Chapter 10: The Call

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or Ed, Edd n Eddy. Also, I don't own the other show that gets a slight crossover or the series of novels that get lampooned in Rachelle's sub plot.

Note: This chapter borrows heavily from Episode 13 of Digimon Adventure 02. Also, don't get offended if your favorite novel series gets bashed or your favorite actor gets spoofed.

Another note: Digimon aren't even around for a large portion of the chapter. Don't worry, though, they'll get their break.

The skies were bleak in the area on the edge of the see. It was borderline dark and the lighthouse on the edge of the cape didn't help much. In fact, it wasn't emitting light at all, but rather darkness was coming out of it as it twirled around.

Whatever this place was, it wasn't Earth or even the normal Digital World. A dark creature of indescribable horror rose from the depths of the sea, roaring and watching over its dominion.

The lighthouse continued emitting darkness.

For Rachelle, school was something else. For one thing, she had to deal with classmates that weren't exactly smart. Then there were the various hoodlums that roamed campus, looking to scam, smuggle, extort, or do numerous other unscrupulous activities. Her thoughts on the matter were either that Eddy would be at home here from what she had heard or that maybe getting a zone variance from Lemon Brook Jr. High to X Middle School was a mistake.

Then again, she was close friends with a member of the safety patrol, one of the school's weirdest features. It was unusual in that the safety patrol seemed more involved in school affairs and that it was actually effective, being more than simply a group of hall monitors.

Of course, the black guy who Ingrid's friends with helps.

"So, what are you up to?" Ingrid asked as Rachelle closed her locker. She had shoulder length black hair with bangs in the front, some black eyeliner, black lipstick, and was wearing a black dress of sorts, if you could call it that. The only thing not black was her orange safety patrol sash.

"Oh, I don't know. A couple of boys asked me to the dance, but… I don't know. They weren't really my type."

"Hmm… I don't really do dances so I don't really have an opinion. The only one who actually asked me to go with him was this creepy Goth boy with piercings all over that made my skin crawl."

Neither of them noticed the blonde cheerleader that was standing behind Rachelle. "Yeah? That reminds me of this weird Goth guy that some of my friends ran into the other night. The guy was quite the piece of work."
"Excuse me," Rachelle turned around. "You're Rachelle, right?"

"Um, yeah." Rachelle didn't really like what this felt like.

"Well, it turns out that the hottest guy in school, Robert Patterson, will only go to the dance tonight with you!"

"Robert Patterson? Is he tall with brown hair?" Rachelle asked, though she was sure that the Robert who she went to the Digital World with didn't go to X.

"No, you silly. He has spiky blond hair, a really gorgeous face, and, ohmygosh, he looks like a movie star!"

Rachelle didn't like the sound of this. Chances are the guy that the cheerleader was talking about wasn't going to be her type. "Where is he and why doesn't he come and ask me himself?"

"Well, he's busy practicing for the swim team. You can see what he looks like yourself by going there!"

Rachelle had a hard time resisting rolling her eyes and Ingrid couldn't resist but the cheerleader wasn't looking at her so she didn't notice. "Tell him that if he really wants to go to the dance with me, he can come talk to me himself."

"What? Are you kidding?" The cheerleader grabbed onto Rachelle's wrist and practically dragged her.

Ingrid looked on in surprise. Her superior in the safety patrol, a stocky, light-skinned Mexican-American with short black hair and wearing a light blue dress shirt a black tie and black dress slacks, came up from behind her. "Wow, that cheerleader really wants to pair your friend up with someone, huh?"

"Yeah… really. If you don't mind, I think I'm going to follow her."

"Okay, I'm coming with you. We do have a case, involving someone named Robert Patterson." The two started following Rachelle and the Cheerleader.

"What a coincidence. He's the one that wants to go to the dance with Rachelle." Upon hearing that, the Mexican Safety Patrol officer blushed slightly.

Kevin was bored at school as usual. The efforts the past few days to find the portal to the Digital World came to naught, even with the help of Robert and Chaun. Kevin looked ahead at Nazz, who was sitting a couple of rows down and to the right.

What if I'm not really cut out for leadership of the team?

Nazz was the one that tried encouraging him the most. This was despite having lost her brother because Kevin fell for the Alias III's obvious ruse. Then again, what were they supposed to do? They were in the real world and obviously up to no good. Now the question of what they were intending to do with Patamon was weighing on everyone's minds.

Of course, Kevin realized he couldn't change the past. He could only move on.

He noticed something strange going on with Nazz. It was as if she was starting to phase out of existence.

"Nazz!" he blurted out, causing everyone to look directly at him.

Nazz was sitting in her seat when her mind started to wander. She couldn't keep her mind off of her brother and her worry for him. Not to mention the thought that if she was there, she wouldn't have been able to help him anyway.

What use did she have on the team anyway? She couldn't evolve to Mega like her brother could. Why was she a Tamer? Her Digimon was a mediocre fighter even in her adult form. Of course her team was the one team with no casualties in the last battle, but that didn't matter.

Maybe if her brother was still around, he could teach her something more, but he wasn't, so that was that.

She missed him.

She looked around and it was as if mist was enveloping the entire room. She looked at her feet and saw that they were submerged in water.

"Nazz!" Suddenly, the mist was gone and she was back in the classroom. She looked behind at Kevin with sad eyes.

"What is it, Kevin Douglas?" The teacher, a white male in his forties with a receding hairline asked.

Kevin didn't know how to answer. Nazz did, however. "Excuse me but I, like, don't feel very well."

"Do you think you need to see the nurse?" The teacher asked.

"That might be a good idea, thanks." Nazz got up and the teacher gave her a hall pass. She was one of the best behaved students in the class, after all.

Kevin just looked on. Dude, I just saw her like turn into static or something.

After a few minutes, the bell rang for lunch.

Kevin went over to the nurse's office and asked if Nazz was there. She wasn't, so he, being worried about her, wandered around for a little bit, hoping to find her. He checked the usual spots: the library, the gym, the cafeteria, but she wasn't in any of them. Then, looking from the second story window, he saw her sitting at a bench.

He walked down right away. "Nazz! What's going on?" Nazz turned her head slowly toward her red-haired friend, eyes sad and depressed. "What happened?"

"I was at the ocean."

Kevin was royally confused. "The ocean? Dude, you couldn't have been."

Nazz looked into Kevin's eyes and asked, "Am I useless?"

Kevin was taken aback by the question. "Dude, don't say that."

"My brother was always able to help but now he's gone."

The red-head sat down next to Nazz. "I understand… you see…"

Nazz pulled something out of her left pant's pocket. It was a picture of her and her brother from when he still lived in Peach Creek, before Nazz had lost all that weight.

"Nazz, he's going to be all right. You're probably the strongest of all of us. You were able to lose all that weight all those years ago. You were the only one brave enough to go into the Kankers' trailer to get Eddy. Then there's our last battle where your team was the only one that didn't get at least one of its Digimon clobbered by the Alias."

Nazz looked out at the town. Kevin was right, however she still felt like she was just dragging everyone down. She got up and started walking.

"Now what?"

"I'm just going to go for a walk."

"Okay, dude. Just… be careful." Kevin cared for Nazz. Ever since the mistake the previous summer where he chose to save his bike instead of her, he's tried to be loyal to her as a friend. It's times like this that were hard, though. He knew about her brother before he came to visit but didn't see any pictures of the guy so he didn't really know what to expect.

Now he knew why Nazz was so attached to him despite his having been back for only a short time.

He started to walk, looking on at Nazz. However, while she was crossing the street, she started to go static again. Kevin realized this and ran after her, calling her name, but as she crossed the street, a truck drove between her and Kevin, and then she was gone, disappeared into thin air except for her backpack, which seemed to stay in the air for a second before dropping.

"Oh, no," he was dumbfounded. He went and picked up her things and grabbed his digivice to call the others for help.

Eddy would have been glad to be out of school if it weren't for this. Okay, so anything that involved being in your underwear in front of a guy that you've never met before in your entire life was pretty unsettling. What made it worse was that the guy was pressing various parts of your body looking for lumps. Of course, this was a physical, but it didn't have to be so invasive.

Oh, well, it could be worse.

"Now I'm going to have you pull your pants down."

Oh, crap. Of course Eddy tends to be naked a lot, but mainly around his house or in the locker room. Other than that, he wasn't used to it. Why his mom decided on today for him to get a physical, he would never know and as the physician checked him, he cursed her for that.

Next was an MRI. This wasn't too difficult: just lay down and go through a machine and get your insides get displayed on a monitor.

Then there were the X-rays.

Then he got blood drawn through a syringe, something that pretty much freaked him out when he saw it.

After that, he just got dressed again and was out. The doctor talked to his mother. "Well, it turns out that other than his weight, your son is perfectly healthy. He just needs to cut back on a few pounds."

"Yes, that's something that runs in the family. His father was the same way."

"Well, that seems to run though a lot of families, unfortunately. It'll be awhile before the results for the blood tests come in. If you're really concerned about his growth and if he hasn't stopped growing, feel free to come in again for another test."

"As if I'd do that again," Eddy muttered under his breath. It was funny that his mother mentioned his father at a time like this since his stepfather was actually kind of skinny. He felt like bringing it up later on while they were in the car. "So, what's his name?"

"Whose name?"

"Dad's."

Eddy's mom was surprised that Eddy had figured it out. She just expected him to be thinking about his stepfather even though that was obviously not who she had been talking about with the doctor earlier. "When did you find out?"

"Almost two years ago."

"Hmm…"

"I already know about Clay, or Clayton or whatever his name is. He went to the same school as Robert."

His mother looked straight at him as if he was crazy. "Mom! The light!"

His mom slammed the breaks and the car, an old green sedan, came to a screeching halt. "You're kidding me. That's impossible."

"Yeah? Why is that?" Eddy's digivice started beeping. "Hold on a sec. Business is calling." He opened his digivice and a video display of Kevin came up. "Hey, what's up, Shovelchin!"

Kevin was not amused by the use of that nickname. "Dude, something serious is going on. Nazz just disappeared into static. I think she went to the Digital World!"

Eddy was dumbfounded. "Wait, so she's disappeared into the Digital World? Any luck on that portal?"

"Uh, dude, we still can't find it."

"Okay… so what do we do?"

"Beats me. What the heck are you doing outside of school anyway?"

"I had to go get a physical and now I'm going clothes shopping. I also need some new shoes since the ones I was wearing are now like five sizes too small."

"Dude, come to school as soon as you're done, alright?"

"Got it." Eddy then closed up the digivice.

"So, did another monster come to the real world or something?"

"No, Nazz disappeared into thin air. At least that's what Kevin said. To me this sounds like something out of one of Ed's comics."

"Cool, this is like out of that comic Cthulhu's Revenge!" Ed exclaimed at the lunch table.

Edd wasn't amused. "Ed, let's be serious. To me this sounds just like Digimon Adventure 02, Episode 13 where Hikari goes to this other parallel world called the Dark Ocean."

"None of you guys are taking me seriously, are you?" Kevin asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Of course we are. This is a very serious matter and at the most horrific timing if I'd say so myself, especially as we're about to try to find the gateway to the Digital World."

"So, do any of you guys have any idea about how to deal with this problem?"

"Well, the method used in the show to get to the Dark Ocean was rather unorthodox, if I'd say so myself. Basically, she has to call for you from there."

"Oh, great, what if she, like, get's killed or something before that happens?"

"Then I don't know what we would be able to do."

"So, if this guy's so hot, then why are you trying to help him ask me out?" Rachelle asked the cheerleader as they walked to where he was having swim practice.

"Because he won't just ask anyone out. I figured that if this is how I can win his heart over, then I'll do it!"

Rachelle rolled her eyes. The cheerleader wasn't looking at her so it didn't matter too much. Wow, you're shallow. Chances are that this guy's a total loser. Why am I doing this?

"Omygosh, like, there he is!" The cheerleader squealed as they entered the pool area. Patterson, (or was it Peterson? Rachelle couldn't remember) was on the diving board, chiseled abs, thin frame, pointy jaw that looked like it was on the cover of one of those comics that the girls in the anime club would always read, spiky blond hair, and beautiful blue eyes. But what stood out the most was how pale the guy was. It was as if he was a vampire or something.

"You know, when I first met him, I thought he was a vampire or something. He's so hot! But I asked the resident Indian kid but no, he wasn't a vampire." The only Indian kid that Rachelle could think of was from India. Of course, all the Native Americans in the area had been pushed out three hundred years earlier. Rachelle couldn't suppress yet another eye-roll.

Patterson jumped into the pool in a usual perfect dive, wowing onlookers. For all Rachelle knew, he probably shaved all the hair off his body. Not to mention, the guy was wearing a red Speedo, yet another turn-off. Rachelle shuddered. For one thing, she already had to deal with an overly idealistic cheerleader trying to hook her up with a scrawny pale white guy that looked like something out of those Vampirita novels that Rachelle hated so much, but seeing him in a Speedo, that was more than she could bear. "Do me a favor and tell him I'm not interested," Rachelle said, walking away.

"What? How can you possibly not be interested? He's so gorgeous!"

"And he's emitting too many red flags for me to take him seriously. I'm off." And red speedos.

Rachelle got into the hallway where Ingrid and Vallejo were finally catching up with her. "So, I take it that it was a 'no.'" Ingrid guessed.

"Oh, please, the guy's got all these girls as pawns and it's so obvious," Rachelle said, indignant.

"Good for you for sticking up to him like that."

"So, um…" Vallejo stuttered, "I don't have anyone to go to the dance. Would you like to?"

"I'm not really looking to start dating, but thank you."

"If you don't mind, I need to go on official Safety Patrol business. I would ask Ingrid to go, but she had already declined. Other than her, I only have one other female officer and she's already got a date."

"Okay, if you say so."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," they heard in a wannabe sexy voice behind Rachelle, causing her to sweat. Oh, great, it's him.

She turned around and he was there, in his Speedo. All three resisted the urge to barf. "I said no."

"But a pretty lady like yourself shouldn't have to stay home while everyone else is having fun."

"I already got a date."

"Who?"

"This guy." She said, walking past Vallejo and patting him on the back.

"I hope you have a good night, you two." Patterson said, walking back into the pool area, smiling sinisterly.

Later that night, Rachelle put on a dress. It was a red dress with a bow on the back of it and it covered her shoulders and showed no cleavage. She didn't like wearing dresses that much, anyway, but had to occasionally because of her family's religion, not that she didn't believe in it, it's just that she didn't care for the feel of formal attire. She did understand why everyone wore it though, out of respect for God.

Then there was her hair, which was not in her usual ponytail. Her parents had qualms about her going with a guy from school that they didn't know, but Rachelle had learned about him from Ingrid anyway, so she trusted him, certainly a lot more than she trusted Eddy.

Vallejo reminded Ingrid of someone that she missed. Two people, actually. Rachelle walked out of the house and Renamon appeared. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

"By the way, I sense a Digimon."

"I'm sure the others can take care of it. Besides, you don't want me to be late for my first date, do you?"

Renamon smiled. "No, I suppose that wouldn't look good to your suitor." Renamon evolved to Kyuubimon and Rachelle rode her. During the transit to X Middle School, they communicated telepathically due to her Digimon's unique nature. Rachelle always had a hard time explaining the interface, but she knew there wasn't anything uncanny about it. The digivices reacted to the Tamer's emotions for instance so it had to have something to do with that.

"So, this is the spot," Kyuubimon said, dropping Rachelle off at X Middle School in the usual non-conspicuous location. Lemon Brook was quite far from X, the school being on the edge of the city, so it was either have her mom drive her to school or take Kyuubimon. Kyuubimon didn't have to worry about gas mileage so she was the best bet. Besides, it was Rachelle who wanted to go to X instead of Lemon Brook anyway.

"Ah, you're here," Vallejo said in his usual accent. "The lowdown is this. I needed to have two teams from the safety patrol at the dance undercover and since my top detective Fillmore is down, suffering from food poisoning, I had to be here. Ingrid would rather work on the side anyway."

Rachelle smiled. "Okay, so what's happening exactly?"

"You know the guy who tried to ask you out earlier? We think he may be up to something here at the dance."

"I thought he was kind of shady."

"Well, yeah, it turns out he might be part of a plot to change everyone's grades in the system to either A's or F's for the people he doesn't like, including us."

"A computer hacker?"

"Yes, exactly. We don't know how he's planning on doing it but our sources confirm it's going to be here."

"So, before we go any further, what's your first name?" Rachelle asked.

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Well, we're on a date, so shouldn't we be on first name basis?"

Vallejo knew she was right. "Horatio."

"How far removed are you from your Mexican heritage?"

"My grandfather came here from there. The state of Chihuahua, actually. Why?"

Rachelle smiled as they walked into the gym. "The pronunciation of your name's not Spanish."

"Yeah…"

"So, are there any Chihuahuas in Chihuahua?" she asked jokingly.

"My grandfather hadn't even seen one until he moved here."

Rachelle laughed. It was going to be a fun night.

"So, there's this bioemergence from last night that we still haven't been able to track. Any idea where it's at?" Kevin asked. Him, the Eds, Rolf and the respective Digimon were in his bedroom. Kevin was still reeling from Nazz's disappearance, but any good leader would be able to deal with that.

Was he a good leader?

The question continued to weigh heavily on his mind.

"Well, our digivices have narrowed the wild Digimon's location to this area." Edd pointed to a spot on the map. "Then a few minutes ago, I surveyed the area and found a digivice signal at X Middle School."

"What the..? That place?" Eddy exclaimed. He had new shoes on now, though they were practically indistinguishable from the old ones.

"What's X Middle School supposed to be?" Commandramon asked.

"It's this school that we played at in Football. Man, they were tough. If it weren't for Chaun and his saving touchdown and some of Kevin's good tactics, then we would have had a worse game than the one with Lemon Brook."

Edd felt that they needed to get back to the subject. "Let's put our school rivalries aside for a second. We need to contact this tamer and ascertain whether or not they're either a Rogue or working for the Empire."

"Is the digivice Black and Blue?" Eddy asked.

"Well, the color scheme is more Dark Blue with Black trim. Why would you ask?"

"Uh, nothing." I doubt it's him…

"What kind of Digimon does he have?" Kevin asked.

"Well, I've been able to check the stats on the guy's digivice. He seems to have a Digimon named Keramon."

The dance seemed to be going well. Vallejo wasn't too bad of a salsa dancer, something that he didn't usually let other people know and Rachelle seemed to be having a good time.

All the sudden, about halfway through a song, the lights flickered. Vallejo thought he saw Rachelle get covered in static for a second too, which he thought was odd.

"I think he might be here," Vallejo suggested. "Did you do what I suggested with your clothes?"

"Yeah. It's awfully hot but I'm ready for whatever." Rachelle and Vallejo ran outside the gym into the halls and Rachelle tossed off her dress while Vallejo threw off his suit jacket to where Rachelle's dress was. "Oh yeah, can't forget." Rachelle reached inside her dress and pulled out some brown sneakers, took off her high heels and put the sneakers on. "High heels are a pain. Be glad you're not a woman," Rachelle said jokingly.

"I'll remember that if I ever get married and my wife's in a bad mood when the reception's over," Vallejo commented as they started walking toward the computer lab where the suspect may have been.

"I know I'm going to get married in fashion athletic shoes or something." Rachelle's digivice started vibrating and she pulled it out. "Keramon?" she whispered.

"What about Pokémon?" Vallejo asked, pulling out his walkie-talkie.

"Nothing."

After hearing Rachelle's answer, Vallejo started talking through his giant black walkie-talkie. "Vallejo to Third, do you read me?"

"Affirmative," Ingrid responded from the other end, standing over the inert bodies of numerous safety patrol officers. "It seems that our suspect is already hacking into the system. I checked the other units and their all down. I'm heading in to meet you."

"What did she mean by down?" Rachelle asked.

"What did you mean by down?" Vallejo repeated.

"Most of them seem to be unconscious due to a mild electric shock."

Rachelle's eyes grew wide from that and Vallejo noticed. "Do you have anything to add, Bueller?"

"I know you're not gonna believe me but I think the attack may have been caused by a Digimon."

"Yeah right." All the sudden, Renamon appeared in front of him, scaring the living daylights out of him. "When did the furry convention come into town?"
"This is Renamon, my partner Digimon," Rachelle said, "She is not a furry."

"You called?" Renamon asked.

"Yes, it seems that there's a student using a Digimon to hack into the school computers."

"I can sense it."

"I better call the others for backup just in case."

Vallejo was royally confused. "You mean to say that there are others with um… whatever these things are?"

"Digimon? Yeah. We call ourselves Tamers since there's nothing saying we're Digi-destined or Chosen Children or DATS members or whatever those others are called."

"Yeah?"

They reached the door to the computer lab and Ingrid was waiting. "So, ready to see what we're dealing with?" she asked then looked at Renamon. "Oh, hi Renamon."

"Good to see you too, Ingrid."

Vallejo was surprised for the fifteenth time that hour. "You knew about this?"

"Well, yeah. Of course, Renamon and her Tamer aren't threats to the school so I figured it didn't matter."

"She figured it out the first time she came to my house," Rachelle told him.

"Wow, I feel so out of the loop." The stocky Jr. Commissioner grabbed onto the doorknob and opened the door.

A man in a black mask was at one of the computers. He looked straight at the group and ran out the window. The others ran over to the window and clearly saw, looking out, that he had merely jumped over to a conveniently placed ladder and was climbing it to the roof. "Why does this always happen?" Ingrid asked.

Rachelle jumped on top of the window sill and proceeded to grab onto the ladder, followed closely by Ingrid and then Vallejo who before climbing out looked behind him and didn't see Renamon, something that surprised him. Of course, he wondered if the whole Digimon thing was only his mind playing tricks on him. His idea was proven wrong when he climbed up onto the roof to see Renamon face to face with another Digimon that looked like a dark blue colored alien with multiple tentacles.

"Fancy seeing you here, Rachelle." She recognized the voice and wasn't surprised when the guy took off his mask to reveal himself as Patterson… or was it Pattinson? She couldn't remember. He just shared his first name with a different friend of hers.

"Oh, please cut to the chase. What are you doing?" she asked.

"Simple. I'm hacking into the computer system so that I can change the grades of the entire school with the help of Keramon here. If you dare to interfere, you will be sorry."

"Yeah, right. Renamon!" The vulpine knew what to do. She proceeded to run toward the small alien Digimon with her claws out, engulfing them in blue flames.

"Touhakken!" she yelled, aiming toward Keramon, who took a direct hit. Keramon was thrown back and looked at his tamer.

"You know, if you came with me to the dance, we wouldn't be fighting."

"Why would I come with you to the dance?"

"Because I'm hot. Why else?"

Rachelle pulled a card out of her deck. "Well, I don't find you attractive."

"Hmm… You must be into black men, huh? Or how about that plain looking blond boy, the one with the Tsukaimon."

Rachelle's eyes narrowed. "You're talking about Chaun and Daniel. How could you know about them?"

"Well, your adventures in the Digital World are online for everyone to see, aren't they?"

Rachelle didn't know what he was talking about. "What?"

"Digimon Empire. A series staring you, some fatty, some dumb brat girl, a token black guy, some blond guy turned traitor, some random Uruguayan guy and a bunch of monsters."

He rambled on, explaining everything that she dealt with while in the Digital World. "Sounds like quite the adventure. Since I saw you around school, I had to look you up and what do you know? You were the same girl from that online show that I ran across one night after watching some naughty imagery. Yes, the one hot person in the entire cast, how about it. I was obsessed. You know, with these Digimon, we could rule the school, just you, me, and our good looks."

Rachelle couldn't believe her ears. "I think you're ugly. First, you're extremely pale. Second, you look anorexic with how skinny you are."

"Then again, you do seem a bit used to complete bags of fat, your date for example." Rachelle looked back at Vallejo, who had an angry look on his face. Of course, this was someone who normally had a bit of a scowl, but now his face was starting to flush red.

He burst out and ran over to the prettyboy villain. "Don't call me fat!" He was about to punch him, but the guy kicked him in the legs, causing him to drop down to the ground. Then Patterson put his foot on top of the Jr. Commissioner, looking like some sort of hunter standing over his conquest.

"Oh, yes you are," he chastised, leading over Vallejo. He grabbed Vallejo by the collar and pulled him aside. "I never knew you'd have such warped perceptions of taste."

"Oh, no," Ingrid gasped as their enemy held out his digivice, evolving Keramon to its Adult form, a blue chrysalis with a white spike on the bottom, black eyes and a red spike in between them. It had numerous whips coming out of it as well, each tipped with a blade.

"Chrysalimon, Adult Level, Unidentified?" Rachelle read from her digivice. "Dude, didn't 'Our War Game' come out like ten years ago?" Like that mattered. She decided that she might as well just evolve her Digimon so she did, holding out her yellow and blue digivice.

"Renamon Evolve! Kyuubimon!" The large yellow quadruped fox confronted the chrysalis and all Ingrid or Vallejo could do was watch.

Elsewhere, Kevin, Eddy and Ed were en route. It turns out that Edd had been called over to Chaun's house to help him with some very important project. Kevin knew about the project, but had Chaun keep it under wraps for the time being. Then there was Robert, who was taking advantage of the Wi-Fi at a bookstore to complete his final exams long distance.

Oh, well, it was only an Adult Level threat at this point, so they shouldn't be needed.

After this, all he would have to worry about was Nazz. Breaking the news to Palmon was painful and he would have to find a way to the other world somehow. If it was the Digital World, then he would need to find the gate, but they couldn't.

Kevin felt like the world was starting to collapse. He didn't know if he could be a leader anymore after Nazz's disappearance.

"Cheer up, man, we'll find her," Eddy encouraged, noting the look on the redhead's face as their hair blew in the wind from flying with Aquilamon.

"Thank you, dude."

Nazz didn't know where she was. She explored the dark beach and walked around for hours trying to find a way out, but there didn't seem to be one. She hated this feeling. It was as if the world was emanating despair.

All she could do was sit there now. She was all alone in this strange world and couldn't do anything about it.

"See Kevin… This is why I shouldn't be on your team…"

Next Chapter: Rogues and Heroes

A/N: Sorry for not getting to the Digital World yet. There's a couple of things I want to accomplish with this story that I haven't gotten to, one involving Eddy getting to be the leader and another involving the evolution to Perfect. Yes, it happens really soon. If you feel like looking up the perfect form in Commandramon's evolution line, feel free.

Oh, and no offense to those pale scrawny white guys that look like vampires. I'm white and scrawny myself (though I don't look like a vampire).