Chapter 21: The Bearer of Friendship

Disclaimer: Don't own…

This is bad, man, Chaun thought, looking at the new form of Jonny's partner Digimon as it moved toward Stingmon. "Stingmon! Attack quickly!" he yelled as RuinCyberdramon stuck his lance into the ground and used it to lift himself up and kick Stingmon against a tree.

"Stingmon!" Chaun yelled.

"How does it feel to get everything taken away from you? Now we're trapped in another world, your 'partner' is on the verge of deletion, and you're about to be beaten up by me!"

Chaun looked at Jonny. That's when it hit him: "You don't have Plank!"

"No! You see, that's the problem, Timber is still back in Peach Creek! Just like I'm separated from my best friend, you're now separated from yours."

"Yeah, but you didn't do that, just like I didn't beat you up!"

Jonny looked at him with a puzzled face and yelled, "But you allowed it!"

"No. I. Didn't!"

RuinCyberdramon charged toward Stingmon, his spear poised for a finishing blow when another Digimon plowed into him.

"What! No!" The other Digimon was a Leomon. Chaun looked around and saw Garrett.

"Figures that I'd have to save your hide," Garrett said in his usual raspy voice.

"That guy's now a perfect level, you know?" Chaun said.

Garrett nodded. "I'll be able to handle him longer than you can. Take Stingmon and get on out of here. I'll try to reason with Jonny."

Chaun was shocked that his friend would tell him to do something like that. "But…"

"Just go that direction," Garrett told him, pointing, "You know me, I can handle this guy on my own. Besides, if Dark Digivolving is anything like it is on the TV show, this Digimon's going to devolve in a matter of minutes."

Chaun nodded. "I hope you're right, man."

"When am I not?" Garrett asked sarcastically as Chaun ran in the other direction.

It was a while later when Stingmon devolved back to Wormmon due to the heavy damage he sustained. Chaun kept moving forward with his Digimon in his arms, wondering why Garrett had him go this way.

Just after dark, he found a meadow with several kids and their Digimon. They were around a campfire. Chaun noticed one of them, a boy that he couldn't make out other than the goggles on his head who was gesturing like crazy, probably elaborating some story or something.

"Maybe this is what your friend wanted you to find," Wormmon suggested.

"Yeah, probably." Chaun said. "Let's see who these guys are." Suddenly, Chaun felt something in his pocket. He reached in and pulled out a shining digivice.

The other kids had stopped talking about whatever it was they were talking about and the leader, the guy with the hand gestures, got up.

"Who's that guy?" a girl asked, her cat-like Digimon's form next to her. The leader just shrugged and walked over to Chaun. The darkness didn't help Chaun see him.

"My name's Zack." He was slightly shorter than Chaun was. "You must be that other chosen we were looking for."

Chosen? Chaun thought, slightly confused as he held out his hand. "I guess man. My name's Chaun and this is my partner Digimon, Wormmon."

"Pleased to meet you," Wormmon said.

"Hehehe, awesome! My name's Zack by the way. I'm sure you're excited to be here like I am. My partner over there is Veedramon." Zack shook Chaun's hand like crazy. "¡Bienvenidos al Mundo Digital!"

Again, Zack seemed familiar, and the familiarity only grew when he actually saw him in the light of the campfire. "So, where are you from?" Zack asked as he sat down.

"A place called Peach Creek."

What if Jonny was the chosen that Zack sought? What if I stopped him from meeting the guy? If that was the case, then, man, I really screwed up big time. All he wanted was friendship and he couldn't get any. That's why after getting beat up; he was pushed over the edge.

Then Chaun remembered the time he found Plank in the junkyard just before going to the digital world. He remembered how he thought about how Jonny couldn't have been faring well without Plank, who they figured must have been living somehow, so he picked him up, not just to find the gate, but to give to Jonny as well.

The feeling of the 2x4 strapped to his back made him itch slightly.

"I'm sorry, Jonny. Maybe when we meet again, we can be friends."

Chaun held out the card as it suddenly changed into a shade of blue. "Card Slash! Matrix Evolution!"

MATRIX EVOLUTION_

"Stingmon, Evolve!" Stingmon's armor changed so that it was sleeker and a lighter shade of green, with patches of red and yellow here and there. He also had longer, white hair and a staff with a red, star-like blade at the end.

"JewelBeemon!"

Eddy eyed Chaun's Digimon. "What the… You made it!"

Chaun winked at Eddy. "You bet I did. It was bound to happen sooner or later." Now to get Plank back to Jonny.

JewelBeemon went straight for the enemy Digimon that surrounded them, readying its lance and gracefully slicing up as many as it could before reaching WaruMonzaemon, who was ready when he reached him.

"Oh, please, you girly bug! Take this! Nasty Step!" WaruMonzaemon performed a bizarre dance and then, just as JewelBeemon reached him, unleashed a dark energy blast from his chest, nearly hitting JewelBeemon who got out of the way at the last second by moving to the left.

Then WaruMonzaemon heard a voice from behind him. "Death Behind!" It turns out that Sealsdramon stabbed him from behind, causing him to writhe in pain. "Now, JewelBeemon! Get him!"

"Alright!" JewelBeemon said, striking WaruMonzaemon with his staff. "Spike Buster!" Now there was a massive gash across WaruMonzaemon's cotton chest and large amounts of data was leaking out. Then he disintegrated and reformed into an egg that flew off.

Seeing their leader gone, the army of Geremon fled.

"Wow, I'm glad that's over," Eddy said as the three Digimon devolved, JewelBeemon to Wormmon, Sealsdramon back to Commandramon, and Aquilamon to Hawkmon. Sealsdramon's devolution surprised Eddy. "Wait a second, how come you didn't devolve before?"

"I think I sustained too much damage from that battle to maintain my adult form," he said, walking up to his partner.

"Um, okay… Then why did JewelBeemon just devolve back to Wormmon and not whatever its baby form is?"

"I guess blue cards just work differently," Chaun commented, taking in a deep breath and picking up Wormmon. Soon, various Digimon came out of hiding in the village.

One of them, a pink mouse-like Chuumon, walked up to Chaun. "On behalf of the entire village, thank you."

"You're welcome," Wormmon said.

"Yeah, you're welcome," Chaun said, smiling.

"If you would like, you can come and eat some lunch here," A PlatinumSukamon offered. Just the fact that the one offering was shaped like a silver turd made the group's stomachs churn with the exception of Ed.

"Okay, I'm in!" Ed cheered.

"I guess we can't refuse," Eddy said, warily.

"Right," Commandramon agreed, shuddering at the thought of food with the locals.

Later on, it was getting dark and the kids were at the hotel room. "Okay, truth or dare!" Chaun said.

"Truth," Eddy replied.

"Does anybody else know about Clayton?" Chaun asked, taking Eddy aback.

"Um, no. Just Ed and I."

"And me," Commandramon said. "Oh, don't forget Rolf and Kevin and their Digimon where there when Daniel told us all about him."

Chaun's eyes lit up. "Wait, Daniel told you?"

"And my brother. Danny was in panic mode when he saw me for the first time and blurted it out. I figured it out before, though. Wait a minute. Did you have us play this game just so you could ask that?"

"Nah, I just thought we could get to know each other a bit more, that's all."

"So, how many siblings do you have, Chaun," Ed asked.

"I'm the middle of five and I have an older brother and an older sister."

"Ed's just got a sister, I've got two brothers," Eddy said.

"How'd you figure out that you had another brother, Eddy?" Chaun asked.

"Found a picture." Eddy didn't bother to mention that it was on Zack's iPod.

"Hmm… crazy. I guess you get to spin the bottle now." Eddy did so and it landed on Commandramon.

"What's your Mega form," Eddy asked. "Is it cool?"

Commandramon glared at him. "Darkdramon. I was him at one point. I remember the first time I became him. I had destroyed an entire village for Mugendramon as a Tankdramon using my Striver Cannon and loaded the Digimon that lived there. Mugendramon upgraded me as a promotion."

Eddy was kind of disturbed by the notion. So were Chaun and each of the other Digimon.

Ed on the other hand simply remarked, "Cool."

"Edwin! How can you possibly think that was cool?" Hawkmon asked.

Commandramon was actually kind of embarrassed. He didn't like his past and the effects the surfaced memories were starting to have on him. In fact, the next thing anyone knew, he got up and ran out the door. "Commandramon!" Eddy called out, about to get up.

"Eddy, leave him along. It looks like he needs some time to himself," Chaun said.

Nobody bothered to notice that Wormmon was gone too.

Commandramon was in the pool area. However, due to his cybernetic parts, he was wary about entering it. Instead, he just lied down on one of the lounge chairs.

"How are you? Are you okay?" Wormmon asked, climbing up into one of the chairs next to him and startling Commandramon.

"I don't want to talk about it," the reptile replied.

"I can't blame you. You know, we have something in common."

"Yeah, what is that?"

"Like you, I did things in the past, before meeting Chaun and being partnered to him, that I regret."

"Yeah? Did helping with an attempted genocide count as one of them?"

Wormmon just continued looking at him. "No, not quite. However, you were partnered with Eddy, and that looks intentional. Maybe Anubimon felt that you weren't too far gone to be sent to the dark area and instead made you his partner."

"That is, if Anubimon even exists."

"You never know. Chaun said that Eddy found you as a virtual pet. Maybe someone put you there to find."

Commandramon just shrugged. "Yeah? Well, you don't have a mega form that's incredibly deadly and hard to control, do you?"

"That I'm not sure about. Chaun did research on my higher forms and, though he got JewelBeemon right, he didn't figure out what was past that. There were a couple of options, and neither of them made sense to him. It might be the same with you. Darkdramon might not be your only mega form."

Commandramon looked off into the now-red sky. "Still, I don't want to take the risk and accidentally hurt Eddy."

"I can't blame you. I wouldn't want anything to happen to Chaun, not after all that we have been through together." Wormmon looked into the same direction that Commandramon was looking. "But the time may come when you have to take that risk. Against Eddy's brother for instance. Perhaps against both of them. We have no way of knowing whether Clayton's good or bad."

Commandramon knew Wormmon was right. Suddenly, a new memory popped up into his mind.

He was Darkdramon and he was coming face to face with Derek and BlackAgumon. "How dare you! You claimed to be fighting for the forces of good and yet you turn out to be just as tyrannical as Mugendramon before you!"

"Oh, man, what did you expect?"

"You're supposed to be one of the Chosens of legend! You're supposed to be a hero!"

"Yeah, right! I ain't no hero, you dumb lizard! Besides, I can take you on myself as long as I have my Digimon! You know our Mega form has gauntlets that were meant for your kind, right." Darkdramon swore he saw a jackle-headed Digimon appear behind Derek as he held out his digivice.

"What is it?" Wormmon asked.

"I had a flashback." Commandramon was panting. "Now I know how to get to the Mega level. This won't be good for Eddy if we become Darkdramon. I remember how hard it was to control myself with that form, but the two of us together." Commandramon looked up to Eddy's window. "I've got to warn him!"

"But, if you figured out how to get to Mega, we should tell them all."

"It's too dangerous. With this type of evolution…" Commandramon paused for a second. "I can't tell them."

"Commandramon…"

"If Eddy knew, then he would attempt to force an evolution if we ever went against Derek. If he did that, I'd become Darkdramon for sure. I can't have that."

Wormmon knew he didn't have any choice but to go with Commandramon's wishes. "What about me or Ed's partner?"

"It would get to Eddy eventually if I told you guys."

Jonny had finally finished talking. Monodramon was with him, snuggled up against him. "So, that was how you came to the digital world, huh?" he heard a female voice say from in front of him. The girl had long brown hair and was wearing blue, circular glasses. Her partner, who was sitting next to her, was very similar to Terriermon but brown and pink instead of white and green. There was another kid with her, a boy, but his face and partner were obscured by shadows.

"Yeah, everything. You probably hate me now that you know that I tried attacking an unsuspecting Digimon just to get revenge."

The girl smiled a little bit. "No, it was a year ago. You changed a lot since then."

"That he has…" a voice said. A book had appeared in the shadows and opened up to reveal a cloaked Digimon.

The girl opened up her green and purple digivice. "Wisemon? Who are you and what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I am here to give Jonny something." Wisemon handed Jonny a blue crest nestled in a tag.

"You have a crest?" Monodramon asked.

"The Crest of Friendship in fact,"

"But, I don't have any friends except… Plank… and he's a piece of wood that I somehow thought could talk. And even then, he betrayed me by stranding me here."

"I'm your friend," the girl said. "So is Jesse."

"So were Zack, Garrett, and the two Kankers. And so am I," Wisemon commented, before disappearing into his book.

"Wait! What do you mean? I don't even know you!" Jonny yelled as the book disappeared into thin air.

"So, tell me about your adventures with Zack. What did he look like?" the girl asked.

"What do you want to do? Keep him up all night?" Lopmon asked.

Jonny smiled. "For starters, I didn't meet Zack until after we both got captured by the emperor, who later on turned out to be…"

A/N: Kind of a short chapter, but I didn't have too much to work with here. Even the Truth or dare game and Commandramon's revelation were afterthoughts, though I did think of a way to use the second one. Oh, I'm evil.

Originally, I was going to actually have Paildramon appear, but I realized that this contradicted previously established canon in my own fic… Sad ain't it. Basically, the whole 'Digimon Empire Episode 2' sequence in a previous chapter where Wormmon becomes Stingmon for the first time took place after the flashback and basically means the first time after becoming partners. Then again, I do retcon 'A Town Called Ed' a little.