Chapter 25: Delight Revealed

There was one shout that stared the entire ruckus: "Tina!" And that single word got the entire group of children to mob her; they remembered Tina as the one who had gotten them the television sets and the game systems…not to mention the toys and kittens. Also, of all the supervisors they'd had, Tina loved them the most---or, at least, showed it the most, as she wasn't scared to kneel down and hug a child she didn't know.

Tina couldn't help but look down at the children and answer them: "Hey, Jimmy! You must've grown three centimeters since I saw you last! Abby! Ooo, your kitten looks sick. Better have someone look at that. Tommy! You need to stop getting into fights. Lace, you're still playing that solitaire hand-held game I got you? You need to share that with the others. Ben! What's up! How've you all been doing?" The mob scene lasted for a while, and it made Tina wonder if she shouldn't get into a career in politics: the people loved her.

Youngdramon was attending to Ingrid, who was afraid of the mob, but happy to see Tina. After Tina was done with the mob, she knelt down next to Ingrid, who immediately wrapped her arms around Tina and couldn't stop yelling, "Tina-Tina-Tina-Tina-Tina!"

"Pipe down! You're going to start up another mob scene!" Tina giggled. She set Ingrid down on her lap. "So…how've you been?"

Not knowing enough English to answer her question (or understand her question), Ingrid let out a one-word answer: "Tina!"

"Yeah, I missed you, too!" Tina answered, giving Ingrid a hug back. Tina looked around the mausoleum, and there were a only few supervisors around. Other than that, there was almost nothing in the mausoleum: no television sets, no toys, just about nothing. "Man, there still isn't anything to do around here?" Tina asked Ingrid.

Ingrid had the innate urge to act like everyone else, and one thing that everyone else did around there was talk. So she answered Tina with one of the few words she knew (and her favorite word, at that): "Tina!"

"Oh, come on! You know more words than that!"

"Ti-NA!"

Tina giggled. "I just had to visit for a while, Ingrid. It's good to see you alive and well. And do you have your kitten, still?"

"Kit-ten!" Ingrid answered, pulling her kitten, Chickpea, out of her raincoat's collar. Chickpea had been asleep, and wasn't happy to be awakened.

"She's doing well," Tina thought aloud as she stroked the kitten's head. "Better put her back to bed."

On hearing the word "bed", Ingrid put the kitten back where it would keep her warm, lay down on the floor, and covered herself with her blanket.

Tina giggled. "You're a good girl, Ingrid. Good night."

"Good night," Ingrid answered.

Tina turned around. She found that the other children were using Youngdramon as a jungle gym. "Youngdramon! You don't know where those kids have been! Put them back!"

"Oh, all right," Youngdramon said, lowering her head so that the four-year-old who'd been using her snout as a pull-up bar would be able to let go of her.

"Aw, great!" Tina muttered, looking outside at the rain that was pouring out of the sky.

"I'll bet June's gonna be ticked at this."

"Oh, well," Tina said, pulling her hood up. "Mom will sure be angry that we had to walk in the rain, but, other than that…"

"Let's get going. This is one of those times when I'm glad I don't have any clothes that can get wet," Youngdramon thought to herself. As she stepped outside, she added, "Oooooooooooo! I do, however, have a bare spot on my scales that the rain does not feel nice against. The bare spot was courtesy June enterprises."

"I know how to fix that," Tina said, pulling a strip of duct tape off from Youngdramon's roll and putting it over the bare spot.

"Oh…Why didn't I think of that?" Youngdramon wondered.

"Because you're not a genius like I am?"

"Wanna bet on that?" Youngdramon asked.

"Let's just get back to base a quick as we can. I'm not too keen on getting these overalls wet."

******

"I'm going to nail Tina for this," June muttered.

Tibemon scratched her head in confusion. "June, you still have your umbrella with you: you're not getting wet."

"True, but my umbrella is getting wet."

"Uh…isn't that what it's supposed to do?"

"Not this one. It's more of a fashion statement, as is anything its basic size and shape when it's folded up. I could work with a water bottle, but---well, you can open a water bottle (it's pretty useless if you can't)---but Davis tends not to freak out when you open a bottle indoors."

"That depends on how you tilt the bottle---and where the bottle is when you tilt it," Tibemon pointed out.

"That's true. But it's more fun to hit Davis automatically when I push the button on this thing. If they make an automatic water bottle, let me know."

"But, June, if your umbrella is wet when you hit him with it, then won't that make him wet and add insult to injury?"

"…You're right…! This might be a blessing in disguise!" she thought to herself.

"With Tina, most blessings come that way." Tibemon added.

"Hey! June! Wait up!" Tina shouted from behind them.

"Speak of the devil!" June said, turning around.

Tina skidded to a halt next to June. "There room under that thing for two?" Tina asked.

"Sure is," June answered.

"One question," Tina asked as they continued their walk. "If you had a friend who needed your help, but you also had a daughter who you wanted to be with, and they were in two different places and it was a bad idea to move them together…what would you do?"

"I think I'd ask a friend of mine a hypothetical question about my situation," June answered.

"Ha, funny."

"Where do you come up with these things?" June asked. "And since when do you have a daughter? Did this time anomaly pull her in from the future, or something?"

"No-no. I adopted her, kind of. She needed somebody to reach out to her, so I did."

"What was her problem?"

"The time anomaly wiped her memory, so she couldn't remember how to talk, and she was afraid of everything."

"That's not good."

"You're telling me."

"And who's the 'friend' we're talking about?"

"She used to be my roommate while we were still staying at the power plant. She's going through a difficult time in her life---more than you'd think. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag about what she's---!!" Tina's sentence trailed off as she heard a slagster behind them, roaring with its engine.

"Aw, great! Tell me you're strong enough to digivolve!" June said to Tibemon.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not," Tibemon moaned.

"Relax. Where there's a roll, there's a way," Youngdramon said, pointing to her duct tape. She lunged forward at the slagster and began flying circles around it…literally. "Polymer coil!" She wrapped him up again and again in duct tape, until she forced its arms to be pressed onto its chest. Then, as stupidly programmed as ever, it tried to fire, and, while it succeeded in melting the duct tape off with its attack, it also succeeded in melting some of its own components and destroying itself.

"Quick thinking, Youngdramon," Tina sighed. "That deserves a reward." Tina reached into her raincoat pocket and pulled out a candy bar. "Let's see," she said, reading the label. "High fat content, calories: 1000, protein: 50% DV (whatever that means), b-vitamins: 40% DV, carbs…ah, well, it's a suicide, heart-attack, chocolate-coated piece of chow loaded with all the good stuff."

"It's a breakfast bar," Tibemon cut in.

"That's what I just said. Youngdramon, if this doesn't perk you up enough for a digivolution, I don't know what will."

"Thanks," Youngdramon said, gulping the bar down in one bite. "That thing sure tastes like a chocolate-coated heart attack!"

"You said it," Tina agreed. "I love those things!"

"Alone, at last!" That was the voice of The Unnamed Figure.

Tina rolled her eyes. "And what exactly would you be doing here?"

"Getting my future personal…attendants, shall we say?"

"Easier said than done, punk!" Youngdramon shot back. "Take one step closer, and we'll steal your gauntlet again!"

"Oh, really…? Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"

"Ewemon, digivolve to…Impostrogarurumon!"

"Digi-modify! Counter-crest digivolution, activate!"

"Impostrogarurumon, digivolve to…Houndramon!"

"Perfect," Tina moaned.

Out of insolence, The Unnamed Figure took a step forwards. Youngdramon hurled a strip of duct tape at the gauntlet, lassoed it, and began to pull. Unfortunately, the gauntlet had become wet from all the rain, and the duct tape came off.

"Nice try!" The Unnamed Figure taunted. "Houndramon, sic 'em!"

"Youngdramon, digivolve to…Ikudramon!"

Houndramon charged up his attack: "Thunder torrent!"

"Dynamo blaster!" Ikudramon shouted. The attacks didn't cancel; Houndramon landed a hit on her.

"Ready to surrender?" The Unnamed Figure asked.

"We're just getting started!" Tina said. "Ikudramon, digivolve!"

"What??" June asked. "You don't have the crest program on your digivice!"

"Ikudramon, digivolve to…Hydramon!"

"…Or, maybe, you do…" June timidly admitted.

"Sic him…I mean, it, Hydramon!"

"Venom Breath!" Hydramon shouted, spitting poison onto Houndramon's nose. At first, the shot didn't look like it would do very much, but it was a poison attack, so it dealt damage more slowly than other attacks. "Hydra Blaster!" Hydramon added, spitting shot after shot down ad Houndramon, keeping it moving until the poison kicked in. Houndramon regressed back to Ewemon. "So, are you ready to surrender?" Hydramon asked The Unnamed Figure with one of her three heads.

"I'll be back!" he shouted, pressing a button on his gauntlet. In a flash of light, he and Ewemon disappeared.

"Great. I'm getting sick of that guy," June sighed. "What say we put him out of commission permanently, next chance we get?"

"Sounds good to me, considering that his mind is in the gutter," Tina agreed. "What say we take the fast and scenic route home?"

"We…ride Hydramon?"

"That's my idea!"

As they climbed onto the back of one of Hydramon's claws, June asked, "How did you know that you still had your crest?"

"It's simple: our digi-eggs were supposedly once our crests, right? But with time being messed up, our crests can be crests and digi-eggs at the same time. My crest is the crest of adventure, and yours is the crest of persistence. I felt pretty adventurous when we digivolved Mermon to WarMermon, so I figure that it's the power of our crests that make her mega-digivolve. If we still have our crests, then we can digivolve to ultimate, too."

"Quick thinking. And I'm enjoying this ride to. Nice and dry."

"Amen, sister!" Tina agreed.