Chapter Eleven: Departure For A New Continent
When the man appeared in the rainbow from the device on the ground, Lucy expected another pulse of warmth from her chest. She expected to feel a connection in some way to the first human face she'd seen outside of the other seven children.
What she got was nothing. Not even a spider sense tingle. He was standing before them, kinda, and all she thought was how odd it was that this guy was in a hologram. The warmth she felt from Skymomon, her Digivice and the fact that she belonged here were all still there, but not a thing from the old man.
"So," the old man said, "you must be strong to have defeated Devimon. He was no simple Numemon, after all."
"Who are you?" Tai asked, wonder in his tone. It had been six days since he'd seen another human, not counting their group. Maybe this guy could help them get home.
Matt was more apprehensive. No way that this guy just appears out of thin air to congratulate them after Devimon was defeated, something had to be up, "Are you a friend of Devimon?"
"Fear not," he said, "for I am a friend to all, yet I am a friend to none."
"How very zen of you," Lucy said. She was beginning to get one of those vibes like they were walking into a martial arts movie.
"I can't believe it," Sora said, hands on her hips again, "There are other humans besides us in the world."
The old man turned to look at her, "I am human, and yet I am not human."
"This is confusing," Mimi said, staring blankly at the man before them, "Do you come with subtitles?"
The man harrumphed at Mimi before turning back look at the group at large again, "My name is Gennai. I couldn't send you this transmission during your battle with Devimon, but now the lines are clear, and only ten cents a minute!"
"Just where are you?" Izzy asked, "And why would you need to call here?"
"I am speaking to you from a far away from File Island. Across the ocean, on the continent of Server," Gennai told the tech genius, "And I called to speak to you, the Digidestined."
"Talk about a long distance call," Sora quipped, "How long have you been here?"
"Since before the beginning, and until after the end," he said, slipping back into cryptic, paradoxical sayings.
"Are you the one who got us stuck here in the Digital World?" Mimi asked.
"It was not I," he said after a moment.
"Then who was it?" the pink loving girl asked.
Gennai stared long and hard at the group, appearing to weigh the consequences of telling them who it was that brought them from their own world and into this one.
He made a shrug of his old shoulders and a three syllable vocalization that could be deciphered as 'I don't know.' The kids sighed in disappointment. There went the hope that this guy knew who they needed to defeat to get home.
"But Mister Gennai," TK began, "Do you know what we need to do so we can all get back home again?" the littlest member of the group kept a firm hold of the digiegg left over from his partner's defeat of Devimon. He'd never set it down, not until it hatched.
"No, I don't," the old man sighed. Why couldn't these kids ask the simple questions? Like 'where is the grocery store?' or 'would you tell us a bed time story?' or, most important of all, 'where's the nearest, evil Digi-butt I need to kick?'
His response brought more despondent sighs from the children.
"Boy, you're a regular fountain of information, aren't you?" Tai said with his arms crossed and one eye closed for some reason.
Gennai looked up at the young man and said sincerely, "I'm sorry I can't help you. But you can be of help to me."
This brought about a general sound of questioning and a few 'how's from the group. They were on an island in the middle of the ocean, nowhere near his home, as he himself said, and more over, they were beat up and tired from the fight with Devimon. One of their own had even been reduced to a digiegg. Joe hoped that whatever Gennai needed, it was only for the kids to eat and rest for the next few days.
"Please come to Server and defeat our enemies," Gennai pleaded, "As the Digidestined, I have faith in all of you." His tone sounded both truthful and hopeful. Lucy may not have felt any kind of connection to the old man, but the least she could do was go check out his problem with the others to see if they could help.
"That's crazy if we don't know your exact location," Izzy told the man.
"Good point. I forgot you're from out of town. Let me create a map for you on your computer," the man nodded as he looked at the computer expert.
"Huh?" Izzy looked over his shoulder at his computer back, almost expecting the thing to randomly turn on. He'd already discovered one of the major secrets of this world, with data coalescing into matter. His lap top turning on and downloading a map wouldn't be too surprising.
"What if your enemies are humongazoid?" Joe asked in some righteous fear, "Do you think we can beat anything tougher than Devimon?"
"Not presently," Gennai said then continued quickly, "but if your digimon can Digivolve once more, you might be able to do it."
"So we can Digivolve even more?" Agumon asked, wonder in his tone.
"Yes, indeed. But you'll need something special to do it," his image faded away to be replaced by a picture of a small rectangular object next to a golden pendant with a rectangular glass front, "If you have the Tags and Crests your digimon will be able to Digivolve even further."
The children all leaned close to look at the pair of items, hoping to divine some kind of secret about making their digimon Digivolve into even stronger heroes.
"Please tell us where we can find these Tags and Crests," Gabumon asked of the old man.
"The Crests are scattered about," Gennai said helpfully, "You can locate them all throughout the continent of Server," in the picture of the Tag and Crest, the Crest inserted into the Tag, letting the children know what they needed to do before that image faded away and Gennai came back, "And the Tags were sealed away somewhere by Devimon."
Before more could be said the image began to waver and flicker, losing coherency. Gennai's last words were a jumble of half spoken sentences, "Oh no!... Devimon... You must...come... Aaah! Come...quickly. I'll be waiting... Server!" and the connection cut out. The children began to panic. What had happened? Was the old man okay? Was something coming for them now as well?
"He's gone!" Tai exclaimed needlessly.
"What was that?" Mimi asked, staring at the device that had allowed the to speak with Gennai.
Not having an answer, most of the children continued to sit around the holographic device for a few minutes, hoping he'd come back on.
"Do you think he's okay?" Lucy asked, crouching down next to it, looking for buttons.
"Gennai's transmission did end rather abruptly," Tentomon noted. Beside the bug digimon, Izzy had sat himself down and had opened his lap top.
The boy immediately noticed the promised map to Server, "Well, at least he was able to send the map through before he got cut off."
"I hope he's alright," Sora said, agreeing with Lucy's sentiment, "What's our next move going to be?"
Tai stood tall and said, "I have a fool proof plan," the other children looked to him, expecting to hear something profound or profoundly foolish. Matt already looked ready to argue against it if he thought the idea was completely stupid. "First we'll eat something, and after that I'm open to suggestions," the boy spoke happily, a smile on his face.
At first silence, then giggles from one of the girls. The giggles spread to the other girls and all the digimon, then turned to chuckles. Chuckles spread to the rest of the kids and turned into outright laughter with Matt even joining in, giving Tai a thumbs up.
"I, hee hee, I like that plan," Lucy told the older boy, holding her stomach with the mirth of the situation.
"Me too," Mimi said, reigning in her laughter but letting the good mood shine on, "I could go for some gourmet. Maybe steak with fine garnish and a side of lobster."
"I'll take some pizza!" TK said with his usual enthusiasm, only slightly dampened by Angemon's sacrifice.
"I'm with TK," Matt said.
"Great!" Tai all but shouted, "Then let's get cookin'!"
As usual, the team split up the duties around the camp site, Some were sent to gather firewood, others to gather edibles, and the digimon helped on both counts. They quickly found a waterfall that dropped off from Infinity Mountain with a beautiful pool filled with tasty fish. Gomamon, Joe, Izzy and Tentomon fished. Lucy, Skymomon, Sora and Biyomon gathered the fire wood. Tai and Agumon tended the fire, getting it up and roaring, while the rest of them searched the forest for fruit and non poisonous mushrooms.
Before long they had a feast resembling the one they'd had on the lakeside with the trolley car.
"You never really appreciate the simple recipes 'til you've tried them," Lucy said with a grin as she held up a stick with a fish on it, "I think this is my favorite of the meals we've eaten." it was one of the last ones and she was nearly full anyways.
"Yeah!" Agumon said, looking up at the night darkened sky, "That was absolutely delicious!"
"I was so hungry," Biyomon said with an awed giggle.
"Now that my stomach is full, I'm ready for lunch," Tentomon quipped.
Off to the side, sitting near the water, TK held the digiegg in his lap, gently rubbing the shell. He wondered when he would have his friend back, if he'd be the same as before or completely different.
Matt came over to check on his brother, "TK? What's up?"
"Oh, I was just wishing my digiegg would hurry up and hatch already so it could grow up!" he said, still gently rubbing the egg.
"Don't sweat it, little bro," Matt said, "When your digimon hatches it will be the coolest one yet!" TK smiled up at his big brother then stood up, the two of them facing the rest of the group.
"Egg-xactly!" The little boy grinned at his own pun.
The night air was warm so no one needed to sit near the fire for warmth and the moonlight was bright enough to keep them out of the pitch black. The group was relaxing after that much needed celebratory meal, but now it was time to decide on their future.
"Okay, everyone," Tai said to kick things off, "Now that we've stuffed our faces, what are we gonna do next?" he was crouched like a frog next to Sora who was sitting with her legs out in front of her, one over the other.
"You know what's next," she told him, "We have to go to Server to save Gennai from his enemies."
"Well, according to my calculations of longitude and latitude, I'd say server is quite some distance from here," Izzy explained.
Sitting next to him, Lucy leaned to the side to look at his screen, "That looks familiar," she pointed to a boot shaped peninsula coming off the main continent.
"Yes, it does rather resemble the Italy of our world," Izzy said, typing on his lap top to bring everything into a better view. The map looked like it was a huge continent File Island had to have the Zoom feature used on it to even be seen in comparison to it. No way were they walking across that in under a week.
"I can't even swim across the bath tub, let alone a whole ocean," Mimi said, resting her chin in her hands, "I'll never make it."
Joe agreed with her, "Why do we have to go, anyway?" he asked, "What I mean is, Devimon is gone from the island," he turned to the rest of the group, "The black gears have disappeared too. We've been once around the island, so we pretty much know where everything is," he held his hands out to the side, "We wouldn't have to worry about food or water."
"What are you saying?" Sora asked.
"Why should we believe what this weirdo Gennai guy says?" Joe explained, "What I mean is, how do we even know that this place, Serve, even really exists?" These were all good questions.
"What are you thinking?" Tai demanded, standing up, "If we hang around here, guys, we'll never get back home!" Lucy suddenly had a point in favor of Joe's idea, but she still felt like she should help.
"I agree with Tai," she said, "I wanna stay," she held a hand on her chest, "but that doesn't mean I'm gonna ignore this call for help."
Sora sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest and holding herself under her knees, "I don't know, guys. Devimon almost got us. Maybe we shouldn't go. At least we know what we're up against over here."
Izzy shut off his lap top and closed it, "And even if we wanted to go, what mode of transportation could we utilize?"
"We don't even know what the fashions are like on Server," Mimi said, making her argument.
"Mm-hm," Joe intoned, agreeing more with Izzy than Mimi, just happy to have another vote for his side.
Standing next to TK with his hands in his pockets, Matt considered the pros and cons, "Maybe we should stay here a while longer and think this through," he suggested.
Tai was getting a little overwhelmed by this mass rejection of his idea. It... hadn't happened before. Sure, Matt and Joe had disagreed with him before, but he'd never had to argue against nearly the whole group.
"What's with you!?" He said loudly, "That guy needs our help and we're just gonna sit here and let some evil digimon rule over an entire continent of innocent ones?" He looked to the group one by one. Izzy, Mimi, Joe and Sora couldn't meet his eyes. Lucy was already on his side. When he turned to look at TK he found a surprise waiting for him and the rest of the group.
The little boy in the green baseball cap was still clutching the egg of his digimon, but had a determined look on his face, "Let's go!"
As one, the group turned to look at the littlest member. Did he really just say that? Even after losing Angemon to the fight with Devimon?
"TK?" Matt questioned.
"We don't know what kind of danger will be waiting for us, but let's see!" he looked down to the large egg in his grip, "I'm sure Angemon would say the same thing if he were still around," He turned his gaze back to the older kids, "So I'm going!"
"We'll go too!" Agumon announced, speaking for himself and Tai, "If we have the Tags and Crests, we'll be able to Digivolve again, right?" he smiled up at his partner who was proud to have the little yellow dinosaur at his back, "Once we transform into our new shapes, we'll be able to protect you for sure!"
"You da 'Mon!" Tai said with a grin.
"We can do it!" Skymomon said, hanging off of Lucy's shoulder, "We can do anything as long as we stick together, Lucy!"
"You bet!" she returned.
"Sora," Biyomon said, holding the girls hands, "So what do you say?"
"Our chances for success are extremely high," Tentomon insisted to Izzy.
"Come on, Mimi," Palmon said with a grin, "I'll bet you we'll be the prettiest flowers on all of Server!"
"Don't worry about me," Gomamon said to Joe, "I'll swim to Server."
"Come on, let's do it," Gabumon tried to convince his partner.
Matt looked up from the fur coated digimon and at the others, "Let's go."
Sora stood up next, a smile on her face, her confidence renewed, "Count me in!"
"Kay," Joe said, for once not dragging out the argument, "I'll go. I'm convinced."
"Well, I'm not staying here by myself," Mimi said with a smile as she stood up, "I'll go too!"
Izzy smiled a small smile, looking around at everyone, "Alright, it's unanimous!"
"That's great!" Tai exclaimed, high fiving Lucy, "It's decided! We're going to Server!"
"In the morning, though," Joe said, "I don't know about you, but if we're going to go out to sea, I'd rather it be during the day."
"I can't say I disagree with that," Lucy said, still grinning about the journey to come.
"Yeah, if we're going to be meeting a lot of new people, I need my beauty sleep to look my best," Mimi informed the group.
"I think we could all use a restful sleep without the threat of a digimon attacking," Matt said, sitting down near one of the trees, TK coming over to sit next to him.
"It would still be a good idea to set a watch," Izzy said matter of factly, "The black gears are gone, but if you'll remember, the first few digimon we faced were aggressive enough without them." The team shuddered to think of the monsters that had attacked before Devimon started turning good digimon evil. If the gears had gotten to them, who knows how hard they would have been to fight.
"I'll take first watch," Lucy volunteered.
"And I'll take second," Izzy announced.
"I'll take one after that," Joe said.
"And I'll take the last," Sora said, "So, let's get some sleep. Tomorrows gonna be busy."
The kids picked their favorite patches of ground and curled up to rest. The digimon kept their partners company, while Lucy moved to make sure she had a good view of the camp.
"Skymomon," Lucy said after she was sure everyone was asleep.
"Yeah, Lucy?" the little digimon asked from her shoulder.
"Do you think Gennai might know why I feel like I belong here?" She asked, looking up at Infinity Mountain as she spoke.
"I dunno, but there's only one way to find out," Skymomon grinned, "We'll just have to go visit him and find out the truth for ourselves!"
Lucy smiled, "Yep! You're right, Skymomon, so we've got another reason to go defeat those evil digimon!"
+-9
The night passed without incident. Lucy woke up Izzy, Izzy woke up Joe and Joe woke up Sora. Sora woke up everyone after her shift had passed and, after a quick breakfast of more fish and some left over fruits and berries, they quickly got to work. The kids found some sturdy trees near the beach they could use to build a raft and began to chop them down in various ways.
"Pepper Breath!" Agumon called out before shooting out a fire ball at one of the trees. Honestly, after all the times that his attack had just bounced off the hide of one of the digimon affected by a black gear, Lucy and the others half expected it not to do anything to the tree. Surprisingly though, the tree was cut down with just one burst.
"Timber!" Tai called out, making sure no one was caught in the path of the falling trees.
"Blue Blaster!" Gabumon shouted, breathing his blue stream of fire at another tree, knocking it down as well.
"At our current rate, it will take us forever to build a raft," Izzy sighed.
"Don't worry about it, Izzy," Sora said, "It's not like we're in any kind of hurry." She heard something behind her and turned around to see Leomon walking towards them with purpose. "Leomon!" She quailed, he didn't look happy and they hadn't even thought to ask the unofficial king of the island whether it was okay or not to cut down these trees.
He stopped before Izzy and Sora, "So I heard you were all going to Server."
"How did you hear that?" Sora asked, just glad that the digimon wasn't attacking again.
"Oh, you know us monsters, we all love to gossip," it might have been a joke, but with his constant scowl, the girl wasn't sure, "I thought I'd see if you needed some help with anything."
The two kids immediately smiled in relief, glad to have the lion digimon still on their side.
"You mean you'll really help us?" Sora asked hopefully.
"I've got some friends who want to help as well," he looked behind himself, back the way he'd come from. Coming along through the trees was a procession of familiar digimon, ones that they'd saved or befriended. The first three that were visible were Elecmon, Centarumon(Izzy and Mimi had run into him in some maze like ruins, saved him from a black gear and he told them the legend of the Digivices.), and Mojyamon(he was also infected by a black gear, but with the help of Frigimon, Garurumon and Greymon were able to stop him.)
"Elecmon!" Izzy exclaimed.
"Mojyamon and Centarumon too!" Tai exclaimed.
"Yeah, hi!" Elecmon called, "What's up?"
Mimi laughed happily as the digimon came out of the wood work, literally, willing to help the children, "Monzaemon!" The big yellow teddy bear smiled happily as he approached with his usual slow, heavy gait.
"Hey, look!" TK pointed out, "It's Frigimon!" That digimon had been the one Matt told him had helped him and Tai get to Primary Village in time to save him and Patamon from Leomon.
Joe shivered as the frozen digimon passed by, surprised by the sudden cold.
"Hey, it's Meramon!" TK pointed out next. As the fiery digimon approached, the Yokomon from the village approached as well, swarming over Biyomon causing her to laugh out loud.
"Fist of the Beast King!" Leomon roared, sending his energy attack flying through the trees. It cut down a good dozen before it dissipated.
"Wow, Leomon!" Agumon said, glad that the big guy was on their side again. Gabumon just stared in complete awe.
Meramon stepped up next, taking the huge logs and burning away the branches then tossing them through the air for Centarumon to shorten with an energy blast.
"It's good to have friends with high temperatures," Lucy quipped, getting a giggle from Mimi and their digimon.
Mojyamon was next, stepping up with the Yokomon, together, they used some of his shed fur to make a nice, said for the raft, and some rope to hold it together. Elecmon used his net making skills to help this along as well.
After all the logs were tied together with the make shift rope, Leomon said the mast for the sail in the center. Frigimon brought over a couple of barrels filled with nearly fifty gallons of fresh water, and Centarumon had a couple armfuls of food, kept in large, wooden crates.
"This is so awesome!" Tai said, holding his fists before him in his excitement, "We'll be ready to go before lunch time at this rate!"
After the Yokomon had attached the sail to the mast, all they needed to do was get it down to the beach.
"Leave that to me," Frigimon said, "Subzero Ice Punch!" He began making an ice path to slide the raft along. In only a few minutes, the slope was ready and the digimon all piled on to make sure that the raft didn't just drift away when it got out into the water. Leomon and Mojyamon gave it a shove to start it off and the raft took off down the hill.
The digimon all cheered as they broke out of the forest into the open air for a few second before gravity took over again and they dropped into the water.
The kids all ran out of the forest to join their digimon, laughing and cheering themselves. Things were definitely looking up.
"Yeah, it really works!" Matt cried happily.
"Alright!" Tai exclaimed.
"It's hydrodynamically designed!" Izzy said, looking at it.
"I think I'm getting seasick already," Joe sighed.
"Don't worry about it, Joe," Lucy said, stepping up beside him, "It's just a little, massive ocean."
"It may not be the smoothest ride," Tai said, "But it'll do."
Leomon came up to the children, "Believe me, that raft is strong enough to get you across the ocean."
"Thanks, Leomon," Tai said to the lion digimon, "We never could have done it without your help."
"Ah!" TK intoned, the egg in his had shifted, then a crack began to form.
"What is it?" Matt asked. The others noticed what was happening and crowded in behind TK to see a digimon being born. The crack spread out from almost the exact center of the egg, going around it until the top popped off showing a tiny little thing inside with black dots for eyes and a smile on it's tiny little face.
"Digiegg, you hatched!" TK exclaimed. The little digimon inside the lower half of the egg jumped up a few inches and kicked the last of the shell away before landing in TK's hands again.
"Poyo. Poyomon!" The little thing said.
"How cute!" Mimi gushed.
"That's great!" Sora added.
"I'm glad to see it hatched for you, TK," Lucy pat him on the shoulder.
"Yeah!" TK twirled around happily, "He did it! Yay!" TK nuzzled the little guy with the side of his face, both of them enjoying it.
"Poyomon is a jellyfish type digimon of few words," Tentomon explained, "but if his friends are in trouble, he's ready for action."
With that little development occurring, the kids were in better spirits than ever before. They all quickly climbed onto the raft and turned to face the digimon of File Island to give their last fare wells.
"This is goodbye," Leomon said, sounding a little sad to see them go.
"And good luck!" Frigimon called.
"Thanks!" Tai shouted back as the raft drifted out to sea.
"Goodbye!" Sora waved happily. Lucy was right beside her, waving away at the group of friendly digimon.
The rest of the kids joined in, wishing the digimon of File Island the best of luck in the future and giving promises to come back some day.
With that, the children began a new leg of their journey. They didn't know what kind of danger they would face, or if they'd be strong enough to take it on, but they moved forward anyway, bravely accepting this new challenge for the sake of going home. The continent of Server awaited them at the end of their voyage and there, some of their toughest battles yet were soon to occur.
But that was still in the future. All they could do now was wait for the time they landed, preparing for the battles to come.
+-9
Hours had passed and the sun was directly overhead. The heat was contrasted by the cool ocean below giving the kids the perfect middle ground for their journey east. Once they'd gotten out of view of the island, the ocean swells had turned... monstrous. It appeared as if the boat would rise and fall five feet over each swell, and all the shifting and swaying was getting to Joe, Izzy and Mimi. Lucy was actually just fine with all this, napping away happily under the warm sun, lulled to sleep by the not so gentle swaying of the raft.
Standing to the front of the raft Tai was looking through his mini telescope, hoping to see anything in the distance, but there was no such luck. Sora and their digimon were standing with him, eyes on the horizon.
"I can't see anything but more ocean," he told the group.
"I wonder how much longer this trip will take," Joe said walking up, his face more pale than usual.
"Chill out, Joe," Tai said, "We just left."
"The salt air is killing my sinuses," the boy complained, "And we've only got enough food for two weeks."
"If we run out of food, we'll catch some fish!" Tai assured the boy, looking back through his telescope again.
"Well, the one good thing is, this is beautiful weather for sailing," Sora said, looking from the dark blue of the ocean to the oddly speckled sky. The raft then took on a truly massive swell, rising twenty feet before reaching the top.
"Ugh!" Mimi groaned, "I don't feel so good," she held her hands before her mouth as if to help keep the contents of her stomach in. Palmon was rubbing her back, trying to make her feel better.
Right beside the brown haired girl was Izzy, a nauseous look on his face, "I didn't calculate for these waves being so rough."
TK was fine, despite it all, just sitting on one side of the raft and playing with Poyomon. The little digimon was halving the time of its short life, bouncing in the little boy's hands. A wave knocked the boat forward suddenly, while Poyomon was in the air, and if it weren't for the eight year old's quick actions, his little digimon might have been lost at sea.
"Whoa!" he breathed, "Oh, Poyomon, be careful."
Suddenly, directly in the path of their raft, a wave began to grow.
"Look!" Tai shouted, waking Lucy from her nap, "Tidal wave!" It grew and grew, then crashed with titanic force. Luckily it missed the raft, but it was a near miss. Lucy had to grab onto the mast to keep from losing her balance.
"Whoa!" Matt called out, "That had to be twelve feet tall!"
"Eighteen point three, to be exact," Izzy said, not feeling any less nauseous.
"Was that another boat that caused that wave?" Joe asked while Tai and Agumon looked around.
"There's no boat that can do that," Tai said, not seeing anything.
Just as he was saying that something enormous surfaced in the shifting waters ahead. It was a real dark brown color and looked to be taller than Greymon.
"An Island!" the boy suggested. All of the children stared at the 'island' shocked that they found something that big out in the ocean. It seemed odd that, out of all the directions they could have gone, this thing surfaced right near them.
Sora took a closer look at the hulking mass and saw an important detail, "An island? Since when does an island have fins?"
Just then the giant creature submerged again, process causing more great waves that rocked the boat unsteadily, causing all the children to cry out in fear. If their luck was anything to go by, the giant creature was a digimon that was about to make them sorry they decided to set sail.
Lucy looked over the edge of the raft, to see if she could see the silhouette of the beast, but all she saw was dark blue ocean beneath them. If she had been about fifty feet higher she might have seen that the creature was indeed, right below them, but it was so massive that, were it above them, it would have eclipsed the sun.
"Head's up!" Tai yelled, spotting a tail several times larger than their raft lifting out of the water and quickly submerging after nearly causing them to capsize. They were then knocked into the air by another huge wave as the giant digimon flipped itself out of the water, smashing the back of its head into the waves. This gave the group to notice that the top oh it's head and half way down its massive back, that brown colored piece they originally thought was an island actually acted as armor plating. It had sharp spikes sticking out of it near the mouth and the rest of the body of the creature as a greyish blue color.
"Whamon is a giant digimon who lives in the deep oceans of the digital world. It's jet arrows are unbelievable," Tentomon gave everyone a brief rundown of the creature they had stumbled across.
"It was massive!" Gabumon exclaimed, shocked and scared that something that big had chosen to pick a fight with them.
Tentomon continued with his little explanation, "A Whamon can sometimes be fierce, but I've never seen one act this aggressive!"
The monster surfaced again, rushing towards them with it's bone plated head at the fore. Before it got close to them however it opened its humongous, absolutely cavernous mouth. Already the kids could guess it's goal as it didn't slow it's approach. Screams filled the air as they floated into that maw and it closed behind them. They didn't have to worry about chewing, though, the digimon just letting them float right down his throat whole.
"I hope we don't give him a sore throat!" Sora yelled over the sound of the rushing water, the entire group have latched onto the mast in the center or someone who did have a grip on it. Lucy had to give Sora respect for her compassion. Lucy was the type to hope that she made her enemy choke if they decided to eat her.
"Technically, it's not the throat, it's the esophagus that leads to the stomach!" Izzy yelled back.
"He thinks we're fast food!" Joe quailed.
"Something really did eat us!" Mimi cried, holding on for dear life and Palmon holding on to her.
"Sooner or later this has to lead to an exit!" Sora shouted again.
"Well, if that was the entrance that only leaves one other direction to go, and I'm not sure I want to go that way!" Lucy yelled.
"This is damaging my hair all the way to the roots!" Mimi screamed.
"Use my roots," Palmon said, trying to be helpful.
"You're a plant!" Mimi replied.
The Whamon's throat seemed to go on forever. Lucy could have sworn they had dropped down the beast's esophagus for a little under two minutes and they were still going. And if that wasn't enough, these giant slimy things were hopping out of the water and trying to hit their raft!
"What is that gross, gooey junk?" Tai asked, not sure if he really wanted an answer.
Izzy provided one anyway, "Maybe they're antibodies! They're attacking us because they think we're germs or something!" And more and more of the jelly things jumped out of the water in the Whamon's throat, launching themselves at the Digidestined. They were always off by just enough to miss, but there were some pretty close calls.
Finally, the tunnel came to an end and the children were deposited into a surprisingly well lit stomach cavity. It was mostly pink and white and the light was nearly as bright as sun light.
"Finally, we stopped!" Sora said in relief, "Is everyone okay?"
"Yeah, but if we're where I think we are, we wont be for long," Lucy said, a fearful look on her face.
"What are you talking about?" Joe asked, gasping for breath after that chilling roller coaster ride of doom.
"She means," Izzy said, standing on his own feet, "anatomically speaking, we should be in the stomach."
"The stomach?" TK gasped, turning to Matt with Poyomon in his arms, "Isn't that where food goes after it's chewed up?"
"Yeah," the older boy said simply. And just then red lights lit up on the walls of the massive stomach. Soon after that a yellowish liquid began to mix with the water.
"Gastric juice!" Izzy hissed in fright.
"What?" Mimi asked, hoping that meant something else entirely than what she thought.
"It's the acid in the stomach that dissolves the food!" The boy exclaimed. The acid moved quickly through the water until it reached the edge of the raft. Steam began to rise and the acids hissed as they began to dissolve the wood.
"We're melting!" TK cried.
"Don't let it get on you!" Tai advised, looking for any possible way out of this mess.
"We better get out of here before we give him a major ulcer," Joe suggested.
"Look!" Sora cried out, pointing to the roof of the stomach lining, "A black gear!"
"That's why Whamon was acting so aggressive," Agumon theorized.
"Joe, you have to do something!" Gomamon told his partner.
"What? Why me?" the oldest boy asked fearfully, genuinely having no idea what he could do to make any of this better.
"Here," Palmon said, stepping up to the plate, "Somebody can climb these. Poison Ivy!" She sent her vines out to latch onto the gear.
Tai took the risk without even thinking about it, "I'll do it!" He grabbed onto the vines and, hanging from the bottom while using his hands and arms to swing himself forward, he made his way up the vines at a quick but steady pace. Once he was within ten feet of the menacing gear his Digivice activated and the light that shined from it destroyed the gear in its entirety.
"Whoa!" the boy cried out as the vines began to fall, what with nothing to hold onto. Luckily, before the boy could fall in the acids below, Palmon pulled both the wild haired human and her vines back onto the raft.
"Okay," he said after a surprisingly agile flip through the air and landing on his feet, "I destroyed it!"
Before anything more could be said, the acidic waters began to glow brighter and brighter until they were in a lake of bright white light. Then the raft began to lift into the air. The kids could do nothing but scream as their raft was buffeted about again. He only good thing was, this time, they were moving up instead of down. The tunnel seemed to be leading to the top of the head and that meant...
"He's sending us out the blow hole!" Lucy yelled over the screams of the others.
"Everybody hold on!" Tai ordered, locking one arm around the mast and the other around the pink haired girl. Skymomon was clutching onto her partner from the back, her tail wrapped around the human's waist while Agumon dug his claws into the would to help him stay attached to the raft. The other kids followed this example, grabbing the raft with one hand and grabbing either a digimon or another child with the other. The flight up was a lot faster than the ride down and soon they saw light up above.
"Get ready!" Matt shouted.
The children and their digimon all screamed as they were blasted nearly fifty feet into the air. Looking down, they could see Whamon below them. Luckily they were drifting a little to the left, so they would hit the water.
Unluckily, the ropes securing the logs of the raft together had been burnt enough by the acid that hitting the surface of the water causing their boat to practically disintegrate.
The kids and their digimon managed to grab onto a piece of the wreckage. Lucy herself had managed to crawl up on one of the crates, out of breath and hurting a little from when she hit the water. She wasn't the only one either.
"Sora," Biyomon said weakly, "Are you okay?"
"Ech!" Sora grunted, "Yeah."
"Somehow, we got out of there," Agumon said from next to Tai as they held onto the log.
"Yeah," the boy breathed, unable to believe how crazy this day was already turning out to be.
"Poyomon, talk to me!" TK desperately demanded of his baby digimon. He was sitting on a log like he was riding a horse, Matt and Gabumon on either side of the log to keep it from flipping the little boy into the sea.
"Poyo," the little digimon sighed.
"You're okay!" TK exclaimed, relieved.
Whamon, who had just been sitting in the water a little bit away from the kids, suddenly turned and made his way over. Mimi screamed, expecting that the humongous monster was about to try and eat them again.
"Go away! Not again!" she cried.
"Sorry about that," a voice came from within the whale, but he wasn't moving his massive mouth, "I must have had a tummy ache or something."
"It's okay," Biyomon told the gigantic digimon, "We all know it wasn't your fault."
"That's right," Sora affirmed, "It was the black gear inside you."
"Those black gears are rude," Tai said, "I bet that's the last one, though."
"I bet it's not!" Joe called out from behind the boy.
"Thanks kids," the digimon chuckled at their antics, "I owe you one."
"Don't mention it, Whamon," Tai told the whale.
"Actually, if it's not too much trouble, we were going to Server," Lucy said from her crate.
"Server? Why, I could get there in five days. Three without traffic," Whamon, "Tell you what, why don't I take you kids there, as thanks for helping me out?"
"Really?" Sora asked, "That would be great!"
"Yeah, thanks, big guy!" Matt said with a grin.
"No problem," The whale dove beneath the waves and swam underneath the group the slowly lifted out of the water so they were on his armor plated back, "It's not every day that your lunch saves your life."
With a single flip of his massive tail, the Whamon was off like a rocket of the sea. He must have been doing at least forty knots, if not faster.
"Oh wow!" Lucy said, "This is awesome. A lot smoother than that raft."
"Isn't it?" Sora said with a smile.
"Yeah," Joe said, happy about their method of travel for the moment, "I barely feel seasick at all."
"Yes, and this will make our journey far more expedient," Izzy said with a smile as the wind whipped through his hair.
"Yeah, now if only we could find those Tags and Crests that Devimon hid," Tai said.
"Did you say Devimon?" Whamon asked.
"Yeah," Tai said, "do you know him?"
"Well, I don't know anything about Tags or Crests, but a while ago, Devimon hid something," the whale said in his rich baritone, "Deep at the bottom of the ocean."
"Can you tell us where?" Tai asked.
"It's on the way to Server," the digimon said, "You could all ride inside me and I'll take you there. But no tickling!" If Whamon could smile, it certainly would be.
"Well, let's do this," Lucy said, "Let's get those tags."
"You said it, Lucy!" Tai agreed.
Whamon opened his mouth again and the kids and digimon slid down the sides of his massive head to drop in. He held his head a little bit out of the water this time so they wouldn't be washed down his throat.
"I'm not entirely comfortable with this," Joe said, his voice cracking a little bit.
"It's either this or riding on the outside," Matt said, "And I don't know about you, but I can only hold my breath for about a minute."
"I'm good," Joe said, sitting down on the digimon's tongue.
The giant mouth closed once everyone was in, and the whale descended into the waves.
Within a good five minutes, the whale's movement stopped. His cavernous mouth opened and the kids saw an underwater cave. They piled out, stepping into the water free cave happy to be on solid land if only for a little while.
"I'm so out of shape," Whamon complained, "I have to rest here for a while. I gotta drop a couple thousand pounds."
Lucy giggled at that.
"Thanks, Whamon," Tai said with a grin. The group then turned to walk into the cave. For nearly two hundred feet it was just dark spaces, stalactites and stalagmites. Finally they noticed a light coming from the end of the tunnel. They hurried ahead and came upon a... convenience store?
"What's that?" Joe said, not believing his eyes.
"Sign says Deli Mart," Lucy told him, not quite believing it either.
Before the children could run in and raid the shelves for their favorite snacks or the Tags, a crack appeared in the ground and a drill popped out followed by a purple and white digimon around the size of Garurumon. It's body was covered in fur, it's teeth were big and sharp and at the end of each paw was another three drills in the place of claws.
"What is it?" Matt asked, Standing next to Tai.
"Drimogemon!" Gomamon said.
As usual it was Tentomon that told the children what he knew about this digimon, "Drimogemon lives deep inside the earth, drilling tunnels. He uses his Iron Drill Spin and Crusher Bone to wipe out his enemies."
"Ah, a black gear!" Sora pointed out, just barely able to make it out on the digimon's back.
"Told you that wasn't the last one!" Joe exclaimed to Tai.
"It is Lord Devimon's will that no one shall pass!" The mole digimon growled. The drill on his nose whirred to life and he began to approach the children threateningly.
"Tai, leave this to us digimon," Agumon told his partner, "You try to find the Tags."
"I got it!" Tai said.
"Ha! You think that drill scares us? Think again!" Gomamon shouted before he glowed with the light of Digivolution, "Gomamon, Digivolve to Ikkakumon!" Ikkakumon met the drilling digimon half way, blocking his drill nose with his black horn.
"Come on, everybody!" Tai took the opening to lead the kids around the two quarreling digimon and into the store.
Once inside, the kids spread out, looking for the Tags.
"Wait a minute, TK, Joe, Mimi!" Lucy called, gaining the three kids' attention, "Start stuffing your bags with food while you look! Remember our food was destroyed when our raft was. Joe, you make sure to get some bottles of water."
"Oh, that's right," Mimi said after a moment of thought, then began to put the sweet junk foods she liked into her bag.
"Good thinking, Lucy," Joe told the girl, already taking the water bottles out of the coolers on the back walls before moving on to other items that wouldn't have to be cooked.
"Here," TK said, holding out his backpack to Lucy, "I don't want to let go of Poyomon. Will you fill it up for me?"
"No problem, kiddo," she smiled and began to put small bags of chips and dip and other things intothe boys backpack.
Back outside the battle was only getting worse.
"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon shouted before he launched one of his horns that turned into a missile at the mole digimon after he slammed him into the front of the store. It shook the place up, causing some of the shelves to fall and dust to fill the air.
"I think it's tie I joined the fight," Tentomon called as he flew through the air, he too began to glow, "Tentomon, Digivolve to Kabuterimon!"
"Grah!" Drimogemon growled, pulling a large boomerang shaped bone from somewhere, "Crusher bone!" He tossed it at the flying insect, spinning it around in the air like a buzz saw blade. But Kabuterimon simply dodged like it was not even a problem.
"Kabuterimon!" Agumon yelled, "Aim for the black gear!"
The giant bug took the advice, flying around in the large cavern till he was behind the purple and white digimon, "Electro Shocker!" The orb of electricity flew through the air until it hit the black gear, destroying it.
Almost immediately, Drimogemon stopped attacking.
Inside the Deli Mart, TK had dropped his digimon in the explosion and couldn't see him through the dust.
"Poyomon!" He cried, "Where are you? Poyomon!" he stepped around to another aisle ad saw his digimon hiding under one of the shelves, just missing being crushed by one, "Oh, Poyomon!" The boy ran over and grabbed the little digimon, pulling him out from under the shelf. He didn't expect to pull a little treasure box out with him, "What's in the box?"
"Please forgive me for attacking you," Drimogemon said, back outside, "I really didn't mean anything personal by it."
"It's alright," Palmon said, waving away his concerns, "You're not the only digimon to fall under Devimon's evil spell."
"Pardon me, but do you know what he hid down here?" Gabumon asked.
"Why, yes," Drimogemon said as he began to go back to his tunnels, "It was a box full of Tags, or so he said, they're next to the jerky."
Back in the store, TK presented the box of to his big brother.
"Hey, everybody," Matt called, getting everyone to come running, "I think TK found them."
"Not me," the little guy said with a smile, "Poyomon did the finding!" He held the little guy up.
"Way to go, Poyomon!" Lucy said and the little critter blushed at the praise.
Opening the box revealed several golden pendants with rectangular slots on the front.
"Just like the one Gennai showed us during his transmission," Izzy said, looking into the box.
"How pretty!" Mimi exclaimed, taking one for herself. She removed her hat to slip the necklace over her head.
"That looks really cool," Lucy said, grabbing one as well. Soon enough all the children had a Tag around their necks.
"I think that's all we need here," Tai said, "Let's get going!"
"Yeah, I am so ready to be back under the open sky," Matt agreed as the group made their way back to Whamon.
"Found them already?" the humongous digimon asked, "That was quick."
"Yeah, luckily, we didn't have to search too long. You ready to take us back up to the surface?" Tai asked.
"Sure, hop in," Whamon opened his mouth and the kids and their digimon filed in.
Not ten minutes later the kids were back in the open see air, enjoying another beautiful, if odd, sunset, from Whamon's back. All of them had their Tags and the future was looking brighter already.
"Remember what Gennai told us, you guys," the boy said, "The crests are scattered throughout the continent of Server."
"And if we get both the Tags and the Crests," Gabumon began.
"We'll all be able to Digivolve once again," Agumon finished.
"Then we'll just have to go out there and find the crests!" Tai said with enthusiasm.
"And when we've got them all, those evil digimon will be sorry, right partner?" Lucy said with a grin to her digimon.
Skymomon grinned right back, nodding her head happily. The journey looked like it was just getting started, but as long as the kids had their digimon, everything would be okay, for sure!
Chapter Eleven: End.
Please Enjoy.