out of a building and into view,
"We need help!" Tai yelled and he turned and yelled to Agumon,
"Now Agumon!" And a white light came over Agumon and Greymon appeared,
"Nova Blast!" Greymon attacked and Tai could see Matt's eyes go big as he saw Andromon,
"What the hell did you guys do?!" Matt berated and Tai and the others ran to Matt and Mimi. Matt shook his head,
"Get in there Gabumon!" He yelled and Gabumon digivolved to Garurumon. Garurumon attacked but the attack bounced off Andromon,
"Why isn't it working?" Tai asked watching his and Matt's digimon take another hit.
"Garurumon and Greymon are fire type digimon. Andromon is all machine, I'm not sure their attacks are going to work." Sora said. Tai clenched his teeth. He looked at the digimon beside him. Biyomon was the same as Greymon and Garurumon. He looked to Gomamon, he was a water type. He looked at Palmon not sure she could help all that much either. He then thought of Tentomon, he made electricity type attacks.
"We need Izzy!" Tai said and he turned and ran away from the group.
"Tai!" He heard Sora yell after him but he ignored her. He quickly ducked past the battle and went over to the steam stack he saw Izzy and TK go into. He found an entrance and quickly tore the door open. He took a minute to register the room. There were symbols all over the walls and Izzy was sitting in the centre of the room his computer hooked up to wiring coming out of the wall.
"Izzy! We need you!" Tai told him and Izzy didn't even look up,
"I found it, an algorithm that can tell us where we are and maybe even how to get home!" Izzy said typing away on his computer. Tai looked beside him and saw TK leaning against the wall Patamon at his feet,
"TK you okay?" Tai asked and TK waved him off,
"I'll be fine." TK said and he had a hand pressed to his forehead with his eyes closed.
"Izzy I think Tai needs you." Tentomon said and he nudged Izzy. Izzy didnt look up and Tai heard a loud bang. He quickly went outside and saw Garurumon laying onto of Greymon. Tai turned and yelled at Izzy.
"Izzy! We need you now!" Tai said and Izzy finally looked up at him.
"The others are in danger and we need you and Tentomon!" Tai told him and Izzy looked at his screen a moment. He then looked to Tentomon,
"I think I've got it. You ready Tentomon?" Tai saw Tentomon fly towards the doorway. Tai stepped out of the way and suddenly a light covered Tentomon. A massive blue bug stood in the room and Tai smiled,
"Kabutertimon!" The blue bug roared and blasted through the doorway. He was big, too big for the doorway and he made a huge hole in the side of the steam stack. Tai ran after him and Andromon turned to attack the others.
"Lighting Blade!" He yelled and Tai blanched seeing everyone but Mimi get out of the way.
"Electro shocker!" Kabuterimon attacked and it hit the attack and saved Mimi. Tai was relieved and he saw Joe get up and quickly pull Mimi to safety. Andromon turned to face Kabuterimon and the bug attacked again,
"Electro Shocker!" He yelled and an energy ball blasted Andromon right in the chest. Andromon stumbled backwards and Tai saw a black gear come out of Andromon's leg and fly off. Andromon fell to his knees and Tai quickly yelled to the others,
"Stop guys! Look!" Tai yelled and he quickly ran to the machine Digimon. He heard the others join him as they all gathered around Andromon who was breathing deeply.
"Is this safe? Maybe we should back up?" Joe said and Tai ignored Joe's uneasyness.
"Hey? Andromon?" Tai tried and Andromon looked up at him.
"You're human!" Andromon said and Tai leaned back allowing Andromon to stand. Andromon studied the group and Tai looked behind him seeing Agumon, Tentomon and Gabumon walking towards them.
"Hey, your not smaller!" Tai said surprised that the digimon weren't in their smaller forms.
"How long have you been here?" Andromon asked and Tai turned his attention to the machine Digimon.
"Almost a week." Matt told the digimon. Andromon looked over the group again.
"You're smaller then was predicted." Andromon said and Tai rolled his eyes,
"sorry we can't digivolve to giants." He commented. Izzy then stepped forward,
"Andromon what can you tell us? Why are we here?" Izzy asked and Tai was anxious to hear the digimons response.
"It was said that humans would come to restore the balance to the digital world. I would assume you are the humans." Tai was perplexed,
"Wait what?" He asked and Andromon nodded,
"The balance has been off. Someone has been controlling digimon."
"With the black gears, like the one that was in you." Mimi said. Andromon continued,
"Digimon alone are falling to evil. It would take the help from special humans and their abilities to defeat the darkness." Tai pulled a face, He didn't totally believe that him and the others we're all the special.
"Come, there is a mission you must complete." The others followed Andromon and he lead them down to the ground and over to a man hole.
"What are you talking about? What mission?" Sora asked and Tai realized TK had yet to join them. Andromon lifted the man hole cover,
"You must find out who is making the black gears. It is up to you to defeat him." Tai stepped back and then saw TK and Patamon slowly walking down the stairs towards them.
"You defeat him and the balance can be restored." Andromon said and Matt stopped him,
"But, wait, how can we do that? Where are we even to go?" Izzy stepped forward,
"I think I can figure that out." He went to pull out his laptop and Andromon stopped him,
"Not here, you need to get under ground. You're not safe here. There is more darkness coming to this area." Tai looked up at Andromon,
"How do you know?" He asked,
"I have been tracking it's movement. It's coming from a controlled source. You'll have to move towards that source to find the enemy. You'll be safer to move that way underground. Less digimon to track you." Tai went wide eyed,
"We've been tracked?!" Joe asked and Andromon nodded,
"Yes, your appearance in this world has not gone unnoticed." He then gestured to the hole,
"You need to move." He told them and Mimi, Palmon and Joe quickly lowered themselves into the man hole. Tai stepped back allowing the others to go ahead of him. He helped pass Biyomon and Gomamon down to the others. He then turned and took Patamon from TK's arms. He crouched down passing Patamon down to Matt. Tai then stood and allowed TK to make his way down the hole. Tai watched Andromon study TK a moment. As TK got down, Tai looked to Andromon.
"He's a protector." Tai was taken aback,
"Wait what?" Tai said and Andromon looked down at Tai.
"You're the leader, you each have a role. His is to protect the light." Tai raised an eyebrow,
"Like the good?" Tai asked confused, Andromon shook his head,
"You're still too small." Andromon commented. Tai frowned,
"Like I said, if we could become giants we would" Tai said a little annoyed. Andromon shook his head,
"That's not what I mean." He stepped back and Tai breathed out.
"Thank's Andromon." Tai said at least happy someone had given them some direction. Tai lowered himself into the man hole and once he was down with the others Andromon looked down at the group,
"Good luck Digidestined." He said and he closed the cover over the man hole.