Chapter 16: Time Will Tell

"Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Yolei asked.

"That depends," Hawkmon answered. "Did you think you just saw a pair of strange digimon chasing after Thunderdog and Hare?"

"That's what I remember seeing," Yolei answered.

Kari gulped. "Then…what do we do?"

"We help them out, that's what!"

"But we came to get food!"

"They're our fighters, and the more fighters that we can get with us, the better! And they can help us carry once we save their necks! Come on, already!"

Kari sighed. "I'm with you, Yolei, but I'm really not sure about this…I mean, if we DNA digivolve, then both Gatomon and Hawkmon will be too tired to fight later!"

"Then they'll stay as Swampangemon until we're almost back! Come on!"

"…Okay," she sighed.

"Hawkmon, digivolve to…Altairmon!"

"Altairmon!"

"Gatomon!"

"DNA digivolve to…Swampangemon!"

"Swampangemon, mode-change to…giga mode!" Swampangemon grew to a huge size. She picked up Yolei and Kari and put them in her pocket. "You could fit a lot of groceries in there," Swampangemon said.

"I guess we could, couldn't we?" Kari agreed.

Swampangemon flew after the two creatures that were chasing Hare and Thunderdog. "You recognize either of those two digimon?" she asked Kari and Yolei.

"Never seen them before," Yolei answered.

"Me either," Kari said.

"Then I hope this will work on them. Hydro stream!" A blast of water flew out Swampangemon's sleeves at the two creatures. They stopped in their tracks and turned around.

The long, metallic creature shouted, "Thunder!" A lightning bolt fell out of the sky at Swampangemon, and she dodged out of the way of the bolt.

"Tri attack!" the other shouted.

"Static pulse!" Swampangemon shouted. Her attack lasted longer, but it managed to cancel her opponent's attack.

"Zap Cannon---ack!" Maggonet was still wet with Swampangemon's water attack, so it electrocuted itself in its attempt at attacking Swampangemon. It became a tired magneton and Maggotmon.

"You're great, but not great enough!" Saberus shouted up to her. "Earthquake!" it shouted. A crack went flying along the ground at Swampangemon. Swampangemon took off into the air, and the crack never damaged her.

"Static pulse!" she shouted, firing a beam of red and orange light at the remaining creature. It became a tired and injured Ewemon and a dodrio. "Still not great enough for you?" Swampangemon asked.

The Unnamed Figure picked himself up. "You won't get away with this!" He sneered. He swiped a card through his D-Gauntlet. "Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"

"Jaymon, digivolve to…Nekhbetmon!" Nekhbetmon swooped down out of the clouds in the sky and picked up the drenched Unnamed Figure and his four fallen creatures. Swampangemon ignored it as it flew away.

"You okay?" Swampangemon asked Hare and Thunderdog.

"Yeah…actually, we were here looking for Yolei," Hare said.

"She's in my pocket," Swampangemon said. She scooped Kari and Yolei out and set them down next to Hare and Tiger. Swampangemon returned to her usual size.

"Wow…even with the digi-eggs, we don't have transformations like that!" Hare said. "But it's great to know that we found you! Your daughter what's-her-name fished some information out of that guy with the cloak about where he fought you, and so they sent us out to look for you."

"You know where Tina is?" Yolei asked.

"Yeah. But I don't know where we are."

"Where is she now?"

"She's staying in this one building four blocks east and seven blocks south of Tenth and Division."

"Good. Once we get the food we set out to find, we'll have to pay a visit there," Kari smiled.

"Wait---after??!!" Yolei asked. She was very eager to see Tina again.

"Well…yeah; we're on a time budget. Remember?"

"Oh, all right!" Yolei sighed.

"Hey, if I had a daughter, I'd want to see her ASAP, too, but we have responsibilities, here! Let's get the food and get back there. Hare and Thunderdog, you two get back to your base, and we'll meet you there later."

"How much later?"

"Time will tell. C'mon, Swampangemon," Kari said, climbing onto Swampangemon's foot and grabbing onto her shoulder so that she'd be able to ride her. Yolei climbed onto Swampangemon's other side, and they flew off to the grocery store that the future Yolei had suggested. They landed outside the store and loaded themselves up with food, then sped back to the mausoleum.

"Say, Yolei, shouldn't we have used Swampangemon's giga mode so that we'd be able to carry the whole store's inventory back with us?"

"Maybe we should have, but if we don't---!" Yolei's sentence ground to a halt as she saw her past self and past versions of Kari and their digimon coming out of the mausoleum. Without waiting for one of their past selves to say anything, Yolei said, "Just go out and look for food in the grocery store a few blocks west of here," and entered the mausoleum.

"…That was weird," Kari thought aloud.

"But it's over."

******

Guess who was on watch duty as Tiger and Hare came back to base? It was Renamon.

"How'd it go? Not too great, judging from the fact that you don't have Yolei with you." Renamon noted, answering her own question.

"But we know where Yolei is!" Tiger insisted.

"Where is she?" Renamon asked.

Trying to get the censure off himself, Tiger said, "Uh…Hare, tell her where she is."

"Tiger forgot to ask," Hare answered. "She told us she'll be coming here."

"Oh, really?"

"Oh, she'll be here! We found her, but we met these two…uh, mega digimon, and they were trying to attack us. So, while Tiger was cowering in a corner, I had to fight them off. I was ready to die fighting, and to the untrained eye it looked like that was going to happen. So Swampangemon shot the two megas and sent them back down to rookie. I wasn't about to get killed really, but oh, well…it's the thought that counts, right?"

"I see…and was Yolei with Swampangemon?"

"Oh, yes, and she said she had another errand to do, and that she'd be over once she was done."

"Where will she be coming from?"

"Uh…Tiger forgot to ask!"

"It sounds like Tiger doesn't really know what he's doing out there. He should stay at base with me on watch duty, then," Renamon said nonchalantly.

"Oh, he's great when it comes to small digimon or menace machines! How many megas can there be out there? I mean, lightning never strikes the same place twice! Especially not when Tiger's the one shooting it, but---"

"But she's right!" Tiger insisted. "My eyes are better than my fighting! I'd be a way better lookout than a fighter!"

"Oh, come on! You don't stink!"

"But I do!"

"Um…could you two excuse me a moment?" Renamon asked.

"Sure, anything you say!" both Monsters answered.

Renamon walked into the building so that they wouldn't hear her laugh her head off.

"If you refuse to insult me like that again, ever, I'll eat you!" Tiger snarled.

"And if you insult yourself again, I'll burn you to a crisp!" Hare shot back.