NOTE: Christian content.
Chapter 12: Old Dogs
Yolei and Kari ushered the children into the shelter of the cemetery mausoleum. The walls of the mausoleum were thick and complex, so the underbirds probably wouldn't be able to find them there. Most of them were more than a little wet when they made it into the building.
Yolei sighed. "So…what's the situation?" she asked.
"Not so great," Kari answered, fishing around in her backpack. "This is the last of the food we have, and it isn't much."
"Give it to the digimon and Monsters," Yolei said. "The sooner they recover, the better."
"But what about when we get hungry again, chi?" Moochi asked.
"We'll have to try a grocery store…or some other place that might have food."
"Any chance we can escape to the country?" Kari wondered aloud. "I mean, Swampangemon could carry us out of the city, and we might be able to get some rice over there."
"It's our only shot," Yolei thought. "So I guess Hawkmon and Gatomon take priority. How soon is it before you and Hawkmon can DNA digivolve?" Yolei asked Gatomon.
"I don't know," she answered. "I was tired enough before he shot me with that thing."
"…I have one idea," Yolei said. "Since the monsters and digimon are worn out, there's only one way for a person to protect herself out there, and that's with this gauntlet Gatomon stole from him."
"But we don't know how it works!" Kari insisted. "How are you going to be able to use it out there?"
"I'll find out, won't I?" She put the gauntlet on her arm and fished a rain poncho out of her backpack. "You guys sit tight. Don't run if you don't need to, and I'm going to try to get us some more food. I might be a while; there's no telling where there is still food around."
"But what if you don't come back?" Kari asked. "You know how dangerous it is out there---and that there are time fields that can make a minute to you seem like an hour to us!"
"What if I don't go?" Yolei shot back. "I sure hope this thing is waterproof," she said, looking at the gauntlet.
"Be careful out there, Yolei," Hawkmon said after her.
"I will. I know what's at stake…" Yolei slipped out the door of the mausoleum and crept away. She kept one hand on the gauntlet as she walked down the rainy street towards where she hoped would be a grocery store. She opened the door of the grocery, and she searched. Everything had either gone bad or was already eaten by someone else. She left the store in disgust. "Not even the canned goods were still there!" she muttered. "Oh, well…next store."
As she continued walking down the road, she saw a spectacular rainbow to her right. She stood awestruck for a moment, until it occurred to her: rainbows require sun and rain, and sun meant that solar-powered luftwaffles would be swarming. She ran into an alleyway and tried to hide in there.
How to stay unseen, Yolei thought to herself. Oh, God, please don't let it stay sunny out for so long! …I know, I'll use a box, and that'll keep me hidden…not to mention get me out of the rain for a second. Yolei picked up a cardboard box from off a stack of boxes that were lying in a heap next to her. She curled up beneath one and poked a little eyehole in the side for herself so that she could see if there was still sunlight outside or not. As she did this, she wondered about how sunlight was a thing they dreaded, instead of cherished: sunlight was rare, thanks to what the time anomalies were doing to the climate. But sunlight meant solar-powered menace machines, and, as rare as the sight of the sun was, it wasn't valuable, like most rare things are.
Yolei's train of thought was broken as she heard the noise of something giving way, and the disgruntled whimpers of a seven-year-old child. Did I just imagine that? Yolei wondered. She made another eyehole through the wet cardboard of her own box, and she saw that there was another box next to hers that was…moving. Yolei picked up the bottom edge of her box and lifted it up so that she could look inside the other box. The other box was also bottom-up, but the rain had eroded away at the roof so that it had fallen in on itself. Yolei looked through in through the open roof, and, inside the box, there was Ingrid, who was cowering in one corner of the box, as if the sight of Yolei scared her. Yolei's jaw dropped open as she saw her inside. "How did you get here?"
The child whimpered again, and Yolei knew that this had something to do with how she'd treated her before.
"Hush! Hush! If they hear us, then we're in big trouble---"
"Ti-i-i-i-na-a-a-a-a!" Ingrid sobbed in despair.
Yolei put her hand on Ingrid's mouth. "Listen, I don't hate you. I love you and I care about you, but I'm doing this for your own good."
Ingrid let out another muffled cry.
Yolei sighed and took Ingrid up out of her damaged box, leaving her drenched blanket behind. Hopefully, Ingrid's raincoat would keep her warm enough. Keeping her hand on Ingrid's mouth, she pulled Ingrid's hood up. "Shh. We need to be quiet."
Ingrid started struggling.
"Ingrid, no! You can't…!" Yolei sighed. "Listen, I don't hate you. Please don't make a sound when I take away my hand…" Yolei slowly took away her hand from Ingrid's mouth. Ingrid stopped struggling. She looked Yolei over. Yolei didn't seem so terrible now, and she didn't look like she was about to beat her again. So…what was going on?
"Tina?" Ingrid asked, referring to Tina's merciful attitude.
"…Tina," Yolei answered.
Ingrid jumped up and hugged Yolei. Yolei didn't understand why Ingrid responded like this…did Ingrid think she was Tina? …Not unless she had terrible eyesight; there were a few definite differences between herself and her daughter. Yolei didn't want to hurt the child's feelings, nor did she want to lie to the child and make her think she was Tina. So Yolei just sighed and kept a hand on her shoulder.
At that moment, the bottom of Yolei's box broke through, letting a splash of collected rainwater fall on her back. Yolei tucked Ingrid inside her own poncho to keep her warm and dry, and hoped the child wouldn't smother in there.
It wasn't long before the sun stopped shining. Yolei got up out of the box and stretched. "Finally!" she declared.
There was a snarl in front of her: there was the canis-tor, ready to attack and licking its chops for her flesh. Yolei gulped. "Here goes nothing…" She began pressing buttons on the gauntlet, hoping that she'd find something that would work as a weapon. Finally, something odd happened: there was a screen on her gauntlet that had an image of her and Ingrid on it…from the perspective of the canis-tor. Yolei looked up at the canis-tor, and it had frozen in its tracks. Yolei looked back down at the screen and touched a spot on it.
"Darwawo Non!" The canis-tor spat a blob of purple energy at the spot where Yolei had touched the screen. Ingrid let out another whimper, and the noise attracted the attention of a saberstrike. The saberstrike looked into the alleyway, and then began walking towards them with its jaws dripping with saliva. Yolei made the canis-tor shoot the saberstrike, and the saberstrike didn't survive the hit.
Yolei mused, "Behold the dog: a man's best friend, but a woman's slave!" She pressed a few more buttons, and the canis-tor shut down. She calmed Ingrid down and took her by the hand. "C'mon. We have a job to do."
Ingrid was unsure, but she hung on to Yolei's hand as they walked away to try and find something to eat.
******
"Let's face it, Tai," Matt said, "We're sunk."
"Matt, you're letting despair get to your head, again! There's no way that I'm giving up that easily. We didn't beat Myotismon and the Dark Masters to let this defeat us!"
"Get real, Tai! The Digiworld is gone; Earth is in ruins. What is left for us to save?"
"Our own necks, for one thing!"
"What good is that? What can we do?"
"We saved both worlds twice before; we can do it again!"
"Oh, quit being so optimistic!"
"Matt, you're being pessimistic. What would you have us do, let them get us?"
"…I never really thought about that…"
"There is no alternative to fighting back, Matt. There has to be some way---"
The roar of a lift-tor cut Tai off.
"Agumon, digivolve to…Greymon!"
"Gabumon, digivolve to…Garurumon!"
The two champion digimon shot their fiery attacks at the lift-tor, but to no avail. "Yon Sh'rota!" the lift-tor answered, firing a pair of beams out its underside turret. The one fired at Greymon missed, but the other one hit Garurumon squarely. He regressed back to Gabumon.
"Looks like it's just you and me, Greymon!" Tai shouted. "Let's take care of this thing!"
"Tai, it's a better move to get out of here while we can! You can't just---"
"We'll be target practice for this thing if we're running! We need to destroy it, or we're toast!"
"You saw how our digimon's attacks affected that thing: not at all. There's no way you can beat it!"
"Then I'm saving your neck! You get out of here while you can! Move it! ...Huh??" Tai looked down at an orange glow on his digivice...
"Greymon, digivolve to…Metalgreymon!"
Matt was shocked. "…Okay, maybe you can beat it…"
"Giga Blaster!" Metalgreymon shouted. He fired two spheres of white energy out his chest, and the two shots turned the lift-tor into scrap metal.
"Now we can get out of here by air!" Tai yelled. "Climb on, and let's hit the road!"
"For once, I'm behind you, Tai…and I'm sorry for yelling at you. I just didn't see it coming that you have your crest back."
"I know you were just trying to save my neck. But where do we head now?"
"Good question. If we wanted to risk our necks, I'd say we stay here and look for the others. Otherwise, we should avoid the city and head for the country. Knowing you, we're sticking around."
"That we are, Matt! And once Gabumon recovers, we'll have a digimon that can go to mega…there's not that big a chance of us dying!"
"If you say so, Tai…"