Chapter 27:  More Arriving Every Day

            "Hello!" Willis shouted.  "Incoming!"

            "Whoa---is that---Silphymon?" Henry asked.

            "Sort of…that's Swampangemon.  Whatever turned us into kids again also changed the digimon a lot.  Gatomon and Hawkmon DNA digivolve to Swampangemon, and this form is a lot like Silphymon, except she can control her own size, and she has that raincoat."

            "Huh…!"

            "Makes me wish I had some of those changes!" Henry's Terriermon thought aloud.

            "How do you know you don't?  Renamon got some changes in her other forms; her champion form isn't what it was before.  She used to be Kyubimon, but now she's Rufusmon."

            "Hmm…but I don't remember any new features while I was Gargomon."

            "Maybe if you could digivolve to ultimate, you'd get more features…"

            "Maybe…"

            Swampangemon came to a stop in front of the nuke plant's entrance.  She knelt and opened her pockets, and people began filing out.

            "Whoa…I didn't see that coming!" Henry said.

            "Neither did I.  …Do any of these kids look like orphans to you?"

            "Beats me.  Hey!  Everyone!  File into the plant and line up at the doctor's office---turn right, then left at the end of the hall---hey, kid!  Go with the rest of them!  Keep in line!"  Henry and Willis had the job of keeping the people in queue as they entered the nuclear power plant.  They were chosen for guard duty because their Gargomon would be able to dispense a lot of firepower in case the menace machines changed their minds and decided to attack the plant.  The machines never seemed to want to attack, tough.

            "Man, this is a long line, today!" Willis noted.  "How does Joe put up with this?"

            "He doesn't.  He's not the only doctor here, so he tells me."

            "Good to know.  Of course---we might want to call in every doctor we have to handle this bunch.  Where did you find them all?" Willis asked Yolei.

            "Well, we found them in the harbor, hiding in the warehouses and the fishing boats."

            "How on Earth did they survive?"

            "Mostly on what they could catch right under the docks.  They've tried going out in fishing boats to catch more, but they can't sail five meters out of the harbor before they get attacked by some water menace machine."

            "There are menace machines underwater, too?" Henry asked.

            "Afraid so," Gatomon answered.  "We found an airplane-like monster, and this giant, metal squid!  And you know how these menace machines combine so that they can digivolve?"

            "Yeah?"

            "They can de-digivolve and make a whole bunch of smaller fighters, too.  That's what we made the squid do, and its head and its arms became these boat- and snake-monsters."

            "Ouch!  Sounds like we really need to watch out if we're going to take to sea!"

            Kari nodded.  "No kidding.  I don't see why we'd need to go into the water, but---"

            Yolei interrupted, "I dunno, Kari…"

            "What do you mean?"

            "Food supplies are getting kind of low.  We aren't getting as much from the stores, anymore…I mean, the food in the stores can only last us so long…"

            "You mean we're going to have to go out there and go fishing for more?  How many of us really have any experience at sailing a boat?"

            "Some of the people from the docks would have to have had experience.  And any fighters that tag along would only have to be there to defend from menace machines; we wouldn't actually be sailing the boat."

            "You really think that's a good idea?"

            "Hey, how many machines can there be out there?"

******

            Takato heard a roar behind him.  He and Rika wheeled around.  A saberstrike slashed at Takato's arm and made a cut in it, right before Guilmon blasted the saberstrike away.  "Aw, great!" Takato muttered as he looked at the hungry group of saberstrikes that were backing up the one who had just attacked him.  "Digi-modify!  Digivolution, activate!"

            "Guilmon, digivolve to…Growlmon!"

            Rika was about to pass a digivolution card through her D-Arc, but Takato insisted, "If we both digivolve, then our digimon will both be worn out once the fight's done!  That won't be good if we get attacked on our way back."

            Rika spat, "Don't you dare leave me out of a fight---"

            "That's an order, Rika!"

            "Order?  What is this, the army?"

            "It might as well be; Yolei told me that I have seniority in this, so I'm in charge!"

            "Yeah, whatever---"

            "You want another punishment like the one Yolei gave you before?  I heard that you ended up crying after that one, so you must not have liked it!"

            Rika was taken aback:  word had gotten out she could be weak.  She swallowed hard and was speechless.  The digivolution card fell out of her hand.

            "Good.  Growlmon, use your Dragon Claw!"  Growlmon launched a white blade into the saberstrikes and scattered bits of metal everywhere.

            Only three saberstrikes were left.  They ran together and twisted their tails into one braid:  "Ferra-tor-grend'l, noh kreshnaiona djom…ferra-tor-cknii!"

            Growlmon shouted, "Pyroblaster!" but the spiderstrike dodged beneath.  He hurled attack after attack, but the spiderstrike was too quick, and even landed a few hits on Growlmon.

            Rika was still stunned, but she managed to get out, "Takato…he needs help!"

            "And help he'll get:  digi-modify!  Hypersonic, activate!"

            Growlmon was now quick enough to dodge the spiderstrike's returned shots, and dealt out more attacks more quickly.  But he still wasn't able to do much damage, even when he hit.  Takato at first thought he should use the same trick as the one he tried on Etemon, but he realized that the spiderstrike would be too quick for Growlmon to land a continuous pyroblaster attack on it.

            He clutched his cards, and felt something strange in his right hand.  He wondered if it didn't have to do with the wound on his arm, but he looked, and there was a blue card in his deck---one exactly like the one he'd used to make Guilmon in the first place.  "Huh…!  ---Well, here goes nothing:  digi-modify!  Matrix digivolution, activate!"

            "Growlmon, digivolve to…Wargrowlmon!"

            "Wargrowlmon…?"  Rika pulled out her D-Arc and got a reading on him.  "Cyber-type…he's an ultimate?"

            "Wargrowlmon, go for it!"

            "Atomic Blaster!" he shouted, firing a pair of white beams out his chest at the spiderstrike. That finished it off.

            "How---how did you do that?" Rika asked.

            "I don't know…I just used a blue card on my digivice, and then---"

            "What blue card?"

            "This one right…here…" Takato held up in his hand an ordinary hyper-wings card.

            "That's not a blue card at all!"

            "But…but…it was right here!  It was a blue card, and I---"

            "Are you sure you're cut out for leadership if you're seeing things?"

            "It couldn't have been an illusion; how else could Growlmon have digivolved?"

            "Good question, but if there was a blue card, then where's it now?"  She looked at Takato's cut.  "You know, that doesn't look so good.  I think you'd better have Joe look at it."

            "I guess," Takato agreed with a wince.  "At least we have a fast way of getting there," he said, looking at Wargrowlmon.  As they were flying back, Takato wrapped his arm tightly in one of his humanitarian blankets to stop the bleeding.  "You know, I'm going to have to have Cleaver take a look at that card---I wonder how it changed into a blue card and back so quickly…?"