GoggleMaster01- Sorry this took so long. I must have edited this chapter countless times to get it just right, and I still think that Tai is slightly OOC. Digimon is not mine, as you know, and neither is Pokemon or Warriors, as I said in Chapter 1. In the last chapter, Psystar decided to introduce Tai to Base, and Base doesn't really like him much- now…

Matt- Ahem.

GoggleMaster01- Yea, I lost the lawsuit against Matt, so now I have to include him in this chapter.

Tai- That's not fair, though, GM01. You said Matt was going to appear in a sequel!

Matt- What?

Tai- I said you appear in a sequel, got a problem?!

Matt- A sequel?! This fic is taking forever to be written! You expect me to wait for a SEQUEL?! : (

Tai- YEAH, MATT! GET OUTTA HERE! *raises fist*

GoggleMaster01- Okay, Tai-kun, that's enough. Get back into the fic. You'll be sleeping in this chapter. Fun, huh?

Tai- Sleeping? Yay! Sleeping! *goes back into the fic*

GoggleMaster01- Okay Matt, I'll tell you what. You can't go in the normal storyline because I'd have to mess around with the whole plot to incorporate you. You can, however, go in Tai's dream sequence so you don't mess up the plot, but are still in the fic. Deal?

Matt- *rolls eyes* Whatever. *hops into my fic world*

GoggleMaster01- Okay, enough yapping. Onto the next chapter!

Chapter 10

My First Night in the Digital World

I started to feel tired. "Agumon, I need to go to bed," I told him. Agumon yawned in reply.

Redtail's shell began to stir. He pulled himself out of his shell. "Blast…the- hey, where did everyone go?" Redtail asked.

"Everyone left," I said with a yawn. "The meeting's over."

"Are you tired, Taichi?" Redtail asked.

Tired? I'd never felt MORE tired! I'd just beaten both Piedmon AND Apocalymon, plus decided to give up my life in the Human World, and then went on this crazy safari in Base. Did I mention I changed species? I only wanted a nice warm bed to sleep in.

"Yea, I'm a little sleepy," I mumbled.

"I can show you and Agumon to where the apprentices sleep," Redtail said. "Follow me."

Agumon and I followed Redtail to the edge of Pokemon Square. There was a wall, and in the wall was a huge curtain that read "Apprentices". We went under the curtain. On the other side was a huge room filled with many piles of moss arranged in neat rows. Redtail lead us to two piles that were side by side.

Agumon jumped on the pile of moss. "Oh, this feels great!" he said as he curled up in a ball. "Good night, Tai." Agumon fell sleep on the spot.

Redtail stared at me. "Um, do ya have any beds?" I asked.

"No, just moss, but it makes a good mattress," Redtail said.

"There's not enough for me to lie down on!" I said.

"You don't lie down, Taichi," Redtail said. "You curl up like Agumon just did."

"Say what?" I asked.

"Curl up, Taichi!" Redtail yelled.

Normally, I would have yelled something like "I'd rather sleep on the ground like I did last night, and the night before, and ALL the nights I spent in the DigiWorld!" and started a big fat argument. But, I was so tired that I felt as if I was sleeping on my feet. I didn't really feel like arguing. I felt like sleeping.

So, I flung myself onto the moss bed and curled up. My big stupid wings were in my way. I was lying on top of one of my wings, and the other one stuck up like an antenna, making any movement impossible. Even so, I was so tired that my eyelids slid shut the second I hit moss.

The moss was much softer than I expected. It was nothing compared to my mattress at home, but it was soft and earthy. It felt good. Before I knew it, I was sleeping.

At some point in the night, my eyelids began to twitch and I could feel my eyeballs moving around. I was about to enter Dreamland. My eyes opened, but I wasn't in the apprentices' den. I was in the park in Odibia where I used to go to play soccer. I could sort of tell that this was a dream and that I was still snoozing away, but for some reason, it was so vivid that I felt like I was really there.

I began to walk around the park. Oddly enough, I walked about on all fours again. I didn't stand up this time, though. I felt comfortable.

As I walked, I saw a whole crowd of people on the soccer field, my favorite place on the planet. "What in the world?" I asked. There were never this many people at a soccer game. Did someone dig up a giant worm?

I pressed my way towards the crowd to see what was going on. As I got closer, I saw the crowd was surrounding a large object. And then, the object became clear.

It was the rouge cable car from the DigiWorld. The door suddenly creaked open and a head with spiky blonde hair poked out.

"Matt! Hey! Over here!" I began to scream. For some reason, Matt didn't hear me. "Yo, Matt!" I yelled. He still didn't hear me. I pushed my way through the crowd to get closer. I waved my hand in front of Matt's face. He didn't respond. Matt just stared at the crowd. Then, he stuck his head back into the cable car, and I followed him inside.

The inside of the car was very simple. It had a row of green seats on either side. The other DigiDestined were sitting on these seats. I saw T.K., Sora, Joe, Mimi, (who wasn't wearing her favorite hat for some reason) Izzy and Kari. "Hey guys!" I cried out. No one paid any attention to me. Their eyes were fixed on Matt.

"Did you see them?" Sora asked Matt.

"My dad's not there, but the rest of our parents are right out the window," Matt said.

"Really?" T.K. asked. He pressed his little nose to the window. Then, he started to squeal, "I see my mom! I see my mom!"

Everyone else turned to the windows and scanned for their parents. "Yo! Back here! What about me?!" I screamed. Why were they ignoring me? Maybe they couldn't see me. Maybe this was one of those dreams where I could see them, but they couldn't see me.

I decided to scan for my parents in the crowd. And I saw them almost immediately. They were right in front of the cable car. And they brought my cat. "Mom, Dad, Miko," I said.

Kari seemed like she hadn't found them yet. "Hey Kari, I-" I started to say. Then, I remembered she couldn't see me. "Stupid Tai," I said, slapping myself. At that time, Kari stood EXACTLY WHERE I WAS STANDING and found my family. She started waving.

She had walked right through me! I didn't exist in this dream. NO ONE could see me. I let a tear roll down my cheek. I missed my mom and dad and sister so much. Why the hell did I want to stay here? Then, I looked at my wings. My huge, proud, white wings with orange speckles. I stayed to use these wings, to fly the skies of the Digital World. I felt torn between the two worlds, but I knew that there would be no turning back at this point. I'd made my decision.

Kari ran out of the cable car with T.K., and the others followed them. Matt was last to leave the car. "Where the hell are you, Dad?" he mumbled. "Why- why are you never there for me?" Then, he held his head high and walked out of the cable car.

As soon as he left, a bunch of flashbulbs went off. I peeked outside. There were a bunch of news reporters there, all set to write news stories about the DigiDestined saving the world. Sora's mom, Izzy's parents and my parents ran out of the crowd first, followed by Matt and T.K.'s mom, Mimi's weird parents and Joe's parents and brother Jim. The DigiDestined lept into the arms of their parents for hugs.

That's when one little kid with a missing tooth said, "Where's Thai?"

My mom heard and she began to search the crowd for me. She turned to my dad and said, "Honey, where's Tai?" She sounded worried.

"I don't know," my dad replied. Then, his eyes widened. "Oh my God, where's my son?!" he screamed. "WHERE'S MY SON?!"

"BACK HERE!" I screamed. I wasn't surprised when no one heard me, saw me or acknowledged my existence.

The other parents looked at my dad like he was nuts. Matt then walked up to them and said, "Your son is lost in the Digital World and he's never coming back. Thank you. Good day," in the flattest possible voice. Then, he walked back to his mom.

My mom started sobbing like crazy. "My-my poor baby!" she cried. She started sobbing into my dad's shoulder.

Kari said, "Mom, Dad, it's okay. Tai wanted to stay. He just wanted to have more adventures there."

"But he was going to become a diplomat!" my dad yelled. I rolled my eyes. Dad was obsessed with trying to make me become a diplomat. I don't know why. Maybe because he was one himself. But now, since I was in the Digital World, there was no way he could make me do that.

Good. There was no way I was going to spend the rest of my life wearing a stupid suit to work every single day.

"Wh-wh-who cares about Tai beco-oming a d-diplomat?!" my mom cried. "All that m-matters is he left us and he's never c-c-coming back!" She kept crying and whining on.

"Mom, I'm back here! I'm safe! I'm alive! Please, Mom, you have to listen to me!" I cried. Of course, nothing had changed in the past two minutes. I was still completely invisible.

At that moment, I heard a voice call out, "So, your boy never came home, did he?" I turned around to see Matt's dad walking out of the crowd.

"Sesshoku…" Matt's mom said flatly.

Sesshoku walked up to my mom and dad. "Sounds like he chose to stay in the Digital World," he said with a dark smile.

"Yes, but how did you know?" my dad asked.

"You could hear your wife in Kyoto, Kamiya-san!" Sesshoku yelled. "She was screaming and sobbing so loud. Look, I can relieve her heartbreak. I can bring back your son, but it could result in the destruction of the Digital World."

Oh boy. Every time you think it's safe, another bad guy comes along threatening to destroy the Digital World. I sighed. If my dad agreed to let Sesshoku help him, I'd have more work to do protecting DigiWorld.

"You can bring Tai back?" my dad asked. "Well, I don't care what happens to the Digital World as long as I get my kid back."

"See, one of my friends from high school was on a team of programmers attempting to create artificial life," Sesshoku began. "They wound up creating the Digital World, which manifested itself in the digital networking of our world and went out of control. However, when a Digimon dies, it turns back into data and goes back to the original server where the Digital World was created. There, if it was a good Digimon, the data is recycled and returns to the Digital World. But, if it was bad, it gets moved to the Recycle Bin. Now, the Recycle Bin empties when there are 1000 bad Digimon in it. This is what happens according to my friend.

"But, until the bin empties, any Digimon can be removed from it and brought back to life with a special code that only a few know. My friend is one of the few that knows the code, so I can get him to revive the Dark Masters that the DigiDestined had just defeated."

When he said that the plan involved reviving the Dark Masters, my heart skipped a beat. Didn't I just finish off Piedmon?! Only a lunatic would want to bring him and the others back to life!

"These Digimon are the most ruthless that the DigiDestined have ever faced! If we give them the order to capture Tai, they won't give up! They won't give up until they have him! They'll hand Tai over to you personally! But, the Digital World will almost surely be destroyed as they search!" Sesshoku cried.

Cute plan Sesshoku, but there was one hitch. The Dark Masters weren't the toughest of the tough. What happened to Apocalymon? Maybe Sesshoku didn't know about him. Hopefully, the others kept their mouths shut. I didn't want to fight him again. It took all eight of us to kill him last time. I stood no chance on my own.

Of course, Joe had to correct Sesshoku. He loves everything to be nice and orderly and correct. "What about Apocalymon?" he asked. "He was a really strong Digimon!"

"Apocalymon?!" Sesshoku said. "My friend told me about him! A ruthless virus Digimon. How did I forget HIM?! Perhaps, if we were to revive the Dark Masters AND Apocalymon, we could get Tai back for sure!" He turned to my family. "So, what do you say, Kamiya-san? This is your decision, not mine. Do you want to get Tai back and let thousands of Digimon die terrible deaths? Or, will you spare the Digital World, but never see your boy again?"

My dad thought for a bit. "Don't do it, Dad!" Kari said. "I don't want Gatomon to die!"

"I'm sorry, Kari, but this may be the only way to get Tai back," Dad said. "How much will this cost?"

"It won't cost a single yen," Sesshoku replied. "But I will need to set up a system of computers in your house, and me, my friend and some of his colleges will have to move in for a while. But, won't it be worth it when you see your little boy back home safe and sound?

"If you don't take up my offer, you'll never see Tai again. You'll always have that one empty chair at the dinner table, all those family pictures with him in them around the house, the empty bed in his room. Do you really want everything in the house to remind you that your little boy is gone forever?"

It was a pretty decent sob story, but if Dad fell for that, millions of Digimon would die. I hated Sesshoku now, and when I hate someone, I mock them. I usually don't mock adults. See, being raised in Japan, I'd been taught about respect for my elders, honorary suffixes, all that stuff. If I messed up a suffix or yelled a curse at someone, I'd get in big trouble. I'll admit I messed up on that several times, (once, I called a really harsh soccer coach a monkey) but I generally used the suffixes and was polite- around adults. But, I was invisible to the crowd. Who the hell was going to hear me? So, I was all clear to mock Sesshoku. Plus, this was a dream anyway. It wasn't like it was real or anything.

Then, why was it so vivid? Like this was all really happening someplace? The grass felt soft beneath my feet. The sky was clear, the buildings as tall as they were in real life. I felt like this was real, like the Digital World was really in danger.

And so, I began to fake cry and mock Sesshoku. "Whaa! Whaa! Oh, boo hoo hoo, what a terrible sob story! For crying out loud, AGUMON could tell a better sob story than that, and the only sob story he told was 'Once upon a time, I cried. The End.'!"

No one heard me. I was having a blast mocking Sesshoku. "You want a piece of me? YOU WANNA PIECE OF ME?!" I went on. "Bring it on, Mr. Ishida-dude! OI OI OI OI OI!" Remember, I had been taught to respect my elders, but this elder was going to cause a Digi-homicide if Dad let him. I couldn't respect that. The DigiWorld was now my home. I wouldn't let him destroy it.

Besides, if no one could see or hear me, I could say whatever the hell I wanted to Sesshoku and not get yelled at for being disrespectful.

While the sob story was a joke for me and a reason to mock Sesshoku, it having a different effect on my dad. Maybe it was a parent thing, but as he listened to Sesshoku's sob story, he was crying like a baby. "Well, now that you put it like that," my dad said. "Maybe I could-"

"Don't listen to that big lump of overcooked noodles! Don't listen to that rear end of a monkey! Don't listen to the old fart with goat breath!" I yelled. I had these taunts and more all curled up inside me that I couldn't say due to my upbringing. Now that I was invisible, I could let out all my taunts.

"Those Digimon could kill Agumon! They might even kill me! If you really love me, just let me go!" I said. No one heard me, of course. "Did I mention that Mr. Ishida is a-" I then proceeded to say something that is so dirty, I can't say it in this story.

When I said it, a sick relief washed over me, not because I said it, but because now, I'd never have to say it. I'd never curse at my elders again. All of the taunts were out of me. I could start fresh at Base.

The other DigiDestined were shouting in protest. "Don't do it, Mr. Kamiya!" Sora yelled. "Biyomon might be killed!"

"Patamon too!" T.K. cried, tears streaming down his face.

"Yea, and Gomamon, Palmon, Tentomon. And Gabumon," Matt said. "They're our friends! You can't just kill them to get Tai back!"

"Listen to the children!" Matt's mom said. "Kamiya-san, don't listen to him! The children are trying to tell us that the Digimon are as important as us humans! We can't let them die!"

My dad thought for a little bit. "Is there another way?" he asked.

"No," Sesshoku said. "Not without risking your son's life."

After a bit, Dad actually said, no joke, "Okay, Ishida-san. If it's the only way, I'll just have to let you do it."

"GATOMON!" Kari screamed. Tears streamed down her face. "GATOMON, NO! GATOMON!"

I couldn't take it anymore. Taunting Sesshoku wasn't enough for me. I rushed up to Sesshoku and balled my hand into a fist. I wasn't gonna let him get away with killing millions of innocent Digimon just to capture me. But, when I got up to Sesshoku and punched him, my hand went right through him. I fell through the floor and started descending miles under the earth.

All I could hear were Kari's pounding screams in my head and Sesshoku laughing. I had to go back, had to help Kari in any way I could, but I couldn't stop falling. I had wings- couldn't I fly?! A black vortex formed beneath me, and I fell in. Then, everything went black.

GoggleMaster01- That's the end of the chapter. Oh, by the way, I got the name Sesshoku from some unreliable Japanese to English dictionary that claimed it was Japanese for food. (What? I was hungry when I named him!) Also, the bit where Matt walks up to Tai's parents and breaks the news to them was part of some comedy bit I thought up with Giratina. Me and Giratina also thought up this.

Tai Kamiya, what is your favorite color?

Tai Kamiya is my favorite color.

Tai Kamiya is really a color.

Tai Kamiya is a shade of BROWN!

That's Tai's favorite color song. You like? Until Chapter 11, enjoy.

Wally Jr. is not going to appear because Matt doesn't like him and said I can't use him in this chapter, the party pooper.