Chapter 4: Monsters from the Past
Davis:
"Davis, it's cramped in here."
"I'm sorry Veemon, but we have to wait for Kari to show up."
The newly made girls were waiting for Kari and Gatomon behind the school. They had all decided they were least likely to be seen there than anywhere else, but Davis still wanted Veemon to hide in the book bag, just in case. Unfortunately for him, Gatomon's champion form left a lot less wiggle room than his usual in-training self. When Kari did show up she was quick to notice this.
"Why are you talking to your book bag?" She asked. "Is Veemon in there?"
"Yeah." Davis replied. "We can't have anyone seeing him."
"If anyone saw him now they'd just assume he was a cat." Kari said. "Give it to me, it's mine anyway."
Davis did so and Kari opened the bag, letting Veemon free.
"Thanks Kari." He said.
"Don't suppose you'd let me out too?" came a voice from the book bag on Kari's back.
"I'm sorry Gatomon, but you still can't be seen." The new goggle head replied.
"I figured as much." Gatomon whined.
It was then that Kari seemed to notice the ring still on Veemon's tail. As she lowered him to the ground, she slid it off.
"I take it you want to try the rings again?" Davis asked.
"Yeah, and I'd rather not be Gatomon if they work." She said.
The former girl handed Davis the ring and he put it on. She then pulled a ring out of her own pocket and did the same. Nothing happened.
"Come on!" was all Kari could say as she stared at the ring on her finger.
"Looks like wearing the rings again isn't working." Davis said.
The former boy knew it wouldn't work as it had not yet been 24 hours, but he decided to go along with it anyway. He couldn't know too much about these rings if he was going to "discover" their power with her after all. Luckily, he'd had a lot of time to think up other scenarios. Making stuff up on the fly would have been hard for him.
"Maybe we need to put them on at the same time?" Kari suggested.
"I don't think we did when we switched in the first place."
"Just try it anyway" the new gogglehead simply groaned. "3… 2… 1…"
Again, nothing happened.
"Maybe the rings can't do the same switch twice?" Davis suggested. "Maybe we have to go back through Gatomon and Veemon."
"I'd be scared to try that." Kari replied. "What if that leaves us stuck as digimon? I don't want to be a boy, but at least this way we're still human."
"Honestly, I think I'd rather be human than a DemiVeemon." Gatomon loudly said from within the book bag. "No offense to you Veemon."
"None taken," Veemon replied "Honestly I think I'd rather have this body than be human, so we kind of agree." He chuckled at bit saying that. Gatomon did not reply.
"I think I'd rather be a girl than a digimon too." Davis said.
"Looks like I'm out voted then, aren't I?" the former cat lamented.
"I'm sorry Gatomon." Veemon said.
"I'm still sold on someone wanting us to learn about each other anyway." Davis interjected "Maybe we should try again after that."
It was, of course, his attempt to get Kari to try the rings again after the time limit.
"I can't say I have a better plan." She said for the second time. "I still want us to at least investigate the mall tomorrow."
"Sounds like a good time to try the rings again to me." The former goggle head thought. "Being a guy again tomorrow will be nice."
"Okay." He replied, the sound of the warning bell sounding behind him.
"Um, does this mean I have to get back in the bag?" Veemon aksed.
"Normally I just wonder around when Kari is at school." Gatomon said.
"Really?" Veemon exclaimed "but what if someone sees you?"
"Just meow at them and they think you're a cat." Gatomon replied.
"Really?" The former dragon asked again.
"Yes," the former cat replied. "I did it all the time when I worked for… Myotismon.."
Davis noticed a bit of anxiety as Gatomon said that name. Veemon, however, seemed none the wiser.
"That's awesome!" He said.
Veemon:
Veemon always enjoyed listening to Davis's teachers in school, but somehow being able to see them and their classes made it better. Granted, he couldn't get the best view from the outside windowsill but it was still an improvement over the hole in Davis's bookbag. A girl in the classroom seemed to notice him and made glances up at the window. Before long several of the other students were doing the same. Liking the attention, he waved to the crowd. The crowd gasped. The teacher noticed this and Veemon found himself shooed away. He landed gracefully on the ground and ran a couple of classes down.
"Cats don't wave, got it." The cat in training thought.
He leaped up to the windowsill of another class and listened to the lecture. This time no one seemed to notice him. Shortly thereafter a bell rang and the students in the class left. When new students came the teacher began another lecture, though toward the end he began to repeat what the former dragon had heard before the bell. After another bell, the teacher began repeating the same lecture yet again. Veemon quickly got bored hearing it a second time and decided to seek out another class. He jumped from the windowsill he was on and landed on another flawlessly. This impressed him.
"I definitely could not do that as DemiVeemon. He thought "Would I have been able to make that jump as Veemon?"
In his mind's eye he saw his old body attempting to make the jump. "Vee headbutt!" He yelled in his imagination and leapt toward the windowsill. Instead of landing on it however, he flew past it and crashed headfirst into a tree. He winced internally.
"Gatomon's body sure is nimble." It's current owner thought.
He began listening to the lecture inside. Quickly another student noticed him, and as before others began to follow suit. This time he ignored them. However, he eventually heard the teacher say "What's going on back there?" and in a few seconds he was shooed again.
"What did I do wrong that time?"
When Veemon couldn't figure it out he decided to occupy his time by exploring the campus. It was a surreal experience. Walking around the perimeter of the building he recognized several of the class rooms Davis went to, even catching Kari in one of them. He thought he had a good idea of where the classrooms were before all the switches happened, but after he had seen it through his partner's eyes that second day, he realized now it was limited to "First Davis goes down the hall a bit to this room, then down the other way to another room, then up somehow to another…" Somehow actually seeing, literally seeing, where they were had felt like the day Davis promised him the human world was round. Now he was taking that a step further. He was seeing that path from the outside, and where all those places he had gone were in relation to each-other, and to places he had never seen at all. The details he's seen as Davis, amazing as they were to him, seemed almost inconsequential compared to this.
He tried to create a map of the school in his mind, but he couldn't. Try was he might though he couldn't find all the rooms his partner went to in the day, nor could he find Davis himself. It quickly dawned on him he wasn't seeing were his partner went up and down. The former dragon looked up and saw another row of windowsills above the one he'd been using. Quickly Veemon realized he had to see that upper layer of classes like he had this one. He leapt up toward one of the upper windows but found even Gatomon's body couldn't make that high a jump. He did however land gracefully on his feet unlike the crashing Veemon of his imagination.
"I guess that's one plus" He thought. "There has to be a way up there!"
Looking down at his graceful new feet an idea came to him. The new cat walked up to the building and dug his long front claws into the wall and began climbing up. Before long he had reached an upper windowsill.
"Veemon definitely couldn't have done that."
Leaping from sill to sill the former dragon soon had encircled the upper layer of the school like he had the lower. Once again, he tried to map out the school in his mind. In was fuzzy, but he felt he could almost see the path his partner took through the building in his mind's eye. It blew his mind. His thoughts quickly went to the various other classroom he had seen that Davis never went to. Curious he listened to them for the rest of the day leaping between windowsills and listening to classes as he did earlier. He didn't think he'd ever been more interested in the lectures before. He even found Davis in one of these classes as Kari. That one, he thought, was his favorite.
Eventually what Veemon recognized as the last bell rang. He went ahead over to the window of the computer lab. Yolie was the first of the digidestined to arrive. She let Poromon out of her bag then saw Veemon.
"Hey Gatomon" She said, opening the window for him.
"Hey Yolie" he replied.
Shortly thereafter the white cat saw a certain yellow digimon fly through the window, carrying a lunch box.
"Great, it's Patamon" he thought.
"Hey Gatomon" He said. "How come you didn't stop by the tree today?"
Tree?
"I um, was busy exploring the campus today." Veemon said truthfully.
"Huh, you haven't done that in a while." Patamon replied. "It's okay, just please do visit me again sometime. I can get kinda lonely up there by myself."
"Fat chance of that." The former dragon thought.
"You know Gatomon, sometimes I kind of envy you."
"You… envy me?"
Veemon had envied his rival's flight for as long as he knew him. To hear the flyer envy him, even if it wasn't exactly him he was envying, this was not something the earthbound digimon was prepared for.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that." Patamon continued.
"It's okay, really" Veemon replied. "Why do you say that."
"I feel like you have more freedom of movement than I do." He said. "I know I can fly and all, but if anyone who doesn't know about digimon saw me they'd freak out. That's why TK makes me hide in the tree. You get to wander around."
"I... I don't know how to respond to that." The former dragon replied truthfully.
"Never mind, I probably shouldn't have said it."
"No, I'm kind of glad you did." Veemon again said. "Maybe I will see the poor runt tomorrow afterall" he thought.
"I saved you your lunch." Patamon said. "Did you find something else to eat while you were exploring."
It was then that Veemon realized he hadn't eaten all day. All at once he seemed to feel starving. It seemed he had been so enraptured by his mapping of the school that he didn't notice his own hunger until now.
"Oh, I forgot about that" He said "I can still have that right?"
"Of course" his rival said opening the box.
The rest of the kids had arrived by the time he finished eating.
"You ready partner?" Davis then said.
Filled up the digimon replied "Ready to go!"
"Digiport Open!"
Generally, when Veemon entered the digital world he felt his body rearranged by digivolution. He relished going from the legless fingerless imp he was as DemiVeemon to his stronger rookie form. Today, however, that experience was lost as he simply passed through the portal unchanged. For the first time since the night he gained his new body, the former dragon felt disappointed.
He had little time to dwell on it however, as the immense heat of the lava filled area they arrived in over took him. From the reactions of the others, they too were overwhelmed, not that any of them had time to dwell on this either as before they knew it the emperor's minions were upon them.
"Merumon." TK said identifying them. T
he large troop emerged from the lava with dark rings visible.
"You ready Gatomon!?" Davis roared.
"More than ready."
"Digi-Armor energize!"
When Veemon became Flamedramon he felt his body become fire. This time he felt his body become light. The light grew as he did and sprouted from his body to form wings.
"Gatomon, armor digivolve to… Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!"
The wings were barely solid before Veemon took to them. He didn't have time to take in the scenery as he dodged flame attacks from the Merumon, but he still relished it. The former dragon did not think he'd felt this free since the day Davis released him from the digi-egg.
"Rosetta Stone!"
Immediately he was on the offensive. The slaves could not hit him, but he could hit them, and with one attack they began to fall back.
"Digi-armor energize!"
The other kids took initiative from him and armor digivolved their digimon. Pegususmon, Digmon, Halsemon and the reembodied Flamdramon quickly took the field.
"Cat's eye beam!"
With that hit, he broke a dark ring. As he could now see most of the battlefield. His enemies looked small for the first time, as did his old body.
"Fire Rocket!"
He could see his old body struggling to damage the fiery Merumon, it's attacks only making their flames burn brighter. One of them landed an attack of its own on Gatomon.
"You'd think my old body would at least be stronger for how much more mobile this one is."
The sphinx thought It was then he realized how sad he would be when he went returned to his old life.
His train of thought was interrupted as he saw a large group of Airdramon fly across the horizon. On top of the lead's head was the Digimon Emperor, and suspended below him a Greymon. As they came closer Veemon's catlike ears could barely hear the emperor's command.
"Greymon! dark digivolve and be my slave!"
"Greymon dark digivole to, SkullGreymon!"
The Greymon quickly transformed into a monstrous skeleton. Let out a horrific roar as it pulled down most of the Airdramon that supported it. Despite feeling more powerful than ever, Veemon did not think he ever feared one of the emperor's slaves quite like this one. He knew his instincts were different as Flamedramon than as Veemon. Were they different again as Nefertimon? His fears were soon confirmed as the creature effortlessly swatted away Digimon, Halsemon, and his old body.
"Yeah, defiantly better keep my distance here…." He thought.
He flew back to the others at the same time as Pegasusmon. Apparently, the winged horse had the same idea.
"We need to get out of here." Veemon wasn't sure which one of them said it.
Davis:
The walk back to the digital gate was gloomy and depressing. It was the first time the new digidestined had been defeated in battle, and on top of that Agumon was lost. All the way back Davis could only think of Tai and how he would react. Somehow he couldn't imagine the heroic leader crying… He wondered if he would himself if it had been Veemon that was captured… He didn't know what he would do then, and he hadn't known his partner nearly as long as Tai had known his.
When they returned to the real world Kari pulled him aside as the others left.
"Listen to me" Kari said. "With what happened to his partner, Tai needs support, and I think you will have to be the one to give it."
"Me?" Davis asked.
Kari hesitated. "As far as he knows, you're his sister. You live in his house right now. I can try to get a sleep over tonight, but I doubt your parents will allow it, and even if they do, I can't keep doing it if we can't rescue Agumon tomorrow." She sighed. "Even if I could, I don't think it will really carry the same weight as if 'I,' did it... and that's you now..."
Davis was spellbound. "I... what should I do?"
"I don't know." Kari said. "I would promise him that things will be all right, that we can save Agumon."
"I... I'll try that." The former google-head stuttered.
They walked toward Tai's house. Veemon followed behind them pretending as at school to be a cat, while Gatomon remained in the bookbag as DemiVeemon. Unlike the footsteps or meows he heard from the other, no sound came from the bag then. Davis assumed the former cat had fallen asleep. He didn't think it would be easy for him to sleep that night, but he knew it was easy for Veemon's in-training body at any time, and with the beating SkullGreymon had given, it seemed like sleep would be easier than ever. It was the only time in his life Davis envied the tiny form. He had felt that emotion for Flamedramon before, but never DemiVeemon, and never, he thought, quite like this…
When they arrived at the doorstep, Davis paused, waiting for Kari to open the door as she or Tai had done every other time Davis had visited the house. He was a bit surprised to see the new google-head motion to him to open the door.
"Oh, I have the key in this body now, don't I?" He thought.
Davis could now add "embarrassed" to the long list of his emotions.
The new Kamiya searched through his... through Kari's bag until he found her key. He then used it to unlock the door. Tai's practice had not let out yet, so the older leader was not home. His dad was also at work, but his mom was there to greet them.
"Hey sweetie!" She said looking at her daughter's body.
She then turned and glanced at Kar.
"Hello there too Davis. You here to see Tai?"
"Yes" Kari said after a pause.
"You okay Davis?" Mrs. Kamiya asked, seeming to catch the sorrow in her voice.
"I..." Kari hesitated again "could I stay over tonight?"
"Of course." Mrs. Kamiya said. "You did tell your parents, right?"
"Umm... yes?"
Even Davis could tell his new mother was not convinced by this.
"Tai isn't here yet." She said eventually. "Make yourself at home until he gets back."
"Thank you." Kari responded.
Mrs. Kamiya left the room. Davis turned to his old body.
"Why didn't you tell her about Agumon?" He asked.
"Tai should hear first." she explained. "He deserves that much."
Davis had to agree. They didn't speak much again before Tai returned. When he did come home he seemed to be fairly happy.
"Hey sis." he said. "Hey Davis! Didn't expect to see you here. What's up?"
"Tai," Kari began "I… I really wish I didn't have to tell you this, but Agumon's been captured."
"What?"
"He… he's been captured." She continued "We encountered him in the digital world with a dark ring on his arm. The Digimon Emperor dark digivolved him into…" Kari stopped herself before saying SkullGreymon's name, "ultimate form, then he sent him to attack us. We couldn't defeat him, and the emperor took him away when he couldn't control him."
"It… can't be" Tai said stuttering. "Are you positive it was our Agumon?"
"I…" Kari began "Erm, Kari said she recognized him."
Tai looked to Davis and asked "Is that true?"
"Yes," Davis said. "It's true."
"We have to save him!" Tai yelled. "We need to go to the digital world now!"
"I'm sorry Tai." The new google-head said. "Our digimon are tired and injured and with school closed we can't get to the portal anyway. I really am sorry, but we have to wait until tomorrow."
"How can I wait until tomorrow when my partner is enslaved!?" The older leader screamed.
"I promise you Tai, we will save him then!" Kari said, keeping to her earlier idea.
Tai was unaffected by his sister's words. "Then why didn't you save him today?" He said, almost scornfully. "I didn't make you leader to allow Agumon to be captured!"
Davis did not think he'd ever seen look as ashamed as what he saw form on Kari's face, neither her real face or his own.
"You're right." She said "I don't deserve to be leader, do I?"
Then the look on Tai's face suddenly included shame as well. "Davis… I…" He stuttered once again. He continued quietly, almost whispering "I'm sorry."
Several moments passed before any of them spoke again. The one who broke the silence was Davis.
"Come with us." He said.
"What?"
"Tomorrow, when we go to the digital world come with us." He said. "If anyone knows how to save your partner it's you."
"I… Kari…" Tai stuttered for the last time. "Thank you."
Once again there was silence. This time none of the digidestined broke it; instead it was a ring of the doorbell. Tai's mother came in and opened the door with a greeting, then Davis saw his own mother come in.
"Daisuke! How did I know you'd be here!?" She yelled. "I told you we're going to see the doctor after school, and now we're running late. You come with me, right now!"
"I'm terribly sorry Mrs. Motomiya," Mrs. Kamiya said "Dav, erm Daisuke told me had already talked to you about coming here."
"Next time call me about it" the other mom replied. "Of course, who knows when I'll let him come here again after that!"
"But mom…" Kari began.
Her new mother cut her off "No buts! I should have taken you last night, but I was lenient and now look where you are!"
She stepped toward her new son and grabbed her by the arm.
"We're going!"
Kari looked over at her former brother.
"It's okay" he mouthed. "Go."
Davis wasn't sure if his mother noticed or not, but before he could say anything, they were out the door. Tai's mother left the room shortly after that. Tai collapsed onto the coach. Davis could see tears forming in his idol's eyes.
"Tai… are you okay?" his current sister asked. He didn't know what else to say.
"I'm not." He said, but then he sat up. "But I think I am better for what you said. I will go with you tomorrow to rescue Agumon. I will have to be there when the time comes. I can't imagine myself doing nothing." He sighed "I'll have a hard time waiting even until then."
Davie bent his knees. Like this he was eye to eye with his new brother. He grasped his hand and said "I'll be here for you until then."
"Thank you," Tai answered, not allowing himself to cry. "I think I need something to take my mind off of it…"
Davis looked over and saw the Game Cube again.
"Could it really be that simple?" he thought.
"You wanna play Smash again?" the new Kamiya asked.
"You know, maybe that will work."
They played. Davis wasn't sure how well it was working, but he never saw his idol cry. He never saw him hold back any more tears.