Hiya guys~!
Hope you all had a nice Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Sinterklaas (for all my fellow Dutch peeps), or whatever other holiday you celebrate.
The new year is coming~ Time for new years resolutions... or not of course. I usually don't do new years resolutions, because I know I'll fail them, but ths year I'm hoping for something new.
My new years resolution is being less anxious. Because I'm anxious about... well... a lot. Result of 8-10 years of bullying, unfortunately ^^".
But I'm getting there. Thanks to all the wonderful people who viewed, favorited and followed my stories, and left comments. They might not mean a lot to most people, but to me, they mean the world. It's really encouraging, because it means my work is viewed, that it's liked. And I appreciate them, even those of all those years ago.
So thank you.
And who knows, maybe one day I'll feel confident enough to post more of my stories. Because I've got a bunch, but I'm always too anxious to post them. Hell, it still surprises me to this day I was able to post the 3 stories I have on here. So...hopefully.
Well, Happy New Years everyone~! Make it a great year for yourselves as much as you can.
Anyway, I've been keeping you for long enough. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: Another year of not owning digimon or any of its characters gone by. I do still own Sophia, Sonamon, her Beast Spirit, minor changes in the plot and any digimon that is not mentioned on the wiki page.
How long had it been since they fell? It felt like hours had passed since entering this tunnel. The group of Takuya, Koji, Koichi, Tommy and Sophia had since de-digivolved already, running too low on energy to stay in their warrior forms.
"Man! Is this ever gonna end?!" Takuya screeched what was on everyone's mind.
Not long after voicing his thoughts, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. And while usually 'following the light at the end of the tunnel' would be bad, the 5 of them couldn't be happier. That was, until they realized the tunnel ended with a drop. They went down screaming. If they hadn't been so tired out from staying in their Spirit Evolution for too long, they would've evolved right then and there.
Luckily for them, not that they noticed it, the landing was soft...and oddly bouncy. To their surprise, they landed in the worlds biggest ball pit. Seriously the thing was fit for a giant! After pushing some of the balls aside, they took a better look at their surroundings.
"Is this a big playground?" Takuya asked, seeing the Disney-like castle in the distance. "And if it is, what needs a playground this big?"
"A big digimon?" Was Sophia's sarcastic suggestion.
Tommy's head dropped onto one of the balls. "We're gonna find out, aren't we?"
"Of course..." Takuya complained in the same begrudging tone.
They exited the ball pit with some difficulty and began exploring the place. It was just like Takuya said, a giant playground. There were giant building blocks covering the place as well as hedges, which could've been some kind of maze.
"Keep your eyes peeled for Zoe and the guys." Takuya instructed.
'Like we didn't know to do that already.' Sophia thought. 'Wait... did he just name Zoe separately from the others? Oooh~~ What makes her special?'
"Yeah, but everything is so big. How are we supposed to find anything?" Koichi's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Like I said, just keep your eyes peeled." Takuya repeated himself.
Sophia blinked. Did she zone out? ...Oops... They heard an odd sound coming from somewhere above. Looking up, they found...something flying.
"Hey, maybe that flying guy has seen them." Takuya suggested.
Well, it was their only lead to go on soo... Of course Tommy, being the kid he is, excitedly ran after it. And Takuya, being the big brother he was ran after his little brother figure. The other three followed soon. The five of them arrived at a toy littered place. Oddly enough, these toys were small enough or the humans to play with.
"Check it out! This is awesome!" Tommy fell on his knees in the grass to play with the toys.
Takuya looked around for the robot guy, unable to find him. "Hey, where'd he go?" he asked, while Koji scolded Tommy.
Tommy pretty much ignored Koji's demands to not sit down. He picked up one of the cars and placed it on the racetrack. It began driving the course automatically, much to Tommy's enjoyment.
"What a baby." Koji complained, which earned him a smack on the head from the brunette girl in the group.
"I am not!" Tommy yelled in defense. "These are just cool toys."
Koji ignored him and instead turned to Sophia. "Why did you hit me?"
"Lighten up Koji." She completely ignored his question. "What's wrong with having a bit up fun after a fight?"
"But this probably isn't the best time to be playing." Takuya said, watching Sophia walk over to a basketball and started bouncing it over to Koichi as some sort of game.
"Aw, come on!" Tommy cried. "When else can we play with all these neat toys?
Takuya's eyes suddenly caught something familiar. Next to his feet was the robot from earlier. "Is this the flying robot?" he asked himself as he picked it up.
It was way smaller then he thought it would be. He fumbled around with the thing, trying to see if these toys really were all that. There was a button on his arm that he could press, so no brainer, he did. The arm launched itself and landed quite a distance away.
"Hey, that is cool!" he exclaimed. "Super-robot punch."
Koji stared in disbelief at the goggle-headed brunet. "Not you too!"
Takuya fumbled with it again, embarrassed he'd been caught. "Uhh... Well, I-I guess not..." he mumbled. "Put down those stupid toys." he snapped at the playing duo, or trio if you count Koichi reluctantly bouncing the basketball back to Sophia.
Tommy sighed sadly, putting down the toy car. Sophia however, threw the ball at Takuya's head.
"Fine, mom." she snapped.
Koji crossed his arms in annoyance. "Geez, and here I thought the kid was the biggest baby."
"Will you shut up?" Sophia glared at him. "You two wanted to go so badly, so let's go already."
So they left the small playground. Koichi tried to calm the playful duo by reasoning they had to search for Zoe and JP. It helped a bit, but not enough to keep them distracted from the toys.
Tommy found a machine that made helium balloons and went to check that out, while Sophia found a cute pig plushy behind the dinosaur statue. Koichi kept an eye on the two, making sure they didn't stray from Takuya and Koji too much.
"Here Tommy, I think he likes you." Sophia pushed the plushy in his face softly, making kissy noises.
Tommy laughed, but took the pig anyways. "Thanks, haha." he pressed the different colored ear, which made the pig move and oink.
"Hey, look." Takuya called attention to him. "We decided this isn't the time to play around, right?"
"Actually you decided." Sophia argued. Tommy just pouted and refused to look at them, especially after Takuya's 'don't cry' comment.
Koichi tried to break them up, seeing a fight coming from miles away, but he was interrupted by his brother's cold words.
"That baby has to grow up sometime."
Sophia stood up from her crouched position, staring the lone-wolf down. "That was unnecessary!" she yelled at him. "Tommy's just a kid."
"Who said I was talking about him?" Koji just stared right back.
"Don't be so mean!" Takuya exclaimed. "They haven't done anything."
"Whatever." Losing interest in this conversation, he walked passed Takuya heading god-knows where.
"No! You can't just say 'Whatever'! Now listen up!" Takuya turned to face Koji's back. "I know you're not used to having friends, but you're part of a team now. So you'd better show some support!"
Koji was still not interested in continuing this conversation. "Great idea." he mocked. "Let's support the useless kid right up until the point where we all die because of his stupidity." Now that was dark...
"No wonder no ones likes you."
This finally snapped Koji. "What do you know?!"
"Cut it out!" Sophia yelled. The duo stopped glaring daggers at each other to stare at her.
She was covering her ears, but still glaring at them. It was a little ineffective due to the tears just in the corner of her eyes. Takuya's face softened as he recalled something similar happening at the Wind Factory not too long ago.
Calming down, Sophia removed her hands from her ears, but didn't seize her angry stare. "You're the ones calling us kids, telling us we need to grow up, while you're the ones bickering like children!" She called them off. "Act your age." she mocked Koji with his own words.
Not seeing the fun in it, he snapped right back. "Ihave to act my age?! What about you?! You claim to be a teenager, a year or 2 older then us, but you're the one playing with stupid toys and acting like a toddler! Try following your own advice!"
"See the irony in that phrase?" Sophia smirked, pretending that didn't hurt. "But I can't..." she muttered, hoping he wouldn't hear.
"Why not?" Unfortunately he did hear. "Because you just are a baby?"
Now it was her turn to glare at him again. It was a full on glare party! "Because I have autism! That's why!" came out. "I can try and try as much as I like, but I can't act my own age! And believe me, I tried! I tried really fricking hard!" she was full on ranting by now, ignoring the faces of shock around her. "I had to completely change myself for years just to try and fit in! Never talk or I'd say something childish, never play with others because I was bound to do something only toddlers do. I hated it!" Finally she looked up from the ground to face Koji with tears in her eyes. When had she begun looking down? "I can't act my age, because that's not me... And it sure doesn't make me happy..."*
No one said a word, not even Koji. What even do you say to that? It was unanimously decided to just move on. Though before they could make a move, a sound from a little ways back stopped them.
"Hey, it's a train!" Tommy yelled excitedly, apparently having forgotten the earlier situation.
It was a train with multiple carts behind it. Without arguments, the four older kids followed the younger to the train. As they got closer, they noticed...it was a mini-toy train. Koji groaned in annoyance, but took place on the first cart anyways. Takuya and Tommy happily sat on the locomotive, while Koichi took the one after his brother, and Sophia had the one after his.
They had a little bit of light banter, to relief the tension of earlier. It worked luckily. Soon enough at least three of them were laughing or at least chuckling a little.
About a minute after that, Tommy noticed something moving from the corner of his eye. "Wow, that's wild, Takuya." he said, seeing the yellow digimon. "It's a giant walking teddy-bear."
Takuya followed Tommy's eyes. Sure enough, there was a digimon. An idea struck him. "Hey, maybe he knows how to get to Forest Terminal."
All in agreement, they jumped off the train, Koji doing so happily, and ran towards the digimon. Takuya called out to it, hoping to get his attention, which he did. Only...it didn't seem like good attention.
The digimon ran up to them at the same speed. This made the warrior kids pause in confusion, but not for too long. The digimon grabbed Takuya by the shoulders as soon as he arrived, and threw the boy on the ground hard.
"I am still undefeated!" he exclaimed to the sky. He picked up the boy ans struck another fighting pose. "Now we wrestle for the championship of the world."
Everyone was shocked into silence. This digimon was going to fight them?! They couldn't Spirit Evolve yet! They were still too tired, and Koichi didn't even have his Spirit yet!
"E-eh... Excuse me, but w-we were just wonderi-" Before Koichi could finish his question, he was pulled away by Takuya, who also grabbed Tommy in the process.
"Are you crazy?! It'll crush us!" he screamed.
Koichi followed with a sigh. They could've possibly resolved this by just asking the digimon... But of course no one listened to him.
Unbeknownst to him, Sophia had the same thought. "Guys, there was nothing to be afraid o-"
She was cut off when she, as well as Tommy and Koichi were pulled onto a set of stairs and into a rocking ship attraction. She waited until the bear passed, before sprinting out of it, not wanting to stay a second longer on that ship.
The boys only dared to peek up over the walls of the ship.
"That bear is dangerous." Koji commented.
Well, Takuya sure could agree on that. "And you didn't even get thrown down by him." He rubbed the sore spot on his stomach where he hit the floor to emphasize.
Tommy ignored it, though. "Well, I don't know. He seemed kinda fun to me."
"Fun? Are you nuts?!" Takuya exclaimed, looking at the younger boy as if he was nut- oh yeah.
"But guys, he's not-" Sophia was cut off once again when the ship started moving. 'Oh yeah...That happened. Oops...'
She waited until the ride was over, which luckily didn't take too long. Unfortunately, Tommy did sick himself on the ride. The four boys got off of that ship fast to avoid another ride.
"You gonna be okay, kid?" Takuya asked Tommy, who wasn't looking too good.
Tommy denied feeling sick though. He'd already been the cause of arguments too much. Unfortunately, even when he tried to not cause another argument, he did. Takuya and Koji now started fighting because Takuya offered a piggy-back ride to him.
Noticing Tommy becoming more uncomfortable by the second, Koichi took his hand and led him away from between the arguing duo.
He stopped when they reached Sophia. "Are you still feeling sick?" he asked Tommy. He shook his head. "Whats wrong then?"
"It's my fault they keep fighting... isn't it?" He wanted to hear from someone else. Was it really his fault?
Koichi and Sophia, to his surprise, both shook their heads. "It's not you Tommy." Sophia said. "I can't explain what it is, but it's not you, or any of us."
The young boy still had some doubts about that, but dropped it for the moment. After waiting out the argument, they decided to check out the house not far for people. And considering the house looked like a cake, there probably weren't any. Turns out, that feeling was right. The building was nothing but a candy store, but no cake like the building suggested.
'Ha! The cake is a lie!' Sophia thought gleefully.
"Now I know what it's like to be a kid in a candy store!" Takuya exclaimed, looking around the various types of candy, ice creams and juices.
"And it's the best thing ever!" Tommy exclaimed happily, the argument of earlier shoved in the back of his mind.
He ran over to the cotton candy stand and took a yellow one, munching on it in delight. Sophia went over to it as well, taking a pink one.
"Never had one, can't hurt to try right?" she muttered to herself. She broke a small piece off it and put it in her mouth. She squealed when is vanished as soon as it hit her tongue, but it was good~**
Takuya watched them being so carefree and made a decision. "I guess we can take a little time to have a snack, right?"
Those were the magic words for Tommy and Sophia to start grabbing cotton candy sticks for everyone. Tommy took a pink one for Takuya and gave Koji a blue one, while Sophia handed Koichi a blue one as well. Koichi looked at Koji, then to the cotton candy he held, and then gave Sophia an amused and knowing smile. She just replied with a wink and giggle.
"We do not have time to sit around here, stuffing our faces with candy!" Koji argued.
"Why not?" Sophia asked. "In case you haven't noticed, we haven't eaten for almost a day now." as on cue, Koji's stomach growled. "And your stomach agrees."
"We have to find a way to get to the Forest Terminal." the argument was now aimed at her. "We're not out having fun at a carnival or something. You understand?" He then noticed both she and the other boys were stuffing their faces with the cotton candy, completely ignoring what he just said! "Are you listening to me?!" Takuya ignored him in favor of the snack, while Sophia shook her head. "Man you're infuriating!"
Sophia looked up in confusion. "Thanks... I'll search that word in a dictionary later."*** 'Along with perilous...'
"What are we supposed to do? We're floating on an island!" Takuya snapped back at him.
"There's another example of why you'll never be a good leader, you just give up!" Koji retorted. "It's like you don't even wanna help your friends at all. I mean, take a look at what you're doing right now." He gestured to the half eaten cotton candy in Takuya's hands.
A look of distress found its way back on Tommy's face. Another act of his caused another argument.
"I don't see you coming up with any ideas." Takuya stated as calmly as he could, which didn't say much right now.
"At least I'm not just eating. We need to think about the other Legendary Warriors!"
"Guys, stop it!" Sophia yelled. "Arguing is getting us nowhere!" She took a calming breath before continuing. She looked at Koji first. "I know what you're thinking. What if the other Legendary Warriors are evil too? But it case you haven't noticed, right now none of us can Spirit Evolve." she pointed out.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Koji asked, still annoyed.
This time Koichi stepped up. "I think she means we need to think about more direct problems first." he said. "I don't have a Spirit and if I'm right, you guys are too low on energy to Spirit Evolve. Who's going to protect us now?"
Sophia nodded. "Sure the Legendary Warriors are something we need to focus on, but later. And like Takuya said, this is a floating island. Unless one of the 'possibly-evil-Legendary-Warriors' can fly, we're pretty safe here."
"Safe?! Have you forgotten that giant digimon?!" Both Koji and Takuya exclaimed.
Sophia growled. "Well if you'd let me finish earlier! It's a Monzaemon, a friendly digimon whose only goal is to play and make others happy. He only has one real attack, which catches you in a heart and makes you feel good! The other 'attacks' are hugs!" Seeing the disbelieve in their eyes made her storm out of the building. "Forget it, get trapped in his 'Heart Attack' for all I care."
Once outside, she slid down the wall, throwing her arms around her knees and burying her head in them.
"I believe you..."
Her head shot up as she looked to her right. Tommy stood there, with Koichi not far behind.
"You really have to stop running away from problems." the older boy said.
Sophia chuckled dryly. "Sorry, force of habit." She placed her head back on her knees and resumed staring at nothing. "So... What's going on in there now?"
Koichi sighed as he slid down the wall as well, quickly followed by Tommy. "They went back to fighting about the Legendary Warriors." he replied a little too casually. Bad sign if you're already getting used to your team fighting each other.
"Of course they did..."
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, waiting for the shouting not far from them to stop. Of course when sounds of an actual fight started, Koichi and Sophia were quick to intervene. After that, they left the building, though in uncomfortable silence this time. Tommy unfortunately made the mistake of asking if anyone wanted to talk.
This sparked another argument between the leader and lone-wolf. With those two arguing and the other two older kids trying to silence it, nobody noticed the black-furred digimon approaching. At least, not until it snatched Tommy.
"Uh, guys? Heeelp!" he cried as the bear carried him away from his friends.
"It's that bear again!" Takuya cried, chasing after it.
"No, it's different now." Koji observed, seeing the fur was black instead of yellow. "It's all funky."
No one wasted any more time and ran after it. Koichi eyed Sophia, who was looking conflicted about something. Figuring it may have something to do with the digimon, he placed a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up, he gave a reassuring smile, hoping to convince her to tell whatever she knew about it.
After a short while, she nodded. "Be careful guys! That's WaruMonzaemon, a corrupt version of the digimon we saw earlier." she said. "His 'Heartbreak Attack' pretty much does what it says and can immobilize you."
"Sure, sure." Takuya brushed her off in his panic. "Hey, you big fuzzy creep! Give our friend back!"
The girl huffed. Fine, if they won't listen, let them feel. As on cue, WaruMonzaemon stopped and turned around. He put his paw on his chest, pulling away quickly.
"HEARTBREAK ATTACK!" A black heart appeared where he'd placed his paw and went flying towards its target. In this case, Takuya.
The black heart hit him straight in his chest. Nothing seemed to happen for a few seconds, but then he went down on his knees.
"What's the point?" he asked, all depressed all of a sudden. "We're never gonna catch him." Koji and Koichi eyed him with confused and concerned looks when he suddenly burst into tears.
"Why are you crying? What happened?" Koji asked in a kind of concerned voice?
"I just feel really sad." he answered.
"HEARTBREAK ATTACK!"
Another heart came flying at them, this time aimed at Sophia. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending who you are, she side stepped it in time and it hit Koji instead. While he went down, crying on the floor like Takuya, WaruMonzaemon send another two black hearts their way before running off. He didn't even have time to make sure they hit their targets. Koichi was hit by the heart, but Sophia managed to burst hers with her pencil before it hit.
"Koichi, are you okay?"
"I'm- I'm fine..." Koichi stared down at his hands in confusion, like they held the answer. "I don't feel sad or anything. How-?"
"That attack is so not fair!" Takuya exclaimed. Apparently the effect of the attack had already worn out. "And how come you guys are okay?"
"Because I actually listen to myself and don't let myself get hit by something literally called heartbreak attack!" she snapped. "And Koichi did get hit, he just didn't feel the effect becaus- ssssssoome reason?" 'It's so because he's the warrior of darkness! I bet 10 bucks on it!'
"Come on, we have to rescue Tommy." Koichi said, walking the direction WaruMonzaemon ran off in.
After a long while of just walking around, searching for the digimon, it was starting to look hopeless. No sign of Tommy, WaruMonzaemon or any other digimon for that matter, and way too many buildings to potentially keep someone captured.
"Why do evil things always run faster than normal things?" Takuya asked, getting sick of finding nothing.
'Riiiight... A bunch of 8-13 years olds in a different world who can turn into monsters of said world and are destined to defeat the evil monsters of that world... Totally normal, bro.'
"I don't see it anywhere." Koji replied, ignoring the stupidity of the goggle-headed leader.
"This is our fault." Takuya said. "Cause we were fighting." Koji turned to look at him, pretty much ready for another snarky comeback. "This really reminds me of the time I lost my little brother at the amusement park." his voice seemed to go softer, laced with past-worry. "I've never been so worried in my life until now."
Sophia nodded, relating. "Yeah... Reminds me of when I lost my little sister. I mean, she was still in the neighborhood and with friends, but we didn't know." she choked down a laugh. "I would not let my dad leave to search until he agreed to take me with him."
"I know, little kids are always getting in the way." Koji said, clearly not knowing what they were talking about.
Takuya frowned and turned around to face the bandana wearing boy. "That's not what we meant! Man! You must be the most selfish kid in the whole world! Two worlds!" he went on a lecture-rant against Koji. "We have a responsibility to take care of Tommy, because he's younger than us. Don't you take care of your own brothers and sisters?"
"I don't know my brother...Happy now?"
Koji's words shook Koichi to the core. It was one thing hearing someone else say that Koji knew, but another thing entirely to hear him say it himself. Koichi couldn't be happier to hear it.
"Huh?" Takuya was confused. How can you not know your brother?
"We were separated when we were young, that's all I know. I'm not even sure if he's still alive." The listening trio's eyes widened at that info. "I was raised alone, so I don't know anything about brothers." He actually sounded really heartbroken over it.
"Well, why don't you just...imagine that Tommy is your little brother?" Takuya suggested, thinking of a way to maybe make him feel better. "And think what it would be like for a little kid to be alone and afraid."
An image of a toddler, crying in his bed flashed before him, one of a broken night-light following.
"Imagine that you could keep him from feeling that way."
Another image flashed before his eyes. This time one where he, the same age as the little boy, was hugging the crying kid. His brother? If that's true then... He did it once, he'll do it again!
With a determined look now on his face, he took off, leaving the rest of the group behind him. He heard the footsteps behind him, but right now he couldn't care less. Imagine he was Tommy's brother? Fine. He will.
They hadn't run for very long before they came across a familiar face. Or, well...It came across them really. It was the flying toy robot from earlier! It stopped mid-air in front of them, pointing to the left.
"Hey, flying robot!" Takuya called out to it. "We're looking for a little kid and a big bear-"
"WaruMonzaemon!" Sophia interrupted.
"Right. Have you seen them?"
The toy nodded and suddenly took off in the direction it came from, which just so happened to be the way he pointed. He took the group to the castle they noticed while they were climbing out of the ball pit earlier. Why wasn't this their first guess again? The boys and girl looked around the outside of the castle, looking through windows for a glimpse of the young boy.
There! In the lower tower! They could just barely make out the pumpkin hat Tommy wears.
"Hey, Tommy!" Takuya yelled as loud as he could.
"Down here!" Koji joined in.
"Tommy! We're here!" Sophia called out.
"Look outside!" Koichi chimed in as well.
There was no reaction. Not even a flinch. Tommy couldn't hear them, they must be too far away. They'd have to go in. At least, that's what Koji said. After thanking the toy and getting scolded by Koji, they ran for the entrance.
A sudden static/beeping noise stopped them halfway on the bridge. It was the noise they now recognized as coming from the D-Tector. All eyes fell on the only person who didn't have a Spirit yet. Koichi. He looked shocked, yet ecstatic.
Before he could pull out his D-Tector to know for sure, however, a movement from the castle entrance caught everyone's eyes. Two ShadowToyAgumon stood by the gate, glaring daggers at the young kids. Beneath them, the bridge lifted up as it was reeled in to block the gate, and the humans fell into the water below.
With no warning and no time to draw a breath before going under, they were pretty much hopeless. Their arms and legs weren't working with them to bring them above water. Right when they couldn't hold their breath for much longer, rescue appeared. The digimon took a hold of Takuya and Koji, then noticed the two others. He motioned to his scarf, making a grabbing motion with one of his paws. Koichi and Sophia sluggishly grabbed a hold of it, and he took off again. He brought them to an underground cave, dragging the breathless kids up shore.
"Once again, I, Pandamon, have foiled my fiendish foes, the sinister ShadowToyAgumon." The digimon, now identifying himself as Pandamon, said as if he were in some old-school Japanese action movie.
"Yeah, great, thanks." Koji snarked in between panting. "So you saved us, just so you could bring us down here and hurt us yourself."
Takuya, Koichi and Sophia, who'd just caught their breath, looked at him horrified. What thoughts to have!
Takuya decided to say something about it. "Buddy, why are you so paranoid?!" he exclaimed a little shocked. He turned to Pandamon. "Don't pay any attention to him. Thanks for helping us. Pandamon?" He questioned the name, seeing if he heard it right.
"Pandamon the protector." Was the digimon's answer. "Welcome weary warriors to my secret lair, the Panda cave." He ignored Takuya's doubtful 'ok' and continued. "I've hidden here since that black-hearted ShadowToyAgumon started hating that chum, Cherubimon."
That stopped the group from whatever they were doing. "Cherubimon..." Takuya muttered. Of course it'd be him.
"Because of Cherubimon's diabolical dogma, those misguided miscreants plan to go to the real world, and reap their revenge on the children who stopped playing with them. The rest of us toys just want to play with kids." Pandamon explained.
"Like Monzaemon?" Sophia asked, receiving a nod from Pandamon as answer.
"That's so sad..." Takuya said.
Seeing as they now gotten enough strength back to walk, Pandamon took them through the cave. Before anything, Koichi remembered his D-Tector and quickly pulled it out. Nothing... No signal. No static sound. No beeping. No Spirit.
Sophia noticed he'd stopped and caught him staring at his blank D-Tector. 'Right... He had a Spirit signal earlier, didn't he?'
She couldn't imagine how he felt right now. Being the last to get your Spirit. Needing to hide while everyone around you fought for their and your life. Pretty much being the only useless person in your group.
"Koichi?" He looked up, pulled from pretty much the same thoughts the girl had. "Don't worry, okay? Your Spirit is close, we won't leave the island until we find it."
He others turned, having heard what she said. Koji wanted to protest, but for some reason kept his mouth shut when he saw Koichi's sad face.
"She's right." Takuya agreed. "Besides, it didn't start up until we got to the castle gate, right? It's gotta be here!"
Koichi gave a small smile and a nod, but didn't say anything. It still hurt to find something, only to lose it immediately after. Especially something as important as a Spirit. Nonetheless, they continued on. Pandamon provided them with the necessary information about the ShadowToyAgumon and their whereabouts as they arrived at their destination.
"This staircase will steer you straight inside." As he spoke, Pandamon pointed at a tall staircase, which ended at a door.
Three out of four thanked him (no prize if you guessed who didn't), to which he replied to not thank him and just to stop the ShadowToyAgumon. Nodding, they ran up the stairs until they reached the door. With no hesitation, Koji threw it open.
"Lavender castle, here we come." Takuya muttered, once again calling attention to the useless fact the castle is lavender.
As they looked up to the castle in preparation, the ShadowToyAgumon appeared in front of them. They stood there motionlessly, just watching the kids, which was probably what pissed them off. They are kids. Kids who may or may not have abandoned them. Kids who they needed to get revenge on!
One of them spat his plastic blaze attack at them, which they barely dodged.
That did it.
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…AGUNIMON!"
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…LOBOMON!"
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…SONAMON!"
As Agunimon and Lobomon fought, Sonamon stuck close to Koichi to protect him from any attacks.
"SONAR BOOM!" She slammed her microphones together, creating a shield around her and Koichi. The blast from the toy-tank slammed into it, but thanks to the shield it didn't hurt anyone.
Not dropping the shield, she flew forward. The tank didn't have enough time to drive away before Sonamon came flying straight through it. As it burst into the regular ShadowToyAgumon, she went back to Koichi's side, wobbling all the way.
'Weird. Why do I have so much trouble flying? I didn't back at the mountain...'
Her thoughts were cut short by the familiar beeping of a D-Tector. Koichi's eyes went wide. He quickly pulled the device out of his pocket, smiling when he saw the lit up screen.
The ground in between the ShadowToyAgumon, who'd changed into giant robots at this point, burst open. Koichi's Spirit flew out of the crater and to its owner, going into the D-Tector without trouble.
"It is time."
The familiar Fractal Code surrounded Koichi as the Spirit Evolution began.
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…LOWEMON!"
The data disappeared and out of the cocoon came the true warrior of darkness. Lowemon, not Duskmon. Thank the digi-lords.
"Awesome Koichi! You've found your Spirit!" Sonamon beamed up, appearing next to him. "How about we help the others?"
Lowemon answered with only a nod, and took off. Sonamon flew next to him, still trying to control her suddenly-oddly-difficult flying. Oddly enough, Lobomon's plan to get the ShadowToyAgumon to hit each other failed, so the two of them were probably needed.
Lobomon saw them coming and made up a plan in his mind already. Taking the role of leader from Takuya, he told them to work on the robot on the left, while he and Agunimon took the one on the right. No arguments there.
"Alright, let's see how you like this!" Sonamon shouted. "SONAR BOOM!"
Again creating a sound-shield around herself, she charged. Only this time, she was smacked, face-first, into the ground before she made contact. They'd gotten smarter.
Lowemon crossed his arms, building up a charge of dark energy. "SHADOW METEOR!" He released it all at once at the ShadowToyAgumon, but it did nothing.
"My attack had no effect!" Lowemon cried out in surprise.
"It's probably because they're corrupted digimon." Sonamon said. "They're already full of darkness, so adding more doesn't do anything."
"Then how-"
Lowemon was cut off. "I have an idea." Sonamon eyed the others really quick. Seeing Lobomon was listening, she continued. "Let's mix our attacks together. I'll use sonar boom in shield form, and you launch me with shadow meteor. It should be stronger then our regular attacks."
"But what if it's not?" Lowemon questioned.
"Then we'll come up with another plan! Let's just do it."
Without any more complaints, he nodded. Still dodging the arms and feet of the robot, they got in position.
"Now!"
"SONAR BOOM!" "SHADOW METEOR!" The shadow meteor didn't just launch Sonamon at incredible speed, it also surrounded her, making the attack twice as effective.
"PYRO PUNCH!" "LOBO KENDO!" The other two had followed their example. Agunimon had thrown Lobomon towards the robots. Lobomon had both his kendo sticks out, which were covered in Agunimon's pyro punch flames.
Both warriors made contact with the shadow-bots at the same time. This time, they did stumble and froze. Then to everyone's relief they turned black, and their Fractal Code showed.
"I never really liked the black Lego bricks." Sonamon muttered, pulling out her D-Tector. "Let's see what we can do about that~ FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!"
The two shadow-bots burst into many colorful ToyAgumon immediately. Not that anyone took notice. Immediately after defeating the enemies, they turned back and sprinted into the castle. They followed the sounds of Tommy's cries, which led them up a stairway to a door.
Without hesitation, and thinking he was getting beat up, they threw the door open... Only to see Tommy playing a video-game with Monzaemon.
"I win! Champion of the world!" Tommy cheered, having won the game.
"Tommy? What are you doing?" Koji asked, a little worried and confused. After all, there was the bear that chased them and kidnapped Tommy in the same room as them!
Tommy didn't catch the concern though. "What's it look like I'm doing?"
"But we thought you were in trouble." Takuya expressed his own concern.
"Yeah, it sounded like you were getting attacked." Koichi added his own worries.
"I know." Monzaemon spoke up. "I feel just awful about that, guys. But this little trooper saw through to the real me, and played with me anyway." The puppet digimon rubbed Tommy's head in affection. "He's a good boy."
"So? Can we keep him?" Tommy innocently asked.
While the others sighed, either in relief or annoyance, Sophia answered. "Afraid not, Tommy. He belongs in the digital world." She turned to Monzaemon. "Glad you're back to normal, but next time if you wanna play, don't just throw someone to the ground. That can really hurt, and they may not even want to play. You should ask first." Monzaemon nodded with a smile.
Koji frowned at her actions. 'Geez, she sure is two-faced. Playing and acting like a little kid one moment, the next she'd lecturing someone.'
Sophia's smile dropped, hearing those thoughts. '...I can't help it...'
Finally Takuya said it was about time to leave and led them, including Monzaemon, down the stairs. They arrived at the courtyard and were greeted by Pandamon, alongside a whole bunch of guilty looking ToyAgumon.
"To make up for their monstrous mistakes, the ToyAgumon insist they take you off the island."
Hearing that news, the group cheered. A few of the ToyAgumon took them to where they kept an airplane. It just big enough for all five of them, but that would mean one would be flying without seatbelt. Sophia took that place, seeing as Sonamon could fly should anything bad happen. Without any further ado, they were off.
"Hey, Tommy. How come you weren't scared?" Takuya asked, a little out of the blue.
Tommy, misunderstanding the question, answered. "Well, I'm really not afraid of airplanes."
"I mean when you were captured by that evil teddy bear-"
"WaruMonzaemon!"
"W-WaruMonzaemon, right, that's what I said." Takuya quickly corrected himself.
"Well... to be honest. At first I was so scared that I almost wet my pants." he admitted a little shamefully. "But then I figured out that the big guy only wanted to play video games with me."
"Probably only a kid could figure that out." Koji said.
Takuya looked back at the bandana-headed boy. "You're right. And you thought kids weren't good for anything."
Before Koji could retort, ToyAgumon butted in. "Guys, if you look down you can see the forest."
They didn't even need to look down for it. Just up ahead were an abundance of trees and other greenery. A beautifully clean river flowing through it, which even led through the desert-ish land to the mountain. It could partially be seen through the crevice of the mountain they were flying over.
"Wow!"
"Cool!"
"It's just trees."
"Still looks beautiful."
"And as special thanks, how about a little excitement?" ToyAgumon didn't wait for an answer before he put his plan in motion.
Completely forgetting the lack of one seatbelt, he made a loop with the plane, which slowed down, almost to a halt, at the top height. That was unfortunately enough time for Sophia to fall out of the plane, cursing the lack of seatbelt.
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!...SONAMON!"
Spirit Evolving in the nick of time, she tried to keep up with the plane. But for some reason, her wings weren't working with her. She kept descending and flying crooked.
"J-Just go ahead! I'll catch up!" Sonamon shouted to the others. "...Hopefully."
A particularly strong gust caught her off guard and completely off balance. She spiraled down, just gaining enough control to not face-plant into the rocks below or the sides of the crevice. She eventually landed in the dirt, de-Spirit Evolving.
"That's gonna leave a mark." she groaned.
"Sophia?!" She turned around in surprise, finding Zoe, JP, Bokomon and Neemon just in front of her.
Around her were miles of tall greenery, flowers of some sort probably. Recognizing where she was, she moaned. 'Great... My day keeps getting better and better...'
*So yeah, this is something that actually happened with me. I discovered late that I had autism, and didn't understand why I didn't seem to act like the others. They noticed though, and made sure to remind me that I didn't act my age.
I spend about 3 years on and off trying to act what would be considered 'my age', but that just made me feel miserable. I can happily say, those days are behind me~ (also that 'blaming things on autism' thing is something I still do from time to time)
**When I first started writing this, I had never had cotton candy before. This was literally my reaction when I first had one a couple years back.
***I actually had no idea what that word meant when I first heard it.
Thanks for reading!