Chapter 5: Awakening
RJ's POV
Gennai snapped his fingers and almost in an instant he transported himself, Cody, and us to what seemed to be ancient ruins.
"What the hell just happened," Crystal asked confused.
"We were teleported again," Alex explained, "Gennai has instant access to certain locations in the Digital World."
"So where are we now," Keith asked.
I realized it couldn't be anywhere else and answered, "These are the same ruins that the original Digidestined got their powers."
"Yes indeed," Gennai said grabbing a torch, "and now it is your turn."
Gennai began to walk down the corridor and we all followed suit. I couldn't help but stare in marvel at the ruins surrounding me; I remembered hearing about them in the stories T.K. would tell me, but, after leaving, never did I think I would get to see them with my own eyes. Suddenly I could hear the newer people asking Alex and Vince about everything.
"So where exactly are we going," Dana asked.
"To the temple where the original Digidestined received their armor and powers," Alex answered.
"What kind of powers," Mando asked.
"Well each Digidestined received armor and elemental abilities that pertained to the Field their Digimon represented," Alex answered again.
"And Fields are," Mando asked still confused.
"Oh yeah," Alex started, "well, fields are basically how the Digimon are divided by species. Like bird type Digimon belong to the Wind Guardians and have wind element, obviously, and dragon type belong to the Dragon's Roar and use fire."
"So which ones do we get," Mando persisted.
"Depends on your Digimon man," Vince answered.
"So how come you don't have your Digimon yet," Keith asked.
"Well," Vince started, "Tai and the others thought it would be better that we all get our Digimon at the same time so that it would be fair that all of us would have them for the same amount of time to bond with them."
"So," John interjected, "now that we're all together; where are our Digimon?"
"Right through here," Gennai answered catching everyone's attention pointing down the corridor towards the gigantic door I had heard so much about, "the original Digidestined thought it best to keep your Digi-eggs in the temple together so as to keep them safe for when you were ready."
"Cool," Mando and Keith said in unison as they ran to the door.
Everyone else followed suit; I stayed a few steps behind as my mind began to wonder. Were they really ready to do this? Were we ready to be a team? Was I ready to lead it? What if what happened to T.K. and the others happened to us? Then a single thought kept repeating in my head until I said it aloud in a whisper, "I'm not ready, T.K."
"Hey," Keith said catching my attention, "this door won't open."
"Well obviously it must be locked or it wouldn't be sacred," Crystal commented.
"So how do we get in," Dana asked examining the door, "All I see are these handprints with these weird symbols in them."
"Only the Digidestined can open this door," Gennai exclaimed.
"That's right," Vince spoke up as he walked over to the door, "Izzy told us that in order to open the door, each Digidestined has to put their hand on their crest."
"Crest," Dana asked.
"The weird symbols," Alex answered giggling.
"So I'm guessing we don't know whose is who's on those either," Crystal asked.
"Nah, that's the easy part" Vince said standing by the door, "our crests are the same as whoever our predecessor was. See this second one right here is the crest of Friendship, which was Matt's, so I go here," Vince put his hand on the door and turned, "Keith, right?"
"Yeah," Keith answered.
"Tai was your predecessor, so you go right next to me on Courage," Vince replied.
Keith walked over to Vince and put his hand on the print next to him, "Now what?"
"Next is Love," Alex said walking up to the door, "So that's Dana. After that it should be Knowledge, Sincerity, and Reliability; so that's Armando, Me, and John."
"Okay," Dana said walking up.
"Sounds good," John said as he followed.
"You can just call me Mando," Mando said as he walked up.
I stood there knowing that I would be next trying to stall; the last two crest, which belonged to the two I felt I had let down the most. Suddenly, Crystal walked up to me, "So I guess we're those other two."
"Yeah," I said reluctantly, "Hope is mine; and then you're the last one, Light."
"So you can stand here all day or we gonna open this door," she said with a snarky tone as she walked towards the door.
I could see Vince laughing silently at me; soon everyone was looking at me waiting while Alex stared at me with that "please" face and Crystal with a "well?" face. I slowly made my way to the door hoping something would stop everything; I put my hand out reluctantly hoping that nothing would happen when I touched it. However, as soon as I made contact with the door each print began to glow and different colored lights crawled from the prints around the door until suddenly it began to tremble. We all took our hands off and stepped back it opened before us. When it was completely opened Gennai and Cody walked in and we all instinctively followed. While everyone else stood there in awe, I stood there cursing the fact that the door even opened. As we drew closer to the end of the corridor there was a shrine dedicated to the DigiMemories; in front of each of the DigiMemory shrines was a pedestal, and on each pedestal was a Digi-Egg.
Gennai stood in the middle of the shrines, "In each of these Digi-Eggs, is a Digimon waiting to meet their partner," he said as Cody passed out the remaining D-Phones, "these D-Phones will not only allow you to access your own power, but to use that power to make your Digimon digivolve. As your bound with your Digimon grows, so will your combined power as partners and as a team all together. Are you ready to become the Digidestined?"
Before anyone could answer, Cody's D-Terminal went off; he pulled it out quickly, "It's Yolei; she said your school is under attack again and there are a lot more of them this time."
"We gotta get back there," I gripped my D-Phone, "Vince, Alex, we need to go, now."
"What about us," John asked looking ready for a fight.
"We don't have time to wait for y'all," I answered, "stay with Gennai where it's safe."
I looked at Gennai and he nodded in agreement. He snapped his fingers, and the three of us were off.
Campus, a few minutes later
As soon as we got back to Gennai's we grabbed our mentors' weapons and went back to the campus. Luckily by the time we got there most of students, save those who lived on campus, had been evacuated; plus, once we showed up all the attention was back on us. Even though we had beaten them early, it wasn't as easy as we made it out to be; also, this time there were 2 clouds to each one of us. We made our way to the school "circle" (basically its version of a "quad") and got ourselves surround. We were pinned down by their gunfire.
"We really couldn't wait for them to at least get their armor," Vince as he blocked shots
"I'm not just gonna throw them into a fight like this," I said as I did the same, "we can handle this."
"THIS is 'handling it'," he said still irritated.
"Seriously you two…" Alex said as she tried to whip the Troopmon from a distance, "…this is not the time!"
Vince and I realized she was right and tried to refocus on the fight, but we were overwhelmed.
Alex dodged some heavy fire and got between Vince and I for protection, "There're too many of them," she grunted.
Just then a light shined above our heads revealing a Digi-port. Mando, Dana, Keith, John, and Crystal came falling out of the portal with the weapons of their predecessors. They encircled us so we could recover.
"Looks like you guys could use a hand," said Keith.
"How'd guys get those weapons," Alex asked.
"Gennai gave them to us once we decided to come help y'all," John.
"Took y'all long enough," Vince said with a grin.
"Uh not to interrupt," Crystal started, "but we are STILL surrounded here."
Realizing Crystal was right; we all refocused and Vince, Alex and I stepped out to join the circle.
"Now we have all of them," the lead Troopmon cried out from one of the clouds, "Move in!" They all began to creep towards us.
"So you guys are sure about this then," I asked the group.
"Wouldn't be here if we weren't," Keith said smiling.
"You saved me," Dana started, "now it's my turn to save you."
"You guys know how to use those weapons," Alex asked to clarify.
"Doesn't really matter at this point does it," Crystal commented
"I like her style," Vince said with a smile.
"We got you,"Mando added, "but now I'm starting to think we should've thought this through."
The Troopmon were starting to inch closer and closer towards us, "Yes, you should have children," the lead Troopmon said maniacally.
"We're not kids," I said as I looked at my team with a small smirk, "We're the Digidestined!"
"Right," the others said in unison.
Before the Troopmon could do anything, they were forced back off of their feet by a blinding light coming from our D-Phones simultaneously. As soon as the lights faded I looked around at my team that and I who were now all now in same clothers as Alex, Vince and I had earlier. However, they were now all different color schemes: Mando's was like an olive green, violet and crimson. John's was a royal blue, a light gray and white. Keith's was a red, orange and blue. Dana's was sky blue, red, and purple. Alex's was a forest green, light green, and yellow. Vince's was a very dark gray, blue, and green. Crystal's was indigo, pink and like a pale pink. Mine was now a pale silver, yellow, and a reddish orange. Before we could do anything else the Troopmon began to rise; we took our fighting stances.
The lead Troopmon snarled, "Retreat1" In an instance, the Troopmon dematerialized into thin air and the clouds dispersed.
"Soooooooo, we won," John asked confused.
"They'll be back," I replied, "but for now, we have."
"Good," Dana said in relief.
"Well for now can we just enjoy our new digs," Vince said excited, "I'm loving the colors!"
"You would think we'd look the same though," John added, "All our colors are different."
"Hey," Armando started, "My axes are different too."
"So's my sword," Keith added.
We all started to notice that not only had our clothes change but our weapons did as well. Before we could say anything else, my D-Phone began to ring. I pulled it out and pressed the center button assuming that's how I answered it.
"Hello?"
"RJ, its Cody. Do me a favor hit the center button on your D-Phone again and hold it out in front of you." I did as instructed and suddenly my screen displayed a hologram of Cody for everyone to see and hear. "There that's better," Cody looked around at everyone, "thank goodness you are all okay."
"Yeah, we're fine Cody," I replied, "then there was this light; it scared off the Troopmon and now our clothes and weapons look different."
"Gennai will explain everything when you get back; get back here quickly,"
"Alright then, I replied and hung up, "Let's get goin' you guys."
"How do we do this again," Mando asked.
"Like this," Vince showed everyone how to use the transportation function on the D-Phone and we were off.
A few minutes later…Back at Gennai's
"Congratulations, Digidestined," Gennai said gladly as we stood in front of him in our new attire.
"Gennai," I began to ask, "These new clothes…why did they change to the colors of the DigiMemories?"
He smirked, "By standing together as a team, you actually completed the ceremony and the power of the Digi-Memories came to you. If you look at your D-Phones you'll notice they have changed as well."
I looked at my D-Phone noticing he was right; it was no longer the standard color scheme of the original Digivice. It seemed to follow the same color pattern of my clothes. The base of my D-Phone was a pale silver, the ring around the screen was yellow, and the button, scanner lip, and engravings on the ring were like a reddish orange. The others followed theirs in a similar fashion. I remembered T.K. telling me something similar happened to him and the others when they received their powers.
"And that's not all that has awoken," Gennai continued to smirk as he looked over his shoulder, "Bring them in!"
A door slid open and in came Cody, Yolei, Ken and Davis each carrying 8 tiny creatures in their hands. Suddenly, those creatures all jumped out of their arms and each one jumped into one of ours like a child happy to see its parent.
"Are these what I think they are," John asked sort of confused.
"Yup," Alex laughed, "these are Digimon."
"Our Digimon," Vince added excited.
"They're so cute," Dana said as she cuddled hers to her face.
"Well, they're still babies," I commented back.
"Well, hey little buddy," Keith said to his Digimon, "someday I'm gonna make you Digivolve!"
"What's 'Digivolve'," asked Crystal.
"Well, it's like a Digimon growing up…evolving into something stronger," Vince explained.
"Like how," Crystal continued. Before we had the chance to answer a glow came from all our D-Phones. Then the Digimon themselves started to glow, as the glow faded there were now 8 completely different creatures; bigger but still small.
"Like that," Vince laughed.
"Thanks for keeping your promise Keith," the all too familiar little blue dinosaur in Keith's hand said to him, "I'm DemiVeemon now."
"I knew I recognized you," Keith said with excitement, "Nice to meet you lil' man!"
I could see Davis start to tear up. Ken put his hand on his shoulder.
"You're a Motimon aren't you," Mando asked the pink blob looking Digimon in his hands.
"That is correct," Motimon replied, "Nice to meet you Mando."
"You know my name," Mano asked surprised.
"Sure he does," answered the familiar horse/dolphin creature in John's hands, "he's been waiting for you. Just like I've been waiting for John."
"Waiting for us," John asked rhetorically, "sorry to keep you waiting."
"I'm sorry if us Digivolving scared you Dana," said the Digimon in Dana's arms. This one I had never seen before it looked like a head overed in orange feathers with two big red feathers for eyebrows and little talon feet. "My name in Pinamon now," it continued.
"Nice to meet you," Dana replied.
"Thank you for finally coming for us Alex, "The chubby yellow fox in Alex's arms started, "I am Viximon."
"Yeah, we thought you guys had forgotten about us," the three horned green blob in Vince's arms continued, "and the name's Gummymon."
Alex and Vince looked at each other and smiled.
"Great to finally meet you," Alex answered for both of them.
"So what do I call you," Crystal asked the Digimon in her arms. I hadn't seen this Digimon before either. In all honesty, it looked like someone took a picture a waterdrop dripping, colored it lavender and put a face on it.
"Moonmon," it replied, "and you are Crystal."
I just started at Digimon for the moment. Firstly, because I had never seen anything like it; a red blob shaped like the sun and it had a flame coming out of the top of it. Mainly though, I felt my demons creeping back in about all the time I has wasted to get here and whether or not I still even belonged…
"Is something wrong R.J.," My little Digimon asked me.
I shook my head, "I'm just…I mean…I've just waited for the moment for a really long time."
It smiled, "Same here! You can call me Sunmon and now we can be best friends!"
I chuckled, "I'd like that a lot Sunmon."
"The Digidestined have their Digimon," Gennai said grabbing our attention, "now your real training can begin."