Chapter 15: New and Improved Threat

"Lightning!" Tiger shouted, firing a pair of bolts fly from his horns. The cybertooth staggered backwards, but it didn't look hurt.

"Kin Non!" it shouted back, firing a stream of flame at Tiger. Tiger was too agile for it to land a hit on him.

"So fire is your element, huh? Then let's see how you like this! Blizzard!"

"Darwawo Ota!" The red ball of energy broke the stream and sent the snow Tiger was shooting in every direction. Tiger jumped out of the way at the last second.

"This is really getting annoying!" Tiger snarled. "It's high time I---"

"Clinker Beam!" Tiger was glad to hear that, but it sounded like three voices were saying it. And, as the situation got better, three beams of fire hit the cybertooth and killed it. Tiger was more than a little shocked, so he turned, and---as his ears had suggested---there were three Firabbits.

"Oh, as if Renamon being split between two of us wasn't enough, now there are four of us?"

"We're as surprised at this as you are," one of the three Firabbits answered. "One second, there was only one of us, and then---!"

"I saw you disappear when that cybertooth shot you and you were flying through the air…there's a lot of stuff going weird with time…what if you hit a time field that multiplied you while you were in mid-air?"

"That's the only conclusion that's logical," another Firabbit mused.

"But how do we go back to there being just one of us?" another asked.

"Go back in the time field?"

"Would that make nine of us, though?"

"Hey, then there would be nine eggs of courage, wouldn't there?"

"So we have something to gain, either way?"

"I guess…"

"Let's try it!"

Tiger hesitated, and his mouth slowly dropped open as he saw the three Firabbits talking amongst themselves. He hadn't known Firabbit for talking to himself, but this brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "talking to yourself". And this situation was the most absurd thing that Tiger had ever seen; it demanded a moment of reflection that turned into a moment of mental absence. (One can hardly blame Tiger for wanting to be mentally absent from such a bizarre display; it was bad enough that he had to be physically present.) "W-wait up!" he yelled after them as he snapped out of it and ran after them. He ran to where the three Firabbits had stopped, and they were all looking at one place, and they were looking up and down. "What's so interesting?"

"Is it just us, or is there something here?"

Tiger looked. He could barely see it, but there were patches of light and dark in front of him, as if something was casting a watery shadow on the walls of the building in front of him. Tiger slowly circled the anomaly, taking in what it looked like and how it behaved, and the patterns showed up on buildings on the other side of the street, too. "There is something here that's messing with the light, all right."

"This must be the time field…you guys ready to give it a shot?" one Firabbit asked the others.

"I'm all for it."

"Ditto."

"Let's go."

The three entered the strange twister of light, and---after a few seconds---out came one Firabbit.

"Well…it worked!" Firabbit thought aloud.

"That it did, but the egg of friendship is still missing!"

"It is not!" Firabbit spat. "It's right here in my hand!" He showed Tiger the egg.

Tiger let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Now, let's get to Tenth and Division before something else happens."

******

"So…what're we going to do for food, anyhow?" Tai asked. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm about ready for breakfast."

"We need to go out and look for some more," Yolei sighed. "Hawkmon and Gatomon are recovered, so Kari and I can go out and look for food." Yolei pulled the digi-eggs of love and sincerity out of her backpack. "Tai, Matt, you carry these. Touch them to Moochi and Suezo if there's any trouble."

"You got it!"

"We'll do that."

"Good. Ready for a hike, Kari?"

"No," Kari grunted, just getting up. "But I'm ready for breakfast."

"Oh, and keep an eye on the one in the purple raincoat," Yolei added. "She's essentially mentally retarded…or something like."

"…Okay. Hurry back, okay?"

"We will." Kari picked up Gatomon and Yolei picked up Hawkmon. They were just leaving the mausoleum when they saw themselves, coming back in with armloads of groceries. Both quartets were startled, but the Yolei from the in-coming group said, "Just go out and look for food in the grocery store a few blocks west of here."

Nobody else said a word. The out-going Kari asked the out-going Yolei, "Do we believe her?"

"Um…sure. …I'm wondering if I shouldn't take that as an insult, you not believing me," Yolei muttered.

"With time messed up, I don't know what to believe. But it's good to know we make it back, that's for sure!"

"Amen."

They walked along undisturbed for a few minutes. Then--- "Darwawo Non!" a canis-tor shouted. The purple spark of light barely missed Yolei.

"Step of cat!" Gatomon answered, sending a flash of energy through the ground back at the canis-tor. The canis-tor didn't survive the hit.

"Thanks, Gatomon," Kari said.

"No problem; I'm nowhere near tired, yet!"

"I just hope that no other menace machines heard that."

******

The Unnamed Figure was very glad that the sub-major hadn't been angry that he'd lost those two gauntlets. He didn't know why the sub-major wasn't angry, but now, his gauntlet was working again, and it had gotten an upgrade. It wasn't up to the full power he had been hoping for, but it was better than it had been. He peeked out of an alleyway, and he saw a couple of creatures walking his way. They looked biological, so he figured that they probably weren't menace machines. They were talking about Tenth and Division, so he knew that they were with that Tina-girl. Then, it occurred to him: he'd get some major brownie points with the sub-major if he would be able to find out where their base was by forcing them to run there.

"Ewemon, Maggotmon, get ready!" He and his two digimon jumped out from their hiding places. "Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"

"Ewemon, digivolve to…Impostrogarurumon!"

"Maggotmon, digivolve to…Pestilimon!"

Hare and Tiger stopped in their tracks. "Aw, great!" Hare sighed. "More fighting to do!"

"It doesn't stop here!" The Unnamed Figure snorted. "Digi-modify! Counter-crest digivolution, activate!"

"Impostrogarurumon, digivolve to…Houndramon!"

"Pestilimon, digivolve to…Centimon!"

Tiger looked at the digi-egg of friendship. "Should we?"

"I can't module-evolve to Firabbit; I'm too low on energy. If you choose to fight, we'll be outnumbered and outgunned!"

The Unnamed Figure placed a pair of pokéballs in his D-Gauntlet and sneered at them. "You certainly will be outnumbered and outgunned! Digi-modify! Co-Op digivolution, activate!"

"Houndramon, Co-Op digivolve to…Saberus!"

"Centimon, Co-Op digivolve to…Maggonet!" Maggonet was clearly the combination of Centimon and a magneton. It looked like a centipede, but its legs were all magnets, and it had a magnet on its head for antennae.

"All right, I think our best move is to run for it," Hare said.

"Right!" Tiger agreed.

Saberus and Maggonet kept their distance from Tiger and Hare. Just as they were getting to the boxcar, Hare thought, "Hey, with three evolutions, you'd think those things would be fast enough to catch up by now!"

"They aren't, though, are they?" Tiger asked. "Let's get in and get reinforcements, so that---"

"No, wait! That's what they want us to do! He's trying to get us to show him where our base is! They haven't fired one attack at us yet!"

"So…what do we do?"

"We find some other place to hide, and hope they wear out before we do!"

"That's a high hope, with you along!" Tiger snarled.

"Thanks a bunch. Maybe your girlfriend, Renamon, will save your tail?!"

"Oh, she's my girlfriend now, huh?"

Hare said back through his nose, "If I'm so slow, you'll be the only one left for her!"

The Unnamed Figure's digimon were getting sick of chasing them. "Should we blast them?" Maggonet asked. "It's tough to run in this form!"

"Quit complaining!" he shot back. "If we're patient, then we'll be able to find out where their base is!"

After a few more minutes, it became apparent that they were leading them in circles. "All right, I'm getting sick of this!" The Unnamed Figure snarled. "Start shooting at them, but only warning shots. Maybe a little motivation will make them go back home! They can't last forever!"

"Zap Cannon!"

"Tri attack!"

Hare skipped out of way of a blast of ice. "Uh, Tiger, I think they caught on that we caught on!"

"Let's just hope they don't catch us!"

"So what now?"

"You're the one with all the plans! Answer your own question!"

"Uh…you'll have more stamina as Thunderdog, and I can ride you away from them!"

"Oh, right, dump the work on me!"

"You have a better idea??"

"No, I don't! …Tiger, module-evolve to…Thunderdog!"

"Now, get moving and keep moving!" Hare shouted as he jumped on Thunderdog's back.