Chapter 4: Gathering Part II

Alex's POV

Crystal and I had been waiting by the grotto for a few minutes now and I was starting to get worried about Vince, "Where can he be," I asked myself aloud.

"Who are we waiting on," Crystal asked.

Before I could answer I saw Vince and two other guys jogging towards us, "Them."

"Damn, I thought I was gonna beat you," Vince said jokingly as he caught his breath.

"I'm just glad you found them," I replied laughing.

"Hey, you're Crystal right," Keith asked.

Crystal nodded in reply, "It's Keith isn't it?"

"Yes ma'am," Keith replied.

"Alright, let's get going everybody," I said as I set up my tablet, "Crystal, put your hand on my shoulder. Guys, do the same with Vince." Everyone did as I asked and as soon as I saw everyone was ready I pulled out my D-Phone, "Hang on everyone; Digi-Port, open!"

With that we were on our way back to Gennai's; I couldn't help and smile at how things were actually working out for us, but then I remembered that we still had two more Digidestined to get. I was confident R.J. would get it done.

Another part of town, San Antonio

R.J.'s POV

I was just finishing talking with John about coming with me, I was in my armor which he recognized from videos that we already going viral online. John was the tiniest bit shorter then me but way more fit, he was wearing a form fitting black tee and cargo pants with boots.

"So, we haven't seen each other since middle school, you show up dressed like Assassin's Creed and now you NEED me to come with you," John asked still a little skeptical. All I could do is nod, "You know I'm in the army now right?"

"No, I didn't," I answered honestly.

"I'm sure I'm gonna get a call about what went down today," he continued, "I mean, there has to be a military response."

"The military has no idea what its up against," I replied.

"But you do," he asked.

"Better than them," I answered.

"So if I come with you, what then," he asked

"I can only tell you once we're there," I answered

He stared at me, obviously trying to make up his mind. He turned around to close his door behind him, "I guess we'll see then."

I smiled slighty and pulled out my D-Phone preparing to transport, "Oh, but we have to stop in Austin first."

"Austin," he exclaimed, "how the hell are we getting to Austin real…" Before he could finish, I grabbed his shoulder and we were off.

College campus, Austin

"…ly quick," John finished his statement as we arrived, "the hell just happened?"

"It worked," I said relieved.

"What worked," John asked still confused.

"No time," I answered, "now where is that cloud."

John tapped on my shoulder, "you mean that one!?"

I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw the cloud. And sure enough I could already hear screaming coming from that direction. I started to run towards the screams. As I approached the campus' Quad, I could see students running away or trying to help others. I could barely see one Troopmon near the clouds edge; I threw T.K.'s spear, taking him out, and called it back to my side.

"It's the Digidestined," another Troopmon yelled, "get him!"

The cloud hovered towards me surrounded me. I took them out one by one as they attacked me. As soon as they were all defeated the cloud dispersed. Before I could get away, I caught a glimpse of one of the girls who was being attacked. She was a little shorter than 5' 5" with lightly tanned skin and long wavy black hair. She was wearing a navy blue blouse with black "skorts" and sandals; it was Dana. I walked over to them.

"Thank you so much," one of the other girls said as two of them hugged me in thanks. Dana was graoning as she had fell and hurt herself.

"We need to get that looked at," one of her friends said concerned.

"I'll take her," I said taking advantage of the situation.

"No really," Dana protested as I picked her up, "I'm sure I'll be okay."

"Dana, you need to come with me," I whispered.

"What," she whispered back, "How do you know my name?"

"There's no time," I replied and looked at her friends, "You ladies need to get somewhere safe."

"Dana," her friends yelled.

"I'll be okay," Dana yelled back, "just go; I'll text y'all later."

I was worried that Dana's friends would cause a scene, but I had to hope that Dana's reassurance would be enough. Once we were back near John, I put Dana down

"Alright," she said annoyed, "I gave you a break with my friends, but I want to know what the hell is going on!?"

"Those things were after you," I answered simply.

"Okay, but how did you know my name? Who are you?"

I deactivated my armor, "Dana it's me."

She looked at me for a second until it hit her, "R.J.!? How the…when did…ow!"

Dana sat down from the pain in her leg. John approached.

"Do you mind if I take a look at that," John asked. Dana looked at him concerned. "I'm a combat medic ma'am," John reassured, "and I'm with him."

Dana looked back at me then nodded at John, what is going on here, R.J.!?"

"Dana I will explain everything, but I need you to come with us."

"Looks like a small bruise from a fall," John said standing up, "you'll be fine."

She stood for a second and crossed her arms. I didn't know what she was thinking until she said, "Okay."

"Really," I asked slightly surprised.

"Well you did just save my life; besides, if those things are after me and I'm somewhere else than everyone here will be safe."

"Well alright then," I took out the tablet that Cody lent me and activated the Digi-Port. I gestured for Dana and John to put their hands on my shoulder, "Just hang on; Digi-Port open!" The scanner at the top of my D-Phone flipped open and projected a portal and we were drawn into it.

Gennai's House

Dana, John and I appeared at Gennai's house within seconds; Dana stumbled as she came out of the portal, but I caught her before she fell.

"Welcome back," Cody said walking up to me, "this must be Dana and John."

"Where are the others," I asked ignoring Cody.

"Actually they're not back yet…" Cody said just as the computer started to beep, "…hold that thought."

Cody ran up to the computer and activated the portal again; Vince and Alex stepped into the room while Keith, Mando and Crystal came crashing through landing on top of each other. I couldn't help but smile at how it reminded me of how the Original Digidestined talked about that happening to them a couple of times. Vince and Alex walked over to me as the others got themselves up.

"Nice of you guys to drop in," I said with a smirk.

"Surprised you beat us back," Alex commented.

"Wasn't too big of a deal," I replied. I caught glimpse of the others finally on their feet and introducing themselves to each other; it was time to get down to business…

"Thank you guys for coming," I waited until they all looked at me to continue, "I see you all have made your introductions. As you all know, I'm R.J., and for those of you who don't know, these are my friends; Vincent Villalpando, but you can just call him Vince, and this is Alexandra DeJesus, Alex for short. I'm sure you have a lot of questions like who, or better what, we are and what you're doing here. Well, in order to answer your questions, I have to ask y'all one first; who here remembers a Saturday morning cartoon called 'Digimon?'" Keith and Mando nodded while Crystal, John and Dana just shrugged their shoulders; as I expected. "Well…" I paused for a second taking a deep breath, "…it's real. Digimon IS real."

They all just stared at me a little confused, "What do you mean real," Mando asked.

I began to explain in small detail the story of the Digidestined. About how the original seven went to the digital world from summer camp, how they came back to find Kari, how they defeated the Dark Masters and Apocalymon, how the newer Digidestined came four years later, how Ken joined the team, how they defeated MaloMyotismon, how the original eight discovered their armor and powers in order to defeat NeoDevimon, who the Demon Lords were and how they were coming after our world. Then I explained how the TV show was made in order to find the Digidestined of our dimension.

"Wait," Keith interrupted, "how did the TV show know who to look for?"

"And what if we never watched it," Dana added, "Cuz I don't remember watching it."

"You only needed to see it in passerby for it to scan you," Gennai said coming out of his room with Cody. Everyone's attention turned to them.

"Any other process of how it exactly worked would take too long to explain and would probably just confuse you more; believe me, Izzy wasn't even really sure how it all worked," Cody added.

The five of them stood there just staring at Gennai until John spoke up, "A'ight, am I the only one who sees that those guys are cartoon characters?"

"This is Gennai and Cody," I continued, "as in 'from the show' Gennai and Cody."

"I thought he was an old guy," Keith proclaimed, "and Cody was a kid."

"That was temporary; it was explained in season 2 of the show, this is his true form." I replied, "And remember the whole they're '15 years ahead of us' thing."

"Oh yeah," Keith replied, "But that still doesn't explain why he's a cartoon."

I shook my head, "This is just how things look this dimension; everything here looks animated to us. Again, we have no real explanation for 'why' or 'how', so we leave it be."

"But you said there were more, what did you call them, Digidestined right," Dana asked, "So where are the rest of them."

I looked down, away from their stares. I could tell that Vince and Alex were doing the same while Gennai just stood there with a strong expression. I could also see that the others were looking around at the four of us waiting for an answer. Knowing it had to be said, I picked my head up and took a deep breath…

"Yolei, Ken and Davis are on their Earth. The original Digidestined are…" but I couldn't do it. I hadn't talked about it in years, and it was just as hard to talk about as back when it happened; hurt just as much too.

"There was an uprising of evil Digimon about a little over seven years ago," Alex started as she put her hand on my shoulder, "an all-out attack on the Digital World by Digimon loyal to the Demon Lords. There was a trap set for the Digidestined, but the three of us ended up in it instead. In order to save us the Digidestined sacrificed themselves…and were destroyed…along with their Digimon and the Digimon of the surviving Digidestined."

There was another moment of silence. I looked over at Alex and nodded at her in thanks; she returned the nod. Once I composed myself, I looked over at the others; I could tell they were all just trying to process everything we had just told them. It was obvious that they weren't complete sure as of yet, but they were starting to figure out why they were here.

"So…" Crystal finally broke the silence, "…you were the first apprentice."

"That's right," I replied, "I was T.K.'s, and then Matt brought in Vince and then Mimi brought in Alex."

Finally, Keith said what they were all thinking, "and I take it we're the apprentices of the other 5?"

"Yes," I replied, "You are Tai's apprentices; Mando, you're Izzy's. Dana, you're Sora's. John you're Joe's. And Crystal, you're Kari's."

"So why now," Crystal asked after a second of silence, "Why are you telling us now? In fact, why didn't you get us all those years ago." The three of us went silent again; me out of guilt, and the other 2 not knowing how to explain.

Cody stepped forward, "R.J. and the others stayed in your world to be safe; so whoever came after the original Digidestined wouldn't get them," Cody finished.

"You didn't answer my first question," Crystal said turning back to me, "why now?"

Everyone's attention was back on me. "The rift between our world and the Demon Lords is beginning to break," I started, "They're already able to send their minions, the Troopmon, to our world and we're still not sure how. However, it's only gonna get worse."

"What about all the people from your world who have Digimon," Keith asked Cody.

"All the other people in our world have Digimon that only evolve naturally," Cody explained, "There are probably only a handful of people who even have champion level Digimon."

"So are you saying it's up to us," Dana asked nervously.

They all looked back at me; I simply sighed and nodded, and they fell silent again. I could only imagine what was going through their minds.

"Look, I know this is pretty sudden and we're asking a lot of you. Why don't y'all go home and think about it?"

"R.J.," Vince whispered at me, "we don't have time."

"He's right R.J.," Alex added.

"Look," I whispered frustrated, "I'm not gonna force them into doing this. They have to make the choice just like we did."

"And if they say no," Vince asked, "what then?"

"We find another way," I replied.

"There is no other way," Vince said stepping to me.

"Easy you two," Alex said getting between us.

"I'm in," John said over us arguing.

I looked at him, "You sure John."

"Come on," he replied with a smile, "I joined the military to help people, and if this is the army I have to join to do it, sign me up again?" I smiled at his remark.

"What do you think Keith," Mando asked.

"Not gonna lie," Keith said stepping forward, "I've always kinda wanted a Digimon."

Mando smiled, "Well, I've always wanted superpowers," Mando looked back to me, "so I guess we're in."

I walked up to each guy giving them a half hug thank you. Vince and Alex came up welcoming them to the team.

"I wanna help," Dana said walking towards us, "I'm just not sure what good I'll do."

"More than you know," I said hugging her. We all looked over at Crystal, "Well…"

She looked everyone over once more and then turned. I was really worried that we did not give her the answers she was looking for. But, she turned back around and simply asked, "So where do we start?"

I sighed in relief, "Thank you," Then I turned to Gennai, "Well Gennai, you've got your Digidestined; what now?"

Gennai smiled, "Now, we begin."