Intro: Yo! Here's the next chapter…I'm putting off working on my other fic again, because this one is probably the better story, so if I improve my writing while writing this story, the other fic will turn out better, right? It's funny though, I'm working on the fic that I don't know how will turn out, when I already planned the other one out completely. This chapter will be short, since it's just covering a little bit of stuff. Yeah, I don't usually go with the official ages for the first season, since I don't believe it. I changed the ending of 02, so that the only enemies were Arukenimon and Mummymon, just so that it's easier.
Across America
Chapter 4: Development
"How exactly do we go about looking people up all over the country?" Michael mused. "If they're like you, Kari, they'll have changed their names."
Kari absently rubbed Tailmon's ears (they had let Kari name the cat, since she had a good idea) and sighed. "If only we had Koushirou-san here! He could probably figure out a way to do it, if anyone could."
The six children on a mission sat in Kari's sunlit room. Kari, Cara, and Jess sat on the bed, Michael sat in her chair, and Cody and Matt sat on the ground. Cara glanced at the faces of the people in the room, then asked a question she had been meaning to ask for a while. "Okay, but am I the only one who doesn't really know what exactly is going on? I understand that we're finding you guy's friends, who got separated four years ago. You were visiting a friend who lived here in Kingston. There was relationship problems, arguments, and everyone but Kari took off, am I right?" Everyone except Jess nodded. "That all makes sense, but you all seem very close, and excuse me for saying so, but you're a kind of odd group." She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Not really the right ages, either," she said, looking squarely at Cody. "Maybe your parents were all are close, or maybe you're all related, or maybe even by chance you all came to be close friends. But then why do I get the feeling that I'm missing something?"
"I've been wondering about that too," admitted Jess. "I've seen that picture several times, and you're quite the mismatched group."
Their brunette best friend drew in a deep breath. She looked at Matt, Cody, and Michael. "Should we tell them, guys?"
"Might as well," said Matt, shrugging. "It's not really fair to keep them in the dark like this, and that part of our life is behind us now, anyway."
"You tell them, Matt," Michael suggested. "You were there from the beginning."
By now Cara and Jess were afire with curiosity. Jess tossed her golden hair. "Whoa, you guys are in something deep! All that secret stuff…"
Matt's blue eyes closed. "All right, here we go," he began. "It all started about seven years ago. No, it really started 12 years ago. There were only seven of us in the beginning."
"The beginning of what?!" burst out Cara. "We're dying of curiosity here!"
Matt stuck his tongue out at her, looking for a moment like he was 13 again. "The young are so impatient," he sighed dramatically, before being struck with a pillow thrown by the redhead, who was glaring at him with stormy gray eyes.
"Come on, slowpoke! Don't tell me your brain is weighted down from all that hair and hair gel!"
This set Matt and Kari to laughing hysterically. "N..no…Car..a…not…Yama..to…-san," Kari choked out, practically in tears from mirth. "Hahaha, you've…got…the…wrong…person!" She and Matt desperately tried to calm themselves. Cody pounded on Matt's back hard. He hacked for a few more seconds, then got himself under control.
"Any…anyway," he continued, still shaking a little. "I'll start a little farther in the future, actually. Seven kids were at summer camp. Their names were: Taichi Yagami, Takeru Takaishi, Sora Takenouchi, Koushirou Izumi, Jou Kido, Mimi Tachikawa, and myself, Yamato Ishida. Kari and Cody joined us later. Anyway, it started snowing on the first day of August! The seven of us went outside to check it out." He paused, "You know, now that I think about it, why didn't anybody else go outside?"
"Obviously, because you were Chosen," responded Michael. "Get on with it, man!"
Matt cleared his throat noisily. "As I was saying, we went outside, and in the snow were these strange devices. Brace yourself," he cautioned. "Because believe it or not, the seven of us were transported to another world."
Cara squinted at him skeptically. "Oh come on, Matt. You're just teasing again."
"Yeah, that is kind of unbelievable," put in Jess. "Can you prove it?"
"Cara, Jess, he's not lying to you," said Kari. "You wanted the story, here it is! Every word is the truth, as unbelievable as it seems. I'm sure you can remember something weird that happened four and seven years ago."
Jess frowned. "You know, I think there was something big on the news four years ago, and yeah! Seven years too! But," she said, "I can't remember a thing!"
"I'd be surprised if you did," said Cody quietly. "I didn't remember anything earthshaking in my life until four years ago."
"Getting back on track," said Matt. "We were sent to a place called the Digital World, created from the Internet. There were seven digimon, each destined to because our partners, because we were the Chosen Children. We fought against the evil ravaging the Digital World, and our partner digimon evolved to higher and higher levels to be able to defeat them."
"Evolved?" asked Cara.
"They transformed, or got bigger, as Mimi would put it," answered Michael.
"Right," continued Matt. "We fought Devimon, who almost killed my younger brother, Takeru, then traveled to a different continent, gaining tags and crests, which helped our digimon evolve to the next level. Each of us had different crests. Mine is friendship," he said, with a slightly dark tone. "To be honest, it didn't suit me at all at first, and still doesn't as much as would have one of the others."
"Whatever, Yamato-san," snapped Kari. "Don't go there again. You're a great friend."
"Thanks, Kari, but be honest. Back then, I was…quite different. Anyhow, we defeated Etemon, then had to return to the real world to defeat Vandemon, who was searching for the eighth child, which turned out to be Taichi's younger sister, your friend Kari. She was only eight back then."
Jess shook her head. "Battling monsters? A Digital World? Kari, I can see why you wouldn't tell us, but we are your best friends. We wouldn't let your secret out."
Her redhead friend nodded in agreement as Kari sighed. "I know, I know. It didn't really seem important anymore. The Chosen Children have all been separated, and the Digital World is finally at peace, as well as the real world. Why stir it up again?" To their surprise, tears had formed in her eyes. "You know, Yamato-san hasn't told half the story, really. There were so many, so many of our digimon friends who gave their lives for us, for me. And it still hurts, even after seven years." One tear escaped and fell onto her shirt.
Jess bowed her head. "Sorry, Kari. I didn't mean to sound angry or anything." She put her arm around Kari's shoulders. "I didn't mean to bring up anything painful."
Matt and the others looked on uncomfortably. They all bore their own guilt. "Er, I"ll just keep going," the boy said finally. "Anyway, we defeated Vandemon, even after he came back after we killed him the first time, but we had to return to the Digital World and defeat the Dark Masters, and the source of the evil in the Digital World." He coughed slightly. "As Kari said, I'm not going into detail at all, since a lot more went on, and none of it pleasant. By the way," he looked at the now calm Kari. "Kari, just call me Matt, k?" The girl nodded mutely, with a faint sad smile. "After we defeated Apocalymon, we returned to the real world, believing that the trouble was over. And here was where you might remember something. Seven years ago, the Digital World appeared in the sky from after we defeated Vandemon to after we returned."
Cara blinked. "You know, I think I remember that now. And four years ago, around Christmas, Jess and I were visiting New York City, and there was some commotion over by the Rockefeller Center with some big monsters. Was that…?"
Kari grinned now. "That would be Daisuke and Mimi, along with some other Chosen Children. But that's getting ahead."
"Oh right. Ok Matt, keep going."
"Well, three years later, we were all different people, and Mimi had moved here to New York. We found out that someone called the Digimon Kaizer was taking over the Digital World, but he turned out to be a kid, Ken Ichijouji, who was really a Chosen Child. Now there were three new Chosen Children, Daisuke, Miyako, Iori (Cody), and Kari and Takeru were Chosen again. They also defeated Arukenimon and Mummymon, and so far, that's been it. We can still go to the Digital World, but not very often." Matt blinked. "Wow, I told you guys like, nothing, really. But that's about the bare outline of it."
"That's okay," laughed Michael. "It would take too long if you mentioned much more. That's good enough."
Just then the phone rang. Kari raced down the hall to Michael's room, where there was a phone. "Cody! It's Korinn!"
Cody quickly exited the room and eagerly snatched up the phone. "Hi, Korinn?"
"Korinn…Cody's girlfriend, right?" asked Cara. "Back in Kansas?"
Jess nodded happily. "They're so cute together!"
"I never would've thought it of little Cody," sighed Matt. "Having a girlfriend at the age of 12."
"Well, people surprise you," said Kari, returning to the room. "Don't forget that I could've had a boyfriend at age 11, even if I was only a week away from 12."
"That's right, your birthday is on August 4, Kari! Just about a month away! What do you want?" exclaimed Cara.
"Hey, isn't there more important stuff at hand than discussing birthday gifts?" asked Matt. "Like what our next move should be?"
Everyone fell silent at his question. What could they do next? No one had any idea where another friend might be. "Well, maybe we'll get lucky and just happen to run into them, like we ran into Cody and Matt," said Jess hopefully. "I mean, you are Chosen, right? Destined to be together?"
"That does bring up a good point," admitted Kari. "We've been awfully lucky finding you, Matt, and Cody. Maybe more than chance is involved here. But," she added, "We couldn't have done it if it wasn't for Cara and Jess. Thanks, more than I can say," she said with wholehearted gratitude.
Cody entered the room again. "Hey guys, you were talking about lucky breaks, right? How's this for lucky? Korinn and I were just chit-chatting, and I asked her how the family was doing. She says that her brother, Jackson, was looking at colleges, and there's a college in Virginia famous for its two geniuses, Izzy Izumi and Ken Ichijouji."
Silence reigned for five seconds. "Well, looks like maybe fate is involved," said Michael.