A blue-furred creature stood balanced on an oak branch

Chapter Twelve: Day One – Jay Finally Bursts Out, But First, the Start of the Garuru Trial!

"You alright?" Marcus asked Loaño as he pulled her up.

"Yeah." She responded with a weak smile. She stood up, dusted off her jacket, and the journey to find the Garuru Gang continued. The team had reached File Island already, due to Gallantmon's usage of some sort of teleportation thingy. It was a lush and green place, full of shy digimon.

Loaño fell behind to where Keenan was walking, examining the area around him. He seemed to have something on his mind.

"What' up, Jungle Boy?" Loaño asked.

"I'm worried about Kristy." He said flat-out.

"Well, with Nanami with her, no digimon'll want to come near."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because they'd sense her ugliness."

"Meanie." Keenan teased, but he laughed anyway.

Loaño knew something else was up with him. "What else is there?" she asked.

"Well, you know that Bishario kid?" he began. Loaño nodded. "Well, she's related to me somehow, and I can't help but wonder what she's up to."

"She is?" Loaño asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Keenan replied, lifting his head.

"Well, that's nice." Loaño said with a laugh and a smile.

"If you say so."

"GUYS!" Kidd yelled. "WE'RE HERE!"

Loaño walked up quickly to where her partner stood. She saw nothing. It was just an open plain of long grass brushed by the wind.

"Greetings, KiddGarurumon," sniggered someone. The group turned to see a smiling Cyberdramon walking up to them. "Are you here for your trial that you missed?"

Kidd widened his eyes. "Trial? What're you talking about, Cyberdramon?"

"For being with humans. The Gang needs to know whether your loyalty lies with them," he pointed a talon at Loaño, "or with us still. It's either that, or we fight it out."

"Well I say-!" Kidd cut Marcus off with a fist.

"Trial it is. The Garuru Gang is too many to fight off, Damon." Kidd snapped. "You'd die before you could digivolve Agumon."

"Fine. But when we're through, we'll see whether the name 'Garuru' or the name 'Cyber' is placed in front. You're not leader anymore, Kidd." He spat Kidd's name in the grass. "And your second-in-command Justimon…lets just say, he never stood up to the challenge." The Cyberdramon sneered.

Kidd's eyes widened and his teeth bared. "What'd you do to Justimon?" he demanded, but Gallantmon stepped forward, placing his lance between the plastic-covered dragon and the wolf.

"Stop this. Kidd, take back command of the Garuru Gang, and let's just get on!" he growled.

"It's not as easy as you say! I've never been on the trialee end before, I was always the trialer!" Kidd defended.

"Well, now's your chance to find out what happens." Cyberdramon laughed. "If you make it, furball."

Loaño walked up to Kidd. "What's the 'trial'?" she asked.

KiddGarurumon looked at her with deep sadness in his eyes. "You don't want to know." Was all he said, leading the group to follow Cyberdramon.

MMMMM

"Jay?" Dominic asked, standing beside Ghost as Kuramon. The girl was unresponsive, even when the gazes of everyone bore into her. She flinched with discomfort.

"Miss?" Her degenerated GG asked, tugging at her waist.

"JAY!" Relena slapped the back of the girls' head, causing her to brake out of her odd trance.

"What?" she snapped, "I was thinking!"

"What're we going to do now?" Dominic demanded. "We have to know, oh fearless dealmaker! What makes you think we can trust Lucemon!?"

"Well, we'll find out if we're all dead in our sleep!" Jay retorted.

"Umm, Jay, I don't think I can keep the teachers at bay, they really want to know what was running through your head when you though of this brilliant plan!" Dorumon snapped.

"Brilliant my ass! This is quite possibly the worst idea I've ever come up with! Haseo, what're you doing?" Jay demanded, noticing that Haseo was sitting on Thomas's chair and drawing.

"Waiting for you to shut up so's I can call someone." He replied casually.

"Who?" Jay demanded.

"Commander Yosuya formerly of DATS." He said, again very casual.

"Why?" Dominic asked, a little twinge of fear in his voice.

"Because, she's my mom." He answered, picking up the phone on the desk.

"Your mom is going to help us…oh yeah, like we want parents involved!" Jay nearly shouted. GG slapped her forehead with her fist. Help me now…the Gaomon thought.

"Not just my mom, my mom and CrystalGatomon." Haseo dialed.

"You go, Otouto!" Dorumon encouraged.

"Ssh, Ryu-niisan! She's on!" Haseo hushed his digimon. "Yeah, mom? No, it's not about that…We need your help at the Academy. Yes, mom. Okay mom. Leave Haneshiro out of it. Alright. What? I didn't catch that. Yes, he's here…" he paused, glancing at Dominic, "Why? Whoa, what? That's…mom, I don't think that's a conversation we need to have on the phone." He paused again, turning red, "Yes mom. Bye mom. See you soon." He hung up with a click and looked at Relena and Dominic back and forth until his gaze rested on Dominic. "I need to talk to you. Privately."

"M-me?" Dominic said nervously. "why?"

"Because, something my mom said disturbed me. And it wasn't what she said about me and Relena." Haseo pulled Dominic into the bathroom of the office by the puzzled boy's sleeve.

"Men." Relena shrugged, picking up Haseo's drawing. "Hey, look Jay, its WarGaogamon!"

Head pounding in frustration, Jay walked over to Relena, looking at the sketch. She nodded her head, feeling more relaxed. But, then she noticed something else about the picture. It was during the battle, when she was talking with Lucemon and sealing the agreement about the four days. A digimon was there, a Bantyoleomon with fists bursting into flames. Two more were like that too, a Seraphimon and Ophanimon, each with flaming wings. There was also a blue dragon with a white stomach, only with a gray-shaded X across it.

"What's that about? Whose digimon are those?" Jay asked, pointing to the flaming trio and the X-bellied dragon.

"Those would be ours. It's Jayden, right? Sorry for barging." A kind female voice came from behind them.

Jay turned to find four people, three men, and one woman. The woman was the one whom had spoken; she had short brown hair and a pink outfit on. Resting in her arms was a Gatomon. One man, the tallest one, had short brown hair that was slightly graying, behind him was a non-flaming Bantyoleomon. The other two men, one with short-cut blonde hair, the other with spiky dark brown hair, had a Patamon (blonde's, resting upon his head) and a Veemon (the spiky, standing confidently next to him).

"I am Kari Motomiya." The woman introduced, "and this is Gatomon." The tired Gatomon waved a gloved paw.

"I'm Daisuke Motomiya, but people call me Davis. This is Veemon." The spiky-haired boy next to Kari said with a smile. His Veemon gave him the thumbs-up sign.

"I'm Takeru Takaishi. Or T.K., for short." The blonde said with a silly smile. "This is Patamon, as you probably know." The Patamon gave a little wriggle on T.K.'s head, and smiled.

"And I am someone you probably don't know." The older one said. "I am Spencer Damon, Marcus Damon and Kristy Damon's father. I and Bantyoleomon here are here to teach you all of Burst Mode, and specialties that come with it."

"We'd tell you about Armor Digivolving, if you had Digi-Eggs!" Davis joked.

"Why are you here and I thought Dorumon was keeping out all visitors!" Jay growled irritably, throwing a dagger-filled glance at Dorumon. The digimon shrank back, fur bristling.

"Again, without us, you'll not yet realize what you need to have done to win." Spencer said kindly, ignoring her impatience. "I understand the stress you must feel right now, but please be a bit agreeable?"

"I'll try terribly hard." Jay spat.

"Good, now as for what you must do with your remaining three days is…"

MMMMM

"Okay, Dominic." Haseo began, sighing.

"Okay what? You've said that at least ten times already. If you don't stop, I'll actually have to go to the bathroom." The boy responded warily.

"Okay as in, you know what this is about."

"Yes, I do. Yosuya told you, didn't she? T-That I'm your brother…"

"Yeah…" Haseo sighed. "But how? How can you be my brother? Yosuya didn't seem to know about you until now…"

"Um…it's called, 'Getting a divorce, going to another woman, and having a kid with her'. That's what I found out about Kurata."

"Now I'm more certain, you were that kid I drew, weren't you? I let you keep that, didn't I?" Haseo said.

Dominic sighed, digging into his pocket to find the crumpled up piece of paper that had a sketch of Dominic when he was three. He handed it to Haseo.

Haseo looked at it with a small smile. "Well, that clears that up, I guess."

MMMMM

"Kidd. When you said trial, I thought you meant a jury trial, or at least something like a jury trial. NOT THIS!!" Yoshi screeched.

Each human was chained to a large pillar, Clone Wars style.

"Yeah, well…Trial here isn't the same as trials in the Real World, Yoshi. Quit whining while I figure a way for me to win." Kidd responded nonchalantly, as he was trying to keep his cool, even when a gigantic dragon digimon was attacking him…

"Something tells me that we're not on File Island anymore…" Thomas sighed.