Carlos was looking back at the coast they had left an hour ago. The weather was piercing cold despite it was not snowing, which was a good thing, because that prevented the lake from being frozen solid.
All were gathered on the back of Hank fearing that any misstep could mean falling into the freezing water resulting in instant death for any of the humans.
Carlos was thinking that the journey was close to an end when the cell phone started ringing. He took the call immediately.
- Hello?
- Congratulations! – said the man at the other side of the line but this time the voice was not distorted by static. – You are reaching the rendezvous point. You must be happy.
- Yes….. we are…… - said Carlos hesitant and sad seeing the creatures they had made their friends.
- You will get there soon. So stick to the map.
- Agreed….- replied Carlos hanging up.
Carlos sat back down next to Clara, Aurora and Hector who tried to stay sited very close together so they would keep warm.
- It will be over soon……- said Carlos. He couldn't help to feel sympathy for Aurora who looked sad knowing that a farewell was close.
- Look!! – said Hank. – There's the shore.
They got to the other side and Hank returned to normal. Everything was quiet. The terrain was sterile and cold and as they walked northbound they noticed that the surroundings were getting whiter by the snowfall.
- This is weird…- said Clara. – It was not supposed to be snowing like this….
- What's the map showing? – asked Carlos.
Clara stopped to pull the laptop out of the backpack.
- Look. We're very close.
- Good. Let's keep on…..
Ahead, they reached a completely white landscape, cleared of trees and covered with snow. The laptop screen showed that this was the spot.
- What now? – asked Carlos rubbing his hands together to make them warm.
Seconds later, a helicopter was closing in. In the horizon it showed up. It was a single helicopter, completely white and had a Japanese flag painted on the fuselage.
Slowly it touched down over the snow and opened the side doors. Down came two men. One was short, with yellowish skin wearing a long overcoat and reading glasses. The other was taller and had blonde hair wearing a black suit, a tie and sunglasses. Both walked to the group.
- Oh my god!!!! – said the shorter man when saw the monsters as he got closer. – It's true!!! Unbelievable!! – he said as he paced around the creatures.
- Well. Here we are. – said the man with the sunglasses.
- What?! Who the hell are you?! – asked Carlos very confused.
- Don't you recognize my voice? – said the man in a perfectly spoken English.
- You're the guy at the phone?
- Precisely and I'm here to take them back. – said the man surprising all the people present.
- Hold it! – shouted Carlos. – You told me you were sending them home, so I don't want you to take them to a research lab or something like that!! You got it?
Aurora and Hector were upset too, and they interposed themselves between the men and Hank and Lyle.
- Relax. They will go home.
- Oh yeah? And where are their friends who were expecting them?
- Patience….. Only three of you remain to make the picture complete. – said the man with sunglasses looking at his wrist watch. – Who are about to show up…… now.
Two dots could be seen approaching within the snow. Everybody gasped when they saw a black man shivering with the cold following an animal that looked like a T-rex but much smaller.
Agumon got closer to the group finding very weird to see so many humans in just one place. However, he felt relieved when he saw that his friends were safe.
- Veemon!, Gatomon!, Hawkmon!, Gomamon! How good is to see you again!.
Luis, Alba, Lyle and Hank looked puzzled with this introduction.
- What? Don't you recognize me? – said Agumon looking at Luis.
- I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about. – replied Luis.
- Of course you know, you dummy. You were supposed to be the leader of this mission……….Say…..Where is Tentomon and Biyomon?
In that moment a snow scooter stopped close to the place they were. Two creatures spread their wings and flew towards the group. Robert just stood there watching the scene mesmerized.
- Gatomon! What a relief you're ok. – shouted Biyomon as she saw Alba in front of her.
Alba was very confused and didn't know how to answer.
- What did you do to them!!? – yelled Biyomon at the man with sunglasses.
- You're very cunning Biyomon. – said the man taking off the glasses.
The other man that had come down from the helicopter couldn't still shake from his amazement. He was confused and excited at the same time.
"vee MON, gato MON, biyo MON" he thought thrilled. " If only Daisy was here to witness this!!"
But, he decided to clear some of his doubts.
- Listen….. Do you know each other? – he asked refereeing to Biyomon and the guy with sunglasses. – This is not right! I demand an explanation!!
- There's nothing to explain Mr Wong. – answered the man pulling from his holster a 9 mm Glock pistol pointing it at Mr Wong.
- I don't understand…….- answered Henry raising his hands above his head.
- You will soon understand….- said Yamaki pulling a weird looking remote control from his pocket. – It's time for you to believe in monsters……Mr Wong.- he said on a gloomy tone of voice as he pressed one of the buttons.
A few seconds later, on the blue skies a sea serpent shaped creature was closing in flying in a twisting spiral. When it got closer, it was evident it was a very long animal, about 30 ft long with the body all covered with blue scales. On the head it had a golden helmet and it had on his long jaws multiple sharp teeth. It called everybody's attention that around its neck it was carrying a giant ring shaped contraption hanging from a thick chain.
The serpent touched down releasing the ring like object.
- I need the fragments. – said Yamaki to the creatures that accompanied the humans.
- Wait! This is a trap! – warned Biyomon.
- You're pressing your luck you flea ridden bird. – said yamaki pressing the other button on the remote control.
With this, Carlos noticed that the creatures froze as they were. They looked like they were on a trance, completely still. Everybody called out its respective friend to no avail. They were like hypnotized.
Then, they formed in a single file and walked like zombies to the ring shaped device.
The device was made of two rings, one larger than the other. In the space in between, there was enough room for each of the creatures to stand.
So, Luis, Alba, Lyle, Hank, Agumon, Biyomon and Tentomon gathered around the smaller ring. With other command by Yamaki the outer ring began spinning very fast. As it picked up speed a halo of light began to form and the ring began to rise from the ground. As the ring levitated higher the creatures began levitating with it as well.
- What are you doing to them creep!! – shouted Carlos.
- Relax….- said Yamaki still pointing the gun at them. – You'll know what this is about shortly. – he said pressing the button again.
This made the internal ring to raise from the ground to the level of the belly of each creature. From the outer part of this ring, facing each creature different gadgets started popping out coming into contact sequentially with each of them.
The first gadget was a scalpel like object, which buried a few inches into the flesh of the belly of each monster.
The second gadget looked like a small rubber hose that lodged inside the incision that the scalpel had made. As it did, the external ring glowed with different color patterns as it was scanning something.
Finally when the small rubber house came out, a third metallic device with a rounded tip shot a small laser like beam at the incision sealing it completely like if it was welding metal.
At the same time, multiple transparent tubes that popped out from internal part of the internal ring fired a beam to the center constructing a holographic image
When the process was over all the monsters fell to the snow unconscious. In the center of the ring like contraption resulted an object buried in the snow. It was a black diamond shaped object roughly 6 feet in height. It looked like an elongated street light or lantern because on the sides it had little transparent windows where the bright interior could be seen.