A Journey Beyond
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Good enough for you?
Note to Anonymous reviewer who posted the first review: Dude you're taking this WAY too seriously. Also, this is an AU, so it isn't supposed to follow the exact story. Or did that fact pass you by completely? If I wanted I could have Hikari die but I ain't gonna. So back of and chill down. I'm only gonna say this once, I DON'T WANT FLAMES PEOPLE! If you don't have something useful or encouraging to say, then don't say it. If you don't like the fic then not like it in a way that's not rude. From now on if I get any more flames I'm gonna make sure that person gets a nice nasty little flame themselves. Okay, enough rambling and onto chapter two!
Last time in A Journey Beyond: Shavirin Moonshade, a wolf-Lycan, was hunting a deer with her family when she suddenly caught scent of a portal to the Digital World. She followed the scent and was sucked up by the portal before she could think! Once in the DigiWorld, she met with Tai and the others just as Gennai was telling them of the Eighth Child. The group, along with their new friend, stormed Myotismon's castle to stop him from getting to the Real World. He and Shavirin fought, the group was attacked by SEVEN DeviDramon, and in the end, Myotismon ended up passing through the gates into the Real World! But before the gang could, the gates to the Digital World shut in their faces! Anyone got a plan B?
"I'm sure you did all you could," the holograph of the old man, who I had learned was named Gennai, said.
We were all sitting or standing around the holograph, and we had just finished telling Gennai what had happened. But there was a slight problem.
"Now then, Shavirin, was it? Let me see your back." I sighed and turned, and heard Gennai suck in a breath. "Well, Myotismon nailed you a good one, didn't he?" I turned to face him, giving a little smile. I lifted my shirt enough to show my stomach, revealing a long, bloody welt, where Myotismon's Crimson Lightening had hit me. Everyone gasped. "My! He really did get you!" Gennai replied after a moment. I chuckled.
"You could say that," I answered. Joe was beginning to look ill again.
"I never did like the sight of blood. I freak when someone gets a papercut!"
"What do we do now?" Sora asked Gennai.
"Well, you'll have to come to my house. I can help you better once you arrive. Now, look up."
"What kind of directions are those?" Mimi asked, scowling. Gennai chuckled.
"Very good ones. Now look up already!"
We did, and I noticed in the distance a light waving back and forth. Izzy and the others saw it too.
"A searchlight?" Izzy asked. Gennai nodded.
"Follow that light. I'll be waiting!" With that, the holograph flickered, then vanished. TK looked at Matt.
"Matt, I'm hungry."
"You know, so am I," Matt replied.
"We can't worry about that right now," Tai said. "We have to get to Gennai's house and find out how to get to the Real World so we can stop Myotismon!"
"Yeah," TK said. "You're right."
"Well, let's get going if we're going," Sora said.
And with that said, we were off.
"You know, that light didn't seem so far away before!" Joe complained. "Gennai could have warned us."
We had been walking for a while, and everyone was getting tired. I was as well, but only because of my wounds, which were burning. Just as I was getting ready to add something to Joe's whining, we exited the woods.
Before us was a large body of water, like a mini sea. But, something wasn't right.
"Uh, guys? Is it just me, or is the light coming from the water?" Tai asked. Izzy scowled.
"Perhaps Gennai gave us the wrong coordinates?" he offered. The others were looking puzzled. Then the ground began to shake. I yelped and the others quickly grouped together.
"Now what?!" Mimi cried as the water began to part. Thankfully, it wasn't the impending attack of some evil beast wanting us for dinner, but some strange mechanism that was revealing stairs.
"Do we go?" Matt asked.
"I don't think we have much of a choice," I replied. "Unless one of you feels like swimming down there."
"I'm probably allergic to digital water," Joe muttered, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Let's use the stairs."
We started down the stairs, watching the fish swimming in the waters to either side of us. I was tempted to snatch one and eat it, but I figured that might not appeal to the others, especially Joe. I didn't feel like making anyone sick.
After about five minutes, we were back on level ground. There was a large house not too far away, and he headed for it.
"Wow, Gennai's got a nice place here!" Tai said, looking around.
"Yeah, I'll bet he doesn't get those annoying door-to-door salesmen either," Matt added.
"What's a Salesmon?" Gomamon asked. I chuckled.
"A door-to-door salesman isn't a Digimon. It's a person who goes from house to house trying to sell people things. Most of them are scams, you know, plots to get you to put money out for something it's not worth. My little brothers say they give you indigestion." Everyone looked shocked. "What?"
"You've eaten a person before?!" Mimi asked, making a disgusted face. I blinked, then laughed.
"What?! Good God no! My brothers are scamps, they like to say things like that. Of course, my Father agreed…" Everyone gave me that same freaked look, and I laughed again. "I'm kidding!" They gave weak chuckles, and I decided to keep the human-eating jokes to a minimum. "Uh, come on, let's look for that Gennai guy."
We continued our search, not finding anything. We headed out back as Mimi started to shout.
"Gennai? Gennai? GENNAI?!"
"Geez, I'm old, not deaf!" Gennai said, and we turned to see him standing on a little bridge about four or so feet away. "Quit yelling! Who needs doorbells, when you have such noisy visitors?"
"Hey! Gennai!" Tai said as we jogged over to stand by the small bridge. Gennai was tossing some bread or something into a tiny stream beneath the bridge. I scowled, wondering how there was a stream here when we were technically at the bottom of a very large pond or lake of some kind. "It's really you!"
"What, were you expecting Santa Claus?"
"No, it's just we've never seen the real you before." Tai said. "Why are you always hiding?"
"I'm not," Gennai said.
"Well, why did you always use those projections and never come in person?"
"It was just a show, to impress you."
"What kind of person are you?" Joe asked, shoving his glasses up his nose again. Gennai gave a chuckle.
"A human, or some kinda Digimon?" TK asked.
"That's not important," Gennai replied.
"Why do you keep calling us DigiDestined?" Matt asked now.
"Easy! I'm old, not deaf!" Gennai repeated. "It's because you were chosen to save this world, and your own as well."
"But…how were we chosen?" Matt asked, frowning.
"Yeah, all we did was sign up for summer camp, not save-the-worlds camp," Sora added.
"Well, that's all you need to know for now. Come inside. What's important at the moment is to get you all back to your world. That and some nice soup and a sandwich. By the way, it's good to see you all, in person anyways. I was beginning to worry. What took so long?"
"It was a long walk," Joe said. "Do you think we could sit down and eat now? I'm famished and tired."
"That's a good idea," Gennai said, joining us. "Come on, let's get you all fed and settled in, and cleaned up in your case," he added, shooting me a look. I snorted and he laughed a little, leading us into his house.
As the door shut, I noticed the water began to lower, until the house was completely submerged by it. I looked around.
"How do you keep the water from getting into the house?" I asked.
"Digital house, digital water. It's all very complicated, unless you know computer talk."
"Ugh, no," I said. "I don't understand anything once people start talking in computer terms."
"Well, to make it simple, all you need to know is the programming for the water and my house can be changed, so the two don't mix with each other. They are each strictly separate. That's why the water doesn't come into the house, its programming simply can't override the programming of my house, as it would need to do if it were to soak me." He laughed a little at that, and I shook my head.
"That's simple?" I muttered as we all sat down.
"Don't worry about it," Gennai said. "Now then, about your problem."
"Oh yeah, we have to get back to the Real World and save the Eighth Child!" Sora said. Gennai nodded solemnly.
"Indeed you do. Hold on a moment." The old man left the room for a moment, and returned holding something in his hands. They were Digimon cards of some kind. "These cards are the same kind Myotismon used to open the gates," Gennai said as he placed them on the table before us, spreading them out in two rows of five. "They can be considered keys, if you so desire."
"Awesome!" Tai exclaimed as we studied the cards, which had the names of the Digimon they depicted under the picture. There was Agumon, Gomamon, Etemon, Centarumon, Leomon, Bakemon, Elecmon, Chuumon, Andromon, and Digitamamon. "How did you get these?"
"It was a while ago, and I don't really remember. But that's not important. What is important is that you have to use these cards to open the gates to the Real World."
"How do we do that?" Izzy asked. Gennai said nothing at first, then nodded.
"The cards have to be placed in a specific order to unlock and open the gates. It takes nine cards to do so. But there are a few problems. For one, there are nine holes in the lock for the gates, one for each card."
"Well, you've given us one too many cards," Izzy said.
"Right you are!" Gennai said with a smile. "One of these cards if a fake, and you'll need to find out which one."
"Why can't you just tell us?" Mimi asked.
"I don't know which is the fake," Gennai answered. "All I know is that these cards are needed to open the gates, and that they MUST be placed in an exact order."
"Hey, no problem," Tai said with a shrug. "We'll just try combing the cards until we get the right order."
"You will do NO such thing, you silly boy! There are many, MANY different worlds, and if you put the cards in the wrong order you'll open the gates to a different world! Who knows where you'd end up if you did that?! You most certainly will not do that! Do you understand me?" Gennai cried, moving in a flash and giving Tai a good shake. "You might end up going to a world where Digimon and humans switch skins!"
"Oh, no way!" Mimi cried. "I like my skin, thank you!"
"Don't worry" Gennai said, releasing Tai and clearing his throat, "you won't be switching skins with anyone as long as you learn the correct order of the cards."
"Right," said Joe. "But how do we do that, if we only have one shot? There are so many combinations! We have no idea which is the right one!"
"You'll just have to use your instinct, and learn how to use your power the Myotismon is using his." Gennai said. "That, and your brains. Now then, I have something else to show you." He walked over to a wall, where a map lowered from the ceiling. "Let's take a look at the weather, state, county, city. Anyone recognize this area?"
"That's our hometown!" Tai said. Gennai nodded.
"That's right. And this," he pointed to a blinking red dot, "indicates Myotismon's location."
"No way!" Matt cried as the others gasped. I narrowed my eyes.
"He's only about a mile from where we all live," Matt muttered, his eyes glued to the red circle."
"I'll bet he goes downtown!" Tai exclaimed. "This is not good."
"No, it isn't. That's why, tomorrow, I am going to show you the proper way to use these cards. Now then, Shavirin."
Gennai turned to face me, and I blinked.
"Yeah?"
"We need to take care of your back, then you all should eat and get some sleep."
"Uuh…my back…" I muttered. "Um, well, isn't like with the water and your house? Different programming and stuff?"
"How should I know? I'm just an old man who happens to live in the Digital World and knows certain things about it. I can't tell you what kind of nasty parasites might like to make a home in those unpleasant wounds you've got."
"Well, since you put it like that, I guess I don't have a choice," I said. Gennai nodded and stood.
"Exactly right. Now wait here."
"Where exactly would we go?" Matt asked as Gennai walked off again. "I don't feel like taking a dip right now."
"I know one thing," I said. "Myotismon better hope he doesn't run into my Pack, because after that battle the scent of my blood will be all over him. We wolf-Lycans don't take kindly to those who attack members of our family, or ones we care for."
"Where are you from?" TK asked.
"Around the same area you guys live," I answered, unable to keep the growl of satisfaction from my voice. "If Myotismon does have the misfortune of meeting with my Pack, it'll be something I doubt he'll live to regret. My Father can be very aggressive when it comes to protecting us." I gave a little chuckle. "In fact, I'll even for sorry for him. Father'll rip him to shreds, and then the Pack will probably eat him."
"We could only hope," Matt muttered darkly. "But I doubt it would be that easy. Myotismon is stronger than he lets on, I can guarantee you that."
"I agree with Matt," Izzy said. "Despite how strong we know he is from previous encounters, we don't really know the full depths of Myotismon's strength."
"Ah well, we'll find a way to beat him," Tai said.
"I'm back," Gennai called after a moment. He came in and sat beside me, holding a small, wooden bowl filled with a strange-smelling liquid. It was strongly spicy, and made my nose itch. He also had a few rags made of a soft-looking material.
"Now then, let's get this over with. It won't be pleasant, just so you're forewarned," he said, motioning for me to turn. I shifted so my back was to him. "You're lucky, it looks like Myotismon's aim wasn't on par, or these wounds would be much worse."
"How can you tell?" Izzy inquired as he joined Gennai in studying my injuries.
"The way the edges of these gashes are slightly jagged. If Myotismon's aim had been perfect, so would the wounds."
"Ah, that makes sense," Izzy muttered. I sighed.
"Can we please get on with this?"
"Oh, yes, right," Gennai said. "Ah, but there is one problem."
"Now what?"
"Well, you would like to keep your decency, right?" I blinked. "Alright, everyone out! I'll call you back in when I'm done!"
"Suits me, I really didn't want to watch this anyways," Joe said weakly as he and the others stood, walking out of the room. After a moment it was only Gennai and myself.
"Alright then, let's get this back of yours taken care of, Gennai said as he tugged my shirt up, enough to let him see the full extent of my injuries. "You're very lucky. It seems Myotismon was trying to either sever your spinal cord or break your backbone. Either way, if he'd succeeded, if would have either paralyzed or killed you. Another inch or two and you'd have been down and out, permanently."
"Thanks, yeah, now that I know how close to either certain death or incapacitation I came, I feel SO much better."
"I hope it won't affect you any, because I think you were brought here to help Tai and the others defeat Myotismon. Either that, or you just happened to stumble upon a stray portal between the worlds. Personally, I don't believe in coincidence.."
"If I'm supposed to help them, hypothetically speaking, then why didn't I just stay in the Real World? I would have met with them sooner or later, and my Pack would be there too."
"Well now, what would you prefer: being brought to the Digital World and finding out about all this the easy way, or staying in the Real World, suddenly finding yourself fighting strange creatures you've never seen before, and putting your family into dangers you know nothing about?" I said nothing to that, knowing Gennai was right. I sighed softly as he began to clean the wounds At first, there was a painful burning sensation that made Myotismon's attack pale in comparison. I winced a little but didn't complain. "Speaking of which, why don't you tell me about yourself and your family?"
"Well, what do you want to know?"
"Just where you come from, your history, that sort of thing."
"Well my Den, er, home, as you'd call it, is on the outskirts of where Myotismon is now. That's what I was telling the others, you know, that Myotismon runs the risk of running into my Pack. We have a few other Dens around the area, but those are used as safe houses and the like, in case we ever need them.
"As for my history, well, I was born in a Birthing Den, you know, one of our other Dens…never mind. There's not much to tell actually. I never went to a human school, for obvious reasons. My parents taught me everything I needed to know: hunting tactics, how to change, how to use my powers, that sort of thing. I'm the second oldest from the litter. My sister Renia was born first, then me, then Kio and Pagii. Also, a few years after I was born my cousins Ikau, Dem, and Jerith joined the Pack. Like I said, not much to tell."
"There's nothing particularly interesting that happened to you, anything worth noting?"
"If there is then I can't remember it."
"Ah well, in due time, I suppose."
"Uh, exactly why is all this important?"
"I'm just curious, that's all. Now, how does you back feel?"
I shifted lightly, tensing and relaxing the muscles in my back. Nothing. The burning had stopped.
"I don't feel anything."
"Good, good, that's what we want. Now let's get that welt on your tummy and we can call the others in and eat!" I turned, and we were silent as Gennai cleaned and numbed the painful welt. After he was done, I looked at the Digimon cards still on the table.
"Um, you wouldn't happen to have a clean shirt would you?"
"Let me check." Gennai left the room yet again, taking the odd-smelling stuff in the bowl and the bloody rags with him. He returned a moment later, tossing me a clean black shirt. I quickly turned and peeled my old shirt off, and slipped the new one on.
"Thanks," I said. Gennai nodded, then poked his head out into the hallway where the others were waiting.
"Alright, we're done. Come back in." Everyone filed back into the room and sat around the table. Gennai waved a hand at us. "Now then, let me get us some food together." For about the fourth or so time, he wandered out of the room, to return about ten minutes later with a large platter. I wondered how such a little man could carry something that was obviously quite heavy, but I kept my mouth shut as I moved the Digimon cards onto the floor and we all took bowls and small cups full of some sort of juice or something.
"It's about time!" Joe said as he started to eat. Everyone else dug in. I gave the bowl a little sniff, found the contents smelled quite good, and began to eat myself.
"We're going to have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, I'll bet," Agumon said as he took a break from slurping at the soup. "I mean, not only do we have to come up with the right combination of cards, but then we'll have to start looking for the Eighth Child, and looking out for Myotismon."
"We don't have to worry about that right now," Matt said. "But I guess you're right."
"Come on guys," Patamon said brightly. "We'll figure it out."
"And hey, even if we don't we'll still be together!" Gabumon added.
"Thanks," Mimi said, somewhat darkly.
We ate in silence from then on. I started to feel lonely, because I had never been from my Pack for so long. I had just finished eating when suddenly a blanket of darkness fell over the sky.
"What's going on?" I yelped, jumping. Gennai chuckled.
"It seems the kids forgot to mention that night comes very quickly here."
"Oh…" I muttered, settling back down and feeling quite stupid. After a few moments, the others finished their food as well. I stretched.
"Ah, by the way Izzy, have you been using the Digimon Analyzer I gave you?"
"Of course, but there's one slight problem with it."
"Oh? What's that?"
"I've only been able to access information on Digimon I've seen, not the information of those the others have."
"Ah, that is a problem, isn't it? Well, give my your computer and I'll modify it tonight." Izzy shrugged off the odd pack he had on his back that held his laptop and passed the whole thing to Gennai. The old man stood and sighed.
"And now, I believe it's time for us to all turn in and get some sleep. I'll get your laptop modified first though. The rest of you should turn in and get some sleep, I suppose I should say." He took the cards from where they were on the floor. "Don't worry about the dishes, I'll take care of them tomorrow. Well, goodnight everyone. See you in the morning." With that said, the old man walked out of the room, flicking off the lights as he went.
It didn't take long before the others drifted to sleep. I was the last one awake within ten minutes.
What did I do to get myself tangled up in all this? I thought, staring at the ceiling. I wasn't a normal person, granted, but STILL! I sighed and rolled onto my side, closing my eyes. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter. What's done is done and can't be undone, as they say. I'm just going to have to make the best out of it all.
Soon, I joined the others in blissful unconsciousness.
"Wow Joe, why don't you eat the bones too?" Sora asked, smiling a little. It was breakfast and we were eating some fish. I wondered if they were from this area, or if Gennai had gotten them from somewhere else.
"I was hungry, okay?" Joe replied, shooting her a look.
"I'll take those!" I said brightly, reaching over and plucking the bones from Joe's plate. I was blissfully unawares of the looks I got from everyone as I popped them into my mouth and crunched them happily.
"O….kay then…" Matt said. Just then, Gennai entered the room.
"Good morning all. I hope you slept well," he said as he sat between Tai and myself.
"Morning," we all chorused. Gennai nodded, then he placed Izzy's laptop on the table and opened it.
"Izzy, I've finished the modifications to your laptop. When you insert someone's DigiVice into this adapter," he pointed to a slot to the left of the keyboard, "the Analyzer will show information on any Digimon that person has seen. I also put on a new screensaver, you know, the one with the colored fishes swimming around? I really like that one."
"Prodigious! Great minds do think alike! Thanks Gennai," Izzy said as he closed the laptop and put it back into the pack Gennai handed him. He then replaced it over his shoulders and shifted it so it was, I assume, in a comfortable position against his spine. I swallowed the bones I was chewing on and yawned. After a few moments of showing us how to position the cards and the like, Gennai stood, as did the rest of us.
"And now, I have a request. I want you all to never forget that you are the DigiDestined."
Except for me, I thought.
"I'm never going to forget this stomachache," Joe moaned, holding his gut.
"Come on Joe, this is serious!" Sora exclaimed. Gennai nodded.
"I have done all I can to help you. I can't assist you anymore once you enter Myotismon's castle. Good luck!"
A while later, we were back at Myotismon's castle. A group of DeviDramon was prowling around outside.
"Man, this place is scarier than it was last time!" Joe remarked as we crouched behind some trees, watching the large Digimon. "How do we get passed the DeviDramon?"
"Leave it to me!" Tentomon said. "I'll take them out while you all get in!" Tai and Izzy nodded, and Tentomon flew forward. "TENTOMON DIGIVOLVE TO…KABUTERIMON! KABUTERIMON DIGIVOLVE TO…MEGAKABUTERIMON!!!" MegaKabuterimon looked like a giant stag beetle with a hard red shell and a blue gem on his back. "HORN BUSTER!!!"
"Now's our chance!" Izzy cried as MegaKabuterimon attacked the DeviDramon. We hurried inside the castle. "So much for a quiet entrance!"
"HORN BUSTER!!!" MegaKabuterimon bellowed, and the attack caused the castle to shake madly. Afterwards, a little pink blob with arms suddenly rolled in front of us.
"Motimon!" Izzy said, going to the little Digimon and picking him up. Just as he did, there was a blinding flash.
"Woah! What happened?" Motimon asked. Everything was right side-up now.
"You've fixed the warp in space!" Izzy said
"Let's worry about that later!" Matt said.
"Right!" we said in unison and continued on. A few moments later, we were once more in the chamber of the gates that would take us back to the Real World.
"Alright, I guess it's time to decide," Matt said as Izzy took the cards from a pocket and spread them out on the ground. We all knelt around them and studied them.
"So many combinations," Tai muttered. "Where do we start? I mean, maybe they go in order of good ones, bad ones, and funky ones?"
"Or maybe it's Rookie, Champion, Ultimate," Joe offered.
"Or it could be small ones, medium ones, big ones. How do we know for sure? And we still don't know which card is the fake one," Matt said. We all fell silent for a moment and continued to study the cards.
"Maybe it's where they lived, water or land," Sora said.
"Maybe it's something to do with their names. Like Agumon starts with A, that's letter one. And then, oh, no, that really doesn't make sense. Izzy, what are you looking at?" Izzy had moved to the lock podium and was studying the stone lock.
"Myotismon used a spell to open the gates. I think it has something to do with these pictures." We all stood and crowded around him. Izzy pointed to three little symbols along the top of the stone lock. One was a little lion's face, one was an archer, and the other was a monkey's face. "I know some of these, like Leo for the lion and Sagittarius for the archer. But there's no monkey in any horoscope I know of. And what's the significance of the star pattern?" He pointed to the left side of lock, where there was one star, two stars, and three stars in a vertical row. "I just don't get it…"
Suddenly, there was a crashing noise a ways from where we were. Following the crash was a faint quake.
"Huh?" Matt grunted.
"What was that noise?" TK asked, sounding slightly worried.
"I don't know," Matt replied.
"Well, maybe someone should go and take a-" Mimi started.
"I'll go find out!" Patamon said, flapping off. We watched him until he disappeared, then turned back to the problem at hand.
"Come on guys, let's get back to the cards," Tai said.
"What's the point?" Joe said balefully. "We'll never unlock these gates!"
"Joe!" Sora cried. "Don't even say that!"
"Even if we put the cards in the slots so it looks right, there's no way of knowing till it's too late!"
"We have to try, Joe," Matt said softly. Before any of us could respond, there came another crash and quake.
"Something tells me we don't have much time," Tai muttered. Just then, Patamon came back.
"Guys!" he cried, worry making his voice tight, "the walls and ceiling are caving in! The passages are all blocked up!"
"That means we can't go back the way we came in," Matt said as Patamon landed on TK's head. "We're trapped."
"If I had to, I could blast a way out of here for us," I said, looking at the walls. "But, I don't think that's a choice. No turning back after we've come this far."
"Shavirin's right," Izzy said. "We aren't going back, so it doesn't matter. But we do need to get out of here before this chamber collapses as well. Now we have to open the gates. One of us has to choose nine cards, put them in the slots, and that'll be that."
"You do it, Tai," Joe piped.
"ME?" Tai said incredulously.
"Yeah. It's your call."
"Mine? Why is it up to me?!"
"I'm not trying to put you on the spot or anything like that. I just think we all really believe in you Tai."
"Me…?"
"Yeah, I don't even know you and I feel compelled to leave this to you," I said, smiling. "And I'm usually the stubborn one."
"They're right," Matt said. "In times like these, decisions need to be made by the one in charge."
"Hold on!" Tai cried. "Have you all gone crazy? Who made me leader?!"
"I will, if you'd like," I said. "After all, I'm wolf-Lycan. We need leader to survive."
"No thanks," Tai said, looking completely horrified by the prospect of being the one to choose the cards.
"Do you remember when you were gone Tai? We fell apart when you weren't around," Matt said roughly. Tai blinked.
"But-"
"And after all that, you were the one who managed to bring us all together again."
"Yeah but-"
"Just do it Tai!" Mimi said suddenly.
"Mimi…"
"I just wanna get back home, that's all! Oh!" She looked down, her voice soft. "I'm being selfish again. I…I have to remember we're a team." She looked up and gave Tai a little smile. "Come on Tai, save the day!"
"Yeah, we have to believe in our friends. Remember what Gennai said?" Sora asked.
"Yeah, he said to believe in our power. You believe, don't you Tai?" Matt said, all of us looking at Tai now. The young man shifted his weight, looking doubtful.
"Maybe…" he said softly.
"Come on! We've been through a lot of weird stuff already!" Joe said. "If we hadn't stuck together, we never woulda beat SeaDramon."
"Or smashed Tyrannomon!" Matt said with a somewhat evil grin.
"Or escaped Toy Town," Mimi said. I only nodded, having no idea of what they were all talking about now, since all this had happened before I'd met them.
"And I would still be making fries in Veggiemon's diner if you hadn't saved me. Come on Tai, you can do it!" Joe said, pumping a fist in the air.
"Yeah!" we all cried in chorus. "You can do it Tai!"
"Alright," Tai said after a moment. "So you're all leaving it up to me to get the gates open, right? And whatever I decide is the best way, you're all willing to go along with it?" We all nodded. "Well, I've decided I want Izzy to do it."
""What?!" Izzy cried, now the one looking shocked. "You do? Why me?"
"If that's what Tai thinks, then I accept it," Mimi said. I nodded again. Actually, I was having a hard time just standing here and doing nothing. I wanted to take charge, be the leader, not only because of my wolf-Lycan instincts, but because I knew soon we'd be out of time. But I kept my tongue in check and decided to let Tai and the others do this themselves. They had to.
"Me too," Matt said. "Don't worry Izzy, Tai believes in you and so do the rest of us."
"But…but what happens in I'm wrong?"
"No one will blame you Izzy," Mimi said.
"We all know you're the one for the job," Tai said, smiling. "Go for it!"
"I still have no idea how this all fits together!"
"Maybe you could try using your computer," Motimon said. Izzy nodded and a moment later had his laptop out.
"Right now I'd rather use it to log onto the Internet and book us a flight out of this place…" He typed in silence as the castle continued to fall all around. The rest of us watched him anxiously. "Huh? The horse, the lion, and the monkey…" We all snapped to attention as Izzy studied the screen. Then he gave a little cry. "That's it!"
"Have you got it?" Matt asked.
"I think so. Everyone give me your DigiVices for a moment." The other kids handed Izzy their DigiVices, small blue devices that looked like some sort of handheld gaming system or something. After inserting each into the adaptor Gennai had installed and uploading the data on all the Digimon the others had seen, he gave a cry of triumph. "Yes!"
"You figured it out?" Tai asked. Izzy nodded.
"I think so! Check it out guys. The first three, the lion, the horse, and the monkey, would be Leomon, Centarumon, and Etemon. Also, there is one of each classification, Data, Virus, and Vaccine. And the stars, starting from the top, stand for Rookie, Champion, and Ultimate. And now, we can put the cards in the right order." After a few seconds, Izzy had placed all the cards in their correct order. We all cheered.
"Way to go! I knew you'd get it!" Tai said, slapping Izzy on the back. The red-haired boy shook his head.
"There's still one problem. We don't know which card is the fake." He motioned to the Rookie slot, where both Agumon's and Gomamon's cards were.
"But we made it this far. That's great!" Joe remarked.
"I guess it is," Izzy said, looking quite pleased. I smiled and nodded, again.
"Tai can pick which card is the fake, " Sora said.
"If I can't everyone gets ice cream, and I'm buying," Tai said, grinning. We all laughed, until I heard an odd noise coming from above us.
"What's that noise?" I asked. Everyone fell silent and listened. Suddenly, a huge yellowish spider with a brown mane and six eyes slammed to the ground before us.
"Aah!" we cried in shock.
"What is that?" Tai asked as we moved away from it.
"Hold on and I'll tell you," Izzy answered, looking at his laptop. After a moment he looked back up at the spider. "It's Dokugumon, an evil Digimon with computer viruses covering his body!" We could tell what the computer viruses were; little mins-spiders crawling all over Dokugumon's back.
"Intruders in the castle must be destroyed!" the Digi-spider croaked. "Go get them!" The little spiders all shot at us.
"GOMAMON DIGIVOLVE TO…IKKAKUMON! HARPOON TORPEDO!"
"GABUMON DIGIVOLVE TO…GARURUMON! HOWLING BLASTER!"
"PALMON DIGIVOLVE TO…TOGEMON! NEEDLE SPRAY!"
"BIYMON DIGIVOLVE TO…BIRDRAMON! METEOR WING!"
As the four Champions battled against Dokugumon, the rest of us turned to Tai, who was staring at the stone lock.
"Hurry! We're running out of time!" Agumon cried.
"I can't deicde! What if I choose the wrong card?!" Tai said, sounding petrified.
"Just choose!" Mimi said.
"If I choose wrong, we're toast!"
"POISON COBWEBS!" The four Digimon were caught in a sickly purple web.
"Garurumon!" Matt cried as the Digimon writhed. Ikkakumon and Togemon were forced to de-Digivolve back to Gomamon and Palmon.
"Biymon, Digivolve again!" Sora cried. Birdramon nodded.
"BIRDRAMON DIGIVOLVE TO…GARUDAMON!"
"Do it Garurumon!" Matt shouted.
"GARURUMON DIGIVOLVE TO…WEREGARURUMON!"
Garudamon was a huge red-brown, elegant bird with sweeping wings and powerful-looking arms and legs. WereGarurumon made me feel proud as he looked like a large werewolf. I felt a kinship to the large blue were-Digimon.
"WING BLADE!" Garudamon cried, shooting a phoenix of flames at Dokugumon.
"WOLF CLAW!" WereGarurumon bellowed, slashing at the spider Digimon and sending four jagged beams of red energy at him.
"Come on Tai!" Matt cried as the Digimon fought and the castle fell. "You gotta choose!"
"Okay!" Tai cried. "It's this one!" He grabbed the Agumon card, leaving the Gomamon card in the slot. "That's it! Come on!"
The gates began to move, and a few moments later they stood wide open.
"It worked!" TK cried happily. We all began to run forward.
"Come on WereGarurumon!" Matt said as the large Digimon de-Digivolved to his In-Trinaing form, a tan creature with a large horn on his head. Matt picked him up.
"Garudamon!" Sora cried as the bird also de-Digivolved to her In-Training form. She was pink with a blue flower on her head. She looked more like a plant than a bird. Sora quickly took the little Digimon into her arms and we all ran for the gate.
"You'll never get out of here in one piece!" Dokugumon cried angrily, but he was too weak to attack us anymore.
"That was close!" Matt cried just as we reached the gates. Without looking back, we jumped.
"Where are we?" Tai asked, looking around. We all stood slowly, none of us having landed on our feet.
"This…this is the camp! You did it Tai!" Joe cried happily.
"Oh! Home!" Mimi said, looking just a little too happy.
"WE're back where we were before we were sucked into the Digital World." Sora said. "But…where are our Digimon?"
"I wonder if I got the cards wrong after all?" Tai said softly as everyone looked around for their Digimon.
"Then in this world, we could be without them?" Sora sounded sad, and everyone looked depressed.
"You could never get rid of us that easily!" came a reply. We all looked over at a small hill and saw the seven Digimon standing there. Biymon and the others ran to their human friends, where much hugging ensued for the next few moments.
"Where were you guys?" Tai asked.
"We thought we ought to go look for lunch," Gomamon said. Everyone chuckled.
"Hey, now that we're home, we don't have to eat leaves anymore! We can eat cheeseburgers!" Joe said, grinning.
"And pizza!" Mimi said.
"And French fries!" TK replied.
"And ice cream!" Matt remarked.
"And broccoli!" Sora replied.
"Broccoli?" the rest of us gagged, then laughed. I myself couldn't wait for some deer, even though I'd only been gone for about a day and a half.
"Hey Tai, how did you know my card was the fake?" Agumon asked suddenly. We all faced Tai, who grinned.
"I didn't. I kept your card 'cause you're my friend," he answered.
"Awww, Tai, that's so nice," Agumon said, blushing a little. The rest of us chuckled.
"Hey! We got to get looking for the Eighth Child!" Tai said suddenly, reminding us of our mission.
"Yeah, and we gotta get a move on too, since Myotismon has a lead on us," Matt replied.
"Yeah!" we cheered, pumping our fists in the air. I myself knew things were about to get really interesting.
Really interesting…
Well, hope you liked this chapter! I've already started on chapter three, and so hopefully I'll have it up soon. Don't forget to R&R, I likies the reviews!