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Chapter Four
Easter Egg Hunt
"I'm not too sure about this" Agumon said, nervously glancing around the small tavern, he and Gatomon had just entered.
"You said you were hungry, didn't you?" Gatomon argued, walking to the bar, where they had a better overview of the venue, "Although, I guess that's a given for you."
"Yes, but shouldn't we go get Tentomon first?"
"You get your food, so you stop bugging me and then... we go get the bug. Huh, I didn't even plan on that one..." she added, "In any case, my contact is usually here around this time of day, so we have kind of a window, until the next mission."
"Yeah, have I mentioned that I'm not too sure about your mission, either?"
Suddenly Gatomon stopped. A smirk spread across her face.
"There he is" she piped.
"What? That guy?" Agumon said incredulously, "No way!"
Sitting in the corner of the room at a small table for two, was Nanimon, a former minion of Myotismon. He looked humanoid but with a torso like a sphere (which was also his head) and very muscular. However, he was two feet tall, at best. He wore sunglasses and red gloves and boots.
"No way, I'm gonna talk to him." Agumon said slowly backing off, "I heard, he want's me and Palmon dead, ever since he lost his job at Myotismon's castle, thanks to us!"
"He's a champion-level!" Gatomon said rolling her eyes, "If push comes to shove, I can handle him. Easily."
"No, uh uh" Agumon said shaking his head, "I'm not going!"
"Fine! I'll talk to him myself then!" she hissed dismissively, "Go get your food. I'll meet you at the bar, when I'm done."
"Sounds good" Agumon said, immediately jumping onto a bar chair before waving to get the bartenders attention.
Gatomon walked up to Nanimon's table.
"Well, look who it is!" she said smug.
Nanimon looked up.
"Ah!"
Immediately he jumped backwards onto a small cabinet standing at the wall.
"What do you want?!" he said raising his fists, ready to fight, "Stay away from me!"
"Relax, I just wanna talk!"
"Oh, yeah?" he said skeptically, "I heard you switched sides and killed Master Myotismon in the Human World! Why should I trust a filthy traitor like you?!"
"Excuse me?" Gatomon said, "Filthy traitor? Help me out here, who of Myotismon's former employees was featured in that article in the 'Digital Times' titled 'Exposing Myotismon's dark deeds'?"
"Look, they offered me a lot of money!"
"What? Like a hundred bucks?"
"No!" Nanimon said offended, "I'm not that cheap!"
"Seriously though, how much?"
"Three hundred bucks"
"Yup..." she nodded, "Not quite as cheap!"
"What do you want?" he repeated.
"I need some information, and I figured you could provide."
"What's in it for me?"
"Nanimon, we can do this the easy way... or the hard way" she added grim, "There's practically no work for you involved, since I know you're in the loop about this. So let's just sit down and talk this out. Calmly."
Nanimon hesitated.
"What's it gonna be? Do you wanna talk right away? Or do I need to make it hurt?" she added cold, pulling up a chair and pointing at the one at the other end of the table, signaling him to sit down as well.
Cautiously, he jumped off the cabinet and sat back down, not once taking his eyes off her, while she did the same.
"Here's the deal." Gatomon said, "You know your way around the organized crime networks of this place, right? If I recall correctly, you had a bunch of contacts, back in the day. That's where you got your recruits."
Nanimon nodded.
"Still have 'em. And not just Temp City."
"Right. Now" she said leaning forward, "Didn't the Numemon in this place have sort of an underground network going on, too?"
"Sort of?" Nanimon scoffed, "You mean literally!"
"Oh, yeah that's right!" Gatomon chuckled, "They sure love their sewers..."
Nanimon laughed, too, although it was more of a nervous laugh.
"Well" he said, "They call it a mafia, but – eh. Never met anyone who actually took them seriously. There's bad news, though. They're not operating in this city anymore."
"Damn it!" Gatomon cussed, "Still, by any chance have you seen a group of Numemon, one of them wearing a whistle on a pink cord?"
"No" Nanimon said, "And I would remember, because – they don't have females, do they?"
"I'm not sure actually..." Gatomon said contemplating, "The group, I mean, was all guys, anyway."
"Okay... weren't those guys super homophobic, too?" Nanimon asked, "Because that's why I can't imagine a Numemon wearing anything pink on them. Unless they have girls after all."
"Yeah..." Gatomon said disheartened.
"Well, how about some context?" Nanimon asked, "What is it about that whistle, anyways?"
"You see, I teamed up with those human kids, and the girl I got partnered up with, gave me that whistle. And back before she gave it to me she saved a whole bunch of them from slavery. That was also the time she was glowing from time to time, for some reason. I guess they thought she was some sort of goddess or something - anyway they started worshiping her and -"
"Ah, Queen Kari. I heard about that, those guys wont shut up about her, sometimes... And they stole the whistle from you? Ha! Didn't we just talk about how they're always the butt of the joke? You mean to tell me, you, the former right hand Digimon of Myotismon, was taken down by some idiotic slugs?"
"You want me to squeeze the information out of your last fucking breath, then?" Gatomon asked fiercely, "I lost it, playing poker against them."
"And you let 'em keep it? That little girl really turned you soft, didn't she?"
"The bar, we were in, was crawling with them!" Gatomon explained, "Have you ever tried fighting like fifty of those at once?"
"Yeah, okay I get that..."
"Now, come on!" she pushed, "Give me something to work with, here! If they are anything like the mob, they have a boss who would wanna keep a sacred item like that. A headquarters? There's gotta be something like that!"
"There's a headquarters" Nanimon confirmed, "I just don't know where... But I do know a base of operations. It's near Dev Lagoon."
"Guess, Izzy was right..." Gatomon mumbled, "This world does suck at naming places... Eh, it's better than nothing. Mind pointing me to the exact location?"
A few minutes later she returned to the bar. She looked around but couldn't see Agumon anywhere.
"Hey bartender." she said to the Digimon cleaning glasses behind the bar. He was completely yellow with a body shaped like an aubergine, his veins clearly visible on the lower half of his body and long vines for arms. He had a big mouth with sharp, pointy teeth and six red leafs with blue tips on his head.
"Vegiemon!"
"I heard you the first time" the Vegiemon answered grumpy.
"Well, thanks for reacting, then" Gatomon said snarky, "Where's the Agumon, I showed up with?"
"He went to the tables over there, by the windows."
Gatomon turned around, looking at the small tables by the window front, however she was unable to make out even a speck of orange.
"Nope" Gatomon said, "Not there. Where are your bathrooms? Maybe he's taking a leak..."
"Bathrooms?" Vegiemon asked skeptically.
"Oh, yeah that's right..." she said dry, "Shit, where is he?"
"He better be here" Vegiemon said, "He still owes me 30 DigiDollars for those dishes!"
"You see, this and the non-existing bathrooms, those are the reasons your customers don't like you."
"Because I demand money, for the food I serve?!"
"Actually, I was talking about your attitude, but - now that you mention it, yeah. That, too. People don't like paying money."
"Well, somebody will have to pay for that food!" he demanded, "And since you're his buddy, you're the next best Digimon, to do that!"
"Nah" Gatomon said turning to the door, "I'll find him and he'll pay you, next time we drop by."
"That's not gonna happen!" Vegiemon said threateningly and Gatomon heard a sharp metallic sound, like a blade being drawn.
She turned around, forcing herself not to laugh, at the tiny kitchen knife he was pointing at her.
"You're not leaving, until I have my money!"
Gatomon looked at entrance again and sighed.
"Fine, whatever..."
And with that, she back-flipped onto the counter, kicking Vegiemon's head down on its surface when her feet came down again. Landing next to him she pressed his face against the wood, with one paw, while pointing the claws of the other one at his neck.
"Ah! What the hell?!" he shrieked.
The bartender struggled, but Gatomon said:
"Now, don't lift your head up, so quickly. You might end up stabbing yourself." she added, taunting him, "Here is what's gonna happen: I won't give you your money, but I will give you something more valuable."
"I... What?" Vegiemon said, the fear in his voice now replaced with sheer confusion.
"Unless, of course, your petty life isn't worth a single dime. In that case, I might have talked to soon."
"Oh, shit!" he yelled, "Somebody help me!"
"Yeah, good luck with that!" Gatomon laughed.
To Gatomon's surprise, someone actually did intervene.
"Come on, don't hurt him!" a male, albeit high pitched voice said behind her, "I mean he's kind of a dick, but he doesn't deserve to die!"
Gatomon sighed, glancing behind her. An Icemon had actually stepped up for least popular bartender in town. He was similar in size and level to Gatomon and Vegiemon, with a humanoid body made, entirely out of pieces of ice. He had two small ice pieces on top his head resembling bear ears and large yellow eyes.
"Look, we have two options here" she said, "Either he takes my offer and lives, or you get to loot his storage unit, for a week or two, until he reincarnates. Either way, you win!"
A moment passed.
"Yeah, fair enough."
"Wait! No!" Vegiemon screamed, now actively pleading, "Don't go! Don't go-o-o-o-oo!"
"So" she said smirking, "What's it gonna be?"
"Okay! You and your friend don't have to pay me!" Vegiemon said, shaking, "I don't need the money! I'll be fine!"
"Huh" Gatomon said surprised, letting go of him, "I would have been okay with him paying later, but that's even better!"
She patted him on the trembling shoulder - or what passed as a shoulder.
"Pleasure, doing business with you!" she added grinning, then she turned to the rest of the venue, "See guys? He's not that bad! Cut him some slack! Okay then, I'm out!"
She jumped off the bar and walked over to the exit.
"Oh, shit!" she mumbled turning around on her heels, "I almost forgot: Has anyone seen an Agumon? Came in with me, ordered some food at the bar. When I came back to the bar, he was gone."
"You mean the passed out drunk?" the Icemon from earlier asked.
"Passed out drunk?" she repeated raising an eyebrow, "We just arrived! And he was sober."
"Yeah, I was wondering how he got drunk so fast. But it was your friend. There was no other Agumon here and your two other friends carried him out after he passed out. They said he had enough for today and they're gonna bring him home."
Gatomon groaned annoyed, throwing her head back, realizing exactly what Icemon was too dense to see.
"Funny, I didn't realize, I came here with three friends..." she said sarcastically.
"Really?" Icemon asked, still not getting it, "It was those Gazimon, who walked in, just behind you two. By the way, what's with those black rings people like to wear lately?"
"Ah, shhhhhit"
"Izzy, is that you?" Tai asked in disbelief, looking at the redheaded thirteen-year-old, standing in the door frame of the computer lab.
"No, it's his identical twin brother..." the boy replied rolling his eyes, "Found him after long last. Here you go." he added, handing him a small bag.
Tai looked inside; the bag contained the team's Digivices.
"Huh?" Tai said, having only expected, to get his and Kari's back, "All of them?"
"You think I'm gonna stick around?" Izzy asked, "I live five minutes from here, I'm gonna video-phone in, so I can mute you guys, whenever. On that note, I expected none of these PC's to work anymore. So, I had to make sure."
"Yeah, it was weird, the water was gone in like, two seconds." Tai replied, "You could literally watch your clothes dry – and not because you're bored. Digital Water, I guess?" he added shrugging.
"And as usual, you never felt the need to tell me, when it happened."
"Well, as soon as we hit the floor, you basically yelled at us to get the fuck out – and to hide your webcam again... I half expected you to shoo us out, using the freaking PA system."
"Now, that wouldn't have been very stealthy, though, wouldn't you agree?" Izzy said, turning to the door, "Anyway, see you in... about ten minutes. I suppose, even now, I'll still be there before the rookies show up. In the meantime, you can hook up the webcam - fuck!"
Just as he reached the door it slid open; The rookies had just arrived.
When she saw Izzy standing in front of her, Yolei immediately blushed and started babbling:
"Oh my gosh, Izzy-Senpai! I'm so happy to finally meet you in person!" she squealed grabbing his hand with both of hers.
"Oh, joy..." he said, "Sounds like you're not jinxed anymore... well, just – don't get too touchy." he added, roughly pulling his hand back.
"Yeah, well" she said, unfazed by Izzy's coldness, "My parent's laughed at me when I told them - with signs anyway - and then they said my name a bunch."
"Uh huh, I was about to leave, anyway. TK and Kari aren't here yet, so -"
"Hey, guys!" Kari chimed in, as she and TK had just joined them, "Izzy, you're here, too?"
"Unfortunately..." Izzy sighed, slumping into the chair at the desk.
He looked at the group, still standing in the door, somewhat uncertainly.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked not even trying to fake enthusiasm, "Gather 'round children..."
The crew entered the room, when suddenly a voice emerged from inside Davis' backpack:
"Are we fucking there, already? Let me the fuck out, asshole!"
Hastily, Davis opened up his backpack; instantly DemiVeemon jumped out of it, hacking and gagging, as if he had just escaped a gas chamber.
"I don't know what's worse" he grunted, breathing heavily, "The fact that it smells in there, like a fucking animal carcass rotting... or the fact that there is none in there..."
"We offered to carry you." Yolei said, "Like TK does with Patamon."
TK was holding Patamon in front of his chest, while the Digimon pretended to be a stuffed animal.
"I'd rather suffocate in there, than even being touched by either of you fucks!"
"Well, that was definitive..." Izzy muttered.
"Are all of them so... annoying?" Cody asked, looking at DemiVeemon, who was still gagging occasionally.
"Oh, look who's talking!" Davis said.
"My god, you're such a fucking moron!" DemiVeemon said glaring at Davis.
"I'm still shocked, you went home with him, without threatening to kill any of us for it..." TK said.
"Well, I had already figured out, the occasional death threat would be enough to shut him up."
"I slept on the floor, tonight..." Davis said, looking at his shoes.
"Since we're all here now, let's get started, alright?" Izzy suggested, "We got a lot to do."
"Alright!" Yolei called out, clearly thrilled to bits, to be able to talk again, "What's on the agenda today Izzy-Senpai?"
"Searching for the remaining eggs" Izzy said.
"Oh, right!" TK said, "I didn't even think of that. Of course there would be eggs for the other crests, too."
"You didn't think of that? Wannabe and Blank don't even have - you know what, forget it, let's just move on. Now, there's some good news -"
He was cut off as the door to the lab opened again.
"Ugh! What is it n- oh, god!"
Horrified, Izzy stopped in the middle of his sentence, when he saw who had just entered the room: A thirteen-year-old girl, with a slim figure and rather tall for her age. She had brown eyes and long styled hair. It was Mimi Tachikawa.
"Guys! Oh my gosh!" she cheered and immediately made her way around the room, hugging each of her friends.
"Mimi!" Kari said happy, although a bit taken aback by the sudden move.
"Hey, what's up?" TK said breathless, as Mimi's surprisingly strong hug had knocked the air out of his lungs.
"Okay, okay! We - don't need to cuddle!" Tai said when it was his turn, subtly trying to shove her off (he was still sitting down, so the embrace was extra awkward).
"That's not..." Izzy began, but she already enveloped him in her arms, "necessary..." he finished with with an annoyed sigh, "Whatever happened to America?"
"I read your e-mail, about the meet up and I was super bumped out, because I knew, my parents would never allow me to fly on my own, but then my Dad was like, 'Hey, I got this business trip to Tokyo tomorrow' and I was like 'Perfect timing Dad!'."
"So what, you said on his lap all flight? How did you get a ticket?" Izzy said brushing off his shoulders.
Mimi took a deep breath, in preparation for her answer but Izzy quickly decided:
"Actually, you know what? Forget it! I'm sure it's a thrilling story - for another day... in like ten years from now..."
"Okay!" Mimi shrugged, still smiling widely, "Being here with you guys is all that matters!"
"Well, don't get too excited."
"Why not? You're all here! That's amazing!" she said bouncing up and down, "I can't belie- wait, who are they?"
She looked over to the rookies, who had moved a bit out of the way, when Mimi busted in.
"That's right" Izzy said, "Mimi, these are our new rookies. Rookies, that's Mimi."
Mimi stared at them.
"So, the gang's not all here!" she realized disappointed.
"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock" Tai said, "When was the last time, we were all together?"
"Yeah... it's been a while, huh?" she said quietly, then she looked at Davis, "Why does he have your goggles, Tai?"
"Ugh! Don't ask!" Tai moaned.
"Oh, that reminds me: Meet our new leader." Izzy said pointing at DemiVeemon.
"Huh?"
Mimi looked at DemiVeemon who had sat down on a desk by the window.
"Aw! Who is the little cutie over here?"
"You wanna find out what happens, if you come any closer?" DemiVeemon asked threateningly, "Ain't gonna be pretty, I can tell you that much!"
"Oh..." she said taking a step back, "He seems... nice..."
"Huh, guess I wasn't clear enough then"
"At this point, I would like to remind you, not to kill any of our teammates." Izzy said, "And before you say anything: No, that fact that you know her name, doesn't change anything, about that!"
"So, Tai has retired then, huh?" Mimi asked, not at all surprised.
"What? No stupid questions, why I am the leader, now?"
"No, not really..." Mimi said shrugging, "Oh! Speaking of questions" she added before pointing at herself, "What do you think of my new look?"
Her long, usually brown hair was now died pink and she wore small gold colored plastic stars in it.
"You mean, that's not ironic?" DemiVeemon asked – then he fell backwards onto the tabletop, laughing out loud.
Mimi now glared at him, filled with hatred.
"Sh-hit, that's amazing!" he cackled, before the laugh got stuck in his throat, "Holy shit, is it getting fucking cold in here?"
"It is..." TK said uncomfortable, "If you value your life, you better drop it."
"You're telling me she's doing this?!"
"Yeah, turns out, once you hurt her ego, the power of her crest kicks in" TK explained, "Things get... weird, when that happens..."
"How so?"
Tai spoke up:
"Last time, I told her, she looked horrible in the morning, I got a headache and I coughed up some blood, later on. I'm convinced, she wanted to kill me for like a month."
"Sounds about right" Mimi said grave.
"Okay..." DemiVeemon said uneasy, "I'm gonna stop then..."
"What? That's it?" Tai asked smug.
"Dude, I don't wanna have my internal organs liquefied!" DemiVeemon replied serious, "I'm still on the in-training-level, right now. Again: I'm not suicidal!"
"So, what's going on anyways?" Mimi asked, "Why's only Patamon here?"
Tai gave her a brief heads-up about the current situation in the Digital World and their most recent mission.
"Oh" Mimi said, once he was finished, "Why does he call them Jews?"
"The more appropriate question would have been, 'Why is Tai so god damn fixated on this detail?'." Izzy argued, "But while we're on the topic of our most recent developments: Tai, hand out the Digivices."
Tai gave the others their Digivices back.
"Ooooh" Mimi said curios looking at the D3's, "New Digivices? They look pretty!"
"They're not" TK and Tai said.
"TK, Kari, my little experiment was, as far as I can tell, a success. I replicated the tracking feature of the D3 -"
"What's a D3?"
"The new Digivice, Mimi." Izzy said in passing, "Anyway, as I was saying, I replicated the feature and added it to your Digivices."
"Nice, you actually did it." TK smirked, "Then again, you usually do, so yeah."
"I was about to say..." Izzy said.
"What about mine?" Tai asked, "Did you add it to mine, too?"
"No, here's the thing: I was going to, but couldn't because I had to locate Agumon on the map. Looks like he got separated from Gatomon, for some reason."
"Oh, shit." Tai said worried, "Did you find him? Is he alright?"
"Yes, for part one, as for part two, I can't tell." Izzy said, "It's not impossible that he died and the Digivice is only giving me the current location of his egg. But his blip is moving around occasionally so it's more likely that he was taken... or his - egg was... for whatever reason..."
"Shit." Tai mumbled, "You sure about that?"
"Well, either that or he wondered off and got lost. Not impossible... wouldn't be too out of character for him..."
"Yeah..." Tai agreed, knowing his partners horrible sense of direction.
"However, considering how far north he ended up, it's more likely he went straight there. Which would beg the question, why he would do that, if he wasn't taken... Maybe Gatomon has more info on that. Anyway, we need to find Blank and Wannabe's partners first, because Agumon might have been captured by our enemy, so we need to be prepared to fight that guy."
"Patamon says they call him the Digimon Emperor, by the way." TK informed them.
"No, he calls himself that." Patamon corrected.
"Well, somebody is full of himself..." Izzy said.
"Yeah, that's a stupid name" Tai said.
"Yep... but the good news is, Gatomon has met up with Tentomon in the city. And they already made their way to the cave from the last mission. Speaking of which: Tai, when you were in the Digital World on your own, where was the TV you used to leave again?"
"Uh, in the jungle, I think." Tai said, "Yeah, I remember my Digivice started beeping again when I got near it, that's why I figured, I'd try pointing it at the TV. It wasn't far from where we arrived, when we went in together."
"Okay, that's what I thought. I can't quite confirm it yet, but when you enter the Digital World, you will most likely end up near one of the TV's, you already used to leave. I compared the data on all Digivices and figured, that's most likely how this works. So all that's left is to open the gate and hopefully you will end up near the cave. Did everybody understand this?" he added annoyed.
"Uh... no, not really" Davis said.
"Alright then, moving on!" Izzy said ignoring Davis, "Tai you're not going, if everything goes according to plan, we will reach the eggs first and - also Agumon would be way out of reach anyways. So you would end up being dead weight - literally this time."
"Thanks for that, man..." Tai said rolling his eyes
"W-wait!" Mimi said irritated, "What about Palmon? Where is she?"
"We don't know, Mimi" Izzy sighed, "Apparently our partners are just as bad at sticking together, as we are... So, it looks like we have no use for you right now, either."
"But we were with her in the jungle." Patamon cut in, "We got separated from her somewhere around the cave."
"Thank you, Patamon!" Izzy growled, "Unfortunately, we don't have time to search for her, right now. We know Agumon, might be in danger, there's no reason to assume the same is true for Palmon, though. Searching the jungle would just take too long."
"But couldn't we just plug in Mimi's Digivice?" TK asked, "That way, we could see where exactly... she... is... on the map..."
He slowed down, when he saw the look on Izzy's face; he looked like, he was seriously considering kicking TK and Patamon off the team.
"Awesome!" Mimi said, completely oblivious to Izzy's insistence, not to have her on the mission, before passing Izzy her Digivice, "Here! Ooooh... please be nearby. Please be nearby!"
"Don't be nearby. Don't be nearby..." Izzy muttered, under his breath, causing Mimi to ask:
"What?"
"What?" Izzy replied immediately, acting like he didn't know, what she meant.
He plugged in the Digivice, before opening the map of the Digital World. The map showed the area of the jungle with the cave. Izzy opened a separate program, presumably to show Palmon's blip. Instantly a blinking dot appeared - not even half a mile away south of the cave.
"God damn it..." Izzy said.
"This place has seen better days..." Tentomon said dry, looking around inside the cave of the armor-egg of courage. He was as big as Agumon, but he looked like an over sized ladybug, with his maroon colored body and green bug eyes.
He continued:
"Didn't you say, Kuwagamon never made it inside?"
"Yeah, about that" Gatomon said, "Did you know, he can fire purple uh... lightning? No... lasers? What do you call those?"
"I don't know..." Tentomon said, "…Also, no, I didn't know that."
"Plasma?"
"Uh... maybe? Well, anyway. Agumon isn't here, either."
"Eh, it was just a fleeting hope..." Gatomon said, "Honestly, I would have been shocked, if he was actually here, since he was kidnapped and all... Whatever, we're supposed, to meet the others here, so it's not like we came here for nothing. They should be here pretty soon, too. Oh! Before I forget: Don't tell any of them about that little side mission, I'm on."
"Because then, they'd definitely know, that Agumon was captured, because you messed up?"
"I didn't fuck up, okay?" Gatomon said angry, "I thought the situation was fine, but didn't realize, we were being followed. I let my guard down, and that's how they got to him."
"You know what they call that?"
"Fucking up?"
"Essentially."
They heard voices outside, getting closer to the cave.
"Sounds like they're here!" Tentomon said, as he went to fly toward the entrance, but Gatomon grabbed him by the ankle.
"Wait" she hissed quietly, "We don't know if that's actually them."
"Oh... right, now what?" he whispered.
She gestured, for him to take cover at one side of the entrance, while she snuck to the other.
They leaned against the walls. She listened intently. Only one person of the group was talking, she couldn't understand what was said, but she was fairly certain, that she knew that female voice. She wasn't sure though.
"And?" Tentomon asked, who had much inferior hearing.
She raised one paw, signaling him to wait.
They heard their foot steps now very clearly; they were entering the cave. Luckily for them, a way more distinct voice followed, after the female babbled about something again.
"Oh, my god! Can you shut the fuck up?"
Gatomon relaxed her muscles, but as soon as the she saw who entered the room first, she shrugged and gave him a light punch with her paw – which was still enough, to knock him to the floor.
"OW! What the fuck?!"
"Ha! You got him!" Tentomon said excited.
"Gatomon! What are you doing?" Kari asked startled.
"What?" she answered relaxed, "I didn't attack him for real! Otherwise he'd be embedded into the wall... and probably dead. That's our new leader by the way." she added pointing at Veemon who just got up.
"Ah, ragging on the new guy" Tentomon said airily, "I get it"
"How'd you digivolve, anyway?" Gatomon asked Veemon.
"Back in the human world" Veemon said grumpy, rubbing the back of his head, "Everyone was like, 'Alright, let's go!' but Izzy reminded us, that I need to be a rookie-level so I can digivolve further. I swear, he's the only one who uses his fucking head for once!"
"Oh, that's right" Gatomon said, placing a paw on Tentomon's shoulder, "You got him, Izzy?"
"I got him" Izzy replied, "Hey, Tentomon, it's been a while."
"Izzy!" Tentomon said excited, "Your network is finally working, huh?"
"I wouldn't use the term 'finally'. Technically, it has been working for years now. I just never got to use it, until now."
"Oh, I'm so happy to see you!" Mimi exclaimed, hugging both Gatomon and Tentomon.
"Hey, Mimi..." Gatomon said, faking enthusiasm, "Why are you here, again?"
"I'll fill you in!" Izzy said quickly, "No need for her, to go on another rant... Now get going, we got a lot to do and we need to pick up Palmon, first. Out the cave and around it to the other side. I'll give you directions from there. While you're heading there: Gatomon? What happened to Agumon?"
"Oh... uh... I kind of lost him? Wow, I'm having a bad habit of losing stuff lately..."
"Tell me about it..." Kari huffed.
"Uh, well, we figured that much." Izzy said, "Any idea, what happened to him?"
"I asked around, looks like a couple of Gazimon with black rings kidnapped him."
"God dammit!" a voice in the background of Izzy's end said.
"Is that Tai?" Gatomon asked.
"Yes, he's staying behind with me, because guess what: he doesn't have a partner."
"Right..." Gatomon said, when they left the cave, "uh... that's unfortunate."
"While we're on that topic, how did two Gazimon screw you over like that?"
"I don't know!" Gatomon said upset, "It was in the city, he was behind me, it was crowded... I guess they snuck up on us."
"But Temp City isn't that crowded." Patamon argued.
"Uh, yes it is." she answered annoyed, "Have you been to Temp City lately?"
"Um... yeah?" Patamon said puzzled, "I met Agumon and Palmon there, before we headed to the jungle, where we found you. We told you about this, remember?"
"Well, it was crowded, when I was there!" she replied, crossing her arms.
"Thanks Gatomon, that would be all." Izzy said, "I think, I get the picture..."
"Are we close yet, Izzy?" Mimi asked impatiently and clearly excited, to see her partner again, as they arrived in the section behind the cave. The jungle was more dense here and there were no paths. The vending machines were absent, too. Instead there were some light bulbs hanging off the branches, some of them illuminated for unknown reasons.
"Mimi, I know your attention span isn't exactly mindbogglingly big" Izzy said calmly, "but you do realize, I need your Digivice to pin-point her exact position, right? Which you have with you? And that Palmon probably isn't standing still? So, all I can tell you right now, is that she is theoretically in hearing distance. So yell her name a bunch that should -"
"PALMON!"
"Well, thank fuck for my compressor" Izzy muttered.
"MIMI?!"
"PALMON?!"
"MIMI!"
"PALMON!"
"You guys tell me when they are done, yelling each others names." Izzy requested, his voice sounding muffled, making it safe to assume, that he buried his face in his hands, "I just muted Mimi, now I'm adding Palmon to the network... aaaand she's muted, too."
"You didn't mute Mimi, right away?" TK asked.
"I can't mute you guys constantly... as much as I'd like to..." Izzy explained, "Unfortunately we do need to communicate..."
"Well, I think you're safe, now" TK said, "Looks like, they're done."
"Oh, I missed you so much!" Mimi said squeezing Palmon in her arms.
Palmon was small, of a similar size as Gatomon, with a green plant like body and roots for toes. Her arms were flattened, giving them a leaf like appearance, and she had three purple claws on both of her hands. Her eyes were completely dark green and she had a pink flower on the top of her head.
"It's been so - wait a minute!" Mimi said, but the she stopped, holding Palmon at arms length, looking at her, "Where is my hat?"
Palmon didn't have Mimi's trademark pink cowboy hat with her. Mimi had given it to her as a goodbye gift, when the kids left the Digital World.
"I uh... lost it..."
"I can't believe it!" Mimi complained, "Why didn't you watch out for it? I gave that to you!"
Gatomon shot Kari a look.
"So, how do you feel about yourself now?" she asked dry.
"I..." Kari said, who was cringing the entire time, watching the two, "Oh, my god, I'm sorry, Gatomon! I'm so sorry! I was so mean to you, please forgive me!" she added, her eyes filling with tears.
"No, come on..." Gatomon said, now also with watery eyes, "I messed up, I deserve this... you don't have to apologize! I'm sorry, okay?"
"Me too!" Kari sobbed hugging Gatomon tightly.
They sat there for a while, crying and exchanging apologies, while Mimi still scolded Palmon for losing her hat.
"TK, would you mind moving away from Kari and Gatomon?" Izzy asked.
"Huh, why?"
"Because they're annoying, so I muted them, too, but I can still hear them, because you're standing so close to them! No, Tai, I don't care, that she's been upset lately! They're annoying! End of discussion!"
"Come on, Izzy-Senpai" Yolei said soothingly, "They're just -"
"Oh, and I don't even know, why I didn't mute you, yet!"
"Everybody, shut the fuck up!" Veemon yelled, "Can we save the crying and bitching for later and just get a fucking move on?"
"Uh, excuse me!" Mimi said annoyed, "I'm talking with my partner here, okay?"
"Oh, I am sorry, Princess!" Veemon huffed, "I forgot, we're supposed to drop everything, as soon as you start talking, so you can have a quiet fucking conversation! By all means, sit down and talk this out in peace! It's not like we're on the fucking clock or anything!"
"Veemon, you are truly a hero to this group" Izzy complimented him, "I am not even being sarcastic, right now. I would probably lose my mind, if it wasn't for you..."
"Yeah, yeah!" Tai said in the background, so loud that they could hear him, "He's a great leader and I am trash! We. Get it."
"Are you recording this by any chance?" Veemon asked, with the biggest smile on his face, "I would love, to have this, playing on loop!"
"Mimi, why can I hear Izzy and Tai in my head?" Palmon asked confused.
"I... uh..." Mimi started.
"You got this, Mimi" TK said, walking past her, "I won't explain shit and Izzy just muted you two. It's up to you"
"Why would you do this to yourself, TK?" Izzy asked in disbelief,
"And your comrades, too?"
"Uh, duh" TK said, "Because it's gonna be hilarious!"
Ten minutes later, when they arrived at the next location, Izzy had guided them to, a crossroad in a mountainous area, TK had already learned how wrong he was.
"Izzy, can you mute her for us, too?" he asked, massaging his temples.
"You wanted me, to explain everything to her!" Mimi said angry.
"Yes! And it was a train wreck!" TK admitted, "It felt like a good idea at first, but now I wanna stab my ears, so I can have some god damn silence, for once! Can we just move on?"
"Yeah, but - where to?" Yolei asked, "Which path should we take Izzy-Senpai?"
"It's a figure of speech, Wannabe!"
"No, actually she has a point for once." Izzy conceded, "Let's just move as far away from this shit as humanly possible. And in order to do that, let's split up the group, shall we?"
"That seems a bit drastic" Kari said.
"Believe it or not, beyond saving me from going insane, there is another usage for that, Kari."
"Okay..."
"The path splits in front of you, Kari!" Izzy exclaimed impatiently, "Use some common sense! We have do not have much time and we need to cover a lot of ground! Now: Blank, Wannabe, check your D3's. Let's find out who needs to go where. There's two energy sources up ahead, one pretty close to you actually, and also one to your right."
"Why is everything in walking distance, lately?" TK asked, "Remember when we looked for our crests, back in the day? Sometimes we walked for days in between finding two. Now everything's like - ten minutes away!"
"Believe me TK, I am uneasy about that, too." Izzy said, "Considering this is the Digital World, things are going way too smoothly, recently."
"Well, we're in Historic Server here." Veemon explained, "Not a huge area. And from what I heard, they scattered the eggs across this region. So, yeah. Not that shocking."
"So we're on Server, huh?" TK said, "Good to know..."
"I knew that" Izzy said, "You just never asked. So I assumed, you didn't care. As usual. Also, Veemon, did you hear anything else, about this whole program with the armor-eggs that might be of interest to us?"
"Uh, no. That's all I know." Veemon admitted, "You see, this godly voice told me they were gonna hide the eggs across this region and that I needed to be sealed under one of them."
"And you just went along with that?" TK asked baffled.
"Hell no! I told them to fuck off. I was prepared to fight my way outta there, but they were like 'We thought you might say that' and then they sealed me anyway. Assholes..."
"Interesting" Izzy said, "Back to your objective, for the energy sources up ahead, you would need to take the left path."
"I need to go to the left then." Yolei said.
"Me too." Cody added.
"Oh, don't get confused, by the way. From your point of view, both sources are right behind one another, so... you know what, I'll give you directions. No need to stare at your D3's the entire time."
"So, where does the 'splitting up' part come in?" TK asked.
"TK, Kari, if you please..."
TK and Kari hesitated.
"What do you...?"
"Remember the new feature, I added to your Digivices?"
"Oh!" they said, checking their Digivices.
"Uh, I need to go to the right" Kari said.
"You're not going alone!" Tai said, surprisingly loud and clear.
"Hands – off... my mic!" Izzy said struggling, presumably to get the microphone back from Tai.
"Chill out, Tai." TK said, "I need to go the same way. Hang on, didn't you say, there was only one energy source that way?"
"Oh, boy this is gonna be fun, to explain..." Izzy said, taking a deep breath "While transferring the tracking feature, I noticed, the codes are fairly similar, but each D3 has a specific number that's different from the others. Cody, Yolei and Davis had the numbers one, two and three, respectively, so I tried giving you different numbers, hoping you would be able to track different things than them. Bigger numbers didn't work, so I gave both of you the number zero. Not ideal, I know, but at least you can use the tracking feature, now. Even if it's just the same content for both of you."
"Oh, that makes sense!" Yolei said.
"Really? You understood that?" Izzy asked skeptically.
"I told you, I was into coding." Yolei smiled.
"Yeah, I'm lost again..." Davis said, shaking his head, "I don't get coding..."
"Anyone else having trouble understanding this?" Izzy asked.
"No" the rest of the group said in unison.
"Looks like coding isn't the problem here, Davis. Even Kari gets it, and she doesn't know jack shit about coding."
"True" Kari shrugged.
"Now: Mimi, you go left with the rookies. TK and Kari, you take the right path."
"Why, do I have to go with the rookies?" Mimi asked.
"So... you can... get to know them better?" TK suggested.
"Nice one, TK, but actually I had a good reason, as to why she should go with them: You two have Gatomon and Patamon, one champion-level and one rookie. They have Veemon, who can reach that weird Armor-level and Palmon, so it's basically evened out."
"What about me?" Tentomon asked.
"Oh yeah, that's right. You go with TK and Kari, too. The others will probably find at least either Blank or Wannabe's partner, so you'd be more useful, supporting the other two."
"Okay" Tentomon said flying over to TK and Kari.
"One more thing before you go: Obviously, I cannot talk to both teams at the same time. Meaning, I will communicate with one group at the time while the other is muted. However, before anyone starts bitching again: I can see your sound levels on my screen. So, if your team is in trouble or something important comes up while you are muted, just yell really load or something. That way I'll now, which side to pay attention to."
The group split up, both crews following their respective paths.
"How far is it, Izzy?" TK asked.
"One sec" Izzy said, "Gotta give 'em their directions first."
TK and Kari's group walked further down the narrow gray canyon, their route had led them into. One or two minutes later, Izzy was back:
"Peace at last..." he sighed.
"Be honest, you only split us up like that so you have an excuse to mute Davis, Yolei and Mimi the entire time." Kari said.
"Uh, of course I did. Which part of 'peace at last' didn't you understand?"
"Yeah, duh!" TK said.
"I also labeled both teams, for convenience. You are 'Team A' -"
"Sweet!" TK said, "No, wait! What about A-Team?"
"No" Izzy said immediately.
"So we're 'Team A' and they're 'Team B'." Kari recapped, nodding.
"No, them I labeled 'Team Disposable'."
"Oh..." Kari said, "But our leader is on that team... and Mimi!"
It took a few seconds before Izzy answered:
"There. Now they are 'Team Semi-Disposable'."
"Well... that's better... I guess..."
"Just one second - rookies you were supposed to turn left, at that weird looking rock! No - no, I don't care! Just turn left! There you go. Later. Back to you guys: Keep going until you reach a cliff side. There you turn left and follow the path down to the lava lakes."
"Lava lakes?" TK repeated skeptically.
"I know, right?" Izzy said, weirdly excited, "Finally some opposition from the Digital World! I'm not even sure if you can get to the source, without digivolving!"
"Hooray" TK mumbled.
"Izzy's right, though" Kari said, "That probably means the mission isn't jinxed, after all."
"You know, you probably jinxed it, right now, by saying that, right?" TK pointed out.
"I..." she hesitated, "No, you know what? Let's stay positive, okay? It's gonna be fine."
"Famous last words..." Izzy said, "Oh, gotta go. They're yelling on the other end."
But barely five seconds passed, before he was back:
"Wait, false alarm. Veemon was just yelling at Mimi to shut up, again..."
"So, anyway the others were all like mind-controlled and stuff, but it didn't work on me, because that stupid teddy bear made fun of my fabulous hat!" Mimi said.
"Is she done, yet?" Veemon grumbled. He was covering his ears, and repeatedly looking down the side of the narrow trail, guiding them along the face of the cliff, they were on, as if considering to jump off.
Mimi ignored his comment.
"Nobody insults my hat" she growled, "Which I still miss, very much, by the way!" she added, shooting Palmon a quick glare.
"I'm sorry, Mimi!" Palmon said with a shaky voice, "I'm so sorry! Please don't hate me!"
Mimi, who's look had softened during Palmon's apology, picked up her partner and embraced her, saying:
"Aww, I can't stay mad at you! You're my little Palmon! It's okay, I forgive you, I love you! I love so much! We're gonna stay best friends forever, you know that! We've been through so much, I could never hate you, I -"
"SHUT UUUUP!" Veemon yelled, "I've been plugging my ears this entire time and they are STILL bleeding!"
"You shut up!" Mimi fired back.
"I assume, I'm not needed here, then." Izzy said, before he muted himself on their end again, his action now being indicated by a soft beep.
"You could say that a little nicer, you know?" Mimi nagged.
"I'm not nice!" Veemon said, "Isn't that fucking obvious, by now?"
"Ugh! You're an asshole!"
"Oh, go fucking figure! Doesn't seem to be enough to make me cough up my lungs, though. Looks like I've found your weakness..."
"Well, I know I can be a little difficult, sometimes. So it's not like that's triggering me, too much..."
"Sometimes?" Veemon asked, "Did I just meet you on a bad day? Also, what you guys mean to tell me, Princess Pride over here has self-reflection skills? Oh, that's right you are the new kids, you wouldn't know... Still: She, of all people?"
"I hate you!"
Veemon stopped. He cleared his throat a couple of times. Then he paused, contemplating.
"Nope, still fine" he shrugged, "Looks like I know, how to handle you, now."
Mimi mumbled something about handling Veemon, under her breath.
"We're there, by the way" Veemon said.
"You sure?" Davis asked.
"Look, I know, you're an idiot, but are you really that dense?" Veemon replied frustrated, pointing at the tall gash in the mountain in front of them, which was exactly where Izzy told them it would be. There were dim, purplish flashes of light emitting from the inside.
"Maybe we should peek inside carefully and then..." Yolei started, but Veemon cut her off:
"Oh, for the love of god!"
He marched past them, straight into the cave.
The cave took on the shape of the gash, stretching like a long hallway, in a triangular shape into the depths of the mountain. At the end of it, sat a yellow egg formed by a few rounded plates and with a small silver claw at its top, pointing forward. Next to some purple accents there was Izzy's crest carved into it, also colored purple and a larger version of it was engraved into the back wall of the cavern. Like in the first cave, the remaining crest were also on the walls, purple, electric arcs flashed over their surfaces subtly illuminating the room. Occasionally, small lightnings would shoot from the egg, hitting one of the crests each time.
"I don't know, man. Looks like this is it" Veemon said rolling his eyes, "YO, IZZY!" he yelled to get the redhead's attention, "IZZY!"
"What?" Izzy replied.
"We're at the cave"
"I can see that" Izzy said annoyed, "You're on the map, remember?"
"Oh, right... So anyway, now what?"
"What, you need me to hold your hand for this? Pick up the damn egg! It's not rocket science!"
"Yeah, right. I guess, what I meant was: stick around while we pick it up."
"Suuure that's what you meant... Which crest is it anyway?"
"Knowledge" Veemon said, as they walked up to the egg, "or... gluttony or whatever!"
"Yeah, I feel like the crests don't mean anything anymore." Izzy said, "I mean, Davis didn't need to be courageous or lazy, he just needed to hold the damn thing and say some stupid phrase... granted, that – was a real challenge for him. Eh, who cares, Cody you're up."
"Uh, why do you assume it's him Izzy-Senpai?" Yolei asked, "It could be me, too..."
"You want an honest answer, Wannabe?"
"I mean... I..." Yolei began, but then she just leaned forward, grabbed the egg – and lifted it up.
Veemon looked at her in disbelief.
"Wait, what?"
"What?" Izzy asked, "What happened?"
"She... picked it up..." Veemon explained hesitatingly.
"Excuse me?" Izzy said and his voice cracked.
"Yes! I did it!" Yolei squealed excited, "I have your crest, Izzy-Senpai!"
Smiling from ear to ear, she opened up her D-Terminal, with a flick of her wrist, letting it absorb the egg.
"I can't believe it!" she continued bouncing up and down, "This is so awesome! Am I right, Izzy-Senpai?"
No response.
"Izzy-Senpai?"
A soft beep.
"Yep, that looks pretty obvious." TK said, looking down into the valley in front of them. It was mostly flat terrain riddled with the lava lakes, Izzy told them about. On a small Island in the middle of one of them, there was a slim beam of light, resembling a god ray, shining onto or originating from a a small bright object.
"Well, let's get going, then" Gatomon said determined.
They made their way down the path, leading into the valley, as they all heard a beep.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Tai?" Kari asked.
"Yeah" Tai sighed, "Izzy is a little... uh, he's coping, right now."
"Coping?" TK asked.
"Ya, uh... Wannabe just picked up the egg with Izzy's crest on it."
Kari blinked.
"Yolei picked up the egg of - what was it? Knowledge?"
"I know, right?" Tai chuckled, "Irony of fate. Couldn't have seen that one coming"
"Tai, this is as far from amusing, as it could possibly get!" Izzy yelled in the background.
"Nah, you're just at the wrong end of the joke." Tai said relaxed, "To us it's the funniest thing that happened today. Eh, screw that: all week!"
"Fuck you!"
They heard some rustle at Tai's and Izzy's end.
"Gimme my mic back!"
"Okay, okay!"
"Tell me, you are nearly done!" Izzy said, once he had the microphone back, "I wanna wrap up this shit-show, as soon as possible..."
"I tell you one thing: If Izzy had Mimi's crest, we'd all be dead by now." TK said uneasy.
"Let's just - not talk about crests for a while, okay?" Izzy said, still gathering his composure.
"Not gonna be easy, we're nearly there..." TK said, as they reached the valley.
He stepped forward to the edge of one of the lava lakes - immediately regretting his decision and taking three big steps back.
"Geez! That's hot!" he said startled.
"Really? It's hot?" Izzy said his voice drenched in sarcasm, "We - we're talking about lava, right?"
"It's okay, I get it..." TK murmured.
"Molten rock, setting everything on fire, that even comes close to it?" Izzy continued, "You're telling me, that stuff is hot?!"
"This is not about the lava, is it?" TK asked dry.
"That would be correct!" Izzy said, "This is about stupidity! You know what, I'm gonna head back to the rookies now, because A) there might be important stuff to discuss over there now and B) I am starting to see entertainment value, in making fun of their poor excuse for intelligence! Which I can't say about you, since it gets gradually more depressing, discovering more layers of your idiocy, every time we fucking talk!"
And with that, and the familiar beep, Izzy was gone again.
"I say, we don't make fun of this whole crest thing, while he's watching over us in here..." Gatomon suggested, "Just to be safe."
The group nodded in agreement.
"I'm back..." Izzy grumbled, after switching channels to the rookies again.
"Aw, you missed the whole thing!" Mimi said, "There was this laser beam and Yolei's partner was in there and he's really super cute -"
"Mimi, I saw everything the first time around" Izzy cut in, "No need, for a recap, I know the drill."
"But you didn't, though" Yolei said irritated, "Remember, you only activated the camera, after the beam was gone -"
"I said, I know the drill, Wannabe!"
"Oh! Speaking of knowing the drill" Yolei said suddenly, then she walked over to her new partner and hugged him.
He made a surprised sound, but sighed afterwards, giving up his resistance.
"You got him in the network, Izzy-Senpai?"
"You remembered that?" Izzy asked surprised, "Whatever, yeah I got him - wait, him? What's going on here? Aren't our partners normally tailor-made for each of us, down to the gender?"
"Um" the new arrival said, "Who's talking, right now?"
He spoke with a thick British accent.
"Oh, that's well..." Veemon said, looking for the right phrasing, "Uh, basically he's our supervisor. He's running this whole operation from the human world."
"Really? But how is he -?"
"Look, I know all of this is a tad confusing" Izzy said, "However, we don't have much time to explain, right now. All you need to know, as of this moment, is that there's a human kid, trying to rule the Digital World and we are trying to stop him. He mind controls Digimon and builds black towers which apparently have the ability to suppress Digivolution."
"Bloody hell!" the Digimon said shocked, "A human can do all that?"
"Dude, you haven't met Izzy before." Tai chuckled, speaking into Izzy's microphone, "Izzy is the supervisor guy, by the way."
"Wha- who the - who is this, now?" Yolei's partner asked.
"Eh, he's not important" Izzy said in passing, "No, not anymore, Tai! In any event, first things first: What's your name? Normally, I could look it up, but I don't have a camera, right now and I would need your image, in order to do so."
"Oh, it's Hawkmon. Pleasure to uh... meet you... I guess..."
"Uh huh, nice to meet you..." Izzy said absent, "Let me look that up, real quick - really? You look like that and you're talking with a British accent?"
Hawkmon was a bird Digimon, sharing - unsurprisingly - a lot of similarities with a hawk. He had red and white feathers and black claws at the ends of his wings. Also he wore a black belt around his head decorated with a red and orange feather. That combined with some red markings in his face, gave him the appearance of a native American tribe member.
"What do you mean?" Hawkmon asked, confused, since he had no context concerning native American tribes, "Why wouldn't I?"
"Ugh, forget it" Izzy said, "Another prime example of Digital World randomness, I suppose..."
"Awesome" Veemon said, "Let's -"
"Awesome, indeed!" Yolei glowing with happiness.
Veemon waited a second, to see, if she was done.
"Sure, great" he said, "I think we're done here, so let's move on, okay? Izzy, where do we go next?"
"Back to the last crossing, and to your left. Down the mountain from there, and onto the meadows. It looks like a Mayan pyramid. Should be pretty hard to miss."
"Alright!" Yolei exclaimed, "Let's go, Digdestined!"
"Tone it down, Wannabe" Izzy said annoyed.
"Yeah, shut the fuck up, Wannabe!" Veemon added equally annoyed.
"Why do you keep calling her that?" Hawkmon asked, "I thought, her name was Yolei... or something... I don't know, she was talking really fast."
"It'll make more sense, once you get to know us better" Veemon said.
"Still" Hawkmon said, "Kind of rude..."
They left the cave. Hawkmon looked around. He seemed confused.
"Where are we?" he asked, "This isn't where they sealed me away, at all!"
"Really?" Izzy asked, "Where did they seal you away? Under which crest?"
"Well, it was the crest of love" Hawkmon said, "and it was in a desert temple... so yeah... nowhere near here..."
"Oh, well" Izzy said, "Added a marker to that location. Guess, we now know where the armor-egg of love is. But that's interesting. So, I assume, where you guys are released, depends on which eggs we find first. Well, at least we now have some explanation, as to why things are running so smoothly, lately..."
They continued. Hawkmon flew next to them but Yolei grabbed him and proceeded to carry him in front of her chest, humming happily to herself.
"Oh, uh..." Hawkmon started awkwardly, "That's uh... nice of you... but I can walk on my own... or fly..."
"Yeah, but you're so cute and cuddly!"
Hawkmon sighed.
"Look, I appreciate it, but I would honestly prefer to fly..."
"Aww..." Yolei said disappointed letting go of him, "Oh! But you have to cuddle with me in our world, because you know, you'll have to pretend to be a stuffed animal and also you're just so incredibly cute and -"
"Well, looks like my job here is done" Izzy stepped in, "You know the drill: yell, if you need me, okay bye now." he added, talking very fast, before muting them.
"Hmm" Gatomon said, looking at the lava lake surrounding the island with their target on it, "Now what?"
"I could try, to carry you over" Tentomon suggested, although he didn't sound very convinced of his own idea.
"Uh... can we try this above solid ground first?" TK said, turning pale, "No, come on there's gotta be another way!" he added walking over to the side of the lake, the island was closest to.
"There's lava on all sides, give it up!" Gatomon called out after him.
"Wait, are there two – huh? - Oh, what the fuck!?" TK said suddenly, stopping in his tracks, looking at something in his hand.
"What is it?" Kari asked, following him, "Wha-?"
Just as she reached him, her Digivice started to glow. Surprised she took it in her hand and watched, as it transformed into a D3 with a pink color scheme.
"Look, I got a D3, now!" Kari said.
"Crap! I got a fucking D3, now!" TK complained.
"Hey, I'm back" Izzy said, joining their conversation again.
"Izzy, what the hell?" TK said.
"What a nice way, to greet me..."
"Look at this!" TK said holding his new D3 in front of Kari's camera. His had green accents.
"Where did that come fro- oh, wait! The code!"
"What do you –? Wait, you're telling me you did this?" TK asked upset, "What the fuck man? D3's suck!"
"Well, it's possible..." Izzy said, "If I caused this I didn't do it on purpose, I can tell you that much. I didn't expect, adding one feature of the new Digivices, would cause yours to transform like that. Huh, when exactly did that happen?"
"When they got closer to the egg" Gatomon said.
"I think it's two eggs, actually" TK said.
"Hmm..." Izzy said, "I mean, the energy source looks stronger, but – then again it's hard to tell. I cannot zoom in or out on this map and the energy reading is fairly inaccurate... at least – in terms of displaying the strength of the energy sources. I gotta make my own version... this one sucks... why would it be two, though?"
"Yeah, also why is my D3 fucking green?"
"How the fuck would I know, TK?" Izzy said annoyed, "Oh, wait – because yellow is already taken, you genius!"
"Oh, you saw, where I was going with this, huh?"
"Wasn't a hard guess, that you would want the same color, as your crest... But let's be real, this is very beneficial for us." he explained, "It most likely means, you can truly use armor eggs. So you should definitely pick these two up."
"Sure, but" TK said, looking at the lake, "How do we get to them?"
"Actually I -"
"Holy shit!" TK yelled, interrupting Izzy.
"What? What's happening?" Izzy asked startled.
Kari panned the camera across the hills.
"This might be a problem..." Izzy commented calmly.
Half a dozen Ogremon were sliding down the mountain slopes around them.
As their name would suggest, the champion level Digimon were big green Ogres with muscular bodies, big mouths and horns growing out of multiple parts of their bodies. Each wielded a large bone colored club with spikes on the end.
All of them wore black rings on their right arms and had glowing red eyes.
In awe the group, surrounding Mimi looked down to the meadows below them. They were standing on a ridge connecting the cave's mountain with another peak nearby. The fields were lush and green, resting on gentle hills, embraced by dense forests in the distance. There were some large rocks scattered across the fields along with a few ponds, containing crystal clear water. Right in the middle, just like Izzy said, was a small ancient pyramid, taken over by the flora of its surroundings. Izzy was right: It was hard to miss.
"Wow, this is so pretty" Mimi said amazed, "Well, except for that building in the middle... kinda ugly. Could use some cleaning..."
"You mean the pyramid, we're meant to go to?" Veemon huffed, "For fuck's sake, did you even listen to Izzy, when he gave us instructions, Princess?"
"No, I must have missed that one... My shoes are dirty..." she added, looking down at herself.
Veemon face-palmed.
"Oh, look at those!" Davis said excited, pointing at a few Digimon that looked like red Tyrannosaurus Rex but with green bone plates like the ones of Stegosaurus on their backs, "It's like Jurassic Park, down there!"
"Well, at least he's stopped all that Pokémon crap..." Veemon muttered, "Took me like seven death threats to beat that shit out of him..."
Suddenly Davis gasped.
"You think, we can catch them with our D-terminals? Like we did with the eggs? That'd be so sick! I would make a dinosaur team! Wait, catching 'em all was a thing here too, right?"
"Me and my big mouth!" Veemon hissed, clenching his teeth and fists.
"Let's go then" Mimi said.
"No, let's wait until these three have passed" Veemon said, "No need to pick a fight with three champion-levels"
The group stared at him.
"What?" he asked.
"No need to pick a fight?" Yolei said, crossing her arms, "I expected you to say 'let's kill them in cold blood'. This doesn't sound like you."
"My god, I feel like a fucking broken record..." Veemon growled, "Which part of 'I'm not suicidal' don't you understand? Tyrannomon aren't exactly weak champion-levels. Even if we digivolved, we'd have a problem because we'd still be out numbered!"
"No, we would have Togemon, too." Mimi said.
"Are you blind now, too?" Veemon asked, "See those black towers everywhere? Unless you know a Togemon, that happens to live in a cave nearby, no. We don't have a Togemon!"
"But I'm thirsty!" Mimi whined, "There are those little ponds down there!"
"You would drink out of those, Princess?"
"They look clean! Also Palmon can test how clean water is. She's really sensitive about that."
"I can fly down there." Hawkmon suggested "I'm quite small, they probably won't even notice me. You have a bottle or something? I can bring you some water."
Davis giggled.
"What?" Hawkmon asked.
"Wha'?" Davis chuckled imitating Hawkmon's accent, "You want some wa'er?
"That's nice..." Hawkmon mumbled.
"Uh, guys" Yolei said, nervously, "Why are they running toward us, now?"
"Also, why are they wearing black rings around their necks?" Hawkmon asked, "Did they always have those?"