Chapter 10
A/N: Sorry for such a long wait. When I first wrote this chapter I hated it and ended up deleting like 2/3 of it, but trust me this version is so much better. Enjoy :)
After the chosen left Sora's house they rushed to their own house to meet their families and get some of their things.
It was easy for the children with parents that already knew about digimon to convince them to meet at the park before they left town, but for the others they had a very hard time getting their parents to listen to them. The original chosen along with Ken had no problem getting their parent s to come along.
Like most of the people the parents were in a panic, rushing to get a few necessities and anything of importance before evacuating their homes. They were shocked when their children returned home in such a ragged state. To them the thought of stopping at the park before they left was foolish, but the children were persistent.
The ones with parents that knew about digimon were already gathered in the park. Izzy was already furiously typing at his computer. His parents and Tai looked curiously over his shoulder.
"What you doing Izzy?" Tai asked.
"I'm trying to contact Gennai. He would be able to explain what's going on better than I could," Izzy said.
"Good idea, the other parents would probably take him more seriously." Tai patted his friend on the shoulder before walking away to check on his family.
Looking up from his computer Izzy quickly checked on all his friends. They were all spending the last moments with their families before they had to evacuate. It brought a smile to his face to see that the parents were also talking to the digimon.
Although they tried to keep positive the parents couldn't keep the fear out of their hearts. They knew their children were the Digital World's heroes but to them they were still children. "I know your guys saved the world a few times already but promise me you'll be safe," Mimi's mom said. The other parents nodded in agreement, for they shared the same concerns.
"Don't worry I'll make sure nothing happens to her," Palmon said, coming to stand next to Mimi who thanked her partner. The other partners followed her example and promised the parents that they would take good care of their kids.
Breaking away from his family Matt walked over to Tai. "The others should start arriving soon, don't you think the digimon should find a place to hide," Matt suggested. "Their parents don't know about digimon they'll probably freak out with them just standing around in the open like this."
"Your right, maybe after we have a chance to explain what's going on then we can introduce them," Tai said. They still had a few minutes to prepare, and found suitable hiding places for all the parterns.
Once the last partner digimon was successfully hidden, Cody and Yolei came around the corner with their families.
"That was close," Joe said, only to get elbowed in the ribs by Matt.
"Where are Hawkmon and Armadilomon?" Sora asked. Looking at the approaching families the other chosen noticed that the two digimon were absent.
"They are most likely are following a little farther behind to stay out of sight." Izzy had placed his laptop down and went to stand next to the others. He had finished making contact with Gennai, now they were just waiting for the others to arrive.
It took about ten more minutes for the rest of the gang to reach the park, the only ones missing where Tommy and Davis. The newly arrived families were fidgeting and constantly looking around to see if anything was coming.
"Why are we just standing around in the open like this we should be leaving already," Takuya's dad was getting fed up with just standing around.
"Davis and Tommy should be here soon just hang on a bit longer." Izzy returned to his laptop and was busy typing and didn't even look up when he addressed Takuya's dad. Mr. Kanbara scowled at Izzy, who did this kid think he was bossing them around like that?
As if sensing the heated glare Izzy stopped his typing and looked up at the worried and frightened parents. "A friend of ours is coming to explain everything just hang on for a few more moments," Izzy said, as he went back to his typing. The rest of the kids shared confused looks, who was coming? What was Izzy talking about?
"At least we're not waiting on me this time," Takuya tried to reduce the tension with a joke.
"That's a first you're late for everything else," Kouji teased. His mom gave him a warning glance to be nice. Seeing his friend silently getting scolded Takuya couldn't hold back a snicker which earned him a glare from Kouji.
"There they are!" Mimi shouted, pointing to the edge of the park. The others turned to see Tommy and Davis walking in with their families close behind them. Tommy's mom was walking next to him with an arm wrapped around her son's shoulders. No matter how many times Tommy told her that it was just a small scratch on his arm, she was still very nervous about her son's health.
"Now that everyone's here we can begin," Izzy said turning his laptop so that the screen faced the others. All the parents had confused looks on their faces as the children took a few steps away.
Suddenly the screen began to glow giving off a blinding white light. The shocked parents shut their eyes and covered their faces to block out the light. After a few moments the light finally faded, when they opened their eyes they were shocked to see a tall cloaked figure standing in front of them.
"Don't be alarmed my name is Gennai, I'm a friend of your children." The man reached up to remove his hood showing off the face of a handsome young man.
"What's going on?"
"Where did you come from?"
"Did you just come out of a computer?"
"How do you know our kids?"
The stunned parents began launching questions at an overwhelmed Gennai. With the children's help Gennai managed to calm down their parents enough to begin his explanation.
"Izzy sent me a message saying that the battle here has taken a turn for the worst. With the enemy trying to take over the city I'm glad to hear that the residents are getting moved to safety. Unfortunately our sources tell us that they are planning another invasion soon. "
"Wait," interrupted Kouji's dad, "You know where these monsters are from?"
"Yes these creatures are called digimon they live in an alternate world called the Digital World. It was recently taken over by two very evil digimon that now have their eyes set on taking over the human world." There were gasps and exclamations from the parents but Gennai held up his hand to silence them and continued his explanation. "But your children are doing the best they can to save the human world."
"But how? What makes them so different from any other kids?" Davis's dad spoke up from the back of the group.
"Your children were chosen to protect both worlds, they were bestowed with a digivice and a partner digimon," Gennai explained. "Together with their partners a great power is unleashed that can force out the evil that is trying to dominate both worlds. They have already saved the Digital World three times already."
Gennai waved to the bushes to signal the partner digimon out of hiding. Seeing his signal the digimon burst from the bushes and ran next to their partners. The parents who have never seen the partner digimon took frightened steps backward. Their looks of fear turned to shock when their children picked up their digimon or pet them on the head.
Slowly the parents of the chosen began to warm up to the digimon partners. Gennai smiled when he saw the parents hesitantly petting the partner digimon and attempted to hold conversations with them.
"When did all this happen? Wouldn't we have noticed our children missing?" Cody's mom asked as she gently petted Armadilomon's shell.
"We used our computer club as an excuse to travel to the Digital World, it was really hard to keep a secret," Yolei answered.
"This little guy is tough enough to fight off those huge monsters we saw on TV?" Yolei's sister said as she slightly tugged on the feather attached to Hawkmon's headband.
"Of course I am. I am ten times stronger than those weaklings!" Hawkmon batted away her hand and puffed out his chest proudly. Yolei snickered at her partner's prideful stance and her sister's startled face.
"The first time you met the digimon was a few years ago wasn't it?" Izzy's mom asked.
"Correct, the first time we went to the Digital World was during summer camp. When we were there time past much faster there so no one noticed that we were gone. But after the Dark Masters were destroyed the time in the Digital World slowed down to match ours." Izzy explained to the parents. He then turned toward the warriors and asked, "Did time travel faster on your journey?"
"It did. Our whole adventure took about one minute," Takuya said.
Shinya looked at his brother with stars in his eyes, "So you went to some other world and saved it from some evil people that's awesome." Takuya smirked and nodded at his brother. "Geez that's so cool." The rest of the warrior's parents didn't share Shinya's excitement.
"It was actually thanks to the Digital World that I found Kouji," Kouchi said turning toward their family.
"But I thought you guys said you met at the train station?" their dad asked.
"In a way that's true since there used to be a portal to the Digital World underneath the train station," Kouji said, "We all met in that world and we've been friends ever since."
Zoe's mom wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulders and chuckled. "So this is how you met your boys. I guess adventuring in a whole other world is enough to make you all pretty close."
"Mom, stop it!" Zoe's face was bright red. Her mom was always teasing her because she mostly hung out with the same group of boys. She was just waiting for her daughter to finally confess that one of them was her boyfriend.
"If you don't have a partner why are we here?" JP's dad asked noticing that his son and a few other children lacked partners.
The warriors shared worried glances. "Well our partners are kind of dead," JP answered rather bluntly. The excitement that flowed through the group dissipated after that comment. The chosen's parents looked at them sadly. They knew how attached their children were to their partners, it must have been hard for them to part with theirs.
Gennai coughed lightly to break the silence, "I'm sorry to interrupt but I think we've stayed here long enough, it's dangerous here. It's time for us to part ways."
All the parents, excluding the parents of the first group of chosen, looked at their children expecting them to say farewell to their partners. They were surprised when their children just stood there looking at them with sad eyes.
"I'm sorry but where staying here," Tai spoke for the whole group.
The parents were outraged, they thought they were just going to meet the digimon not leave their children with them.
"It's too dangerous we can't leave them here!"
"They're just children."
The children tried their best to convince their parents. That they would be alright and everything was under control. But it wasn't. They were losing the city, a few of them got hurt, but they couldn't tell their parents that.
"If you don't have partners why are you even here!?" Takuya's dad was outraged. The warriors couldn't look at their parents or their friends this is what they were afraid of. They looked away from their parents unsure how to answer them.
"I think it's time we left. I'm sorry but I can't let you stay here." Zoe's father grabbed her hand and started to tug Zoe toward the park entrance.
"Dad I can't leave they need my help!" Zoe dug her heels into the ground halting their movement.
Her father turned toward her angrily, "Your friend just said your partners are dead right? If you stay here you'll just be in the way and be put in unnecessary danger."
Zoe's mom caught up to them and stood next to her dad. "Your father's right, come on lets go."
Zoe shut her eyes tight and raised her free hand toward her dad. A small gust of wind shot out of her palm and knocked her dad backwards. He lost his grip on his daughter's wrists and stumbled backwards a few steps.
"What the hell!" He was stunned and so were the rest of the parents. Did that girl just summon a gust of wind?
Zoe's eyes were glued firmly to the ground, unable to look at her shocked parents. "I'm sorry but we can't leave yet." She turned away and walked back toward the rest of the warriors
Takuya took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his nerves, they didn't have a choice they needed to tell them or they wouldn't let them stay. "Our partners may be dead but they turned into spirits," Takuya held up his hand producing a small ball of flame in his hand. "They live inside of us so we can help the others fight."
All the parents were speechless. What had happened to these children in this strange world? What did that make them now? The rest of the warriors raised their hands and formed a small ball made of their elements in the palm of their hands. The parents gasped at the display.
After Tommy shook his hand dispersing the little snowball that had formed his mom gently touched her son's bandaged arm. "This is from fighting isn't it?"
"Yeah, but don't worry. With the spirits power it will heal really fast." He tried to reassure his worried parents but it didn't work. His mom covered her face with her hands to hide her tears and his father rested a supportive hand on his son's shoulder. Yutaka wrapped his arm around their mother to try to comfort her.
Looking at his brother he said, "Be careful alright."
"Only if you look after mom and dad," Tommy replied before turning away to hug his dad.
Gennai watched as the parents embraced their children for what might be the last time before the war began to escalate. Most of the parents were crying or trying their best to hold back tears. They were fearful for their children's safety, but at the same time they were proud. Their children had the fate of the world resting on their shoulders.
"Promise to be careful and look after each other," Ken's dad said.
Cries of, "Don't worry we will," and "Of course don't worry about us," echoed around the group. Time was up, the parents needed to start evacuating. More tears were shed and hugs were shared as the last goodbyes were given.
"Is there anything else we can do for you?" TK's mom asked.
"Actually there is something you can do," Izzy said, "The military is most likely going to be trying to take on the digimon, but they won't stand a chance against them. Once you're in a safe area can you try to convince them to stay out of the city and let us handle it?"
It was going to be a hard task. They highly doubted that the military would listen to a small group of people.
"I think I can help with that. Do any of you have laptops with you?" Gennai asked. Ken's, Matt's and Kouji's fathers nodded and began pulling their laptops out of their bags. "If you let me then I can install a program into your computer that will allow you to contact me in the digital world. That way I can help you convince the military to stay out of the area."
"It's not going to mess up the computer or anything is it?" Kouji's dad asked worriedly, handing over his laptop to the digital man.
"Don't worry its fine. Izzy helped me design this program, and he has a more advanced version of it on his laptop." Gennai passed one of the laptops to Izzy so they could get it done faster. It took about 5 minutes before the laptops were passed back to their owners. "This program is connected to Izzy's laptop too. So you can keep in contact with the kids as well."
There was a lingering silence over the group while they finished packing up their things. They didn't want to leave their children behind but they didn't have much choice. They wouldn't be much help and would only be in the way if they stayed behind.
With a final goodbye the families turned around and started walking toward the edge of the park. The children watched as the outline of their families slowly faded away.
"Well what do we do now?" Sora asked. Looking around the group she saw the sad faces of her friends. All of the children would miss their families but it was much safer for them if they stayed away from the area.
Breaking the silence Ken spoke up, "We need a place to stay while were here, no one has a big enough house to fit all of us."
"Well what about the school?" JP suggested. "Since no one's going to be around the whole place is going to empty."
"I can set up a workstation in the computer lab, that's not a bad idea JP," Izzy said.
"And there's a cafeteria full of food!" Davis shouted with excitement. A few of the others looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"You like the cafeteria food?" Matt asked.
"Well if you don't that's fine more for us right buddy," Takuya laughed, and wrapped his arm around Davis's shoulder.
"There should be enough food there for the digimon too, at least for a while," Tai said. So far the school looked like the best option. After promising to contact Gennai once they get set up, Izzy opened the portal again to send him back to the Digital World. They had a long day and were completely exhausted, picking up their bags they walked through the deserted streets toward the school.