Part 17: The Case of the Missing Computer Nerds!
"Wow, this place is huge!" Daisuke exclaimed after they had entered the base.
"How will we know where to go?" Patamon asked.
****
RP: (Snickers) He should just use his bat pig radar.
Everyone else snickers.
Patamon: (Growling) FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT A PIG!!
RP: (Snickering) I just can't help it...
Patamon: Oh yeah...Patamon, devolve...Tokomon!!
Tokomon starts to chase RP trying to chomp at her legs with those deadly teeth. Everyone sweat drops from the scene.
RP: (Still running in fear from the ferocious choppers) C'mon...stop! I'm sorry!! (Hides behind Jyou, on purpose ~_^, who sighs at how RP is acting)
Mimi: Hmm, I never knew the narrator, er, writer was supposed to make actual appearances in her own fics...
Tokomon: (Chomping at her) I'll stop only if you promise to stop referring to me as hog, pig, bat-pig, bat-hamster, bat-pikachu, pika-bat, anything "pika" related in general...
RP: (Still hiding) Okay...okay...I'm sorry! I won't tease you about being a pig anymore!
Tokomon: (Showing his teeth) Are you sure....
RP: (Taking out a script which had a bunch of pig jokes) See, these are all of the jokes I was planning on using for the remainder of this fic...
Jyou: (Surprised tone) That thing is huge!! It looks like two telephone books put together!!
Takeru: When will people learn not to tease Patamon about his pig problem...
Tokomon: (Turning to Takeru) Don't you test me, TK! I do not have a pig problem!!
Takeru: (Nervous sweat drop) Sorry...
RP: See Tokomon, I'm going to tear up these scripts. I'm going to destroy them, in fact! (Calling out) Tentomon, I need your help!!
Tentomon flies in.
Tentomon: Why am I here? I'm supposed to be protecting Koushirou-han and Miyako-han from the---
RP: (Takes out a writing pad and a pen and writes that some tape has covered his mouth so that he couldn't finish talking)
Tentomon: HEY!
RP: Tentomon, you always talk too much. Don't tell what's going to happen to Koushirou and Miyako! I just wanted you to use your "Super Shocker" to destroy this script.
Tentomon: (Angered/muffled tone) Why should I!
RP: Just do it or you'll get no more airtime!
Tentomon: (Muffled tone) NO WAY!! (Zaps the script into digital dust) Super Shocker!!
RP: (Evil smirk) He's such a ham...(getting defensive)...I'm not referring to you, Tokomon!!
Tokomon: Good. Tokomon shinka...Patamon!!
RP: Okay, you can go now, Tentomon.
Tentomon gives the narrator an annoyed look and flies off.
RP: You can ask Izzy to take the tape off for you, now let's continue
on with this fic. ^_^
****
"Calm down you guys, I'm sure we'll figure out which way to go."
"Couldn't we just wander around until we find it, niisan?"
"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" Daisuke retorted.
"It's not like we have much of a choice," Takeru said.
"I agree with Daisuke-kun," Hikari spoke up. "We probably shouldn't wander around. We should come up with some kind of a plan."
"Well, Jyou-senpai, what do you have in mind?" Mimi asked, looking up at the tall, blue-haired boy.
"Why me?" Jyou asked while pointing to himself.
"Face it," Yamato started, "you're the one who comes up with the good ideas and most logical plans, other than Koushirou."
Jyou stood there, trying his best to come up with an idea to their problem.
"I sure wish I had some candy."
"Why?" Patamon asked. "To use it as bait to get the Digimon Kaiser to come out if he is here?"
"Not a bad idea," Yamato nodded.
"No, I just want some candy," Gabumon goofily grinned, scratching the back of his head. "I'm hungry."
Everyone, minus Jyou, face-faulted from Gabumon's irrelevant statement.
"Hey Jyou," Gomamon called after picking himself up, "do you have an idea yet?"
He shook his head. "Nope, I think we should just wander around, like Takeru-kun said, until we find a room that has what we're looking for…even though we don't know what that is yet."
"Maybe we should split up and go our own separate ways and search every room, and then contact the other group when we find whatever it is we're looking for."
"I'm with Mimi," Yamato responded. "That would be a good idea since we have a couple of paths to choose from."
"Splitting up doesn't sound so bad," Jyou agreed.
Daisuke and Hikari agreed as well, and so did the Digimon, but TK didn't like the idea...
"No, we should all stay together!!"
"What's the matter with you?" Yamato asked, wondering why his brother was so uptight.
"I don't think we should split up. What if one of us doesn't come back!" the young blonde protested. 'What if Ichijouji somehow gets another one of us to turn on our friends? What if the same thing that happened to Hikari-chan, happens again?'
"Takeru, we'll be fine," Patamon said, giving his partner an assuring smile. "Just you wait and see."
"No!" the boy yelled out. "We should not split up! People get lost that way!!"
"Calm down, baby bro."
"What's wrong?" Daisuke asked, figuring that the boy had finally lost it.
"I just don't think splitting up is such a good idea," he explained, his head lowered. 'I don't want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt, or almost getting hurt, like with Iori-kun and Hikari-chan.'
"If you'd like, I'll split up with you if you're that against being by yourself," Hikari offered, a gentle, light tone to her voice.
The goggle boy shook his head in annoyance. He wasn't about to let Hikari and Takeru be alone if he had anything to say about it.
"That wouldn't be a good idea. You shouldn't split up with Takeru."
"Why shouldn't I split up with her, Daisuke?"
"Because, um, not all of us have D-Terminals. If we're going to split up, each group should have a D-Terminal to communicate with, and you two are the only ones with them."
"Good point, Daisuke-kun. I was thinking about going off in three groups of two to look for the source, but it seems that we're going to split up into two groups of three. Let's see, Yamato, Takeru-kun, and I will take the path on the right, and Mimi-kun, Hikari, and Daisuke-kun will go left."
Nobody objected to Jyou's suggestion and said, "okay," even though Takeru
was still a bit skeptical about splitting up since he had such a bad feeling
about it...
****
Outside of Ichijouji's base…
"It's boring out here, Taichi!" a certain, high-pitched voiced orange reptile complained. "Couldn't we go in with the others?"
"No Agumon! We can't leave Sora and Pyocomon out here by themselves!"
"I guess," Agumon muttered as he stood up from underneath the tree that they all were under. "I'm going to find me something to eat."
"Wait, I want to come too!" Pyocomon bounced.
"Yeah, maybe if Pyocomon eats something, she'll be able to get her strength back!"
"Yep, Taichi, and since we're in this area, we should find a lot of tropical fruit!"
Agumon, along with the bouncing onion, took off to find some food, leaving Sora and Taichi by themselves. Taichi smiled as he waved the two off. He then turned in Sora's direction and noticed that she was pretty quiet. She seemed a bit upset as well.
"Sora?"
She jerked her head up when her named was called and said, "Huh."
"Is something wrong?"
"No, not really."
Tai sat down next to her. She was sitting under the tree where Daisuke had found the switch.
"You don't look okay. You've been quiet the entire time Agumon and I have been out here."
"I guess I'm thinking about all that's happened so far today."
"Yeah, depressing, isn't it? Poor Iori."
"It's so hard to believe that he was so nice, now he's a killing machine!"
"Don't say that! He is not a killing machine!"
"What else would you call it, Taichi! He doesn't care what happens to us now!" She held her head down, and lowered her voice some, sadness and grief in her voice. "He didn't even care what could've happened to Piyomon and me."
"Sora..."
"I could've died today, Taichi, and he didn't care at all! Since this is all Ichijouji's fault, what kind of a person is he? Is he as uncaring as the possessed Iori-kun? Does he have no love for anyone? Does he have no remorse for what he's doing, for what he's done to poor Iori-kun?" She then looked over at Taichi. "Is he really that cold and heartless?"
"Who knows what's going through that kid's mind," Taichi sighed, "but you shouldn't get yourself upset over it."
"I know, but I still can't help bet feel like I'm responsible."
"You? Responsible? You're nowhere near responsible for what's happened!!"
"Well, we should've taken the Digimon Kaiser more seriously."
"We all should've. We didn't know what he was capable of."
She lowered her head again. "I still don't see how he could turn someone against his friends the way he did with Iori-kun. He almost killed Piyomon and me! If it weren't for you and Palmon, we would've---"
"Quit talking like that, Sora. You weren't killed, and that's all that matters!"
The girl turned to Tai and said "thank you." Tai said "you're welcome" and stared at Sora. The two then started to inch closer and closer to each other. They were just about to kiss...
"Taichi! Taichi!" they heard a squeaky voice call.
The two broke away from their "almost" kiss, startled saying, "What, what!"
They turned to see what it was. It was Agumon with Piyomon flying right behind him. Sora got away from Taichi and turned her attention towards Piyomon.
"Pi-pi-yomon," Sora nervously stammered. "You got your strength back."
"Yeah, I ate a lot of fruit that Agumon found."
"But why were you in such a hurry?" Taichi asked.
"We have to hide!" Agumon said, panic in his voice while trying to urge Sora and Taichi to get up.
"Is it the Digimon Kaiser?" Taichi asked.
"No, something much worse!!" Piyomon answered, the same panicky voice as Agumon.
"Iori and Digmon!" the two said together.
"What!!" Sora nearly screamed out.
"He's coming this way!" Piyomon flapped.
"We better hide and see what he's up to."
"Right, Taichi!" the rest of them nodded.
The four hid behind some bushes and saw an annoyed Iori muttering incoherently under his breath.
"What in the world do you think he could be doing over here?" Sora asked in a whisper.
Taichi shrugged and continued to watch.
"Where's that blasted switch," they heard Iori mutter.
"Oh no!" Taichi exclaimed in a whisper. "He knows about the Kaiser's base!"
Sora took out the D-Terminal that Daisuke had given her.
"Sora, what are you doing?"
"We have to warn the others, Taichi!"
The girl started to send a message to the others who were inside of the base. About half way through the short message, the D-Terminal gave off a small, blue glow and beeped, which alerted Iori.
"What was that?"
Sora, Tai, Piyomon, and Agumon remained still, hoping that Iori would dismiss the sound he heard, but he didn't. He came in their direction, along with Digmon.
"I think it came from over in this direction," Digmon pointed.
"Don't find us, don't find us, don't find us, don't find us," Sora prayed, her heart beating faster than it ever had before.
Iori and Digmon gave up, eventually. Actually, Iori grew tired of looking and found the switch to enter the base. He then entered with Digmon.
"I hope the others got your message," Taichi said, relieved that Iori had gone in.
"Should we tell Koushirou and Miyako about this?" Piyomon asked.
"Definitely!" Taichi nodded. "Those two have a map of his base, so they could easily navigate for the others."
"It's getting kind of dangerous around here, Taichi," Agumon noted. "We better go back to where Tentomon and the others are."
After the door closed behind Iori, Sora and Taichi, along with their Digimon, made a run for the gate they had come through. When they got there, they had left the gate open to make a fast get-a-way in case something was to go wrong.
"Wait, we can't take this D-terminal with us, Daisuke-kun might need it."
"Well, we can't give it back to him now, Sora. Let's just worry about that later and get in touch with Koushirou and Miyako."
Sora kept quiet as Taichi looked through the TV screen. What he saw shocked him.
"What's wrong, Taichi?"
"Oh no, what happened!" Taichi shouted out, ignoring his Digimon's question, too stunned to actually reply.
The other three looked to see what had Tai so upset. What he saw was a mess; trees knocked over and such. It looked as if the place had been rampaged.
"Oh no!!" Sora gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth.
"We're going through, Sora!"
"But---"
The boy didn't listen and grabbed Sora's hand and the both of them, along with their Digimon, went through the gate and ended up right back where they were earlier.
"Wha-wha-what happened? Where are Koushirou-kun and Miyako-chan?" Sora uttered as she saw the once, well-hidden area. "Something must have gone wrong if the laptop was left behind!"
"Look!" Taichi pointed.
Sora and the others looked to where Tai had pointed. Someone had broken through the barrier.
"Oh no, they must were attacked!" Piyomon frowned.
"But where are they?" Agumon asked. "Iori didn't have them."
"Then Ichijouji must have them!" Taichi shook with anger, his right fist bawled. "We haven't encountered him once since we've been here!"
"At this rate, we'll never get Iori-kun back to normal!"
"No, Sora, don't think like that! We'll get them back, and Iori back to normal too!"
"But Taichi, what do we do?" Agumon asked.
"Pray that the others are okay, and that Iori-kun doesn't catch them," Sora replied.
"Hey guys, look what I found!" Piyomon pointed towards an object on the ground, flying towards it. She then backed away from it since it started to drain her of her energy.
"Hey, it is Iori's D-3!" Taichi said.
"Maybe we can find Miyako-chan and Koushirou-kun through it."
Sora picked up the D-3 and changed the option to "detect." She then saw a whole bunch of different lights blinking on it.
Taichi looked over her shoulder to see what the D-3 had picked up on. "I see the others, they're still at Ichijouji's base, but there's no sign of Miyako or Koushirou."
"We're helpless," Sora sighed.
"Should we tell the others, Taichi?" Agumon asked.
"No, it would just ruin their concentration. Let them concentrate on their task first. Ours is to go find Koushirou and Miyako!"
"Taichi is right. We must go find Koushirou-kun and Miyako-chan!"
"Let's go!" Taichi picked up Koushirou's laptop and strapped it onto his back in its case and Sora gave him Iori's D-3. "Maybe we'll find a clue to their where a bouts on this, or something."
The two, along with their Digimon left the once well-hidden area, and went off in search of their two, computer oriented buddies…