Authors note: Two chapters, I must be crazy. But It took me long enough, so have fun with it.


Chapter 10

Smaller team, but not lesser problems

" I want to die, please Makusu can't you just break my neck or something." Tai leaned against his locker, exhausted and completly finished, while his friend simply started to slam his head against the metal door.

"Each of us could steal a gun and shoot each other, this way both of us would be happy." Makusus idea was good, but it had one flaw, which Tai directly pointed out.

"We don't have any guns and I don't know where to get some." Makusu slammed his head against the locker again and now he left a small delle where he had hitted the metal.

It was the beginning of the exam period, the worst time of the year, for the next month they would do nothing but writing exams, they would go to school early in the morning and leave in the late evening, not even seeing the sun once.

"What do you think are the Agus doing ?" Makusu tried to change the topic somehow, but Tai only replied with two words : " Sleeping, eating."

And he was right, Agumon and Bushiagumon were currently in the appartment of the Deitsu family, sitting in Makusus and Shos room while plundering the secret sweet reserves of the brothers.

"Hmmm, I'm still hungry Bushi, do you have idea where to find something to eat, is there anything left in this room ?" Agumon whined, while Bushi looked around the room.

"There is still a big chocolate bar on top of the wardrope, we could reach if you help me." Bushi was right, Agu could see the big chocolate bar, wrapped in viollet plastic, so he climbed on his samurai-friends shoulders and strechted himself as much as he could to reach the delicious food.

"I got it, just a little more ... ahhh !" the chocolate was hidden underneath a mass of papers and a avalanche of paper buried the two digimons once they he reached the chocolate.

It took a few seconds before they had recoverd from the shock and digged themselves out of the papers.

"Whos this ?" Bushi had found a picture, maybe 5 years old, showing an younger Makusu together with a boy Bushi had never seen before. The boy was around Makusus age and had violet hair.

Both of them wore the same football dress and smiled into the camera, they seemed to be best friends.

"I've never seen this boy before, strange." Bushis attention now switched back to Agumon again, who had already eaten half of the chocolate bar, greasing his whole face with it.

"What the hell did you guys do ?" Makusu now stood in the door, angry about the mess in the room.

"Schorry." Agumon still had the other half of the chocolate in his mouth while Bushi still locked at the photo.

"Give this to me." the teenager teared the piece of paper out of Bushis hand and then threw them out of the room, before he slammed the door behind them.

"Man, I haven't seen this photo in years." Makusu leaned against the door while inspecting the old photo. It was from long ago, from a time before he knew Tai, Sora and the others.

A small tear ran down his cheek as he thought about his old friend, who had died years ago.

"I wonder how his little brother is doing, he and Sho were also friends." Makusu had caught his composure again and putted the photo into one of his desks drawers.

His anger had now faded away and the sleepiness took over again, as he collapsed on his bed and directly started to snore.

While the older digidestinated were finally done getting tortured in school and the Agumons caused a mess, Davis and Kari, together with John had a mission in the digital world.

They were currently walking through some sort of savannah and the brown grass was so tall that they could hardly see anything at all.

"Mister John ? Can I ask you a question ?" Kari still didn't how to really adress John, who hadn't shown any interest in them until now.

"What is it?" John did neither stop nor did he turned around to face Kari, he had no interest in them, so he tried to keep conversations at a minimum.

"Why aren't you with Tai and the others, don't you have to write exams too?" Karis question sounded plausible, so John decided to give an answer which was at least a little infomativ.

"I don't have to, I'm just some sort of guest student, mostly just an excuse to get me here. I always get some sort of excuse if there is a mission, so its no problem." Kari seemed to be satisfyed by the answer, but Davis, who had been quite until now, something very odd for him, broke the silence and commented on John explanation:

"Man, getting excuses to leave school whenever I need them, that sounds awesome."

Kari giggled about Davis and even John couldn't supress a little smile, although he hided it from the others.

Only Commandramon noticed the short change in his partner expressions, something he hadn't seen in a long time, it had been a long time since John had smiled around other people.

This lightend Commandramons mood up a little, he normally adapted Johns attitude towards others, so the possibility of his partner opening a little made him happy.

"So what are we going to do here ? This is no mission to save somebody, right ?" Gatomon asked the question that had intereseted the others since the beginning, since nobody, except John, knew what their mission was.

"Yes, we are not supposed to extract a person, we'll have to close a Digital gate.

Normally Digital gates directly close again after opening, they're only small cracks that collapses very fast, but sometimes there are larger Gates, which stabalice themself.

Those Gates are very dangerous, since digimon can cross through them into our world in great numbers, so we need to close them.

The DRU has given me a machine for this, all we need to do is locating the Gate, since it can only be closed from within the digital world."

this had been the longest talking both Kari and Davis had ever heard from John and even Commandramon was a little suprised, since John normally didn't talk much.

The mission was easy, they found the portal and John used some device the DRU had build to close the gateway.

It didn't took them very long to get back to the DRU, where John and Commandramon quickly disappeared somewhere in the building while Davis and Kari headed home.

Davis escorted Kari home like he always did and they chatted a little about the mission, until Kari asked : " Mister John seemed to be friendlier then last time, right ?"

Davis was a little suprised, he hadn't thought about this, but it was true .

John had been unfriendly and didn't speak a single word during the last mission, but today he had been calm and even a little open towards them.

"Yeah, but I got no idea why ." the maroon-haired boy scretched the back of his head, he had no answer to Karis question, he had only had three missions with John and the brit was still a stranger to him.

"Hmmm, ok, see you tomorrow Davis." they had reached the place where they normally parted ways, so Kari sayed goodbye to Davis and hurried for her home.

Tai was already laying in his bed, exhausted from one of his exams, while Agumon sitted in the living room, still smudged with chocolate all over his face.

Kari smiled as she got a rag to clean the orange dinosaur and asked him :

"Agumon, you look like a little child, how did you get so dirty ? " Agumon looked ashamed and his eyes were pinned on the ground as he replayed with a little voice :

"Bushi and I were sitting in Makusus room, eating sweets.

We found a secret chocolate bar on top of a wardrope and caused an paper avalanche.

Makusu then came home and got angry at us, so he threw us out of his room, after Bushi had found an old picture of him and a violet haired boy." Kari only listend halfly to Agumon, she was too busy cleaning him.

She smiled again after she had finished and told the digimon, with a slightly serious voice

"You shouldn't steal the sweets of other people and cause a mess Agumon. You're worse than a little child."

Agumon replayed by looking at her with puppy eyes, he didn't like people to be angry at him so he tried his best to soften Kari and it worked , since the girl was only kidding at all.

She smilled at the orange lizard and left for her room, leaving the relieved Agumon behind.

It was already late so Kari got herself ready to go to bed, while her big brother was already snorring loudly.

Tai woke up for a minute after Kari had com e back from the bathroom and mubbeld :

"How was the mission Kari ?" to which kari directly replied :

"It was great, although we didn't do much. We just went to the Digital World and closed a portal.

And Mister John seemed to be happier then last time." Tai had already started to snore after Karis second sentence and the brunette girl smiled while mumbeling "poor Tai." , before she also went to bed.

Somewhere in Tokio

"Anything new about the DRU buddy ?" he greeted his old friend, it had been some weeks since they had met last time, so both of them were happy to see each other again.

"Not much, they have gatherd a team which doesn't work together and none of them cares about it." his summary was precise and true, the DRU teams performance had really been poor.

"Gennai won't like this, afterall it was him who initiated this. Lets just hope that things will get better."

They couldn't do more about this at the moment then hoping, so they changed the topic.

"Lets get to the others, their already waiting for us, so lets hurry."

Next day at the DRU

"Tai, Makusu and Sora are still busy with their exams, so it will be only you three again." it was unusual to have 2 activities in only one week, but still nobody had any doubt that this new mission would be just as easy as the last.

Closing a gate in a peaceful area of the digital world, just like they did yesterday.

Hikari and Davis were already getting ready for the mission, Davis and Vee-mon packed their bags with stuff to eat, while Kari showed Gatomon her new winter coat.

The place they were going was supposed to be very cold, so everybody was wearing thick winter clothes, Kari her new, pink coat, Davis a thick vest and John, who now also enterd, a military camo-jacket.

Even Commandramon was packed into some winter clothes, while the other Digimon had obviously forgotten.

"Are you sure that you don't want any clothes." Veemons mouth nearly hitted the floor as Commandramon adressed him, it was the first time the soldier-digimon had spoken to him directly, normally he hardly spoke at all.

"Ähmmm, no but thanks. I think I could turn into Flamedramon if I really got cold." Vee-mon scratched his head, he thought that Commandramon wanted to start some sort of small-talking but said digimon had already turned back to his partner and started to talk with him in english.

"Alright, Johnathan is your team ready for the mission ?" the Commander interrupted everybodies preperation and, after taking a short look on both Kari and Davis, John replied sharply and short :

"Yes Sir ."

In the digital world, some time later

" soooo ccccccooolld." Vee-mon was shaking like crazy, regretting the fact that he had not prepared himself for this mission to the White Forest, a large forest filled with snow-coverd conifers.

Everything in the forest was burried underneath at least a feet of snow, making it hard to walk, while a weak breeze kept on blowing snow in their faces.

It wasn't a nice trip like they had imagined it, but it also wasn't so bad, so the groups mood was alright, Davis and Kari had some smalltalk, while John was throwing in one or two sentences from time to time, he seemed to be relaxed and friendly and even Commandramon suddenly interacted with the others.

He took one of the scarfs he was wearing and handed it to the feezing Vee-mon, who, after a moment of shock took it and hugged the other dragon happily.

"ttttthhhhssssankksss Cooomandrmmmoon." the soldier digimon was shocked by Vee-mons reaction he wasn't a person who liked close and personal contact, so he didn't really knew what to do.

"Hey Vee-mon, I know your thankful but don't you think that you hugged poor Commandramon enough ?" Gatomon, who had been underneath Karis jacket the whole time, peeped out and commented cynical, but Vee-mon didn't move an inch.

He didn't move at all anymore, his whole body had stopped shaking and he didn't even react to anything anymore.

"Ähmmm, Agent Davis, I think your partner has frozen solid, can you guys help me ?" Commandramon sounded desperate, since the unmoving Vee-mon stopped himself from moving anywhere too.

It took them at least half an hour until they had freed both dragon-digimon, warming Vee-mon up until he was finally able to move again.

Davis then putted him into his D-Terminal, where the little digimon could recover from the cold.

"I'm sorry Vee, I should have given you some warm clothes." Davis mumbeld into his D-terminal, so that only Vee-mon inside could hear it, he felt bad because of this, after all they were partners and supposed to look after each other.

"So you and Vee-mon are now best friends Commandramon, after all this long hug showed it quite clearly." Gatomon still sticked her head out of Karis slightly opend jacket collar, making fun of the situation.

The soldier digimon stopped in his tracks again and then slowly turned around, with a now slightly psychotic expression on his face.

"No one. I repeat no one of you will ever speak about this again. Otherwise ..." his expression now changed to that of an complete maniac, before he finished the sentence " ...Sealsdramon will visit you in the night." even John felt a cold shiver while Commandramon talked, even he had never seen Commandramon acting like that before.

Everybody now agreed that nothing had happend and that they would convince Vee-mon, that he would never mention anything.

The idea of having Sealsdramon against them was a very good argument to forget the last hour, although Kari mainly believed this to be funny, since she didn't knew that the soldier-digimon was one hundred percent serious.

"Lets just move on." John finally put an end to the scene and marched ahead, directly followed by his partner, while the others followed with a few feet distance.

Luckily the weather stayed stable, so only the deep snow kept on slowling them down, while Kari and Davis started some small talk again, although Davis still seemed a bit distant and kept on peeking on his D-Terminal.

"I'm sure that Vee will be alright Davis." Kari tried to comfort her friend and smiled at him, something that always made Davis happier.

He simply couldn't stay angry or in a bad mood when Kari smiled at him like that, for Davis this was one of the best things he could imagine.

"Yeah, you must be right." Davis replied and lightend up, while John observed the whole situation and asked his partner, quietly enough for nobody to hear it except for Commandramon :

"What do you think Commandramon ? Aren't those two cute ?" John had to smile a little about those two, but he then turned away and sadend a little.

His partner noticed this and replied, while he made sure that neither Davis nor Kari heard it, :

" Does this make you sad John ?" he knew John for quite some time now, but it was still hard for him to understand how his partner worked on the inside.

" Its not them, its just..." John stopped, it was hard for him to speak about it, so Commandramon tried to dig deeper .

"Just what , partner ?" the young brit looked at the innocent face of his partner, he really just wanted to help him, so John kept on talking.

"Its just that I never had something like they have. A best friend that cheers me up when I'm down or simply stays by my side." Johns voice was heavy with sadness, he didn't like to talk about this stuff and Commandramon noticed this, so he tried to cheer him up.

"Hey John. Now you got me and I'll do everything for you, except for this thing you did with your dads magazines..." bumb.

John punched on Commandramons helmet to stop him from talking, while his face had turned hot and red.

"Thats nothing anybody needs to know." he told the soldier-digimon, which only reacted confused about Johns reaction.

Both now goofed around a little, so nobody payed any attention towards their surroundings, except for Gatomon, who still peeked out of her partner jacket, since the cat didn't dear to go out into the cold.

But the feline would never be so unattentive in the Digital World, not after what had happend to her and Wizardmon in the past, not after all this..

No she didn't want to remember this, to much pain to much sorrow, but still she needed to pay attention to the surroundings, she mustn't allow to happen somehting like this to Kari, never.

"Everythings alright Gatomon ?" Kari noticed the concernd look her partners face, who only replied evading :

"Everything's ok Kari, I was just a little lost in thoughts." she lied but the feline didn't want to bother her partner with anything from the past.

For next few minutes, none of them talked, it had started to snow and the wind had stiffend, so it was getting harder to walk and to see.

"Alright found it." They had finally reached the portal, it was just a small, rotating orb hovering the air.

John started to work with his device again and after a few moment, the portal dissappered directly.

"Now lets hope that we get back to the TV before the weather gets even worse, stay close and hurry."

John was right and although they hurried, they couldn't reach the TV, before the weather became far worse.

Within a few minutes, the weather turned into a snow storm and it became hardly impossible to see anything a few feet away.

"Alright !" John screamed over the storm and they had gatherd in small circle, to shield each other at least a litte.

"I'll use this rope to tie us together, then we won't lose each other. If we still get separated, use your digivice to locate the TV. "

Kari and Davis seemed to frightend, they had never witnessed such harsch weather and were shivering, even their winter clothes didn't offer enough protection against such weather, so Kari asked

"Are you sure, I can hardly see anything and its so cold I can hardly move."

"Hang on, the TV is not far away. We'll be back home in no time." The younger children nodded their heads, but John was sure that they were still scared crazy.

He knew that Kari was propably the weakest of them, so he putted her in the middle and Davis in the back.

They started to move again now, but the storm seemed to get even worse, the snow was already so high that they could hardly walk.

"Dammit, not even Sealsdramon or Flamedramon could do anything here and Nefertimon would simply get blown away." John mumbled, while kept on walking as good as he could.

He knew that strange things happened in the Digital World, but this was surreal.

"Commandramon." The soldier digimon was the only digimon partner still outside, walking right next to John, but nearly drowning in the snow,

" Keep your guard up." John addressed his partner and the dragon nooded, but he attention as caught by the fact that somebody was pulling the rope around his belly.

He turned around and saw Davis, standing next to Kari, who was now on her knees, her arms wrapped around her body and shivering non-stop.

Davis was in panic, he was also cold but at the moment Kari was in danger in he didn't knew what to do.

"Alright, I'll carry Kari, stay as close as you can to me. It's only a few more minutes, don't worry." John somehow managed to smile towards them, to reaffirm them that they would make and it at least worked a little bit with Davis.

"Hold on tight." John mumbled as he lifted the shivering Kari, she was heavy for him and it was incredibly exhausting, but right now it was the only option.

"You have to tell me where to go, your digivice will show you Davis." The younger boy nooded and directed them towards their destination, but somehow the storm got even worse, they could hardly see what was right in front of them, without the rope they would for sure lost each other.

"I'm right behind you Davis, don't stop moving." John told him, they had to make it, they were so close.

"It's supposed to be right in front of us," Davis finally said, but the TV was buried under masses of snow and he simply didn't have the strength anymore to dig it out.

"Leave it to me." Commandramon directly started to dig, burying his claws into the snow, until, finally he found it.

John was now on his knees, right in front the TV, still carrying Kari and said, exhausted and breathing heavily

"Thanks buddy." He pulled out digivice, just like Davis and the bright light of TV engulfed them.

A moment later, they found themselves in the DRU building, they had made it.

"We made it." Davis was on his knees, he was exhausted, but now happiness gave him at least a little bit of strength back.

"Mister John !" he heared Karis scream and saw how the older boy collapsed on the floor, uncouncious, but not before he had put Kari on the floor, gently.

"Get a medic and something warm." Commander Honda ran towards them, while shouting orders towards the people around him.

He headed for John, checking the boys puls and breath, before lifting him and carrying to the first aid room.

Two other people helped Kari and Davis into the room, where a doctor was already inspecting John.

"Nothing serious, hes only exhausted and has a slight Hypothermia, some rest and he'll be alright again." The doctor diagnosed John and then went on to check Kari and Davis.

Once this was all done, the Commander approached Kari and Davis and asked

"What happened, were you attacked and had to run, that area was supposed to be safe and peaceful."

"We got into a giant blizzard. There was so much snow and wind we could hardly see or move. Kari couldn't move at all anymore, so John carried her and we still somehow made it back."

Davis explained and Kari, who had recoverd a little bit went on

"The storm came out of nowhere, one moment everything alright and then suddenly the weather changed completely. If it wasn't for Mister John we would have died out there." Kari still seemed frightend while talking, but somebody disagreed with her.

"Don't mention this. It's my job to keep you guys safe." John had woken up again, but was still to exhausted to move.

The doctor demanded that Kari and Davis would still stay in the First-Aid-Room, to make sure that they were alright, but then they were finally allowed to go home.

"Thank you again Mister John." Kari thanked the young brit again, who only smiled a little and said "It's ok and please, don't call me Mister John, it makes me fell old., John is more than enough." Both Kari and Davis nooded, before they left.

The Commander was driving them home, it was already late and nobody wanted to risk them breaking down on the way home.

They brought Kari home first, where she directly greeted by Tai, who brought her inside, after she had said goodbye to Davis.

Davis could call himself lucky that Commander Honda was present, since Tai had found Kari sleeping, with her head resting at Davis shoulder and would have normally done terrible things to the boy.

"You did a good job today Davis, John told me that he wouldn't have made it without your help." Honda said while they were driving towards Davis home, which caused the boy to blush.

"Thanks, I just did what I could and tried not to freak out ." he replied and the Commander said, as they had reached Davis home now.

"Yeah, but it's really impressive that a young boy like you didn't freak out during such a situation, you can be proud of that."

While the Commander brought Davis home, Gatomon told Tai what had happened, after he had carried his sleeping sister into her bed.

"So John saved her and Davis, seems like I gotta thank him for that. Maybe he's not that bad afterall." Tai was not happy about what had happened, but he had to admit that this had made John much more sympathetic in his eyes.

"Yes, but this wasn't a simple accident. I talked about it with Commandramon, he said that we were watched and he believes that somebody caused this blizzard to take us out." Gatomon, went on, at least it wasn't him, manipulating the weather and causing snow storm were not his abilities.

"That's bad." Tai was tired, he had had a short rush adrenalin when Kari had come home, but this was now gone, he was so tired he had hardly heard Gatomons last sentence.

"So there are more than just him." Gatomon mumbled to herself, while sitting in the kitchen, alone.

Chapter 10

End