Author: I had quite a bit of difficulty figuring out what to do next after TK's rescue. They needed to locate the other digidestined and take out the Dark Masters at the same time. And with WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon under the influence of darkness, that tips things towards the Dark Masters.

Takato, Rika, Henry, Ryo, Beelzemon and Tai. That means the good guys need one more Mega level to even the score.

Also, with Machinedramon cloaking the location of the other digidestined, I needed to bring in a hacker. Luckily, an idea came to mind called Oracle from a show's episode called "Artifacts". That character also happens to be one of my favorite characters as well, so expect Mary Sue-ish powers in this and perhaps the next chapter too.

This chapter is from Takato's, Yamaki's and TK's POV.

11

"The New Girl"

"Come on boy," I call out to my best friend, Guilmon. "Hurry up!"

"Takato, slow down!" My little red digimon was panting as he tried to keep up.

"I told you not to eat so much before we left," I smiled at him. I slowed my pace so that I can let him catch up.

It's been a month since we rescued TK from Daemon and MetalEtemon, we still haven't found out where the Dark Masters were holding the rest of the digidestined. Henry's father and his friends have already scanned Tai's whole city through that… what was it called again? Dimensional tear? With no luck. Sometimes Tai himself goes in to look with his own eyes, but still they haven't found anything. Tai believes Machinedramon may have cloaked them with his techno-know how.

At least we got to meet with another digidestined, I really can't wait to meet with all of them. TK, it was kinda weird calling him that now, I used to always call him Takeru. Of course I had to get used to saying Tai instead of Taichi. I heard TK was done watching Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 along with the four movies. I wonder what he thought about when he was watching all their adventures all over again.

Anyway, Tai seemed different since we saved TK. A bit more serious, he must be thinking about how to save his friends. I know how he feels, when Jeri was taken by the D-Reaper, I wanted to save her no matter what. But there must be something more going on. I mean, we did have trouble defeating Daemon and Apocalymon, and both of them were just working for NightmareMyotismon. I'd hate to think about how much stronger NightmareMyotismon is.

One time I offered Tai my own goggles, I thought that it would be a good idea since he's the original leader of the Digidestined. He didn't take it though, he told me to keep it because I had 'potential'. In a few years, he said, I'll understand what it means.

I head a noise nearby and stopped. It sounds like it's getting closer but I still can't make it out. Guilmon managed to catch up to me about this time and sniffed the air.

"Takato, there's a digimon nearby."
"Really?" I took off my backpack and took out my cards. I had to be ready for whatever was coming. "Okay boy, are you ready?"

"Yep!"

I can hear it around the corner. We moved closer slowly, we didn't want to be taken by surprise here. It's getting closer, closer…

TK burst from the corner, "Takato! Hide me!"

"Huh?"

TK jumped a fence and dived into some bushes with Patamon right behind him.

"Uh oh…" Guilmon also dived into the bushes.

I turned around and saw some squealing girls come around the corner. I did my best to move out of the way.

"Excuse me!" one of them stopped in front of me. "Did you see Takeru come by here?"

"Ta-Takeru?" I did my best to play dumb. "I did see someone that looks like Takeru from the show. He went that way, to the left."

"Oh my god! Thank you so much!" the girl left, along with the rest of the crowd.

I watched as the stampede moved down the road.

"Is it safe?" I heard TK's voice from the bushes.

"Uh… yeah, sure looks that way."

TK, Patamon and Guilmon moved out of the bushes.

"Whew," TK wiped his head. "Thanks for the save, Takato."

"Don't mention it."

"That's probably the biggest crowd I've had to dodge yet. Who knew digimon were so popular here?"

"You should see all the Yamato Ishida fans," I smiled. "They're really gonna swarm over him once he comes over."

"He's already had it bad enough back home," TK smiled back. "If this is just my fans, we better putt Matt in a safe house once we get him here."

I couldn't help but chuckle at that, his brother's already famous in his world for being a digidestined and a rock star, and he's super famous here for being… what was it that Jeri said? A heartthrob?

We quickly got of the area before the crazy girls can come back.

"Three… Two… One…" I sat at my desk and flicked my lighter as I got a call. I already knew who it was as I answered. "We still have nothing Tai." Same time every other day, he never stops.

"Well, I'm heading over anyway."

He hung up. We've been trying to find the other digidestined for a long time now. Every now and then he would come and fly around his city himself and still nothing would show up. Though, once TK was rescued, we managed to reunite the two of them with their parents and everybody else's parents. I'm sure they needed the support, both of them.

I'm certain that we already scanned the city half a dozen times over and over again. Each time we increase the risk of the tear being found by the Dark Masters. If that Apocalymon can come through, then there's still a chance that other, more powerful digimon can come through as well despite all that we've prepared against it. According to Tai's story, this NightmareMyotismon has a great deal of power, adding TK's story of that digimon absorbing all of the dark powers of an entirely dark world and we may have something that's much more dangerous then the D-Reaper.

The only way we can avoid unnecessary damage to our world, is to take the solution to the problem. Unfortunately, the solution itself is an incomplete problem, the missing pieces are the digidestined.

"Yamaki!" It was Riley, she wouldn't normally sound like that unless it was important. "Sir!"

"What is it Riley?"

"We've got a problem," another problem? "Somebody's hacked into our system!"

"What?" I raised my voice unconsciously. "Find out who!"

"We're on it sir!"

"Oh great," I quickly pushed all the electronic equipment on my desk to the side and began typing furiously. I just made a small mistake and now they've already found me. I've been careful all this time, I can't afford to get caught now.

"Sir!" Riley again, this better be good. "I've got it! A residential home not too far from where Takato lives. I've tapped into the computer, got the monitor, webcam and speakers!"

"Put me on!"

"Ack!" a girl that popped up on my screen jumped back. She seemed to be in the late teens, shoulder length red hair that's tied at the back around the ears and spreads out like a small little bush. She was wearing a sky blue T-shirt, with a yellow target in the middle. "Uhh… hi!" she forcibly smiled.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" I wasn't in the mood for games.

"Don't you watch movies?" she seemed to be playing with me. "Government organizations always get hacked by young adults like me!" Stupidly, she seemed proud of herself.

"Sir!" Riley once more. "I've got her profile, I'm sending it to you now."

As soon as she said that, the girl's face appeared on a card, along with her name, age, and occupation.

"Just tell me how you got in our system, Barbara." I intended to intimidate her, but I should have thought it through.

"That was fast," she smiled again. "You just got me on screen and now you've got my personal information?"

"What's your point?"
"I know about you too, Yamaki."

I flicked my lighter again, I shouldn't have underestimated her.

"Well," her tone was getting lighter. "Since it took you this long to find me I guess it's only fair."

"'This long'?" She had already hacked into our computers before now?

"I've been in your systems since that giant pig attack," she started. She was in our systems for that long? "You know, I'm kinda impressed that you managed to keep all that digimon stuff a secret for long."

"It was in my job description."

"Once I saw the pig attack on TV," here comes her story, it better not be a long one. "I went to the net to try and find out more about it. Long story short, I found you guys. I got into your system and did a little information gathering, carefully of course. Though every now and then I try to help you guys."

"You, help us?" Something's wrong here, she seemed, too good.

"Yeah," she's quite the talker. "I did what I could to weaken your Juggernaut whenever it went haywire. I also helped your Ark make contact with you."

"You did what?" I slammed by hands on my desk. Just who is this girl?

She stayed quiet for me to let it all sink in. I sat back down in my chair and flicked my lighter again.

"If you truly are capable of that," I had an idea. "How did you allow yourself to get caught?"

"I was putting in the finishing touches to my digivice."

"Your… digivice?"

"Yup," she reaches over to her side and grabs something that looks like Tai's digivice. "See? I was able to make this using whatever data I could get my hands on in your computers, from all three of the digivice types that you've got. But the only things it can do is track down the other digivices and tell time. I really can't understand all the other stuff."

"That must be the programming for a digimon's digivolution," I concluded. We too couldn't find out what that strange programming was for, so it had to be for a digimon's digivolution.

"You're kidding right?"

"Do I look like someone who would kid?"

"You've got a point there," she was going to change the subject. "Say, have you found out what the digivices run on? What's their energy source?"

Come to think of it, we never did find out. It's as if the digivices have infinite energy but don't have a power source. "I'm sorry, but even we don't know."

"Oh," she seemed disappointed. "Bummer, I guess this little thing is pretty useless then."

"Not quite," I wasn't going to let this opportunity get away. She just might be the person we need to find the other digidestined. "I'm going to make you and offer you can't refuse."

"Well, see you later TK!"

"Bye!" I waved as Takato ran off into his home. It's been quite the month since my rescue. I'm still getting used to this world, kinda hard when you've got friends to worry about in your home world though. But Tai's probably been through worse feelings and a lot longer too. At least I have him around to help me cope, but I wish there was a way to find the other digidestined faster.

My digivice started to beep, I've got a call.

"Hello?"

"TK?" that sounded like Yamaki. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm near Takato's house right now, I'm heading back."

"Don't, there's something I need you to do."

"Huh?" something I needed to do? Did he find something?

"There's someone I need you to pick up," he sounded all serious. This has to be something, just one thing.

"Can't you get someone else to do the pick up?"

"She asked for your or Tai specifically," just who did Yamaki want to get? "Tai's in your world right now flying around again. I haven't told him about her yet so you're the only one that can do this."

"Just who am I getting?"

"I'll give you the address, she'll explain the rest. Just be careful with her, she's the daughter of the police commissioner."

He hung up as soon as he gave me the address and I just looked at my digivice. Well, that certainly was odd.

"Did they find anything TK?" my little partner asked, I almost forgot he was on top of me.

"I don't know Patamon, but it's probably worth looking if it's important enough for Yamaki give me a call like that."

I quickly went over to where Yamaki instructed me. There was a girl waiting in front of the place. She quickly spotted me.

"Ah!" she waved excitedly. "Takeru! Over here!"

She rushed over to me. "Hiya!"

"Uh, hi." I didn't know what to make of this. This is the important person Yamaki was telling me about?

"You're pretty tall for someone your age," she started to measure our heights.

"So," well if anything, I better be the one to start. "Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry," she held out her hand. "My name's Barbara, nice to meet you Takeru."

I shook her hand, "Actually, just call me TK. Now, why is it that Yamaki wanted me to get you?"

"He said I could help you guys search for your friends," she said that so… normally. "He had nothing to offer me himself but he gave me a chance."

"A chance?"

"Here," she took out a digivice, one that looks like the older kids have. "I made this myself. I managed to hack into Hypnos and get all the data I needed to create my own digivice. Though there are a couple problems. One, I don't have a digimon partner, and two, I have no idea how this thing is supposed to work."

"You made your own digivice?"

"Duh! What am I holding here?" I think I got on her nerves a little. "Anyway, Yamaki thinks I have a chance of getting my own digimon partner."

"How does that work?" I keep getting more and more questions in my head, this is really starting to mess me up.

"He thinks that the more involved I get with digimon," I better let her tell her whole story. "The better my chances are of getting a partner. I mean, you guys became digidestined because of that battle at Highton View Terrace. Daisuke was held up in the convention center by Myotismon's cronies, Miyako saw the battle on the internet with Diaboromon and Iori was saved by Garudamon after you defeated VenomMyotismon."

"I think I get it now," almost, I still needed more pieces. At least I knew Daisuke was Davis, Miyako was Yolei and Iori was Cody. "If that's the case, why'd you have to call me or Tai?"

"I just wanted to fly," she said smiling. "At least, with one of the original digidestined."

"That's all?" she's joking, right?

"Yup! That's all."

Well, with all the things scrambling in my head I guess all I can do right now is comply.

"Digi Armor Energize!"

"Patamon armor digivolved to, Pegasusmon! Flying hope!"

"Whoa! Cool!" she was in awe, who wouldn't be in her situation.

I climbed up on to Pegasusmon's back and reached out my hand, "Well? Hop on!"

"Oh yes!" she jumped on quickly and we took off. "WHOO HOO!"

"Tai, can you hear me?"

"Yamaki? Did you find anything?"

"No, but we did find someone that can help. Thanks to the data we gathered from TK's digivice, we can stabilize the portal to let anyone get through."

"Then does that mean TK will bring that person here?"

"That was the plan, just thought I'd let you know."

"Okay, have them call me if they find anything. I'll still be flying around."

Does that mean we can find the others now Tai?

"I don't know, but we'll take every chance we can get."

Piedmon chuckles as he watches Tai scour the city, "It looks like we'll be having a new playmate. As much as I like to watch him toil in futility, the party is about to begin, hahaha!"

Author: Now with Barbara on their side, they have a better chance of finding the others. Oh, FYI, it's The Batman version, in case you were wondering.

Now to decide whether or not to give her a digimon partner...