Part 12: Sora's Rescue!
"Help me!!"
"Oh no!" everyone gasped.
"SORA!!!" Taichi stared.
"Somebody save her!" Yamato panicked, turning to the Digimon.
"She'll be killed!" Takeru shouted out.
"Why doesn't Piyomon try to fly and save herself!" Hikari wondered.
"I would evolve to Kabuterimon, but I can't, even though the Dark Towers have been destroyed."
The other Digimon were in the same boat and frowned. They too couldn't evolve for some strange reason, even though the towers had been destroyed.
Iori smiled as he watched Sora falling towards the ground, like a rag doll being thrown out of a window. He then ordered Digmon to land.
"Yes, Iori!"
Digmon landed to the ground, Iori hopping off of his back.
"One less Chosen to worry about," Iori sneered with an evil chuckle, "even though she was never a threat to begin with."
"Hawkmon, armor evolve to Holsmon! That way, you can fly up and catch both Sora-san and Piyomon."
The hawk looked up and Miyako and shook his head slowly, a frown on his face, and an apologetic look in his dark eyes.
"I am sorry, Miyako-san," the bird apologized. "I can not evolve because of the battle we had earlier, and our having to knock down those Dark Towers. I haven't regained all of my energy yet."
Taichi looked as if he were going to have a nervous breakdown, as he watched his friend fall faster towards the Earth below her, not knowing what to do to help her, as the others.
"Sora," Piyomon barely uttered, a weak, deathly tone to her voice, "I'm sorry…I…couldn't….protect…you…"
"Piyomon…" Sora stared over to her partner, feeling like crying since she felt so sorry for her.
From the ground, Taichi continued to stare up at the sky, debating in his mind on what he should do. 'I promised to protect you, even when were kids I promised you that! Back when you were kidnapped by Nanomon (Datamon) I made that promise to myself to help keep you, as well as Hikari, safe and to always try to protect you! I intend on keeping that promise!' He then shouted, "SORA, HANG ON!!!"
Taichi took off like a bullet from a gun. The boy just couldn't take seeing one of his good friends in danger any longer.
Sora seemed to be falling a lot faster than Piyomon, which was pretty strange to the girl, science wise, but she didn't care too much. She felt herself inching closer and closer towards the ground. She knew what was in store for her, and that her end was near. She then felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks, and then closed her eyes, awaiting her fate.
"Taichi, where are you going!" Jyou called after the boy had run off.
"I see why he ran off!" Mimi realized while acting as Koushirou's support. Ignoring the puzzled looks everyone was giving her, she turned her attention towards her Digimon partner. "Palmon, I have an idea to help Taichi! My guess is that he's going after Sora!"
"What's the plan, Mimi?"
Mimi let go of Koushirou, and kneeled down and whispered into Palmon's ear. She nodded, and ran off as fast as she could, hoping that she wouldn't be too late.
"Goodbye, Piyomon; good bye, kaasan; good bye, Taichi; good by, everyone," Sora whisperred as she closed her eyes.
Sora knew that she would be dead any moment now. She braced herself for the pain that she was about to feel, her short life flashing before her eyes.
All of a sudden, Sora felt herself hit the ground. Sora's eyes were still closed, and she wondered why she hadn't felt any pain, or anything remotely close to pain. Piyomon was the same; she too wondered why she was feeling no pain. Instead of the two feeling pain or any kind of discomfort, both felt as if they were being held.
Sora slowly opened her eyes, curious as to why she was feeling held, yet lying on the sandy ground at the same time. She looked over, and saw familiar soccer player she had known the majority of her life. It was Taichi who was holding her. He had dove just in the knick of time to catch her. He was laying face down, his uniform jacket dirty, but he didn't care. Sora was safe, and that was all that mattered to him.
Taichi then used all of his strength to stand himself up, even though he was still holding on to Sora. The girl was surprised as he remained holding her in his arms, even after he had stood up.
Palmon caught Piyomon; Mimi had instructed Palmon to use her vines to catch Piyomon, since she figured Taichi was going to try his best to catch Sora, and she didn't want Palmon to interfere with Taichi, worried of accidentally distracting him.
"Good catch, Taichi-senpai!" Daisuke rooted to his mentor.
"Palmon too!" Gomamon cheered.
"That's the way you're supposed to catch a person," Miyako told Daisuke, her arms folded.
"She was falling and he wanted to help her and he was expecting her!" Daisuke retorted. "You were thrown at me!"
"You still could've done a better job catching me yesterday!" Miyako argued.
"Why I oughta---"
"Quit it you two!" Takeru interrupted before Daisuke could step up to Miyako, which he was about to. "Sora-san is safe, and that's what's important."
"Sorry, Daisuke," Miyako apologized, realizing that what she said was a bit unnecessary.
"Yeah, same here, Takeru's right."
"Yeah," Miyako nodded. "She's safe, and that's all that matters."
"Taichi?" Sora asked, still trying to get over the shock of falling so many feet from the air, and being caught by her best friend.
Taichi put her down and smiled nervously.
"Yep, it's good old me. I couldn't let one of my best friends and soccer partners die on me now, could I?"
"I-I guess not," Sora stammered slightly.
He flashed her a playful smile.
"Thanks a lot, Taichi!"
"At least you aren't heavy!"
"Thank you for the compliment," Sora lightly laughed. She then turned to Palmon and gave her a giant hug. "And thank you, Palmon, for saving Piyomon."
"It was my Mimi's idea, actually. I wish I could have thought to do that myself."
"Are you all right!" Mimi asked, running up to Sora, giving her a big hug. "It's been so long since I've seen you last."
"I'm fine, thanks to you and Taichi," Sora said while hugging the girl back.
Everyone else also gathered around the two as they began to chat away over everything that had just happened.
While everyone was questioning Sora, an annoyed Iori tried his best to get their attention.
"Will you all just be quiet and listen to me!" the younger boy demanded.
Everyone else continued to talk, Sora answering question after question…
"Was that fall really scary?" V-mon asked.
"Are you certain you're okay?" a concerned Yamato asked.
"Is Piyomon going to be okay?" Daisuke asked, pointing to the bird lying in Sora's arms, pretty much out of it.
"Well, you guys, I---"
"That's it! I am tired of being ignored!! You all will listen to me!!" He then glared at them angrily and screamed, "You will remember the one that is Hida Iori! Digmon…attack!!"
"I don't think we should be talking here," Jyou stated. "We really ought to get out of here."
"A most excellent idea," Hawkmon nodded, just as anxious to get away from the deranged Iori.
"Let's get out of here," Sora said as she held Piyomon.
They all ran off as far as they could until Iori couldn't find them, both Koushirou and Mimi bringing up the rear.
The group ran so far off, they didn't care where they ended up, just as long as Iori and Digmon couldn't catch them.
When they finally felt safe in their strange, new location, the group rested. Mimi was the most tired, though, since she was still wearing her platform boots. Next would've been Koushirou. Mimi didn't help him to run, but he was still in pain. His back still bothered him, and with every step he made, he inwardly yelped a bit in slight discomfort. Right now, a bottle of aspirin sounded good to him.
After stopping, Mimi wiped her brow with her right hand when she felt something slip off. She then noticed that her hand was a bit bare. She then kneeled down and started to look through the grass.
"What are you looking for?" Daisuke asked, puzzled at Mimi's actions.
"My ring…it slipped off my finger just now."
"The ring you got a while ago as a present?" Sora asked.
"Yeah, that's the one," the girl nodded as she continued to search through the grass. "Palmon, could you help me find it?"
"Sure thing, Mimi! What does it look like?"
"I'm sure you'll know it when you see it. There probably aren't too many rings here in the Digital World."
"It sure would be nice if they found my Holy Ring instead," Tailmon
muttered, still disgusted over the fact that she had lost it months earlier
when she had first encountered the Digimon Kaiser.
****
"Wow, they sure weren't kidding about Mimi," Taichi said as he stared
over at the skirt-wearing girl while she and Palmon searched for her ring.
"She's really changed in appearance."
"Yeah, she's quite pretty," Yamato stated plainly.
"Yeah, she is pretty," Jyou said with an oblivious, longing sigh.
"I admit, she's always been pretty, but she's really good-looking now!" Taichi complimented.
"I bet she has trouble with all of the guys, like I do with all of the girls."
"Wish I had that problem," Jyou muttered, giving out a wistful sigh, "then she'd probably notice me, but she hasn't since she's been back. She's been talking about that Michael guy and helping Koushirou."
"Did you say something?" Yamato asked.
"No, no, not at all," the boy insisted, starting to sweat a bit in nervousnes. "I should really take a look at both Daisuke-kun and Koushirou for their injuries. I'm sure I have something in my kit that could help."
With that, Jyou walked off before Taichi or Yamato could even ask what happened to both Daisuke and Koushirou. Jyou went over to Daisuke, first, since the boy was still holding his wrist and seemed to act more in pain than Koushirou currently did.
"You know, I bet that if you and Mimi ever hooked up, you'd never have a moment's rest!" Taichi laughed. "Boys are probably always going after Mimi and girls are always after you!"
"Ehh, don't remind me. It gets pretty annoying after a while,"
Yamato shuddered, thinking of Jun. 'If only she would calm down and
stop being so…pushy, I guess. At least let us be friends first.
She seemed okay when I first met her, it's just everything after
that…'
****
"I found it, Mimi!! I found it!" Palmon announced as she held
out the small, gold ring with the pink jewel with her vines.
"Thanks, Palmon." Mimi took the ring and slipped it back onto her finger.
"Wow, where did you get that from?"
"Well, Miyako-chan, it was a present from Michael to celebrate our being friends." The girl then smiled. "He's so nice."
"Wow, that ring sure is pretty," Miyako managed to say without sounding jealous.
The girl inwardly frowned as she studied Mimi's features.
'She's lucky, I wish some boy would give me attention like that. Even Izumi-senpai has been acting a bit strangely around her, and so has Jyou-senpai.' She glanced over at Taichi and Yamato. 'Even they're starting to stare at her! Give it up, Miyako, no boy would want to ever get with you or give you that much attention.
'The most attention I've ever gotten from a boy was Iori, but he doesn't count. He's like the little brother I never had, and I sometimes feel a bit responsible for him. Izumi-senpai only pays a lot of attention to me whenever we're working on something dealing with the Digital World or either when he's helping me with something dealing with computers during my Computer Club meetings whenever he visits Odaiba Elementary. Other boys in school only pay attention to me when they need help with homework assignments.' She sighed.
"Yeah, it is," Mimi replied to Miyako while looking at her ringing, patting off some of the dirt. "It even has my favorite color stone...pink."
"I wish a cute and handsome guy would give me a present like that," Sora said. 'or any present for that matter.'
The Tennis playing girl glanced over in Taichi, Yamato, and Jyou's direction - who was now wrapping up Daisuke's wrist - staring at one of them in particular, wishfully. Taichi and Yamato were now with Jyou, trying to get information out of him as to what had happened to Daisuke's wrist. Luckily for Daisuke, his wrist wasn't broken, just sprained. Jyou had also explained to them about what Iori had done to Koushirou.
'I can only dream,' the girl thought.
"I'm sure some boy will. You're a pretty girl as well a nice one." Mimi then asked to no one in particular, "How come Iori-kun is so mean now?"
"My guess is that it has something to do with that Digivice of his," Koushirou responded as he remained seated on the ground, his back against a tree.
"You're partially right," Yamato said as he walked over to Mimi.
"Yeah, he's right," Sora nodded, Piyomon still in her arms. "We got a message from an old friend that you all were going to be in trouble and that the trouble was going to be Iori-kun."
"Wait a minute," Miyako intervened, "how did you three get here without Daisuke, Iori, Takeru-kun, Hikari-chan, or me to open a gate for you?"
"The message we got also told us where a random gate was open."
"So, who was the message from?" Jyou asked. "It couldn't have been from one of us."
"Gennai," the three said.
"Gennai-san?!" Takeru, Hikari, Mimi, Koushirou, and Jyou asked in surprise.
"Gennai?" both Miyako and Daisuke questioned in bewilderment.
"But how…" Mimi gasped out.
"We don't know how or even where he contacted us from," Sora explained. "He knew about everything that was going on and warned us about Iori. He then told us about there being a gate open at OJH, someplace in Tokyo in the band room."
"It took us a while to figure it out since we lost our connection with him before he could explain more," Taichi added. "He didn't even tell us what district of Tokyo. I mean, he could've meant the main city of Tokyo, or Shinjuku, or Tamachi, or some other place, until Sora remembered Gennai saying Odaiba. Either way, we still didn't know where to go, but with that aside, we used the main clue he gave, which was that 'Yamato knows this place well.'"
"We put two and two together and came up with the solution," Sora smiled proudly.
"The place was Odaiba Junior High, the band room. I'm always there during my free period practicing with the guys."
"The computer in the band room had a gate screen up, and it was just open, like it was waiting for us to go through it," Sora continued, a bit of puzzlement in her voice. "The coordinates were already set too."
"When we first got here, we were sorta lost since we were still a good ways off from you guys," Taichi said with a goofy grin.
"And you and Yamato's arguing wasn't helping the situation any, either!"
Taichi gave out a small, light, embarrassed chuckle as Yamato continued where Sora left off...
"We then ran into Piyomon who told us about the Digimon Kaiser and how he had all of them trapped. She also told us of how Wormmon single-handedly captured them."
"So to find our way back, Piyomon evolved to Birdramon so that we could fly back and rescue the other Digimon," Sora said.
"We figured that you all would've been there too."
"Or would've gotten there eventually," Yamato added on to Taichi's statement.
"Wait, I want to know how Gennai-san knew about this and where he's been for the past couple of years. We haven't heard anything from him since we sacrificed our crest powers," Koushirou said as Jyou started to look him over.
"That's the strange thing, he didn't say," Sora said. "We were going to send you an e-mail, but he said that it wouldn't have gotten through to you guys because the connection was shot."
"Yet, he communicated with us…" Yamato uttered.
"Remember what Sora said earlier about that comment Gennai made," Taichi said to Yamato.
"Oh yeah, she brought up the fact that he said, 'I know about everything that goes on in the Digital World, even if I'm not there physically anymore.'"
"Not here physically?" Koushirou asked, a true look of confusion on his face.
"What on Earth does he mean by that?" Jyou asked as he started to bandage up Koushirou's head, where Iori had hit him.
Everyone shrugged. Miyako and Daisuke had looks of perplexity on their faces, not sure as to whom this Gennai person was.
"Um, I'm sorry for interrupting this little reunion here, but who exactly is Gennai, and what are we going to do about Iori?"
Takeru explained to Daisuke about how they knew Gennai and how he helped them out three years earlier and how they had to sacrifice their natural crest powers, etc.
"Good, now that we know of this Gennai guy, what do we do about Iori?!" Miyako asked, anxious to hurry up and help her friend.
"Yeah, that's right! We have to help him, but first," he looked over at his sister, "I have some questions for Hikari…"
"…and I have some for Takeru!"
"What happened yesterday and what do you mean you had to fight against Pinocchimon!!" both brothers asked in unison.
Takeru and Hikari sweat dropped in embarrassment.
"Do you think they'll ever stop babying us?" Hikari asked Takeru.
"As long as we're younger than they are, I doubt they ever will," Takeru responded, just as embarrassed as his friend.
Daisuke, Miyako, Hikari and Takeru started to explain what happened to them yesterday with Puppetmon and the Digimon Kaiser fully this time.
"That jerk! Agumon, we're going to kick some Kaiser butt!! No one hurts my sister and friends and gets away with it!"
"Yeah, I'm ready to fight, Taichi!"
"You too, Gabumon!"
"Right, Yamato!"
"Hey, don't forget us!" Tailmon and Patamon chimed.
"And we should certainly like to help as well, right V-mon!" Hawkmon asked, turning to his blue friend.
"Wherever Tailmon goes, I go!" V-mon smiled.
"That's nice…I think…" Tailmon muttered.
"Now how are you all going to forget about us?" Tentomon asked, feeling a bit hurt for being left out. "We want to help too! The Digimon Kaiser is going to pay for hurting my Koushirou-han!"
"Yeah!" both Palmon and Gomamon beamed.
Piyomon jumped out of Sora's arms and landed to the ground, but her legs didn't allow her to land exactly right. She then tried her best to stand up. "Me…too," she grunted as she fell back down to the ground.
"Piyomon, you are too weak to battle anymore. You sit this battle out," Sora instructed. "You were very helpful already. You helped Yamato, Taichi, and me find the others."
"Sora's right, Piyomon. You rest," Taichi smiled at the bird. "We'll try to think of some way to get Iori and Digmon back to their normal selves."
"Out of curiosity, how did all of this start?" Yamato asked. "When did he start acting weird? It's still hard to believe that he hurt Koushirou the way Jyou said he did."
"Well, he was pretty mad yesterday after we came back from the Digital World," Miyako said as she tried her best to recall the events of the previous day that included Iori. "I don't know if he was changing then or not, but it isn't like him to get mad, not at us anyway."
"He has also been pretty edgy lately, and that is nothing like Iori-kun," Hawkmon spoke up. "He is usually quite calm."
"Hmm, well, what about his Digivice?" Takeru brought up. "It kept vibrating. Koushirou-san figured that his Digivice had something to do with his sudden change."
"Right now, he's working for the Digimon Kaiser, so he says," Daisuke said. "Do you think he's telling Iori to attack us, or do you think he did that at his own free will?"
"I don't think the Digimon Kaiser is," Hikari said while shaking her head. "I think Iori-kun was acting on his own, but the Digimon Kaiser has turned him against us somehow through his Digivice. If we could only stop him!"
"If I could only get his Digivice so I can figure out what's wrong!" Koushirou said, standing up.
"Yeah, that must be the root of the problem!" Miyako agreed. "He started acting weird after that bad shock from it."
"It's like he's wearing a Dark Spiral or Ring."
"Yeah," Tentomon said in agreement with Hawkmon. "You see how evil the Digimon get when they wear them."
"Don't remind me! It was awful! I couldn't control my actions! It was like I was SkullGreymon all over again!"
"You were SkullGreymon at one point when the Digimon Kaiser was controlling you!" Tentomon reminded the orange reptile. "He made you dark evolve, remember?"
"Oh yeah, that's right!"
"He reminds me of a controlled Digimon now." Tentomon shook his head and tsked. "Just to think, he used to be such a good boy."
"Do you think that…that it's possible for a human to be controlled using Dark Spirals?"
"No way, Miyako!" Daisuke insisted. "They're for Digimon! I'm sure they'd have to be really powerful to work since humans aren't digital. Besides, we didn't see any. They're called dark for a reason, other than the fact that they symbolize evil, the color black that is."
"Daisuke-kun may be right," Hikari nodded. "I doubt he's wearing an Evil Spiral. We would've seen it since it's black."
Jyou frowned at that possibility, and shook his head, not wanting to believe it. He then recalled something Iori had said earlier...
"My D-3 just started acting strangely again, then it felt as if something clasped around both of my wrists. Like bracelets, or maybe handcuffs. It then knocked me back into Jyou-san. It was like a wave was coming from my Digivice, or something."
"I think you're right and wrong," Jyou spoke up.
"How can they be both?" Yamato retorted.
"Think about it, maybe he isn't using a spiral at all."
"Do you suppose he could be using one of those Evil Rings?" Sora asked.
Jyou nodded. "Two, to be exact."
Izzy caught on to what Jyou was implying, just as Miyako and Takeru were.
"I agree with your theory," Koushirou nodded to the older boy.
"Iori did say that after his bad shock, it felt like something clasped onto his wrists!" Miyako recalled.
"Do you think that his D-3 attracted something similar to Ichijouji's rings and spirals?" Takeru asked.
"That's exactly what I'm thinking!"
"And whatever those things are, are on his wrists!" Mimi exclaimed.
"But how are we going to get whatever it is that's controlling him off if we can't see them and if he has Digmon ready to attack us on sight?" Sora asked. "Digmon just seems a bit stronger compared to the average Digimon. I sense that he's a lot stronger than our Digimon right now, and he's just an armor."
"Leave that to us," Agumon said with a thumbs-up.
"Yeah, even evil Digimon have to run out of energy sooner or later if they aren't on that level naturally," Palmon explained. "Remember when Greymon evolved to SkullGreymon the first time? He ran out of energy and devolved back to Koromon. Sure he went back to his Baby II (In-training) form, but it was cool. We all lived."
"That Greymon he fought sure didn't," Tentomon muttered.
"We should create some kind of a diversion so that you guys can have a chance to get Iori back to normal," Gomamon suggested.
"Yes, you guys should find the source of the problem."
"But Hawkmon, we already know what's causing the problem, his Digivice."
"That maybe so, Koushirou, but whatever is controlling Iori now, his Digivice is attracted to it," Gabumon stated wisely. "Find the place where, whatever it is, that's controlling him came from."
"Oh, I get it," Taichi said.
"That's not going to be easy," Miyako said. "We don't even know where to start. We destroyed the Dark Towers that were around here. Normally, that's the source of the rings and spirals' power."
"I wish I had my laptop so that I could input all of this information, so as to keep up with everything."
All of a sudden, a gate back to the real world appeared behind them and something came through. A small, yellow pineapple laptop computer with a familiar looking backpack filled with accessories to go along with the laptop. It landed right at Izzy's feet. Everyone looked on in shock and surprise...