Blazing Friendship
The airship made it to the shores of the continent on schedule. The heroes disembarked and received the crew's best wishes in finding the Digimon sovereigns.
Joey was still feeling a little groggy. "Now that we're here, what do we do?"
"While you were asleep, Zephyrmon told us where to go," Serenity was telling him. "A few miles from here, there's a forest with a village full of Koromon."
"Koromon," Joey repeated. "That's Agumon's pre-digivolved form."
"That's right, Joey," the reptile answered.
"Koromon are Digimon who are always happy to help others," Guilmon explained. "They'll be happy to put us up for the night."
"Good idea," Duke said in agreement. "We can stay at the Koromon village and plan the next move from there." So the heroes began to head out.
They left the shores and began walking through the trees in the forest. Agumon began sniffing the air. "I smell Koromon," he notified everyone and began leading the way. They ran until they came to what they thought was the Koromon village.
"Well, the houses are certainly bigger than the ones from the Yokomon village," said Tristan.
Bakura looked around, but couldn't see any Koromon anywhere. "Where are all the Koromon?"
"Maybe they're in their houses having dinner," Joey figured.
Suddenly, a small gray Digimon called Pagumon came before the heroes. "Welcome to our village. You must be tired after having to travel a long way from here. Please, come to the main hut and we will treat you to food and comfort," he insisted, and led them to the tallest house in the middle of the village.
The heroes were presented with trays of food and the Pagumon began cheering their welcome song.
"This is definitely a Pagumon village," Renamon confirmed.
"Something's wrong, Renamon," Agumon was saying. "I know what I smelled was Koromon. I bet my nose on it."
Bakura looked up the information on his digivice. "This is strange. According to the information on my digivice, Pagumon are in-training Digimon who have a habit of playing pranks and making mischief."
Max didn't want to say anything in disagreement. The digivices don't provide false information. This means that she and her friends will have to stay on guard and keep a close eye on these suspicious creatures.
Yugi gave Poyomon small, soft bits of food. The little Digimon began to feel so much energy building up inside of him and he cried out, "Poyomon, digivolve to… Tokomon!"
"He's Tokomon again!" Mokuba cheered.
"The food made him digivolve," said Kaiba.
"And Yugi's been taking very good care of his partner," Joey added, and the two friends hugged each other. Everyone cheered for Yugi and Tokomon.
Later in the night, while everyone was asleep in the guest hut, some Pagumon snuck inside and grabbed Tokomon and began taking him away from the village. When they got deep into the forest, the Pagumon started poking Tokomon with sticks. "What'd I do? Why're you picking on me?" he cried.
"Because you digivolved," one Pagumon answered.
"You were so easy to fool," another one sneered. They were about to continue until they were stopped by an unfriendly voice. The Pagumon looked up and saw a group of insect-type Digimon called Dokugumon. They were large black spiders with skulls and crossbones on their backs and multiple purple eyes.
One Dokugumon demanded to know, "Where'd that Tokomon come from?"
"Well, this Tokomon came to our village with some humans-,"
"Humans?" the spider Digimon gasped. They ordered the Pagumon to trap Tokomon in the trees with the rest of their victims.
"Not so special now, are you?" the Pagumon asked, trapping Tokomon in a spider web.
The Dokugumon ordered the Pagumon to return to the village and keep an eye on their visitors while they would alert their ruler.
The next morning, Yugi woke up and noticed that Tokomon was missing. He frantically searched the village, crying out his partner's name.
Max knew right away that the Pagumon were involved with Tokomon's disappearance. "You guys had something to do with this, didn't you?" she asked. The Pagumon tried to lie by saying they didn't know anything, but she wasn't convinced.
As Biyomon was searching from the sky, she saw something unusual in the trees. She saw masses of spider threads and something was caught in the threads. She approached a tree and perched herself on a branch, trying not to get entangled. To her delight, she found Tokomon. That wasn't all. She also saw dozens of Koromon caught in the threads too. They claimed that the Pagumon forced them out of the village and gave them to the Dokugumon to be their prisoners. Speaking of Dokugumon, two of them saw Biyomon and began attacking her to prevent her from going back to warn the others.
Biyomon couldn't escape, but she could still send out a signal. She unleashed her Spiral Twister in the sky.
Emily saw the wind spirals through her binoculars. "Huh, that's odd," she muttered.
"What do you see, Em?" Joey asked.
"Spirals of wind, coming from the trees," she answered, pointing in the direction.
"Biyomon must've found something," the blonde lad immediately cried.
"I hope it's Tokomon," said Yugi.
"Either that, or that bird's in trouble," said Tristan.
"Well, in either case, we'd better check it out," said Duke.
The Pagumon wouldn't let them leave. That was when it became clear to Max that Tokomon was there and these mischievous Digimon didn't want them to go.
Suddenly, Bakura cried out in shock as a small black creature jumped on his lap. Yugi recognized it from the Primary Village. "Hey, that's a Botamon." Confused, he asked himself, "But why would there be a Botamon in a Pagumon village?"
"What do you mean?" Serenity asked.
Her partner decided to explain. "Botamon is the small egg form that digivolves into Koromon and then into Agumon."
That was enough to confirm that this place was the Koromon village all along and the Pagumon were deceiving everyone. There was no point in keeping up the act any longer, so the Pagumon began taking their leave. With that being taken care of, the heroes could run to the forest and hopefully rescue Biyomon and Tokomon.
It was a frightening sight, seeing Biyomon and Tokomon and the Koromon trapped in spider threads. Emily shrieked as she saw two Dokugumon on one of the branches. Her friends understood why she shrieked. The poor girl was still terribly afraid of spiders. Téa was terrified at the sight of the two spiders as well.
Joey looked up the information on his digivice. "Dokugumon - champion level. A virus-type Digimon that traps its prey in its Poison Threads." He looked up and saw his partner helplessly stuck to the branch. "I'm not letting these guys have my friend for lunch."
"Be careful, Joey," his sister begged, watching him climb the tree. The Dokugumon spewed their Poison Thread and Joey coughed and lost his grip and slipped down. Renamon unleashed her Diamond Storm to cut the threads and free the prisoners.
Now that Biyomon was free, she could digivolve into Birdramon and take down the Dokugumon. She unleashed her Meteor Wing and the two spiders disintegrated into data.
Yugi rejoiced as Tokomon was back into his arms again. He also told the Koromon, "The Pagumon are gone now. You can all return to your village."
"I think not," said a sinister high-pitched voice. Téa and Emily screamed at the sight of the large red spider with white hair.
Max looked up the information on her digivice. "Watch out, you guys. That's Arukenimon. She's an ultimate Digimon and her poison attacks are much more potent than Dokugumon's."
Arukenimon stood proud with her army of Dokugumon behind her. "My kin and I were going to have these darlings for our meal until you had to come and spoil everything. Now you're going to pay!" She commanded her soldiers to trap everyone in their threads. The toxic fumes being released was causing everyone to lose consciousness.
Joey turned around as he heard his sister scream. One Dokugumon held her in his arms. "Let my sister go!" Joey ordered.
As Tristan was fighting the poison, he gasped as he saw Serenity being held by Dokugumon. He got an idea. He used his strength to climb the tree and jump on the spider. Dokugumon lost his grip on Serenity, but managed to catch Tristan.
"Serenity, are you all right?" Joey asked his sister.
"I'm fine," she answered. "But Tristan and the others,"
He looked and saw that everyone was in trouble. He was also baffled with Tristan's actions. At first, the blonde lad thought that Tristan was trying to be a hero, but this situation was too serious for that kind of behavior. Tristan put himself in harm's way to protect Serenity because he knows how much the auburn means to his best pal. Tristan also knew that Joey would never forgive him if he let anything happen to her. That was what Joey was starting to realize just now.
It also hurt Joey to think about his other best friend Yugi. He finally got Tokomon back, but ended up losing him again to a sick and twisted scheme like this. The blonde lad was disgusted. "If there's anything I can't stand, it's nasty bugs like you trying to tear my friends apart and test our friendships. My buddy just got his pal back and you tried to ruin that by taking Tokomon away! Yugi's my best friend and I'd do anything to help him get back together with someone special to him. I'd do the same for all of my best friends. That's because we're all each other's friend and each other is special to one another in their own way. And looking out for each other makes us stronger and keeps us together. I promise I will protect my friends!"
The screen on Joey's digivice displayed a strange symbol. He recognized it as the symbol of friendship. Suddenly, a yellow light made its way from Joey's digivice to Birdramon. The phoenix began to feel energy building up inside of her. "Birdramon, digivolve to… Garudamon!" She looked more human now with bird-like qualities. She had the head of a bird that was protected by a red helm and she had a human-like body with arms and talon hands and wings on her back.
Joey looked at the information on his digivice. "Garudamon - ultimate level. She commands the powers of the skies and protects the earth. Her special attack is a fiery bird called Wing Blades." Was it the power of my element that allowed Birdramon to digivolve into Garudamon? He wondered.
The bird warrior unleashed her Wing Blades on the army of spiders, obliterating them into particles of data. When it was over, Garudamon degenerated all the way back to Yokomon.
"Joey, Yokomon, you were so incredible," Serenity cheered.
Tristan agreed. "That was awesome, the way Birdramon digivolved into Garudamon and wiped out that army of spiders."
Joey wasn't going to take all the credit. "Well, none of it would have been possible without your guys' help."
The brunette lad was confused. "But you're Yokomon's partner and the power came from your digivice."
"It was more than that," Joey was saying. He began sharing what he learned with his friends after helping them break free from the threads. "When I saw Tristan trying to save my sister, I thought he was being a hero. But then I realized that it wasn't the reason." He faces his friend and said, "Tristan, you weren't just doing it for her or for yourself. You were doing it for me too, right?"
He continued to be modest. "Well, everyone else blacked out and was stuck in the threads and you were kind of busy, so seeing as I was the only one left, I had to do something. So, yeah, I was doing it for you too."
"And I get it now," continued Joey. "At first, I always get the impression that you're trying to impress my sister, but you do the things you do because you mean well and really do want to help out a friend. I didn't realize it then, but I do now."
Duke crossed his arms and boasted, "Well, I would've done the same thing."
"Sure, you would've," Max said sarcastically. "If you wanted to."
The blonde lad wasn't finished, "And the more I thought about it, the more determined I was to help all of you. Because you all put yourselves in harm's way for one another, I had to do my part. I put all my thoughts and feelings into it and that was when my digivice activated."
"Are you saying that you think it was reacting to the power of your element?" Kaiba wondered.
He looked at his digivice, "Kaiba, I think that's exactly what happened. I saw a strange symbol on the screen. It looked like the symbol for friendship. Then its light enveloped Birdramon and she became Garudamon."
So the power of our elements can take effect even in the Digital World, the older brunette wondered. Max and Bakura looked at each other, wondering if this was what Noah was talking about when he was explaining the power of digivolution. They would have to witness it again before their assumptions could be justified.