Chapter 29: Under Their Noses

Kari yelled down the shaft, "Anybody coming up?" There was no answer. "Okay, because I'm coming down!" At this point, she really wished that she had a third arm so that she'd be able to hold the box of clothes as well as the rungs of the ladder. She ended up holding the box in her teeth, which made climbing down difficult…but she managed.

After a few minutes of climbing, she heard a loud, "Is anybody coming down?"

"Nnnnngh!" Kari answered through her nose. (She would've answered with her mouth if that part of her head hadn't been busy at the time.)

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," the person at the bottom replied.

Kari would've gladly sped up her descent (she needed to use the bathroom, and she knew that, after her climb down, there was a climb up she'd have to make, too, before she'd make it to the restroom), but the box prevented her from doing that. Then, it occurred to her: it was clothes that were in that box. Clothes would probably survive the fall. She took the box in one hand, and then shouted down, "Are you ready for something to drop down?"

"What're you dropping?"

"A box of clothes!"

"Oh… Hit me!" the person at the bottom yelled.

"Bombs away!" Kari yelled, dropping the box. The landing didn't go quite how Kari had hoped. The clothes kind of scattered all over the floor. But, oh well…the floor was still covered in wheat from the last falling incident, so it wasn't that filthy…

After telling the person at the bottom that she was going up, Kari climbed back up towards the top, but she felt something hit her head. It was like a raindrop, except that it was dry. She picked it up and looked at it. It was a kernel of wheat. More kernels fell. Kari pulled up her hood and yelled up, "Hey, watch out, will ya?"

"Somebody's coming up?" Kari heard Tina yell down the shaft.

"Yes, somebody is coming up," Kari answered. "And quit moving your feet! The weather is doing enough weird stuff without it raining wheat!"

"Sorry," Tina shouted.

Kari climbed to the top, took down her hood, and shook the bran out of her hair.

"Oh, I really got you, didn't I?" Tina asked.

"Yes, you did. And---say, you're a little wet, aren't you?"

"Yeah. It's still raining out there."

"Where's your raincoat?"

"At the bottom. I lent it to one of the refugees."

Kari frowned. "Your mother would kill you for that. You know it's against regulations to lend your clothes to refugees."

"So I bent the rules a little to keep a refugee warm for a while. Big deal. He sure didn't look like he was sick to me," Tina said as she approached the shaft.

"Hold it…someone's still coming up," Kari cautioned.

"Oh…Thanks."

As the man who was ascending the ladder came to the top, Tina gasped as she saw that he was covered in wheat kernels. "Oh, I am so sorry!" Tina moaned, looking at his condition.

The man blew a few kernels out his nose.

Eager to get out of his presence, Tina shouted down the shaft, "Anybody coming up?"

"Yes!"

So much for that plan to get out of here, Tina thought to herself. Tina excused herself to a dark corner of the boxcar. She found a rat in there, and so she picked up the rat and threw it out the boxcar. She made a mental note to wash her gloves after that. But the shaft was finally clear, and she began climbing down. She found Terrance, picking up a white sweatshirt off the ground. With only one word, he offered Tina her raincoat back: "Thanks."

"No problem," Tina answered. "Anybody coming down?" Tina shouted up the shaft.

"I was about to," the answer came. It was the voice of the same man that she had showered with wheat before. Tina shook her head and sighed. "I think I'll need that thing."

"It's still raining up there?"

"Yes, but I'll need it to keep the wheat off me. That guy might be looking for revenge."

"You poured grain on him?"

"On accident, yeah. You'd think somebody would decide to move that boxcar some time, but nobody has."

"Oh. Well…thanks again. And good luck getting up there."

"Thanks."

I seem to be fitting in, Terrance thought to himself. Any time now…in fact, maybe now is a good time. He shouted up the shaft, "Hey, uh…you girl, whatever-your-name-is…"

"Tina."

"Tina…Since I'm a pokémon trainer, is there any chance that I could…uh, help you guys with my pokémon?"

"…Maybe. Come up topside, and we'll see. But hurry up; we don't want to keep this guy waiting!"

"Okay." Terrance hurried up the ladder and looked outside at the rain. Then he looked back at Tina, and she was taking off her raincoat. Saying what he thought he ought to say to keep his façade, he begged, "Oh, no; you can't give me that again when you're---"

Ignoring what he was saying, Tina draped the coat over both their heads. "Let's make it speedy, okay?" she said. "On the count of three, we run for the door. One."

"Two."

"Three!" They bolted for the doorway to the building, but not before a saberstrike spotted them.

He reached for one of his pokéballs. "Murkrow, I choose you!" Murkrow looked like he'd seen better days: he was too tired to fight the saberstrike. Calling his sick pokémon back, he said, "Okay, okay…Tina, you run inside for help. I'll keep him distracted until---"

"Sic him, Joey!" Tina shouted. A Rendilian's head popped out of Tina's overalls pocket. Joey let out a war-cry whistle and shot the saberstrike with his laser gun.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Joey answered, still leaving his head outside the pocket.

"You've…got a digimon living inside your pocket?" Terrance asked.

"Yeah. But---hey, how would you know about digimon if you're from a parallel universe where digimon don't exist?"

"Uh…well…I've been on this world for a long time…" he answered.

Tina shrugged. "What're we still doing out here? Let's get inside, already!" Once they were in, Tina shouted to Yolei, "New recruit, Mom!"

Yolei had her arms folded, and she had a frown on her face. "Tina? Kari told me about how you lent a piece of your clothing to a refugee."

"I lent it to him," Tina said, pointing to Terrance. "He looked clean and healthy to me…and he should've been clean, considering that he had been showering in the rain. But, anyway---"

"That's enough, Tina! You know you're not supposed to lend a jacket that you use to a refugee. Have that raincoat washed, and don't do anything like that again. Now…you were saying about a new recruit?"

"This is Terrance, Mom. He is a pokémon trainer who we just found."

Yolei eyed him. "What exactly do you mean 'just found'?"

"I meant it literally at the time I said it."

"No-no: how long ago did you find him?"

"About two hours ago."

"It's too soon! He hasn't had a doctor look at him. He hasn't gotten to know the layout here. He's not ready for duty yet. Give him another 24 hours. Then we'll see what we can do with him."

Twenty-four hours…that's a little too long for comfort, but I bet they can manage without me for that long.

******

Takato sighed. "You heard about that whole control spire deal, right?"

"Uh…no. What's going on?"

"There was this one big vehicle-menace-machine-thingy that we destroyed a while ago, and it made all these control spires. The spires keep digimon from digivolving, so we needed to take them out. In fact, we still need to find them all and destroy them."

"And that's our job?" Terrance asked.

"That's our job."

"I see…before we start, is it okay if I use the…uh, 'can' for a second?"

"Sure…no problem."

Terrance ducked into an alleyway. There were his four digi-clones.

"Where've you been?" Jaymon hissed.

"It took them a while before they could put me on duty. But I'm fitting in; that's the important thing."

"What's our plan?" Maggotmon asked.

"Once I get to know the layout well enough, I have each of you hide in a different corner of the place. Then, I digivolve you up to a high enough form, trash the whole place, and take their leaders prisoner---not to mention some of the nicer-looking girls. …For that, we'll need Indramon to carry them away unseen. And we'll need to take them by surprise. Do you still have my D-Gauntlet?" Terrance asked.

"It's right here," Blackgatomon replied, holding out the device.

"Good. We have to make sure I have it when the attack begins. One other thing: we need to get those digimon that evolved up beyond mega. We can kill them if we have to, but capturing them would be so much better. If this won't get me back in the Linonian Empire, I don't know what will!" He heard some shouting outside. "Excuse me. I'd better get back into my act."