Chapter 3- Time Shifts
The Digital World- File Island
Keile and Momoko had been picking their way down the trail for hours. They had been carefully following the river in silence. Momoko was normally in America with her family, so in all of her eleven years she hadn't got real close to any of the other kids or their parents. Sure they wrote and saw each other on holidays, but it wasn't the same as everyday contact. Her mother Mimi always talked about their friends in Japan. She felt she knew them, but was she apart of the close circle they had formed? She felt bad for the others because they didn't have their parents with them, and wanted to help make them feel better. But she didn't know how.
Keile on the other hand was wrapped up in worrying over his father. Joe was all he had since the accident. He was only eight at the time and it left such a hole in his life. The other adults tried to help him, and he had been able to over come some of the grief. But this did leave him holding on even tighter to what was left of his family. He was terrified of loosing his father and Sealmon. Of course he realized that they're all probably fine and he's worrying himself silly over nothing.
"Ummm.... Could someone please say something!" Lopmon yelled breaking the silence that the group had been in since almost the moment they where sent to find the northern temple. "No one has said more then four words to each other since we started out, and this had better stop." He warned.
"S..sorry." they both said blushing.
"I guess I'm just worried." Keile said. Rubbing a hand in his hair and trying to act like he suddenly saw something extremely interesting on his shoe.
"Me too." Momoko said looking rather embarrassed.
"We need to do something to keep your minds off of your worries." Sealmon said jumping to emphasize his point.
The two kids looked at each other then looked at the digimon. "What?" they said in unison.
"We can't really stop." Momoko pointed out despite the fact that she really wanted to just sit down and cry about her sore feet. She managed to push the urge down again trying to think of something to do while they walk besides worry.
"We can play a game while we walk." Lopmon suggested.
"Yeah a game!" Sealmon happily agreed. "How about Eye-spy? I'm sooo good at that game." He said so proudly. That made the kids laugh. Both of them where tired and didn't really want to play, but the infectious laughter of their digimon made it really hard not to begin to feel better. "I guess it can't hurt." They begrudgingly agreed not wanting to crush Sealmon's feelings.
"Yay Yay I getta go first Okay?" he said jumping up and down excitedly.
"Go ahead then." Lopmon said waving a paw at Sealmon.
"Goody!. Umm..." he then began looking around as the kids walked on with him trailing behind. "I spy with my little eye... something that begins with a.." he paused. "A T!" he said even more excited then before.
"Oh man come on." Lopmon groaned with the others. "So do I we're in the woods there's trees all over the place." He really didn't like this game.
"Nope. Wrong It's that Dokugumon!" he said pointing to a yellow and black head with two large horns poking through the trees.
"That's doesn't begin with a T." Momoko yelled jumping back as Lopmon and Sealmon got between them and the digimon emerging from the trees.
"Nope but trouble does and he looks like he's looking for some!" Sealmon said as Keile began to visibly freak.
The Real world? Or is it?
Sora was mystified when they reached the edge of town. Thick fog had wrapped itself around everything. There where no cars, people or animals . Nothing. Just fog and the buildings. It was like a ghost town. It felt to be almost four in the afternoon but everything was dead.
"What time is it?" Sora asked.
"Noon according to my watch." Izzy said. He was back on his laptop.
"That's impossible. We left for the camp area at eleven!" Sora said.
"And we where there for hours!" Joe added as he tried to maneuver the car through the fog.
"I know. It seems that time has slowed down."
"Time can't slow down that impossible." Joe said frantically.
"I'm trying to figure out the causes I have some theories but I'm not going to say anything till I'm certain." Izzy said actually looking up from the computer for a moment.
"Hey guys what is that ahead?" Joe asked
"I can't see anything" Gomomon said trying to look through the thick fog. "Are your glasses fogging up?" he asked looking at Joe.
The ground began to shake. A Tall dark shadow formed in the fog.
"Turn Joe TURN!!!!" they all began shouting as he was turning.
In a Dark Place
"Master..." it was a small demidevimon. The Shadow he was addressing shifted and made a growling sound in response. Demidevimon was visibly nervous and was shifting hi weight from leg to leg. "The digidestine's children." He gulped," They have set off to open and stabilize the gates from the digital world." He then gulped as he watched the shadow move again. The sound of metal against metal screeched and echoed through the black space. "If the children succeed then the world that you sent their parents into will collapse ... " he was definitely scared now. "And send the digidestine back to their own." He squeaked out the last part.
"I know." A gruff voice grated sending demidevimon skittering back. "Stop them!" It ordered. This sent Demidevimon bowing out muttering yes master.
A pair of golden eyes appeared in the shadows just behind where demidevimon had just been. The black creature moved with a clinking sound of claws against stone. "Master?" it asked bowing.
A glowing sphere melted into existence. Inside were the forms of the digidestine sitting around the TV station. "That circle can not come together." The shadow muttered. " Send out your toys." The shadow said sending the sphere to his minion. "See that you are done before the fog lifts." The black creature bowed taking the sphere his master gave him and melted back into the shadow. The Shadow shifted again. "No that circle will definitely not come together."
Wherever
"Tai, do you think you really could find them in that fog?" Matt asked as Tai paced back and forth. He didn't answer.
"Give them some time." Kari said. Everyone was trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working for some. The situation seemed to get worse for them as time passed. That seemed to be another problem. Time wasn't passing. At least not like it normally did. They all felt like it should be later, but it wasn't. The fog was getting worse and the entire environment they where in was somehow wrong. This set them all off balance. Another problem they discovered was that the digivices where not working. None of their digimon could digivolve from their present states. And from what Tai told them about the digimon outside. They really could use a little digivolving.
"I can't ." Tai finally said. "Something is out there and ..." he was trying to make them understand. Agumon was better from the blast he took earlier but not quite ready to fight again. "I can't run away from this." He finally said out of frustration.
"We don't want to run away either Tai." Tk said.
"We want to be out there trying to figure this out, but you can't see anything out there." Matt pointed out.
"It was hard enough keeping Davis from running all over the city in search of Megumi." Cody said rubbing the bruise that Davis left.
Tai winced. He wasn't any help then either. When the incident was over Davis had grabbed one of the two-way radios that Ken and Cody found earlier and stalked off to sulk with Veemon behind him promising everyone he would deal with Davis. Or at least keep him from sneaking out the window. "Fine." He said in a puff. "I think I'll take a walk too. It's better then sitting around doing nothing."
"Good idea maybe we should check out the layout of this place." Matt said grabbing another radio. And following Tai.
"I hope there isn't another fist fight." Agumon could be heard saying as he and Gabumon followed the two men.
"Well at least he's not pacing anymore." Hawkmon mumbled as he tried to help Yolei keep warm. She seemed to be hiding in Ken's jacket more then anything. The lobby area they where in was rather large. The door they where near was just a small service door and to the left was a bay window. The room stretched on to a wall of glass doors. Most of them had chose to sat near the door waiting for the rest of their friends to get there. Kari's cellphone was out of batteries and Matt's phone was left in the van. No one wanted to go back outside. When they tried they nearly got lost.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"There's that noise again." Gatomon said jumping up and looking towards the door with slited eyes. "I know that wasn't my imagination."
"No it wasn't." Ken agreed getting up from his seat beside Yolei.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
Kari picked up a radio and turned it on. "Guys are you making that scraping sound?" a cracked answer of no came back.
"We're not alone." Gatomon said as TK got up and went to the door.
"See anything?" Patomon asked.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"No." he answered shutting the door and backing away. Kari then went over to one of the bay windows and began searching outside. "That may not be safe." He said really beginning to worry.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"Oh no." she said backing away. She had backed her way across the room as Ken, Cody and the digimon ran to the window.
"What did you see?" "I can't see anything through this fog." they all asked at once in a nervous rush.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
Yolei got up and stood beside Kari as TK came up behind them.
"There!" Ken proclaimed pointing at something out the window.
"What is that?" Cody asked trying to squint at whatever they saw.
"I can't see it where?" Wormon said jumping up closer to the window.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
A large tile from the lobby floor slid upwards between the digidestine and the door. The digimon all gathered between their partners and the strange slab. It looked like a granite slab that was several inches thick with no real defining features. Six large legs burst out of two sides of the slab sending small chips skittering across the room. The legs where long blades that resembled swords with a joint in the center. It used these to pick itself up and turn around as if it where investigating it's surroundings. "Ah what's that!?" Yolei asked.
"It looks like a spider." Cody said.
"I hate spiders." Kari mumbled.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
Another slab slid up between Ken and Cody and TK and the girls. It's legs burst out of it's body sending chips flying. "How many of these are there?" Armodillomon asked turning around to face the new one.
Ken looked down and his eyes widened in sudden realization. "The floor." He whispered. "The FLOOR! They're what the floor is MADE of!" he yelled to the others.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"Get out of here!" Gatomon yelled as the one near the door lunged into motion.
The Digital World- File Island
Keile and Momoko had been picking their way down the trail for hours. They had been carefully following the river in silence. Momoko was normally in America with her family, so in all of her eleven years she hadn't got real close to any of the other kids or their parents. Sure they wrote and saw each other on holidays, but it wasn't the same as everyday contact. Her mother Mimi always talked about their friends in Japan. She felt she knew them, but was she apart of the close circle they had formed? She felt bad for the others because they didn't have their parents with them, and wanted to help make them feel better. But she didn't know how.
Keile on the other hand was wrapped up in worrying over his father. Joe was all he had since the accident. He was only eight at the time and it left such a hole in his life. The other adults tried to help him, and he had been able to over come some of the grief. But this did leave him holding on even tighter to what was left of his family. He was terrified of loosing his father and Sealmon. Of course he realized that they're all probably fine and he's worrying himself silly over nothing.
"Ummm.... Could someone please say something!" Lopmon yelled breaking the silence that the group had been in since almost the moment they where sent to find the northern temple. "No one has said more then four words to each other since we started out, and this had better stop." He warned.
"S..sorry." they both said blushing.
"I guess I'm just worried." Keile said. Rubbing a hand in his hair and trying to act like he suddenly saw something extremely interesting on his shoe.
"Me too." Momoko said looking rather embarrassed.
"We need to do something to keep your minds off of your worries." Sealmon said jumping to emphasize his point.
The two kids looked at each other then looked at the digimon. "What?" they said in unison.
"We can't really stop." Momoko pointed out despite the fact that she really wanted to just sit down and cry about her sore feet. She managed to push the urge down again trying to think of something to do while they walk besides worry.
"We can play a game while we walk." Lopmon suggested.
"Yeah a game!" Sealmon happily agreed. "How about Eye-spy? I'm sooo good at that game." He said so proudly. That made the kids laugh. Both of them where tired and didn't really want to play, but the infectious laughter of their digimon made it really hard not to begin to feel better. "I guess it can't hurt." They begrudgingly agreed not wanting to crush Sealmon's feelings.
"Yay Yay I getta go first Okay?" he said jumping up and down excitedly.
"Go ahead then." Lopmon said waving a paw at Sealmon.
"Goody!. Umm..." he then began looking around as the kids walked on with him trailing behind. "I spy with my little eye... something that begins with a.." he paused. "A T!" he said even more excited then before.
"Oh man come on." Lopmon groaned with the others. "So do I we're in the woods there's trees all over the place." He really didn't like this game.
"Nope. Wrong It's that Dokugumon!" he said pointing to a yellow and black head with two large horns poking through the trees.
"That's doesn't begin with a T." Momoko yelled jumping back as Lopmon and Sealmon got between them and the digimon emerging from the trees.
"Nope but trouble does and he looks like he's looking for some!" Sealmon said as Keile began to visibly freak.
The Real world? Or is it?
Sora was mystified when they reached the edge of town. Thick fog had wrapped itself around everything. There where no cars, people or animals . Nothing. Just fog and the buildings. It was like a ghost town. It felt to be almost four in the afternoon but everything was dead.
"What time is it?" Sora asked.
"Noon according to my watch." Izzy said. He was back on his laptop.
"That's impossible. We left for the camp area at eleven!" Sora said.
"And we where there for hours!" Joe added as he tried to maneuver the car through the fog.
"I know. It seems that time has slowed down."
"Time can't slow down that impossible." Joe said frantically.
"I'm trying to figure out the causes I have some theories but I'm not going to say anything till I'm certain." Izzy said actually looking up from the computer for a moment.
"Hey guys what is that ahead?" Joe asked
"I can't see anything" Gomomon said trying to look through the thick fog. "Are your glasses fogging up?" he asked looking at Joe.
The ground began to shake. A Tall dark shadow formed in the fog.
"Turn Joe TURN!!!!" they all began shouting as he was turning.
In a Dark Place
"Master..." it was a small demidevimon. The Shadow he was addressing shifted and made a growling sound in response. Demidevimon was visibly nervous and was shifting hi weight from leg to leg. "The digidestine's children." He gulped," They have set off to open and stabilize the gates from the digital world." He then gulped as he watched the shadow move again. The sound of metal against metal screeched and echoed through the black space. "If the children succeed then the world that you sent their parents into will collapse ... " he was definitely scared now. "And send the digidestine back to their own." He squeaked out the last part.
"I know." A gruff voice grated sending demidevimon skittering back. "Stop them!" It ordered. This sent Demidevimon bowing out muttering yes master.
A pair of golden eyes appeared in the shadows just behind where demidevimon had just been. The black creature moved with a clinking sound of claws against stone. "Master?" it asked bowing.
A glowing sphere melted into existence. Inside were the forms of the digidestine sitting around the TV station. "That circle can not come together." The shadow muttered. " Send out your toys." The shadow said sending the sphere to his minion. "See that you are done before the fog lifts." The black creature bowed taking the sphere his master gave him and melted back into the shadow. The Shadow shifted again. "No that circle will definitely not come together."
Wherever
"Tai, do you think you really could find them in that fog?" Matt asked as Tai paced back and forth. He didn't answer.
"Give them some time." Kari said. Everyone was trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working for some. The situation seemed to get worse for them as time passed. That seemed to be another problem. Time wasn't passing. At least not like it normally did. They all felt like it should be later, but it wasn't. The fog was getting worse and the entire environment they where in was somehow wrong. This set them all off balance. Another problem they discovered was that the digivices where not working. None of their digimon could digivolve from their present states. And from what Tai told them about the digimon outside. They really could use a little digivolving.
"I can't ." Tai finally said. "Something is out there and ..." he was trying to make them understand. Agumon was better from the blast he took earlier but not quite ready to fight again. "I can't run away from this." He finally said out of frustration.
"We don't want to run away either Tai." Tk said.
"We want to be out there trying to figure this out, but you can't see anything out there." Matt pointed out.
"It was hard enough keeping Davis from running all over the city in search of Megumi." Cody said rubbing the bruise that Davis left.
Tai winced. He wasn't any help then either. When the incident was over Davis had grabbed one of the two-way radios that Ken and Cody found earlier and stalked off to sulk with Veemon behind him promising everyone he would deal with Davis. Or at least keep him from sneaking out the window. "Fine." He said in a puff. "I think I'll take a walk too. It's better then sitting around doing nothing."
"Good idea maybe we should check out the layout of this place." Matt said grabbing another radio. And following Tai.
"I hope there isn't another fist fight." Agumon could be heard saying as he and Gabumon followed the two men.
"Well at least he's not pacing anymore." Hawkmon mumbled as he tried to help Yolei keep warm. She seemed to be hiding in Ken's jacket more then anything. The lobby area they where in was rather large. The door they where near was just a small service door and to the left was a bay window. The room stretched on to a wall of glass doors. Most of them had chose to sat near the door waiting for the rest of their friends to get there. Kari's cellphone was out of batteries and Matt's phone was left in the van. No one wanted to go back outside. When they tried they nearly got lost.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"There's that noise again." Gatomon said jumping up and looking towards the door with slited eyes. "I know that wasn't my imagination."
"No it wasn't." Ken agreed getting up from his seat beside Yolei.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
Kari picked up a radio and turned it on. "Guys are you making that scraping sound?" a cracked answer of no came back.
"We're not alone." Gatomon said as TK got up and went to the door.
"See anything?" Patomon asked.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"No." he answered shutting the door and backing away. Kari then went over to one of the bay windows and began searching outside. "That may not be safe." He said really beginning to worry.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"Oh no." she said backing away. She had backed her way across the room as Ken, Cody and the digimon ran to the window.
"What did you see?" "I can't see anything through this fog." they all asked at once in a nervous rush.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
Yolei got up and stood beside Kari as TK came up behind them.
"There!" Ken proclaimed pointing at something out the window.
"What is that?" Cody asked trying to squint at whatever they saw.
"I can't see it where?" Wormon said jumping up closer to the window.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
A large tile from the lobby floor slid upwards between the digidestine and the door. The digimon all gathered between their partners and the strange slab. It looked like a granite slab that was several inches thick with no real defining features. Six large legs burst out of two sides of the slab sending small chips skittering across the room. The legs where long blades that resembled swords with a joint in the center. It used these to pick itself up and turn around as if it where investigating it's surroundings. "Ah what's that!?" Yolei asked.
"It looks like a spider." Cody said.
"I hate spiders." Kari mumbled.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
Another slab slid up between Ken and Cody and TK and the girls. It's legs burst out of it's body sending chips flying. "How many of these are there?" Armodillomon asked turning around to face the new one.
Ken looked down and his eyes widened in sudden realization. "The floor." He whispered. "The FLOOR! They're what the floor is MADE of!" he yelled to the others.
~ssscccccccccrrrrraaappppppppp~
"Get out of here!" Gatomon yelled as the one near the door lunged into motion.
