Digimon and all related concepts belong to their rightful owners. I, never in away owned Digimon.
Please Read and Review. Enjoy!
Hope Unleashed: On the Hunt
Kari tumbled head first onto the dusty ground of the digital world. Before she could move the rest of the digidestined piled through the digiport creating a mountain of bodies with Kari in the bottom. "We got to find a better way in traveling between the two worlds" groaned Kari, as someone jabbed their elbow into her stomach. "Come on everyone get off or I'm going to become a permanent pancake!" There was a lot of shuffling as the digidestined got off from each other. "Ouch! Watch where you're stepping!" she cried as someone stepped on her hand. Slowly standing up Kari grabbed her sore hand.
"Are you OK Kari?" Asked Davis as he took Kari's hand, "You want me to kiss it all better for you?"
"Since you were the one who was stepping all over her," smirked Yolei but only loud enough for Davis to hear. Davis shot a glare at Yolei.
"Um, thanks for the offer, but it's not needed," replied Kari, shaking the pain away. After dusting herself off she gave a quick glace over the area. "So where are our digimon?"
"Well I'm sure they're close by," said Ken pulling out his digivice. "It's looks to me that they're coming this way as we speak," Before long they could see their digital partners just over the horizon. Davis was the first to dash ahead and meet up with Veemon, followed close by with the others. They all greeted their partners in a similar fashion.
Kari kneeled down and hugged Gatomon who leapt into her arms. "How are you feeling today?" Questioned Kari to her feline partner. It looked that Gatomon had recovered from yesterday's attack.
"All fired up!" The cat then jumped out of Kari's hug and started to shadow box, "I'm ready to tear up any of those dark looking digimon that cross my path."
"They better watch out," laughed Kari. She then felt a light tugging at the side of her leg. Looking down she saw Patamon with a hurt look.
"Where's TK?" asked the tiny winged digimon who was upset that TK wasn't here.
"He had to stay for a little bit longer for a basket ball practice, but don't worry," said Kari giving Patamon a comforting pat on his head, "anyway TK promised me that he won't be too long," she gave him a warm smile. "You can follow me and Gatomon for the time being." Patamon let out a little smile and accepted Kari's offer.
"So guys what's the plan?" asked Cody as he and Armidillomon rejoined the group.
"I think we should find out where those digimon that attacked Kari are hiding and show them a thing or two!" said Davis as he punched the air. "So who's with me?"
Kari knew that they probably would have to find out what was causing these evil digimon to appear, but she wasn't sure if they should fight them without help from TK. "I guess you're right Davis just make sure to be cautious."
"Those evil digimon don't stand a chance with Davis leading the charge!" said Davis marching into the horizon. Then suddenly something kicked in. "Um, where do we start looking?" asked Davis as he skidded to a halt, while Veemon tripped into him from the sudden halt. The two of them felt over in a cloud of dust.
"I don't feel too confident now," sighed Yolei, "so where are we suppose to start looking?"
"Think we should head back to where all this started," said Kari trying to remember where the whole ordeal happened.
"I think I know where go," Said Patamon who fluttered into the air, "just follow me."
"Alright just lead the way," said Kari as she followed Patamon along with the others.
***
TK sat on the bench taking a breather. The coach was really pushing the team hard since the playoffs were coming fast. Feeling rested up he headed back onto the court with the other practicing players. "I wonder how's everyone's holding up? I hope Kari is doing fine without me," thought TK as he lined himself up for a foul shot. Taking aim he let the ball fly from his hand with a perfect arc, but for some reason the ball missed. He grabbed the rebound and droved to the net and preformed a reverse lay up with perfect form but for some reason the ball missed its mark.
"Takaishi, that's two misses in a row what's the problem?" shouted the coach from the sidelines.
"I'm not too sure coach," replied TK, " maybe I just have some things on my mind that's all."
"Oh really?" replied the coach who then smiled, "is it because Miss Kamiya couldn't come and watch you practice too day?" This comment brought snickers from the rest of the team, while making TK blush. Kari would always insist on coming and watch TK practices and games. She said that she always enjoyed watching the game so he didn't mind. It seemed to help him concentrate more for some reason.
"Don't worry coach. I'll be much better when it's the real thing," replied TK.
"Good, so then I guess I don't have to make her join the team to keep you at your best," chuckled the coach along with the other players. TK tried to hide his even redder cheeks. "Alright, enough with the jokes, now get back to practicing," announced the coach. He watched TK again miss several easy to hit shots. Letting out a sigh and shaking his head he turned to his assistant. "You think we can find a way to put Miss Kamiya into the team?"
"You're not serious are you?" asked the assistant.
"I'll try anything to keep my star player performing at his best. Maybe she could be an assistant junior coach?" He then looked at TK and saw him again miss another simple shot. The coach was about to say something.
"Let me guess," interrupted the assistant, "see if Miss Kamiya would like the offer?"
***
Kari continued to follow Patamon as he led the way. He was a little up ahead with Gatomon and they were clearly talking about something, but what? Once in a while they would look back at her with questioning stares.
"I'm not sure Gatomon," replied Patamon in a confused manner, "I but I don't now if TK loves Kari." He then paused for a second, "What is love?"
"I'm pretty sure that when you care for someone in a very special way, more than just friends that would be considered as love," replied Gatomon.
"Oh! You mean like us?" replied Patamon who was still trying to grasp the term.
"I'm not really sure, this human stuff can be confusing at times," Gatomon then placed one of her paws on below her mouth as if to think.
"I think we should ask Ken and Yolei," Patamon said turning his head to eye the two. They were holding hands and looked very happy, "they look like they're in love to me. Maybe we should ask them." He was about to flap his way to the two when Gatomon grabbed a hold of him.
"No, we can't do that. I think that they would tell Kari what we told them, and I don't think she will like it one bit," said Gatomon in a warning fashion.
"But they look so happy together I want TK and Kari to be happy like that too," complained Patamon.
"I'm sure they love each other maybe they just don't know it yet for themselves. When they finally find out they will be happy."
"Oh I see, TK and Kari are just like us?"
"I don't know," sighed Gatomon, "now you're confusing me!"
Kari heard bits of the digimon's conversation, something about TK and her. "I have to ask Gatomon what she was talking about." Kari looked up into the sky and that sun was still high above them. She them shift her gaze back down and saw a familiar field, it was the one where they were yesterday.
"It looks like we're getting close," said Davis as he walked beside Kari. "So what happened when we left yesterday?"
"Didn't TK already explain everything to you?" Asked Kari.
"Well, he gave some lame excuse, I didn't believe him one bit. So what really happened?" Davis asked.
"It's really none of your business Davis," replied Kari, "but if you want to know, nothing out of the ordinary happened between us."
"Funny that's just what TP said to me yesterday," said Davis scratching his head in confusion.
"So you would say my excuse was lame too then?" Asked Kari putting her hands to her waist in disappointment.
"No! Not at all! TZ's was lame but yours wasn't one bit!" defended Davis, he knew that he was backing himself into a corner.
"But mine was exactly the same. Or are you just losing your memory?"
"Yeah, that must be it," replied Davis agreeing to anything to get on Kari's good side again. Seeing Kari calm down. He took a step back and to give her some space.
"Hmm, getting on Kari's bad side isn't a good idea," warned Yolei who heard everything.
"I wonder how TK manages not to make her angry?" asked Ken thinking aloud.
"First of all he isn't Davis and second, I think she loves him," added Yolei.
"What?" shouted Davis making everyone jump even the digimon. He then brought his voice down to a whisper. "That can't be true! I haven't seen TF make a move on her at all. I have to..."
"Yeah, yeah. You're the 'seeing is believing' type of people," interrupted both Ken and Yolei.
"Darn right I am!" laughed Davis, but then groaned. "Why is everybody repeating everything TB says?"
The group came to the open field where they had just been yesterday. "So far no evil looking digimon," sighed Kari in relief. She wasn't sure how many there were, and how strong they had got. Walking through the field she came across the digiport that was previously broken. "This was the stupid thing that caused all these stupid events, well some of them were quite alright," when she remembered the time she had spent with TK. Kari pulled out TK's digivice and tested to digiport. Nothing. "Still must be broken, but why?" Kari stood up and turned to Ken as he was talking to Yolei. "Um, Ken can you take a look at this for me?"
Ken nodded and walked over to Kari, "So, what seems to be the problem?"
"This digiport that you guys used yesterday seems to be not working anymore do you know why?"
Ken pulled out his digivice and brought it to the screen. Again nothing. "Very strange. It may be that something deliberately turned it off," Ken then paused for a second to think. "We better keep an eye out, there might be a trap, or that the digiport is really broken."
Kari nodded in agreement. "I think we should start retracing my tracks, maybe that will bring us some answers." she then had a sinking feeling, "or straight into trouble."
"So where to now?" Asked Cody who was with the rest of the group.
"We head into that forest over there and follow the trail," replied Kari who then headed to the forest followed by Patamon and Gatomon. The rest of the digidestined and digimon followed closely behind, constantly watching their backs.
In a far off distance an undetectable dark spirit slowly glided towards its destination, followed by its army of minions. The feeling of being whole again pushed it to quicken its pace. It had mastered a plan to trap the digidestined, allowing his minions to occupy the digidestined while obtained his new body. "We wait here," commanded the dark spirit, "now we just have to be patient and let everything fall into place."
Davis walked along the forest's path staring at the ground. Seeing a stray pebble he kicked it in frustration. "What's going on here?" thought Davis, "why doesn't Kari like me? Instead she favors TZ!" Again he caught up with the stray pebble and kicked it harder this time.
"Ouch!" shouted Veemon rubbing his head, "I'm not here for target practice." Seeing the down look on his partner Veemon changed his attitude to a more comforting one. "What's the matter Davis?"
"Is nothing really," sulked Davis.
"Don't tell me it's nothing. Your actions speak louder than words, whatever that means," said the Veemon looking up at Davis.
"I see what you mean," sighed Davis, "It's just like, why does Kari like TK and not me?"
"Maybe because she likes him more?" Asked Veemon.
"No way!" snapped Davis, "How can she like him more than me when I'm the one who actual shows that I like her."
"Maybe there is something that you are missing, maybe they share a special bond stronger than friendship, but haven't come to grips with it themselves." replied Veemon, "Maybe you see it but deny it to avoid the truth." Davis stared at Veemon with one eyebrow raised clearly surprised by the sudden burst of knowledgeable insight. "Don't look at me like that. I myself have no idea where all that came from, besides I'm just a digimon, what do I know?"
"Yeah you're just a digimon what do you know?" Said Davis still analyzing what was said by his little friend.
"Hey!"
"I'm sorry about that little buddy," Said Davis when he found out that he insulted his pal, "I'm not sure what to think right now. I still think that Kari will like me." Deep down inside Davis' mind Veemon's statement had found a place in his thoughts and were now slowly questioning Davis. "No," said Davis to himself. "I'm sure things will change in my favor, they just have to!" Then suppressing the idea the best that he could, he continued to think of ways to get Kari to fall for him.
Kari walk down the path and the lovely memories of TK and her returned. "I wish TK was here," sighed Kari. She remembered TK was so kind to warm her up when it got cold while they were walking down the path. Just spending time with him was special. She continued to look at the surroundings and spotted to log where the two of them sat. She let out a sigh, "This was very spot were I hoped TK would tell me how he felt." Then she recalled the very sudden explosion which ruined everything. "We're getting close guys," said Kari rising her hand, "make sure we're ready for anything." Receiving nods from fellow digidestined and digimon they proceeded with a stealthy silence.
Patamon slightly slowed his pace to gather more of his surroundings. He wanted to be able to spot any danger that would lie ahead. He remembered how he and Gatomon were caught off guard and didn't want that to happen again.
"You see anything?" He asked turning to Gatomon.
"So far nothing," Sighed the cat. She was disappointed in herself for letting her guard down and got carelessly injured and then wasn't able to help Kari. "Remind me to thank TK later on," said Gatomon.
"Why?"
"If it wasn't for him I don't think we would have made it out alive." replied Gatomon.
Patamon always thought TK was a special kid not only being a digidestined, but now he knew why. Very far in the distance he caught something out of the corner of his eye. "What was that?" As he whirled around.
"What?" Asked Gatomon as she tensed up. Again Patamon swore he saw a something zip past them but this time on the opposite side.
"There, just past those trees," he said in a less calm voice than before.
"I don't see anything," said Gatomon scanning the entire area, "lets alert the others just in case." Turning her head she face the rest of the group. "Listen up guys," she whispered just loud enough for them to hear, "Patamon may have spotted some activity going on in the distance so keep an eye out."
The group slowly got closer for protection purposes. They finally entered the clearing of the forest where the crater was. Kari looked around and saw no sign of anything suspicious. "Do any of you guys see anything?" she asked. Receiving all negative answers they started to cross the crater.
On the other side they arrived where TK had fought the dark digimon. "What happened here?" asked Cody in surprise, "It looked like there was a war going on." The whole area was practically torn up and the ground was all cracked and uneven.
"This is were TK went ballistic and taught the evil digimon a lesson," replied Kari. She then saw her digivice was still in the spot where she had left it.
"It doesn't even look like a digivice anymore," said Yolei.
"So where do we go next?" Asked Ken
"Well, after TK had sent the dark digimon sailing, more seemed to appear from that direction." said Kari as she directed everyone's attention to a darkened section of the forest.
"Something tells me that's where we should be looking," said Davis, "Are you guys ready?" After receiving agreement to his proposal he lead the way.
"If things get too hectic we can always fall back to the digiport over there," Kari pointed out to the direction of the digiport she and TK used for their escape. "I think it's the closest one for escape if things heat up." Kari then looked down at TK's digivice, "Please hurry TK," she whispered to herself.
As the group approached the darkened forest the environment changed drastically around them. The air was much colder and the light seemed to be slowly drowned out. Taking out their digivices the digidestined held them tightly to digivolve their partners when the time comes.
***
Izzy walked into the computer lab and sat himself down in front of a computer. He was called down to debug that school's system, apparently there was a hacker scare and they wanted to beef up security just incase of a real one. He then saw the computer beside him was turned on at it had the view of the digital world, "I guess they went to the digital world already. I wonder how they are doing?" He grabbed to mouse and highlighted the sector they were in and zoomed in. He saw several red blinking dots signifying the group. He then slowly zoomed out to get a good look on their surroundings. "Oh, no!" he shouted. What he saw was a large number of dark squares signifying the presence of evil digimon. "They don't see them coming!" panicked Izzy, "they're walking straight into a trap!" He then looked for a the best possible route for escape, all the closest digiports have been shut down. "This is no good at all," as he typed an email on the computer, "Lets just hope they get this in time or things will get ugly."
***
"I wonder where all those little scared evil digimon are hiding," questioned Davis. He was hoping to encounter at least one of them to teach a lesson for messing with Kari. "When I find them pow! They're going to get it for making me waste all this time looking for them."
"Careful what you wish for," replied Ken, "we don't know what we're going up against."
Kari looked looked around the darkened forest it looked like the light could almost not enter anymore. She could feel something was wrong, like a darkness was watching them close by. Her D-terminal went off notifying her that she had received an e-mail. Quickly pulling it out for her pocket she flipped it open. See quickly scanned the message and she gasped in fear.
"You are walking into a trap! You are probably well out numbered, and all the nearest digiports are down. You MUST get out of there NOW!" read the e-mail.
"No!" cried Kari. Everyone turned towards her.
"What? What is it?" questioned Davis.
"We're walking straight into a trap!" panicked Kari, "We better fall back or we might be in over our heads."
"What? I don't see one," replied Davis looking around.
"That's what traps are, you don't see them until it's too late!" shouted Ken as he grabbed Yolei's arm and dashed back to the entrance of the forest. Everyone didn't think twice and followed.
"Let's head back to where the digiport is if things get out of control we can bail." shouted Cody.
Kari heart sank in fear, when she recalled to rest of the e-mail, "all the closest digiports are closed!"
"What?" Cried Yolei, "that means it could take ages for us to get to another one."
The group reentered the opening of the forest. "What do we do now?" Asked Ken
"We fight!" said Davis as he saw a few dark shadows in the distance.
"That's them," yelled Kari, "There's no time to run we have to stand our ground!"
"Right!" shouted everybody. Pulling out their digivices the digidestined aim them towards their digimon. "Time to digivolve!"
Veemon digivolve to... Exveemon!
Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon!
Hawkmon digivolve to... Aquilamon!
Armidillomon digivolve to... Ankylomon!
Gatomon armor digivolve to... Nefertimon!
The dark digimon seemed to increase in their number. "How many are there?" Ask Ken
"Don't worry we can take them! Ready guys?" Shouted Davis
If by some signal the dark digimon raced towards the digidestined's digimon, while they begun their charge.
"Where do you think you're going?" Asked Kari who quickly caught Patamon, "You're way out of your league now." The little digimon put up a struggle.
"I have to help them," replied Patamon.
"You won't be helping anyone if you get in trouble," Kari received a nod from the little digimon. Kari watched their digimon make the first move on the evil digimon.
"V-laser!," shout Exveemon and a bright beam shot out of his chest slamming into an attacking digimon. Again he fired it this time cancelling out an energy blast. Then quickly diving down and tackling a group of dark digimon.
"Great work Exveemon! Keep it up you got them running!" shouted Davis coaching his partner on.
"Behind you Stingmon!" shouted Ken. Stingmon spun around and deflected and oncoming attack.
"Spiking strike!" shouted the insect digimon ramming his attack at the attacking digimon.
Ankylomon charged to a large group "Tail hammer!" he shouted rising his massive spiked tail then striking enemy sending them flying. Aquilamon and Nefertimon fired their attacks for above bombing their opponents.
"They seem to keep coming," said Kari who realized that for everyone they knock down more come and takes its place. "At this rate our digimon will tire out!" She saw how Nefertimon, was losing her energy.
"I think this calls for DNA digivolving!" shout Yolei as she ran up beside Kari, as with Ken joining Davis.
"Lets do it!" Nefertimon landed to the ground and dedigivolved back into Gatomon.
Exveemon... Stingmon... DNA digivolve to... Paildramon!
Aquilamon... Gatomon... DNA digivolve to... Slyphymon!
The two DNA digimon took to the sky and charged at the dark digimon while Ankylomon followed on the ground.
"Desperado blaster!" aiming two guns at the dark digimon, it released powerful blasts of energy raining down upon their opponents.
"Static force!" called out Slyphymon circling it's arms forming and then launching a powerful blast of energy, blowing away a portion of the digimon army.
"Yes! That's how it's done!" shouted Davis giving Ken a high five. "At this rate we're going to win!"
They sky suddenly darkened and the wind picked up drastically. Suddenly more of the dark digimon appeared. "Ha! Piece of cake," smirked Davis, "This is just like target practice for our digimon!" What happened next shocked the digidestined. All the digimon that had fallen and just arrived began to DNA digivolve, with one another, but after the digimon finished their digivoltion, they DNA digivolved again to create and even stronger army.
"What?" shout Ken, "how could they do that?"
"It's looks like we're going to have our work cut out for us!" said Davis, "Come on Paildramon, turn up the heat!"
"You too Slyphmon!" shouted Kari, "I better message TK to get over here quick, we are defiantly going to need his help now with all these surprises popping up. She grabbed her D-terminal and sent TK an e-mail. "Please TK we need need your help." Looking back up to the battle she could see that their digimon were losing their advantage over the now stronger dark army.
Since Ankylomon wasn't in it's DNA digivolved state it could not keep up with the now stronger digimon and was knock right off his feet by a powerful energy attack.
"No Armidillomon!" Cody ran up to his now rookie digimon.
"They're getting stronger. I couldn't keep up," said Armidillomon in a weak voice.
"Don't worry, I'm sure the others will handle it," replied Cody as he saw an attack hit Paildramon sending it crashing to the ground. Paildramon rolled to the side dodging a shower of attacks. Then leaping to its feet it returned with its own blaster attacks.
Paildramon knew it couldn't afford a close quarter combat with a that many digimon. Knowing that it will be overwhelmed by the shear numbers. The only thing it could do was blast them from afar, along with Slyphmon, but their attacks became less effective by every passing moment.
The dark energy watched from its hiding spot from high in the air. He watched that the digidestined's digimon beginning to lose their ground soon enough they will be defeated and then his final stage of his plan could then take place.
Kari watched the losing battle she could see the two DNA digimon taking more hits then they were delivering. "TK I need your help now more than ever," Kari whispered.
***
TK toweled for his still slightly damp hair from his shower. After slipping into a set of clean cloths he packed his uniform into his gym bag. "That was a long practice," groaned TK, "the coach really pushed us hard today." TK felt like he had ran a marathon. He picked up his bag when he heard his D-terminal go off. "Must be Kari sending in an update," thought TK as he reached into his bag. He flipped open the device and read the message inside.
"TK, we have encountered a huge army of dark digimon somehow they have found away to get stronger than before. I'm not sure if we can hold them off any longer. Please we need your help." read the e-mail.
TK grabbed his bag and and ran to the computer lab. The hallway was practically deserted since school was over for quite a while. TK reached the computer lab out of breath. He saw Izzy madly typing away at the computer. "What's going on?" puffed TK.
"TK! Everyone is in danger! Right now they are fighting a huge army of evil digimon, and to what I have seen is that the evil ones have got real strong. To make matters worse all the nearby digiports are closed making escape impossible!" He then typed faster on the keyboard, "I'm trying to reopen the one of the digiports close to them, but right now I'm having no luck.
"Keep trying, I'm going in to help them," shouted TK
"There are no digiports in the immediate area that are operational, it will take you at least a couple hours on foot to reach them!"
"Not if I can help it! Kari's in danger and I'll stop at nothing until I know she is safe!" TK clenched his fist. He wasn't going to let anything happen to Kari. Feeling a powerful surge of energy TK's hair erupted into an intense golden fire as the hidden powers of hope fused with him. "You just try to open the digiports while I go and help others."
Izzy nodded, "That digiport is probably the closest one you will find, just head north and you'll find the others, but it is quite the distance away." TK lifted his hand to the screen and was sucked into the digital world.
TK stepped out of the digiport, with a blazing light. "Hang on Kari. I'm on my way!" TK tore up the ground as he ran towards Kari, hoping he could reach her, and the others in time.
To Be Continued...