EPISODE 5: The Claw of Curiosity

If you thought it was impossible, you're wrong! Davis was the first to wake up! He turned over on his side and looked at Keika.

She looks so peaceful when she's sleeping. You'd never guess she was such a HYPER person when she's awake. Eeeeeew! She has krusties in her eyes! he thought.

She groaned, but not a painful groan. More like a noise of content. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Davis staring at her.

"I have krusties in my eyes, don't I?" she asked sleepily.

"Yeah, you do," he laughed. She rubbed her eyes and looked over at the clock. 10:53.

CRAP!she thought.

"CRAP!" she said.

"What?"

"We were supposed to leave first thing in the morning to look for Kami's Digiegg! Crikey!" she said.

"Tai, Matt, Izzy, and TK always sleep late, anyway. We'll be fine! Let's get up though," he said. They called a Geckomon to bring her clothes into the room, and she changed in the bathroom again. Davis was fully ready when she got back. Luckily, she remembered to ask to Geckomon for her make- up, so she was ready, too. They both walked into the common room together. A few eyebrows were raised when they came out of the same hall. Insinuations were made, and copies of the tape were handed out as proof.

"Davis, don't you think you're taking things a little fast? I mean, you've known her for only a few days," said TK.

"How do you figure that?" he asked.

"Well, I mean," he broke off.

"Oh, no, man! No, we didn't, no!" he said.

"Oh, okay. I was worried for a minute!" he said. The rest of the table overheard the conversation, so no more explanation was needed other than that the walls were paper-thin.

The conversation at the girls' table was similar. Kami asked why Keika had never returned after tending to Davis. Keika explained to them that she was a "True Love Waits" girl. She had a promise ring and the whole bit. The table nodded. She told them to ask the guys. They were, after all, only a wall away last night. So they did, and they got the truth. They apologized for thinking that of Keika. She forgave them and said "In today's world, I would probably think that same thing about anyone else."

They all finished their breakfast and set off. TK, Kami, Keika, and Davis rode together on Arterumon. Kari, left behind by TK, rode with Tai, Matt, and Sora on Garurumon. Izzy, Joe, Cody, Mimi, and Yolei rode on Halsemon. Joe's Digivice was leading them south-southeast. They reached the ground 0 in 20 minutes. Everyone got off their Digimon and began to search.

They search high and low and everywhere. Jubimon and Gomamon thought that they found it once, but it turned out to be a peculiarly smooth rock. Davis was in boy scouts once, so he was ale to tell them that it meant there was a stream nearby.

"If I was hiding the Digieggs, I'd pick there!" said Ken, eager to help out Kami. So they followed Gabumon's nose, since Jubimon had a cold, and found a river.

"I wanna dance in the river, yeah!" shouted Keika.

"I wanna dance in the river, yeah!" shouted the rest of the group. They all ran to the banks.

"Silent waters run deep," said Joe. The water wasn't silent or still, but it was barely moving.

"I'll check it out!" said Gomamon. He dove down beneath the surface, and didn't come up for a while.

"Well, it sure it deep! We'll need Submarimon!" he said.

"But Submarimon only holds one!" said Mimi.

"Well, then we should send Kami. The Digiegg is most likely to be hers, right?" said TK. Kari sighed and sat down on a stump.

Once again he takes her side! I lose more and more of him every day. she thought.

"TK does have a point," said Tai, "Kami doesn't have a Digimon yet, so I'd think it would be her Digiegg!"

"Makes sense to me!" said Sora.

"Is that okay with you, Cody?" asked Kami.

"Fine with me! He pretty much drives himself, so you can get the hang of it pretty quick," he said.

"Kami," said Ken.

"Huh?"

"Um, I just wanted to tell you, uh, good, er, luck!" he said.

"Thanks, Ken," she said.

"Good luck from me, too, Kami!" said TK.

"Thanks, TK," she laughed.

Ken glared at TK, and TK just grinned.

Why is it that that family always gets the girl!?! he thought.

As TK walked over to Kami, in the direction of Ken, Ken casually extended his leg a few inches, just enough so that when TK walked by, WHAM!!!!TK slammed into the ground. Kari was watching and started running as soon as Ken moved his foot.

"OH! TK! ARE YOU OKAY!?!?!" yelled Kari, fussing over him.

"Get off me! Ow! You're crushing my spleen!" he said.

Kami ran over when she heard him hit, and said

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," he said. Kami smiled and helped him up. Kari snorted angrily. Keika glared at her, and she walked away and sat down next to Tai. He patted her on the back, and Keika looked at him. He shrugged and mouthed I'll tell you later.

Oh, great! Now she pities him! thought Ken.

"Sorry about that, TK. My leg kinda cramped up there!" Ken smiled.

"I'm sure it did," said TK doubtfully. Cody pulled out his Digivice and yelled "Digi-Armor Energize!"

"Aramdillomon Digivolve tooooo…..Submarimon! The Reliable Guardian of the Sea!" Submarimon opened his hatch and let Kami inside. She lay down flat on her stomach, and took the controls. The hatch lowered, and she was sealed inside. The other Digidestineds pushed her the bank, except for Izzy, who was trying to hack back into the Uprising's network.

"Watch out for Megaseadramon! He could very well be down there!" shouted Izzy.

"Good luck!" said Ken.

"Good luck from me, too!" said TK. Ken gave him the once-frequently-used evil glare. TK smiled. Kami and Submarimon soon disappeared beneath the surface.

No one could really tell what was going on down there. Not even Hawkmon, who could see through the water. Occasionally they saw Submarimon's lights turn around and begin to float the other way. In a few minutes, Kami and Submarimon resurfaced. Kami climbed out of Submarimon and back on to the ground.

"Well…" she said.

"Well, what!?!" asked Izzy, frantic.

"Well, I think we found it, but it won't move," she answered.

"Figures…" said TK.

"I guess it won't move unless she touches it. Not through Submarimon, but actually touch it herself," said Ken.

"If the Digiegg is even hers," said Kari.

"Why wouldn't she have one? She has a Digivice," said TK.

"I don't know!" said Kari on the verge of tears. She pushed Tai's hand off of her shoulder and ran off into the nearby woods.

"KARI! Kari, come back!" yelled Gatomon as she scampered off after Kari. Jubimon groaned, and everyone turned around to find her snoring in a heap of fall leaves. She rolled over and twitched her legs, then fell back over and resumed snoring. Keika snorted, then laughed again. Davis rolled his eyes, walked over to her and put his arm around her.

"Is there anything you can do about that snort?" he asked, joking. She flirtily punched him in the arm, and he stuck out his tongue.

"How mature!" said Matt.

"If mature was what we were shooting for, we wouldn't be around each other so much, now would we?" said Keika looking at Davis. He smiled a big cheezy grin.

"Back to business," said Izzy.

"Yeah. Let's find a way to get that Digiegg!" said Tai.

"Now, what we need is a water-type Digimon that can breathe underwater. Do we have any of those?" asked Yolei.

"I can!" said Gomamon.

"Alright Gomamon! Are you willing to kiss Kami?" asked Izzy.

"WHAT!?!" cried TK and Ken simultaneously.

"In order for the right amount of oxygen to get into her lungs underneath the water's surface, we need a Digimon that can breathe underwater and get enough air into Kami's lungs to she can get to the bottom and get back up with the Digiegg. That's why I asked Gomamon if he was willing to kiss her?" explained Izzy.

"So, in short, it was an attempt at humor," said Keika.

"Yeah, I guess so," said Izzy, blushing.

"Don't feel bad. I'm not that great at it, either," said Keika, patting him on the back. He smiled sheepishly.

"Maybe if I Digivolved to Ikakkumon I could get her down there faster," said Gomamon.

"What if you blew too hard and I exploded!?!" demanded Kami.

"Good point," said Ken.

"I also thought that it was a very good point," said TK. Ken glared at him.

"Well, I think we should get going-ness," said Kami.

"Why the suffix?" asked Tai.

"Oh, just a habit I kinda started with a few of my friends. A bunch of people I knew started to pick up on it, and it was basically a craze that swept the whole school!" she said proudly.

"Really?" asked Cody.

"Well, it swept through my anime fan club pretty fast. All 3 members!" she said.

"Oh," said Cody.

"I've never really been a big fan of anime," said Davis.

"Why?" asked Keika.

"Well, for starters, there's always black and white dots in the sky and all over the ground! I mean, what's up with that?" he said.

"It's the animation style," said Kami, quite the anime expert.

"Okay, so that takes care of that, but the people are so unrealistic- looking! Can you imagine what and idiot I'd look like if I were drawn as an anime character? My eyes would pop out of my head, and my hair would be 2 feet in diameter!" he finished.

"Actually, Davis," said Izzy, "in real life, your hair is about 1 and ¾ feet in diameter,"

"And I look a whole ¼ of a foot less dumb!" he replied.

"You'd be surprised…"said Matt.

"Well, let's get going!" said Gomamon. Jubimon twitched and growled again. Kami breathed in a deep breath of air. She gave a thumbs up to Gomamon when she needed air. A few times, she had to hit him on the head! They got down to the Digiegg, and it was a regular-looking Digiegg. On the side, in light green was emblazoned a question mark, shining. Kami kicked towards it. She turned around to find Gomamon, but he wasn't there! Her mind raced with a thousand questions!

Where is he? How will I get to the top without him? How will I even get just to the Digiegg…ness?

A strong undertoe pulled her towards the egg. She kicked even harder to get towards thee egg, trying to help the current. Just when she thought she'd breathed her last, a huge bubble surrounded her. (Okay, okay! So, it's corny! It's the best I could come up with!) A squeaky voice said

"Take the Digiegg, Kami! I can feel your Curiosity! Take it! It's yours!" She reached out, and then the egg all of a sudden whizzed to the other side of the bubble.

"Ha! Tricked ya! Really, take it this time! I mean it!" She reached out quickly and grabbed it. Just then, a creature that looked a stunning amount like Gatomon jumped out!

"Hi! My name's Pikumon! I'll be you Digital Partner! I don't really think of myself as a monster, so I say digital partner instead!" he smiled. He was a white kitten-like Digimon, with blue paws and a very long tail.

"You look a lot like Gatomon! Are you two related?" she asked. Pikumon sighed.

"Yeah, yeah! I'm related to the GREAT Gatomon. Why does everyone only care about her? I'm kinda interesting, too, don'tcha think!?!" he demanded.

"How are you related?" she asked. Pikumon paced the bubble, shook his head, and groaned.

"Second cousins. We used to hang out all the time, but now, ever since she got a human, well, things have changed for all of us. Especially me! What's your name, human?" he asked, suddenly bright and cheery.

"I'm Kami," she said. Pikumon started laughing and rolling all along the sides of the bubble. He laughed until he cried.

"Why are you laughing?" asked Kami.

"You name means…HAIR!" he said, and laughed even harder. Kami stamped her foot down.

"It does not! It means spice!" she said.

"Said the hair lady-ness!" he said.

"Where did you get that?"

"Your name does mean hair!"

"No, the –ness part?"

"It's a common everyday suffix. I just like to wear it out!"

"There we go!"

"What?"

"We've reached common ground…ness! I use that all the time, too! No wonder you're my Digimon, Pikumon-ness!" she said, and they both laughed. After they finished laughing, they started wondering about how to get back to the surface.

"We need to hurry! What if we run out of air!" said Kami.

"We can't! We're inside a bubble in the DigiWorld. Things are different here. A Digidestined wouldn't die for a stupid reason like this! It'd take something like a Dark Master to do that!" he explained in his squeaky voice.

"Let's try jumping up and down! Maybe that'd work!" she said. Pikumon just laughed.

"What!?!"

"Well, it's just that, did blowing really hard not work?" he asked sarcastically.

"At least try!" she said. "1,2….." and before she could even think about saying 3, the bubble began to float up towards the surface. When Kami and her newfound friend rose to the surface, they didn't see any bubbles. It was like that "Hungry Like the Wolves" video, when the people rise up out of the water, and they're dry! It was soooo neat-o! Anyway, she introduced Pikumon. Being the mischief-maker that he is, the first thing he did was stalk up to Jubimon, crouch down and pounce on her face. She howled of course, and lashed violently in the air.

"Alright! Who was it!?!" she demanded.

"Maybe you should ask that Digimon on top of your head," said Veemon. Jubimon looked up, then remembered that Veemon said on top of her head, so she shook it, and Pikumon came tumbling off. The 2 growled and hissed at each other, and then say down.

"I like him! He's not as dull as some of the others…" said Jubimon, looking at Tentomon in particular.

"Yeah. This one looks…almost fun! Purple fur, I like that," he said.

"Looks like our Digimon have bonded as the 2 neophytes," said Keika. (FIY: Neophyte, in an organization, would be like a rookie or a freshman.).

"Eeeeeew! Neophytes! You should have them checked! Once, my cat had a ringworm, and…" rambled Mimi. The others groaned. Keika walked up to Tai.

"What was it that you were going to tell me?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah! Almost forgot. Kari kinda likes TK. She's my sister, and I don't know why she tells me these things, but she does. I think it would help the group a lot if her and Kami stopped fighting over TK subconsciously," he explained.

"Why are you looking at me? You and Davis are the appointed group leaders!"

"Well, yeah, but you talk to girls a lot better than either of us!" he said. She looked over at Davis, who had off his socks and shoes and was picking at his toenail.

"I can see what you mean!"

"You love him anyway, though!" said Tai.

"Love? Who said anything about love?"

"You're going with him, I figured that you loved him,"

"Love…is a strong word," she said.

"Oh, well, uh, okay! I'm here if you need to talk!" he reminded her. He walked away and began to talk to Matt about what looked like music, seeing that he was playing and air guitar. Keika walked over the Kami and Kari, who were on either side of TK, Ken on the other side of Kami.

"Hey, girls! I need to talk to ya!" she said.

"I'm busy now," said Kari dreamily, looking at TK. TK scoffed and whispered something to Kami, who laughed.

"Better yet, I think I'll talk to you, TK!" said Keika cheerfully. TK looked at her blankly, got up and walked over to her.

"What did I do now?" he asked.

"Nothing, really. Kami and Kari won't come, so I figured I'd talk to you about them. Now, I know you like Kami, but so does Ken. Kari likes you, but you like Kami. See the cooperation problem? What you need to do is pick on, and fast, before the whole Digidestined team comes tumbling down!"

"Okay, this will require some serious thought though. Hmmmmm…..Kami!" he said.

"Okay!" Keika laughed. "Well, go and ask her out."

"It's not that easy! I mean, well, you know. There are certain steps!"

"Well, you got through your steps. I gotsta go spend some quality time with my beau!" said Keika, walking towards the direction of Davis, now concentrating on his index toe, I guess you'd call it.

"Ya know, there are more private places to do that kind of stuff!" said Keika.

"Yeah, but these people are my closest circle of friends, and if I can't do this in front of them then who can I do it in front of?" he said.

"Ya got a point there," she said.

"Well, then join me!"

"What?"

"You heard me! Pick a toe for old time's sake! Yours, not mine!" Keika shook her head, but couldn't deny the possibility of it being fun. She pulled off her socks and shoes and began to pick the nail polish off of her toes. Of course, the rest of the group looked at them like complete idiots, throwing toenails at each other, but to them, it was quite possibly the funniest thing they had ever done!