Chapter Three- Rescue at the Beach
"Ok, I packed sandwiches, donuts, rice, some soda, and here's some candy for Wormmon. He does like candy right? I mean, all the other digimon do."
"I'll take that" said Wormmon as he started eating the candy.
"I guess he does." Ken said. Ken smiled as he looked at the huge picnic Jesi had put
together for them. "She's so thoughtful. There's just something different about her than any other
girl," Ken thought to himself.
They were on a sandy beach in the digital world. It was a warm afternoon and the digital
waves lapped up against the shore. In the past few days, Ken had insisted that the others bring Jesi with them when they entered the digital world. Without explanation (meaning Izzy couldn't figure it out) the digital world kept letting Jesi in, even though she had no Digivice.
The two had been spending a lot of time together, going for walks, having picnics, but even in spite of all this, Ken still felt very, very nervous.
Ken looked up and saw her smiling sweetly at him.
"What is it?"
"You look cute in your bathing suit."
Ken felt his face turn red and he looked away. He wasn't used to being around a girl like
this. He had led a pretty sheltered life and until recently, his only real friend was Wormmon. Ken
looked back up at her.
"You too."
Jesi sat down next to him and handed him a sandwich. As they ate, she stared out at the
ocean.
"Ken, if I had a digimon what do you think it would be?"
"Well, there are thousands of types of digimon, so it's hard to say."
She sighed and continued to stare out at the sea. She imagined finding her own digimon.
She wondered if it could be possible that she was Digidestined. She had been preoccupied with this thought since the first time she had entered the Digiworld.
While Jesi thought, Ken summoned up enough courage to put his arm around her shoulder. She turned and looked into his blue eyes.
"It's a beautiful ocean isn't it. It seems to go on forever. This is the first time I've taken a
good look at it." Ken said as he stared towards the horizon.
"What do you mean? I seems like you would have been here many times since you're a
Digidestined."
Ken sighed and thought about all the time he had wasted as the Digimon Emperor. He
thought about all the digimon he had hurt during that time. Images of dark rings and control spires flashed through his mind. He felt so angry at himself, scolded himself for being such a fool. Why did it take him so long to realize how much pain he was causing? Sometimes he wanted to take that whip he had used to many times and use it on himself, wrap it around his neck and hang himself up by it, to just end it all.
"Should I tell her?" Ken thought. "What if she doesn't like me anymore if she knew what I
was? She couldn't possibly understand, no one does."
Jesi interrupted his thoughts.
"Ken, are there any Digimon in the ocean?"
"Of course there are, just like on earth. There are many kinds of fish and other digimon."
"Are any of them dangerous?"
Ken looked down at her and then held her close to him.
"If there are, I'll protect you." Ken sighed. For some reason, despite all his pain, he was happy around this young girl. He wondered if she could mend his broken heart.
Meanwhile, three mysterious figures were watching from the bushes. They looked out at
Ken and Jesi and whispered amongst themselves.
"What.. are they doing? Are they kissing yet?"
"Shh.. don't be so loud or they'll hear you."
"That should be me out there with Ken. What does he see in her?"
Little did Ken and Jesi know, but Davis, Yolei, and Cody had been spying on them the
whole time.
"Who's dumb idea was this anyway?"
"It was yours Davis, don't you remember?" Cody said to Davis.
"Hey be quiet you two, they're talking again." Yolei hissed.
Ken had his arms around Jesi and her head was resting on his shoulder.
"Jesi..."
"What is it Ken?"
"There's something I have to tell you." He paused for a moment. "You see, I haven't
always been like I am now."
Ken continued and told her the story of how he was the Digimon emperor. Jesi sat in the
sand and listened to his every word. She was amazed how someone as kind as Ken could have
been so evil.
"And so," Ken said as he finished his story. "I was surprised when I received the crest of
Kindness. I still don't understand...I don't think I deserve it."
"You deserve it Ken, more than anyone I know."
She wasn't mad? She didn't think he was a monster for doing such terrible things?
"She's more accepting of me then I am of myself," he thought.
As Ken and Jesi sat on the beach Wormmon noticed the three Digidestined hiding in the
bushes. They didn't notice Wormmon walking up to them.
"Hey look I think they're gonna kiss now" Davis said.
"What are you doing?" Wormmon said to them
The three kids were stunned to see Wormmon and all fell over. Yolei grabbed Wormmon
and pulled him behind the bushes with them.
"How did you see us?" Yolei growled. She had her face pressed right up against Wormmon's and was glaring at him.
"Well you are just standing behind a little bush. Why are you spying on Ken?"
"We wanna see them kiiiiiiissing."
"Davis be quiet!" said Cody as he smacked Davis.
"Ow..."
"Well to tell you the truth Wormmon, I guess we are just little sneaks. We probably
shouldn't be here." Yolei said. She set Wormmon back down on the ground.
None of the Digidestined knew, however, that there were two more unwanted visitors on
the other side of the beach.
"Arukenimon why are we here? This didn't work last time."
"Quiet you fool. That girl is the key to getting the Digidestined. If we can get her they
will always come right to us and fall into our traps."
"But Arukenimon..."
"Quiet! This time I won't fail, I have the perfect plan."
"Ken do you want to go for a swim?" Jesi asked him and then waded into the water.
"Well um... sure."
Ken stood up and walked over to her. He managed to hold back a nosebleed when he saw the material of her wet bathing suit clinging to her body, exposing every feature. She splashed him playfully and Ken slowly began to calm down and relax. They were enjoying the cool ocean so much at first they didn't notice a low rumbling.
Jesi stood up in the water and looked around when she heard the strange sound.
"Ken, what's that sound? It sounds like an earthquake."
"I'm, not sure."
Just then a digimon burst out from behind the rocks on the side of the beach, which were
also in the vicinity of Arukenimon and Mummymon. It stampeded towards Ken and Jesi.
Jesi screamed when she saw the gigantic digimon rushing towards them, kicking up sand in ever direction.
"Ken what is it!?"
"It's a Mammothmon! Wormmon, Digivolve!!"
Wormmon heard Ken's call for help and saw the stampeding Mammothmon. He ran out of
the bushes and began to digivolve into Stingmon. But as he was digivolving the Mammothmon
grabbed Jesi out of the water with its powerful trunk.
"KEN!!"
Ken grabbed onto her hands and tried to hold on but the Mammothmon shook him off and
Ken landed in the sand. He looked up to see Jesi still reaching out to him as the digimon carried her farther away.
"Stingmon we have to go after her!"
Stingmon flew over but as he was about to pick up Ken he was stopped by another
digimon. A Shellmon burst out of the water and began to battle with Stingmon.
"Stingmon!! Arukenimon must have done this!" Ken was filled with rage and started running
after the rampaging Mammothmon, but he stopped when he heard a voice.
"Veemon digivolve to, Exveemon!"
Ken turned to see Davis, Yolei and Cody on the beach and their digimon digivolving into
their Champion form.
"How did you get here?!"
"Well we were kind of spying on you, but now we're here to help" Yolei said to Ken.
Ken nodded, too worried about Jesi to be angry at them at the moment. He called to Stingmon and the green insectoid digimon flew over low to the ground. Ken leaped onto his back.
"Follow that Mammothmon."
They sped along and soon caught up to the Mammothmon.
"Fly alongside, Stingmon."
"Ken what are you doing?"
Ken jumped off Stingmon's back onto the Mammothmon. He could see Jesi still wrapped
up in the Mammothmon's trunk. She pounded against it, trying to get loose.
"Ken!"
"I'm coming." Ken slid down onto the Mammothmon's's head and reached his hand down.
"Grab onto my hand!"
She reached up as much as she could and grabbed onto Ken's outstretched hand. Ken
pulled will all his strength and Jesi was freed from the Mammothmon's grasp.
He pulled her up onto the Mammothmon's head with him, and never even lost his balance. Stingmon flew closer to the Mammothmon and Ken inched over towards him. He took Jesi's hand.
"You're not going to try to jump are you!?" She tried to pull away from Ken, afraid they were going to fall off and get trampled to death.
"You trusted me once, trust me again."
Ken put his arms around her and jumped off of the Mammothmon. They were caught by
Stingmon and the artificial Mammothmon continued to run off into the distance.
Stingmon set Ken and Jesi down in the sand and went to stop the Mammothmon before it
caused any damage. Jesi sat in the sand and began crying uncontrollably.
"Ken I don't think I should come to the digital world anymore," she sobbed.
He leaned over next to her, unsure what to do.
"Please don't cry! Don't say things like that, of course you should come to the digital world." He rubbed her back to try and stop her from crying.
"All I cause is trouble. If I stay here someone is going to end up hurt and I don't want that
to happen, especially not to you." She sniffed back more tears and rubbed her eyes.
"Arukenimon and Mummymon were causing trouble before you got here. Don't think for
a moment that it's your fault. Besides, whatever happens I'll always protect you."
At last she really stopped crying. She leaned over and pressed against Ken, with her head to his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and smiled.
They stood up and headed back to the beach where the others had been. When they got there they saw that Davis, Yolei and Cody's digimon had defeated the Shellmon. Arukenimon and Mummymon had made their retreat when they saw their plan was failing again.
"Thanks for your help." Ken said to the three Digidestined. "But why are you here?"
The three of them looked at each other and Yolei stepped forward.
"Well.. we were kind of spying on you."
"I see." Ken looked away from them. "I guess we should be going now."
Ken waited for Stingmon to return and then led Jesi away in the direction of the Digiport. They saw Jesi looking over Ken's shoulder and waving goodbye.
"I think we made him mad." Cody said.
"Well if you hadn't forced us to come here this wouldn't have happened Cody." Davis said with his hands on his hips.
"Davis it was YOUR idea, remember?"
"Yeah, well, I'm gonna go back and make sure T.H. isn't hitting on Kari."
Cody and Yolei sighed and they walked along with Davis back to the digiport and headed
home.
