What A Malfunction Part 6: A Happy Ending For All
by Martial Arts Master
Pokemon and all related characters copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., TV Tokyo, Satoshi Tajiri, 4Kids, and Wizards of the Coast. Digimon and all related characters copyrighted by Bandai, Saban, Fox, and TV Tokyo. I made up Smiling Joe Technique, though. Actually, to be honest, the Smiling Joe Technique character appeared to me in a dream. Speaking of which, Seth Turtle, I'll try to put more detail into this fic than I did into "Kooky Bully", but I might not succeed, because detail is my biggest weakness. With that said, on with the story.

***

All the Digimon de-digivolved and then digi-volved until they were in Rookie form, and the smoke from the Explosion technique finally cleared.
The good news was that Smiling Joe Technique was nowhere to be seen. It obviously had blown itself to smithereens, and would never again bother our heroes (plus Team Rocket).
The bad news was that Cody was nowhere to be seen either.
Armadillomon ran up to the spot where Smiling Joe Technique had blown itself up, looking around frantically. There HAD to be some chance, however small, that Cody had survived.
But Cody didn't materialize. Obviously, he had been blown up. And humans didn't digitally reconfigure like Digimon did. When humans died, they could never become alive again.
Armadillomon started weeping, fighting to keep tears from flowing down his face.
He looked up and saw sad looks on everyone's faces. Obviously they, too, thought that it was a horrible tragedy.
"Well, look at it this way, everyone," Jessie said, thinking of something and brightening. "Cody may be dead, but at least Smiling Joe Technique's gone. Let's be grateful for that."
Everyone gasped. That sounded like a very insensitive comment.
Even James was shocked, and finally stood up to her.
"How can we be grateful?!" James shouted. "Yes, Smiling Joe Technique is destroyed forever, but the loss of such a young child is too high a price to pay!"
"Yeah, don't be such a jerk," Yolei said.
"All that I'm saying is that Smiling Joe Technique was a horrible menace, and now that he's gone we shouldn't feel TOO sad," Jessie said. "If we ever get back home, we'll probably forget that all this happened anyway."
Armadillomon snapped. He leaped on Jessie and pinned her to the ground.
"I won't forget that this happened, you varmint!" Armadillomon shouted. "Cody was my best friend and my Digidestined partner, and now he's gone! We've shared so many adventures, and now poor Cody will never get the chance to share another one."
"Fine, fine, could you just get off of me?" Jessie asked.
"Not until you apologize for acting so insensitive!" Armadillomon said.
"All right already, I'm sorry," Jessie said.
"That's better," Armadillomon said, getting off of Jessie.
The ball of light, meanwhile, had been floating off to the side the entire time, but now it spoke up.
"There may yet be hope," the ball of light said. "Cody was killed by a force from another dimension. He may not have even been supposed to die yet. If I talk to my superiors, I MIGHT manage to convince them to bring Cody back to the land of the living."
"I doubt it," Wormmon said. "The divine powers will probably argue that everybody dies, so why should Cody get special attention?"
"How would you know that?" Izzy asked.
"I've read lots of books," Wormmon said. "In fact, you might call me a 'book-Wormmon.'"
Everyone groaned at the pun.
"Still, if there's hope, get to it!" Armadillomon said to the ball of light.
The ball of light disappeared.
Now, all our heroes (plus Team Rocket) had to do was wait...

A half-hour later...

The ball of light reappeared.
"Well?!" everyone asked at once.
"It took some persuasion, but I finally managed to convince the higher powers that Cody belongs in the world of the living right now, not the dead," the ball of light replied.
Everyone cheered; Armadillomon cheered the loudest.
"He should be arriving at any moment," the ball of light said.
Suddenly there was a brilliant flash that made everyone cover their eyes.
When they opened them again, Cody was looking around, as if unsure of his surroundings.
"Is this a hallucination? I was supposed to be--WHOA!" Cody got cut off when Armadillomon jumped into his arms, looking very happy.
"Um, Armadillomon, this is embarassing, could you please get down?" Cody asked.
Armadillomon jumped down.
Jessie, meanwhile, was looking at Cody nervously, not wanting Cody to find out about her comment that implied that it was better for Cody to be gone than for Smiling Joe Technique to still be functional.
"Glad to have you back," Brock said.
"What was it like in the world of the dead?" Gabumon asked.
"It's really hard to describe," Cody said. Then he looked confused.
"That's weird, I just forgot what it was like," he continued.
"Obviously the higher powers do not want anyone living to know what it is like in the land of the dead," the ball of light said.
That's when there seemed to be a rippling disturbance in the air, like ripples from a pond, except in mid-air.
Then, a portal opened, and a child stepped out, an oddly-shaped device in the child's hand.
"I knew the portal-opening device I built would work!" the child said.
"Who the heck are YOU?!" Davis asked.
"I'm a big fan of both your shows," the child said. "I built Smiling Joe Technique to get your autographs, then, when he didn't bring them back here, I decided to get to where you were and get them myself."
At this, Jessie lunged at the fan, and then grabbed the fan.
"YOU built that thing? You tried to KILL us!" Jessie said, shaking the fan repeatedly.
"I--don't---know---what---you're---talking---about!" the fan said in between shakes.
"Don't lie to me! That robot tried to kill us, and you built it! You're responsible, so don't try to weasel out of it!" Jessie shouted accusingly.
"Wait a minute, you don't have any proof that the robot was deliberatly built to kill us," Cody said, always the diplomatic and mature one.
Jessie sighed and put the fan down.
"The robot must have malfunctioned, I planned to have it ASK for your autographs," the fan said, looking miserable.
"Maybe it's the truth," Biyomon said.
"I worked so hard on that robot, and now I'll never get any autographs," the fan said, looking REALLY miserable now.
Something on the fan's face reminded everyone of something.
Ash was reminded of how hard he'd work to get as far as he did on his Pokemon journey.
All the Pokemon were reminded of all the difficult battles they'd fought.
Misty was reminded of how hard she'd worked to train her Water Pokemon.
Brock was reminded of how hard it was to breed and raise Pokemon.
Tracey was reminded of how hard it was to learn to draw so he could become a Pokemon watcher.
The Digidestined and the Digimon were all reminded of the difficult battles they'd fought to save both worlds.
Finally, Team Rocket was reminded of how hard they'd worked to steal rare Pokemon, even if they hadn't succeeded.
Ash made a decision.
"Well guys, I say let's do it," he said.
"Yeah, if the fan had wanted to hurt us, the fan would've done it by now," Tai said.
And so, the fan got the autographs. The Pokemon all dipped their arms or forelegs or legs, or in Onix, Arbok, and Pineco's case, the ends of their tails, and in Weezing's case, its whole body, and in Victreebel's case, one of its leaves, into the bottle of ink that had, amazingly, survived Smiling Joe Technique's Explosion.
They left their prints on an extremely large piece of paper that the fan produced.
The Digimon and Digidestined and Pokemon heroes and Pokemon villains all used a pen that the fan produced to write their signatures.
The last they saw of the fan was the look of glee as the fan used the device to go back to our own world.
"Now it is time for YOU to return to your own worlds," the ball of light said.
Before anyone could say anything, everyone was transported back to their own worlds.
The End

E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com.