NOTE: Christian content.
Chapter 1: Aloneness
It was gone. There was no getting around that fact; their loved ones had vanished without a trace…or was it without a trace? "Search the whole area," Davis yelled. "Any clues where they are…we need to find everyone back!"
Ken and Tina were both pale with the thought that Yolei might be dead. But they only let this fear push them forward in searching for clues.
Rika searched in the rubble near Cleaver's lab, and she found a golden card sitting in the debris. It looked a lot like the blue cards she and the other tamers had the ability to make. She looked it over, and found that it had a white letter "W" on one side. What on earth could this thing be? she wondered.
"Find something?" Davis asked.
"I don't know," Rika answered, showing him the gold card. "It looks like a mod-card."
"Then you'd have the most use for it. Keep it. And keep searching…maybe someone left a diary entry, or something. We need to know what happened to them."
Imperialdramon was looking very groggy. "Any chance we could find someplace safe to drop off these freight containers?" he asked. "It's only a matter of time before I lose it!"
"All right." Davis turned to the others and yelled, "EVERYONE BACK INTO IMPERIALDRAMON!"
"So…where do we go?"
"The next best place: another nuke plant."
"You think that would work?"
"I don't know. But if one is still up-and-running, it's worth a shot." They found another plant, but they just made it inside 500 meters of the plant before they were forced to land. Imperialdramon became a dog-tired Veemon and Wormmon.
"It's too bad that there isn't some way to get this food to keep," Brock thought aloud.
"That's the least of our problems, Brock!" Ash shot back. "Misty and Tracy were in there!"
"We don't know that Ash. In fact, there isn't a lot that we do know."
"How are we supposed to find them back?!" Ash asked.
"I don't know…"
******
Pikachu didn't know much about the cubes, but he knew that, before they had been separated, the last thing he heard about them was that they had to be kept in a safe place where the enemy wouldn't find them. There were eight cubes all held together in a rack, so that they formed one big cube. Pikachu had that big cube in his mouth, and Pikachu was running around, searching for a good place to hide it. Occasionally, he dropped the cubes and sniffed a spot on the pavement where he wondered if there would be a hole to stuff it in. Finally, he found a big enough hole. He picked the cube up in his paws, held it over his head, and jammed the cube into the hole with all his strength. It didn't quite go in all the way, so he began stomping the cube to get it to go in further. He heard a low crackling noise as he stomped, and he looked. There was a small, but growing crack that was worming its way away from the cube. The crack stopped after a second, and an underbird began climbing out of the crack.
Pikachu's first impulse was to run for his life, which he started to do. But he stopped himself when he realized that this underbird counted as one of "the enemy", and, therefore, it mustn't get the datacubes. He ran back, scooped up the cubes, and began running away from the underbird again.
He felt explosion after explosion at his heels as he ran, just one step ahead of the underbird. Pikachu rounded corners and tried to hide in alleyways, but it was no use: the underbird was relentless. Pikachu ran into a street square, where he saw The Unnamed Figure, giving marching orders to a vast array of menace machines. Apparently, he was practicing his ability to control them manually. At the time, he was controlling two black boxes. Pikachu knew that black boxes were huge creatures that wouldn't be able to see him, so he'd be able to use them as cover. He ducked between the two boxes, out of sight and out of reach of the underbird.
Pikachu breathed a sigh of relief and began to catch his breath. …Until he saw what was going on: The Unnamed Figure wasn't the best pilot, and the two black boxes were slowly coming together. Pikachu ran for all he was worth for the slit of light that was the way out from between the two closing boxes. He didn't know whether he'd make it or not, and he almost didn't: when he just got to the end, he felt the two boxes touch his sides. He felt himself get crushed as he squeezed out from between the two boxes. But he and the datacube were both safe.
Pikachu collapsed on the ground and leaned against the boxes, panting. Then the boxes came apart again and dropped him on the ground. "Ka chuuu…" Pikachu muttered.
After a few moments… "Non Kamna!"
Pikachu jumped out of the way of the explosion. "Pi ka cheeeyoouuuuu!" Pikachu hissed through his teeth as he carried the cubes away. (That basic translation of that was "No rest for the weary!") But then, he got an idea: Pikachu raced towards The Unnamed Figure and jumped onto his arm. "Plllbbbbbbt!" Pikachu wiggled his tongue at the underbird, and the underbird fired. The only thing The Unnamed Figure could do to avoid dying from the underbird's shot was to put his gauntlet between himself and the shot, and the D-Gauntlet getting hit was a major problem for him. Of course, the act of moving the gauntlet hurled Pikachu into the air.
Now I know how Team Rocket feels, Pikachu thought as he flew towards a skyscraper. He landed with a smash on the roof, and he came to the sudden realization that he didn't have the cubes. In panic, he looked left and right for the cubes, but he didn't see them. Then he looked up, and the cubes landed on his head. Pikachu sat there in a daze for a moment, then shook off and picked up the cubes and looked around for another place to put them.
He didn't find what he was expecting as he descended the stairs: he saw a huddled, vaguely familiar, human girl. He could tell from her scent that she had been sweating, as though she had been running a lot in the past few hours. Pikachu also noticed a pink bird that was with her, and he recognized the bird. "Pi-ka-chuuu!" he yelled.
"Who's there?"
"Pikachu!"
"Pikachu?"
"Pi ka chu!!"
"Oh, it's you!"
"Ka!!" Pikachu romped up to her and set down the cubes. "Pika-pi, Pikachu pi KA chu pi chuuuu."
"…I didn't understand one word of that."
Pikachu slapped his forehead in disgust. "PI KA PI, PI KA CHUUU---"
"Shh! Keep it down! You'll give away where we're hiding!"
"Chu…"
"Are those datacubes you're carrying important?"
"Pika," Pikachu nodded.
"So…what do we do with them?" Biyomon asked.
"I don't know…" Sora moaned. "I don't know what to do about anything! This is like a nightmare come true; as if getting sucked into the Digiworld and then this weird version of Earth wasn't bad enough, now we're separated from everyone else, and we don't know if they're even alive, and---"
"Sora…" Biyomon stopped her.
Sora buried her face in her hands.
"Sora…you're not alone."
"Who else is there, except you, me, and Pikachu?"
"…There's God."
"But where was God when I got pitched into the Digiworld, huh? Where was He when those Linonians tore time to pieces? Where was He when they attacked the plant and separated all of us?"
"…Sora, there are other people who make choices in this world besides God. And---"
"Biyomon, I don't want to hear some lie that will make me feel better."
"I haven't said one thing that wasn't true, Sora. I'm not a liar; you're the one with a problem! You're a hopeless, poor girl. Yes, I'm trying to make you feel better, but I'm not lying. God is here, and you're still alive. That's where He was while they attacked the plant: keeping you alive. And it can't be that tough to find the others back; Pikachu just found us."
Sora didn't answer. She was upset, and admitting you're wrong is difficult when you're upset. But she knew she'd been wrong, so she didn't say anything until she heard something smacking the building. "What was that?!"
"Black box!" Biyomon hissed. "We need to fly out!"
"I don't know if that's such a great idea---"
"NOW!!! Biyomon, digivolve to…Birdramon!"
Sora picked Pikachu up, which Pikachu resented. She jumped onto Birdramon's neck and they flew away from the building.
"Non kamna!" There were several underbirds following them as they flew away.
Oh, not again! Pikachu thought to himself, with a "Ka cheeyaauuu!" This is one of those times when I really wish I had a transformation…