Disclaimer: I have absolutely no right to use any of the characters herein, unless I make up a digimon or two. They all belong to Toei / Bandai / whoever and it's illegal for a fan to use the names and personalities in, say, an imaginative story hypothesising about what could happen to them in an alternate universe or the bits that the writers never told us about. Like, for example, what I'm writing right now. So, technically, I'm a criminal.

However, people like reading this stuff so I think my actions are, like, totally justified.

Having knocked off Serpentmon it's time for me to do another one of those in between thingies, this time a real world flashback. It also shows a fraction of what's happening in the rest of the digital world during the crisis bit. Includes some lesser characters and a few of my all-time favourite digimon. Read on!

Chapter 14 - A Picnic in the Park

It had been over a week since the twelve kids had disappeared and there was chaos in the world they had left behind. After the control spires were found worldwide and Malomyotismon's darkness covered the planet everyone had become fascinated with the digital world. And naturally when the twelve children most deeply involved just happened to vanish again, it was really, REALLY big news. It was all over the newspapers in a flash. Although there was no evidence of a problem in the real world it was generally agreed that we would see the signs soon enough. People were pretty tensed up about these kids. The only ones who weren't too worried were their families.

"I just don't see what all the fuss is about," Momoe Inoue mumbled through a mouthful of chicken burger. "There's no sign of danger here, unlike the other times stuff's gone wrong."

Jun Motomiya and Momoe Inoue were sitting at a table by the window of their favourite cafe. Since their digidestined siblings had vanished their families had had a hard time escaping media attention. There hadn't been so much attention turned on them at school (the press were mostly hearing from the teachers about the number of windows Davis had broken) but at home they had little time to escape.

"Oh, I don't know." Jun fiddled absently with her salad. "Davis and your sister and those other kids had been fighting for weeks, maybe even months before the digimon showed up at Christmas."

"Yeah, but we don't know that they're fighting," Momoe argued. "For all we know they may have just gone on a digiworld holiday."

Jun raised an eyebrow. "In the middle of the school term? Davis would do that sort of thing, and probably Tai as well, but I doubt any of the others would."

"Mmm, I guess Yolei wouldn't miss that much school." Momoe agreed. "Come to think of it, she must have disappeared right after school finished."

"Davis didn't come home from school that night either." Jun said, thoughtfully, chewing on a slice of tomato.

"They've been coming home late since the start of the year." Momoe shrugged. "I wasn't really worried until I heard that Yolei's friends and the five older kids had gone missing too."

"Six." Jun corrected her.

"Six?"

"There was a girl in America who vanished as well." Jun told her. "A Mimi Tachi... Tachi-something."

"Tachikawa." Momoe finished off her burger and started on the fries. "Yolei told me about her once. Met the girl one weekend I think. The was she carried on you'd think Mimi was a goddess or something."

"Yeah? When was that?"

"Right back at the start of the year. Probably when they first started all this digimon stuff."

"I cant believe we never noticed anything going on all those months ago." Jun mused. "All that time and we were totally clueless."

"There were times when we could see stuff happening," Momoe pointed out, "like the time Tai brought them all home around midnight."

"And Matt was running around giving us all those dumb excused." Jun giggled.

"Your first chance to blackmail him." Momoe replied, dryly.

Jun smiled ruefully. "Hey, it was fun while it lasted."

"While what lasted?" Momoe snorted. "C'mon, Jun, Yamato never liked you and you know it. Are you going to eat that or not?" she finished, eyeing her friend's salad.

"Help yourself." Jun pushed the remaining salad towards her friend. "Yeah, matt couldn't stand the sight of me, I know. But there are plenty of other guys out there, like -"

"Jim Kido!" Momoe interrupted.

"Yeah, Jim's cute, isn't he?" Jun went on.

"Glad someone thinks so." said a voice behind her.

Jun gulped and spun around to see Jim standing right behind her, struggling to keep a straight face.

"I was just finishing my lunch and I thought I heard you speaking about the digital world." he commented, slipping into a chair. "Although the conversation seems to have shifted a bit..."

"I was just... um... just saying..." Jun blushed and began folding her napkin into a neat square.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Jim said with a smile. "I'll just forget you ever said anything about me. Okay?"

"'Kay." Jun mumbled.

"Now, what were you saying about the digital world, Jim?" Momoe asked.

Jim shrugged. "I don't really know anything about the digital world. I've never been there. Everything I know is because of my little brother."

"Yeah, well, Jun's brother and my sister are digidestined too." Momoe pointed out. "But I think you know more than that. Not long after Christmas you brought Yolei come after dark one night."

"You brought Davis home too." Jun had found her voice again. "I'm pretty sure you didn't just pick them up on the way home - and don't give me that story about the flat tyre again."

"They'd been fighting digimon, hadn't they?" Momoe demanded.

"Well... yeah." Jim gave them a sheepish grin. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth then, but we do have to try to cover things up."

"Bit hard to do the same now." Momoe grumbled. "Every day since Yolei disappeared I've woken up with a reporter on the doorstep."

"I don't think we'll ever be able to cover up trouble in the digital world again." Jim sighed. "Everyone knows about it and the digidestined now. Even when there's no danger people will start trying to get there."

"Which probably isn't a good thing," Jun added. "No-one would want the digiworld to be overrun by..."

Jun's voice trailed off as she stared, wide-eyed, past Jim and Momoe. Her chair clattered to the ground as she ran towards the door with her two friends close behind.

******

On the outskirts of Odaiba chaos erupted in a small electronics shop at the end of a block. Customers and staff scrambled to find hiding places as a gang of digimon wandered out of a back office, through the front door and out into the street.

Ogremon swung his club over his shoulder and glanced warily at Leomon, who was marching alongside him. Although they were lifelong rivals the two digimon had formed an uneasy truce due to the current crisis in the digiworld. They were both good digimon at heart and were willing to help as much as possible - even if they did tend to show off for each other's benefit. But unfortunately for the hot-headed duo, theirs was not the most exciting of jobs.

"Hey, you there! Keep in line!" Leomon grunted at an erstwhile gaggle of Botamon.

"This has got to be the most embarrassing thing we've ever done." Ogremon snarled as he swept a Poyomon off a windowsell and back onto the ground.

"That's not saying much." the lion muttered. "Well, for me, anyway. Your life has probably been full of embarrassments."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ogremon demanded.

"Seadramon's lake, two summers back." Leomon smirked.

"Oh, you had to bring that up," his companion groaned. "Look, I was only trying to -"

"Get a bite to eat, I know." Leomon sniggered. "You really should know how to climb a tree, Ogremon."

"It was not my fault!" Ogremon was slowly turning an interesting shade of red.

"Oh, so the tree just decided to rip your pants off?"

"It was an accident."

"Yeah, I know, but was it an accident that you fell in the lake right after? Were you trying to get your trousers back?"

"Well, I dunno, I..." Ogremon stopped and glanced suspiciously at Leomon. "Hey, how'd you know all this? You weren't there, were you?"

"Um... not exactly..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I was... I was in the area." Leomon looked flustered for a moment but quickly got back to teasing Ogremon. "Besides, Seadramon told me ALL about it. How he came and saw you fall out of the tree. And how he had to fish your pants out of the water for you. He even told me what happened when you tried to grab his -"

"SHUT UP!!1" Ogremon roared, swinging his club.

Leomon quickly twirled his sword to block Ogremon's attack and the two glared at each other for a moment.

"Stop it, both of you!" Elecmon bustled forward to tell them off. "You should know better than to fight in front of the babies. You're scaring them!"

The two digimon looked guiltily at each other and then at the baby digimon who were now huddled together behind Elecmon.

"Sorry." Ogremon muttered.

"Yeah. Sorry." Leomon agreed.

"No worries!"

Two Punimon and a Pitchmon bounced up and happily burrowed into Leomon's mane. The feline digimon stumbled backwards in surprise and blushed at the baby digimon's affection. He stood there looking (and feeling) rather awkward. He didn't mind the babies so much, but why did they have to do this now?

"Looks like they've forgiven you, Leo." Ogremon said, dryly. "Shall we get moving then?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Elecmon bustled forward, about twenty baby digimon riding on his back and a hundred others following behind him. "We're supposed to meet up with the others in the park."

"Others?" Ogremon asked, looking alarmed.

"Yes, there are a few other digimon eager to get away from the digiworld right now."

"Hang on, are you telling me they get a free trip to the real world while we're here 'guarding' your babies?" Ogremon demanded.

"Don't know that they need much guarding." Leomon grunted, trying to remove a hyper Nyokimon from his tail. "Little monsters, they are."

"I guess some digimon are getting a bit of a free ride." Elecmon shrugged. "C'mon, we gotta go find 'em."

Ogremon followed Elecmon and the babies, grumbling about how embarrassing this was and how come the other digimon leaving the digiworld didn't have to go through this. Leomon stopped for a minute, combing through his mane one fore time for all those annoying little babies. His searching claws came across a couple of Pitchmon stuck to the back of his neck, a Yuramon on top of his head and a Yukimibotamon that had somehow found its way into his ear. By the time he'd detached a Leafmon from his sword handle and one little Chibimon from his belt the other digimon had gotten a fair way ahead. Cursing under his breath, the feline grabbed all the little babies and was about to take off when he heard a shout from behind him.

"Hey, you! You digimon, what are you doing here?" Jun Motomiya was pounding down the footpath towards the big digimon, Momoe and Jim right behind her.

"I'm not... uh..." Leomon wasn't quite sure what to say when Jun caught up with him, glaring furiously.

"What are you doing here? You should be back in the digital world." Jun accused him.

"Er... sorry. Um, I can explain this, you know." he started backing down the road, still holding an armful of tiny digimon.

"Aw, give him a break Jun." The other girl shook her head and smiled at Leomon. "I'm Momoe Inoue. This is Jun and the tall guy is Jim. Who are you?"

"I-I'm Leomon." he stammered. Why was Momoe looking at him like that? "I know I really belong in the digital world but there was a problem, you see and we... um... Elecmon!"

He turned around to look for the other digimon and saw Elecmon herding the babies across the road to the park. A set of traffic lights further down the road had changed to red and they were taking advantage of the break in traffic, as no-one would notice the smaller digimon. Ogremon was standing off to the side, trying to coax some Yuramon out of a garbage bin. Elecmon was just going back for another batch of babies when the lights changed and the first car in the bank, about twenty metres away, started to move.

Jim was up and running before he even thought about it. That little digimon can't see the movement, he's going to get himself killed! he thought.

"Jim, what are you doing?!" Jun cried. "Come back here!"

Jim wasn't listening to any of it, though. He dodged around the frustrated Ogremon and skidded over the kerb, grabbed Elecmon by the scruff of the neck and dragged the rookie digimon to safety.

"What was that for?" Elecmon asked, surprised.

"I just saved your life, digimon." Jim answered, still holding him up in the air. "You would have been crushed in that traffic."

"Oh. Er... thanks." Elecmon said, weakly.

"No problem." Jim lowered him to the ground and straightened up. "What were you doing, anyway? Don't you know you're supposed to cross at the crossing?"

"Sorry, I've never been away from the digital world before." the monster replied. "My name's Elecmon."

"I'm Jim Kido." Jim bent down to shake Elecmon's paw. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Elecmon grinned.

"What, exactly, were you doing?" Jun demanded. "Jim, I always thought you were a sensible guy but that was really dumb. You could have been killed, you idiot!"

"Well, I -"

"What on earth possessed you to do something like that?" Jun went on.

"It was Elecmon, I guess." Jim replied, sheepishly.

"Elecmon?" Jun frowned.

"Hey there." the mon in question waved at her.

"Yeah, that's his name." Jim continued. "I don't know what it was, I just couldn't bear to see the little guy get hurt, you know?"

Jun shook her head disbelievingly. "You're nuts, you know that?"

"Well... yeah."

"Oh, give him a break, Jun." Momoe interrupted. "We have other things to worry about. Like what a bunch of digimon are doing here in the real world."

"We're escaping." Leomon told her, with a dark look.

"Escaping? From what?" Momoe looked at Leomon with concern.

"There's bit of trouble in the digiworld right now." Elecmon began, shaking his head. "Mordremon's captured those kids with the digivices and is using 'em for some magic thingummy. If she succeeds, then all life within the digital world is doomed. These baby digimon here," he gestured at the swarm of babies around him, "may be the last digimon ever to be born."

"I don't get it." Jim looked at the Elecmon in confusion. "How come all digimon are doomed?"

"Because all digimon are reborn after they die." Leomon explained. "That's the only reason I'm here. I was killed once before, by Etemon. Your brother would remember it, Jim."

"Joe? Hey, what happened to Joe? Where is he?" Jim looked worried now.

"Yeah, what about my brother, and Momoe's sister?" Jun demanded. "What happened to them, are they okay?"

"Hey, slow down!" Elecmon assured her. "Daisuke and Miyako are stuck with Mordremon at the moment-"

"What? Then we have to help them!" Momoe cried. "How do we get to the digital world?"

"You can't. Not now." Leomon put a hand (paw?) on her shoulder. "You are not a fighter and it's dangerous in the digiworld."

"Well, if you've died again and you're still here, it can't be that bad." she protested.

Leomon just shook his head sadly. "A digimon's rebirth is... not pleasant. It can be painful and it's very difficult to regain one's memories and former strength. Besides, we don't even know what would happen to a human who is killed in the digiworld."

"So that's why we have to go and help my sister."

"No you don't." Jim said, suddenly. "That's where Joe comes in, isn't it, Elecmon?"

"You got it!" the digimon winked. "Right at this moment Joe is probably hard at work trying to free you girls' siblings and save us all."

"If they can save you then what are you doing here?" Jun snapped, feeling strangely hostile. She didn't like the way Jim and Momoe were just talking to these digimon as if there was nothing wrong. They were acting as if they'd known each other all their lives. And she was starting to feel a little left out.

"I think it's just a precaution." Momoe replied, though she didn't seem to notice Jun's crankiness. "I'm sure you'd want to get out of the way if something like this was going down here."

"They don't belong here." Jun insisted.

"They need our help." Jim shrugged.

"If these digimon need somewhere to stay then I don't see why they can't come here." Momoe nodded, firmly, standing by Leomon.

"Why don't you want to help, Jun?" Jim asked her, with a hurt and confused look. Despite her discomfort and anger, Jun found herself softening a little. But she still wouldn't change her stance.

"Digimon can't just walk around in the real world, because they...

For the second time that day Jun's voice trailed off mid speech as she stared past Jim at a spectacle unfolding across the road in the park. Momoe and Leomon turned to see the disaster as well. Ogremon, from his position on a fire escape halfway up an apartment building (he'd finally caught those pesky Yuramon) stared in shock as well. The little baby digimon on both sides of the road squealed at the sight. All traffic on the road stopped as drivers got out of their cars to see what was going on. Jim and Elecmon finally turned to witness the strange scene as well.

High above the trees a Unimon and a Devidramon were locked in battle. As they watched several more smaller flying digimon joined them; Kuwagamon, Flymon and a swarm of Airdramon. A burst of fire erupted from one corner of the park, wiping out several trees before it was doused by a squirt of water.

"That's why they shouldn't be here." Jun muttered, shakily.

"Did I mention that we weren't the only ones visiting the human world today?" Elecmon asked, looking a little dazed.

"I think we may have a bit of trouble on our hands." Jim commented. "Why are they fighting, though?"

"Too many digimon, not enough space." Leomon answered.

"So are you going to do something or just sit there and watch?" Piximon emerged form the trees. "These digimon are gonna destroy the place, don't just wait around!"

"Uh... who are you?" Momoe asked.

"Never mind, he's right." Jim told her. "There's no point waiting for something to happen. We have to go and help."

"You read my mind, Jimmy." Elecmon grinned. "Let's go!"

Jim and Elecmon dashed between the (now stationary) cars to the park on the other side of the road. The hoard of babies followed them without complaint. Piximon herded the baby digimon into a group and nodded to Jim and Elecmon, who dashed off to fight the Shellmon that had begun demolishing some picnic tables. Without a moment's thought, Leomon picked up Momoe and leapt across the road to join the fight, leaving a stunned Jun standing alone on the side of the road.

"What is with them?" she whispered to herself. Why had Jim and Momoe suddenly become so involved in the digi-business? It was like it was the only thing they knew anymore. They'd latched onto Elecmon and Leomon like they'd known the two digimon all their lives. As she watched, Jim leaped at Shellmon with a splintered scrap of wood to prevent the monster from squashing Elecmon. He'd just put himself in danger to help his digimon.

His digimon?

That was like... like the way her little brother defended Veemon. Could it be... could Jim and Momoe be digidestined too? It would be just her luck, wouldn't it. Stuck on the outside once more. First it was Yamato, then her little brother. Now her best friend and the guy that she... that she liked. Everyone she knew somehow got involved. They all ended up digidestined. It was just Motomiya Jun who was left.

Lost in thought, Jun didn't notice that the Unimon/Devidramon battle had drifted so far towards her. She certainly didn't notice how accomplished Devidramon had become at dodging Unimon's attacks. She hadn't even noticed that one of those Aerial Attacks was headed right for her...

Jim and Momoe didn't notice either, until it was just a fraction of a second too late to help her. Somebody else had noticed, though. Someone who was least expected.

With three Yuramon still sitting atop his head, Ogremon leapt down from the balcony of the building he had climbed, swinging his club like a baseball bat and knocking the ball of destructive energy aside before crashing to the ground. Jun, realising what had happened, dashed over to the green-skinned monster.

"What did you do that for, silly?" Jun asked, ignoring the Yuramon that had taken refuge in her hair.

"I... I don't know." the monster admitted, dragging himself upright. "I saw you standing there, and the Unimon... I couldn't jut let you get hurt."

"Well, thanks, anyway. My name's Jun."

"I'm Ogremon. Nice to... uh... nice to meet you, I guess."

"Well that's just wonderful." Piximon yelled, sarcastically. "D'you think you could give us a hand over here?!"

"Sure thing, pink guy!" Jun yelled back. She and Ogremon ran between the abandoned cars (most of the drivers had run for cover) to join Jim, Momoe, Elecmon and Leomon in the fight.

"Where'd you go, Ogremon?" Leomon asked, with a friendly grin.

"Just a short rescue mission." Ogremon replied, slapping his friend on the back.

"Bit of a nasty fall you had there. Sure you're not hurt or anything?" Leomon challenged.

"Aw, Leo, I didn't know you cared." Ogremon remarked. "C'mon, let's cut the chat and get to the battle!"

They leapt enthusiastically into a whole pile of bickering Gazimon, picking each one up by the scruff of the neck and separating them all. Somewhere along the line Jun and Momoe joined in too and they were all having a lovely time until one young girl showed up on a Parrotmon.

"You've beaten the Gazimon, okay? Give 'em a rest." the girl ordered, jumping to the ground.

"And who are you to be giving us orders?" Momoe asked, glaring at the girl who was a full head shorter than she was.

"My name's Noriko and I'm trying to get something useful done here." she replied, dryly. "My friends, who you may remember as the dark seed children, are trying to get al these digimon into the centre of the park so we can send them back where they came from."

"So we have to stop fighting?" Jun asked, sounding a little disappointed.

"Yes, you do." Noriko confirmed. "I think you've done a good enough job as is." she nodded towards the groaning Gazimon.

"But you don't understand!" Elecmon protested. "We're all in great danger. All we digimon want is a chance to be safe."

"Hey, you've had your chance!" Noriko argued. "Look what happened! I'd love to have digimon roaming this world as well as their own, but right now there is neither time nor space to do so. Besides, we're still busy trying to cover up everything that has happened and we certainly don't need you coming and messing things up."

"Hey, don't talk to my digimon like that!" Jim demanded.

"Your digimon?"

"Yeah, my digimon." Jim agreed. "He's my friend and if he hadn't helped out just now you mightn't have been able to control all the digimon that appeared here."

"Let it go, Jim." Piximon advised. "I think that we were wrong to come looking for shelter here. We digimon need to have faith in your brother Joe and his friends. We should go back."

Jim, Jun and Momoe looked at each other. They didn't really want the digimon to go. In a short space of time each of them had made a good friend and they didn't want to have to say goodbye so soon. But it was true that the digimon had to go back. They couldn't come and just wander around the humans' world like they belonged.

"Okay." Jim agreed, hanging his head. "We'll send them home."

"Good." Noriko agreed, briskly. "Parrotmon, grab that Shellmon over there and follow us."

The Gazimon and the baby digimon were rounded up and herded towards the centre of the park, following Noriko's lead. Leomon, Ogremon, Elecmon and Piximon took care of the stragglers, along with Jim, Jun and Momoe. But it was a sad little parade as their brief moment of adventure came to an end.

******

"That's about the last of them, then." Noriko said, sending a pair of Snimon and the last bunch of baby monsters back through the digi-port. One of her companions had brought a laptop and opened a digiport.

"Guess it's time for us to go then." Elecmon sighed.

"Yeah. Guess so." Jim agreed, staring at the ground.

"You guys sure you'll be okay?" Momoe asked, looking at Leomon and Ogremon.

"You won't go jumping off any more buildings or anything, will you?" Jun asked.

"'Course not. I don't think Leo would let me." Ogremon grinned.

"Hey, when you've been reconfigured, then you can joke about it." Leomon grunted.

"You have no idea what these two were like to babysit." Elecmon shook his head. "In my entire life I have never had a pair of digimon as difficult as those two."

"Oh, be quiet." Leomon growled again.

"I've still got photos of them you know..."

"Elecmon!" Ogremon pleaded, as the humans burst into gales of laughter.

"You'd probably better get moving." Jim said, at last.

The three digimon stepped in front of the computer screen, ready for the digiport to whisk them back to the world they knew. But something strange was going on this time. As soon as they turned to stare at the screen there was a huge cracking sound and a blinding light.

"What the hell was that?!" Noriko demanded, staring around in shock. "Is your computer okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." a boy replied, picking up the laptop. The screen was flickering on and off rapidly. "The digimon are gone, anyway. Hey Jim, did you see... Jim?"

Yes, the digimon were gone. But so were the humans. Jim, Jun and Momoe had followed them right back to the digiworld that they had all wanted so badly to see.

~~~~~~

Hmm. That was unexpected, to say the least. Hope nobody minds me giving Noriko a Parrotmon, but it made sense at the time. I can't even remember what the baby form of her digimon looked like, so I just grabbed the first Champion that came to mind and stuck it in. Sorry it took me so long to update, but I had a couple of hitches. It's school holidays now, and I'm back on track, so you can expect much more TBDM soon!