Chapter 55: So Close, Yet So Far Away, Yet Exactly There Now!
"Tina…?" Davis gently shook Tina shoulders.
"Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngh…?"
"Tina, we're there! We're at your house!"
Tina opened one eye. "We're there?"
"We're there."
Tina stretched. "Ahhhhhhhhhh…! There's no place like home, is there?"
"I wouldn't know: this isn't my home. But we need to make this quick: just go inside and get the datacube."
"Okay." She hopped out of bed and pulled her boots back on. "After flying so long, it'll take a minute to get my land legs back!"
"I know the feeling," Youngdramon agreed. "And I have four of them I need to get back! You only have two!"
"Don't I feel special!?"
Tina crept into the house. She yelled, "Lucy, I'm hooo-ooome!" There was no answer; there was nobody else in the house. "Man, this place is creepy…but it's home, at last."
"So…where did you stash this little bauble of information?" Youngdramon asked.
"In my room, I'd think."
"You'd…think?"
"Hey, it's not like I keep an organized list of every little thing I find! But I know where one thing is…" Tina raced up the stairs and into her room. She fished around in her sock drawer, and her hands closed around a small, round object: her Olympic medal. "This is why I'm glad I came here," Tina thought aloud.
"One question: when exactly were you in the Olympics?" Youngdramon asked. "I know it was before we met."
"Just a few months ago. Didn't I tell you? Like, the second we got back from the Olympics, this whole things started."
"Wow. You got that for…?"
"Lap swimming. I almost got killed getting it, too. I told you about that, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did. You swam so fast, you hit your head on the wall and got a concussion."
"Scared my mom half to death, too."
Youngdramon chuckled. "Knowing her, I bet she was scared half to death!"
"Now…where did I leave that datacube…?"
Tina spent a few minutes looking around for it. Then, she saw Imperialdramon's eye come to the level of her bedroom window. "Hey, Tina, we don't exactly have all day, you know!"
"I'm still looking! I'm still looking!" Tina insisted. She had tried every drawer and shelf in her room, and not one of them had the datacube. So she tried the garbage cans and the laundry for the cube, and neither of those places had the cube in them.
Tina felt defeated. She collapsed on a chair and tried to think what she'd done with the cube once she'd gotten it from Joey. She'd put it in her raincoat pocket, but after that…She had never taken it out! Tina untied her coat from her waist and fished around in the pockets. She didn't find the cube. Then it occurred to her what had happened: she'd put her raincoat through the laundry at the nuke plant in Japan, so the launderers there must've found the cube and put it in the lost-and-found. That's where the cube was, and the only thing gained from this trip to Minnesota was the medal she'd recovered. Oh, well…
While she was there, she picked up a few belongings she'd wanted to take with her and the odd computer game or two. She came back out wondering how she'd explain the situation to Davis…
"Where's the cube?"
"It's not in there. I bet I know where it is, though."
"Tell us where, already!"
"In the lost-and-found at the nuke plant."
Davis rolled his eyes. "You mean to tell me we came all this way for nothing? …And what's all that stuff you have?"
"Just…stuff…"
Davis fumed. "Just get back in Imperialdramon. We're going to pick up Pixie and Gary in Montana, and then we'll get Ken."
******
"Digi-modify! Upgrade, activate!" MetalGargomon's firepower increased, and he fired another pair of missiles at Diplodomon.
"Solidifying Blaster!" Diplodomon blew both missiles out of the air.
"I've had enough of your antics!" The Unnamed Figure sneered. He set a pokéball in his D-Gauntlet. "Digi-modify! Co-Op digivolution, activate!"
"Diplodomon, Co-Op digivolve to…Lava-iathan!" Lava-iathan looked like a huge lizard whose skin was made of glowing, red magma. "Time to show you who is really the best, and to put a timely end to Blackwargreymon's big mouth! Lava-iathan, use Fire Spin!" A tornado of fire spewed out Lava-iathan's mouth at Blackwargreymon.
"Black tornado!" Blackwargreymon added the flames to his own attack, and threw the red and black mess of energy back at Lava-iathan.
"You're certainly persistent!" The Unnamed Figure taunted. "There's a better way to do this, Lava-iathan…Crunch attack!" Lava-iathan jumped up and bit down on Blackwargreymon's arm. Blackwargreymon slid off his clawed gauntlet so that Lava-iathan wouldn't bite his arm off, and Lava-iathan crunched the armor to pieces. It spat the smoldering remains of the weapon back out at Blackwargreymon.
"For that, you'll pay dearly! Terra destroyer!" Lava-iathan was knocked backwards.
"Takato, I don't think he's ever going to stop!" Henry yelled. "And I think he'll take help from us as an insult!"
"My D-Arc won't identify this guy! …Then let's take care of the other one! Digi-modify! Hyper wings, activate!"
Growlmon flew up to dogfight with Nekhbetmon. "Pyroblaster!" Nekhbetmon dodged under.
"Grand blast!" Nekhbetmon fired a pair of beams back at Growlmon, both of which narrowly missed.
"Dragon claw!" Growlmon hurled a white blade of energy at Nekhbetmon, which finally landed a hit.
"I'm getting sick of you two!" The Unnamed Figure muttered. "Digi-modify! Recovery, activate!" This time, only Nekhbetmon reaped the results of that modification. "What…?!" Lava-iathan was still injured from Blackwargreymon's revenge-crazed onslaught.
"He can't digi-modify once his digimon are co-op digivolved!" Henry yelled.
"Good to know there's something working in our favor! Hang in there, Growlmon!" Takato yelled.
"Pyroblaster!" Growlmon howled, firing another blast of flame at Nekhbetmon. Nekhbetmon was knocked backwards. "Dragon claw!" Nekhbetmon fell to the ground, but it still didn't regress back to Jaymon. Growlmon repeatedly whacked away at it until it did.
"Huh! Making him go down shouldn't have taken that much punishment…!" Takato thought out loud.
"That's not what we should be worried about, Takato!" Henry insisted. "Metalgargomon, I don't care what Blackwargreymon thinks! Help him out with Lava-iathan!"
"Sharp Rockets!" Metalgargomon shouted. Blackwargreymon shot down the two missiles.
"This is my fight!" he insisted. "You keep out of this!"
"Blackwargreymon, there's more important things than your demented idea of honor!"
"I'll have him finished before you can say---"
"Hyper beam!" Lava-iathan interrupted. He shot Blackwargreymon out of the air with a blast of yellow light.
"So much for your fight," Henry thought to himself. "Metalgargomon, you know what to do!"
"That I do, Henry! Cryo Rockets!" He fired a pair of blue missiles at Lava-iathan, both of which froze on contact. It didn't do as much damage to Lava-iathan as Henry had hoped…
"HA!!" The Figure laughed. "You don't really understand the science behind this, do you?"
"I guess I don't," Henry admitted.
Takato looked at the deck in his left hand. "I wonder which one will become a blue card, this time… Hey, what's the deal! All I have to do is need a blue card to get one…?!" He fingered through the deck with his other hand, and one of the cards became a blue card. "Huh…? …Hey!! Ugly guy with the cloak! I'm starting to get an idea for what this 'science' is all about! Digi-modify! Matrix digivolution, activate!"
"Growlmon, digivolve to…Wargrowlmon!" Wargrowlmon flew up towards Lava-iathan. "C'mon, Metalgargomon! Let's finish this guy together! Atomic Blaster!"
"Sharp rockets!"
Lava-iathan staggered.
The Figure shouted, "Digi-modify! Recovery, activate! …Recovery, ACTIVATE!!!" He paused and then fumed with anger. "Useless researchers! They never tell me about this!"
"So much for you having a grip on 'the science', huh?" Takato taunted.
Wargrowlmon and Metalgargomon repeatedly fired at Lava-iathan. Sweating out of fear, The Unnamed Figure pressed a few buttons on his D-Gauntlet. Just as Lava-iathan was staggering to the ground and regressing to Pangolimon and Houndoom, a quintet of superslagsters and a black box appeared and fused into Catamarine.
"Takato, I think we should get out of here!" Henry shouted.
"You think Wargrowlmon and Metalgargomon won't be able to take this guy?"
"Oh, they'll be able to take him, but I don't think that we should gamble that they'll be able to take us back to the plant once they're through with him!"
"…Okay, then! Wargrowlmon! Pick up Blackwargreymon and let's beat it!"
As they flew back to base on Wargrowlmon's back, Henry asked Takato, "What did you mean when you said you got a handle on 'the science'? What did you find out?"
"I found out that we need to hold our cards in our right hands when we want them to change into blue cards. I don't know why, but it won't work with the left hand."
"…Well, that answers a few questions. We'll have to have Cleaver look into that."