Chapter 10: Tina?
"T.J.!" Davis yelled.
T.K. didn't react at all: the noise in the room was enough to mask that it was Davis's voice, and "T.J." wasn't his name.
"T.E.??"
No answer.
"T.Q.???"
No answer.
Tina nudged Davis. "Leave this to a pro, Doofus. T.K.!"
T.K. turned, and his jaw dropped open: there they were! The people who had been gone for weeks were finally back! "Davis!? You're…you're back?!"
"Yeah, and the fact that we're back also has something to do with the fact that it was raining wheat out of that manhole a few minutes ago."
"How exactly did you pull that off?"
"We were on a trading mission to the middle of the U.S.A., and we managed to get a good supply of wheat for the fish we had to trade. We put all the wheat in a railway boxcar, and we put that boxcar right above your manhole. So, when someone tried to weld their way through, they got pounded with grain."
"Wow! Talk about a coincidence! Who would've thought!?"
"Someone obviously did," Tina cut in. "Excuse me; I have some catching up to do."
"I think that can be said for all of us," T.K. said.
Ken asked, "T.K., what exactly happened while we were away? We found the nuke plant in ruins, and another one was leaking radiation. Why is that?"
"The leaking radiation one, I can't explain. My guess is that it was something that happened when time got torn apart. But after you left, that cloaked guy attacked with all kinds of menace machines, and he had an evil clone of Shakkoumon doing all his work for him. We did our best to resist, but we ended up having to evacuate. Most of the refugees got out, but we got separated in the attack."
"Why didn't the reactor melt down?"
"We took all the fuel rods out when we knew that we weren't going to be able to stay in there. We didn't want to kill anybody else."
"Isn't there any place that's safe for us to stay?" Davis wondered.
"We haven't gotten any attacks here, so far."
"How long will that last?"
"We don't know; that's why it's a really good thing that you showed up. Ironarchaeopteryxmon is a mega digimon, but, when it comes to moving people, he's not much help. Imperialdramon has that force field on his back; he'd be able to move people around." T.K. chuckled. "He'd be able to move them to the moon if we had to."
Tina didn't have such a happy look on her face when she heard the news: Ingrid wasn't in this bunch. "So…where would she be?"
"I don't know; the last time I saw her…she was with your mother."
"Oh…well, then she's in good hands."
******
"No! Bad!"
"Tina?" Ingrid begged, referring to Tina's merciful nature.
"Bad!"
Ingrid sighed. She wasn't getting out of this one. She'd eaten off from someone else's plate, and food was scarce at the time. So she had earned disapproval. Disapproval was always enough to make Ingrid want to stop doing whatever she'd been doing that was bad. But disapproval wasn't enough of a punishment to Yolei; there had to be corporal punishment. (It was all that had ever worked on Tina.) So Yolei brought out her trusty riding crop and gave Ingrid a few smacks. Ingrid screamed her lungs out, which was the worst thing she could have done: before long, there was a group of luftwaffles attacking their building.
"Uh-oh!" Kari thought aloud. "Maybe spanking her wasn't such a great idea, Yolei."
"I'm beginning to see that," Yolei answered. She pulled out the digi-egg of sincerity. "Digi-armor, energize!"
"Hawkmon, armor digivolve to…Shurimon, the samurai of sincerity!" Shurimon began reflecting laser blasts away from them away. "Double star!" she shouted, firing a few blades at the luftwaffles. Unfortunately, the luftwaffles were agile, and she only took one out after shooting out nine blades. "This isn't going well, Yolei," Shurimon shouted. "We're going to need some help to take these out!"
"Gatomon is still too weak to fight, and Moochi's beam attacks won't help us against those things!" Kari answered.
"Then there's only one thing left," Yolei thought aloud. She pulled a small brown object out of her pocket and threw it at Shurimon.
"Shurimon, radio-digivolve to…Pepomon, the noble samurai of sincerity!" Pepomon looked like Shurimon, but she was more obese, with a pumpkin for a belly, and her vines were longer, with bigger blades at the ends of them. Pepomon flew out of the building and slashed at the luftwaffles. They were down before long.
"What was that?" Kari asked.
"It was a leaf stone. One of the pokémon trainers gave it to me."
"So…you just touch it to an armor digimon, and she digivolves?"
"Or he. It worked on Flamedramon, Submarimon, and Raidramon, too."
"Seems like we have a million ways to get to ultimate," Kari mused. "I just wish we had our crests back. But we need to move on, and fast, or else we'll get attacked again."
There was the telltale scream of a humbug just as Kari said this. As Pepomon demolished it, Yolei yelled, "You had to say that, didn't you?"
"Now I wish we had a fast way out of here!"
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Suezo asked.
"Oh, that's right. Pepomon, c'mon back!"
Pepomon regressed back to Hawkmon, and they beamed out of the room. But there was one thing they forgot…
"Tina?" Ingrid asked when she realized she was alone. There was no answer. "Tina???"