Chapter 13: My Band

"I'm sorry, but I can't release either of them! I'd be fired!" The young nurse was panicking slightly as Chris pounded his fist on the counter at the Nurse's station.

"Why not!? They're perfectly fine!" Chris pounded the counter again, causing Kristen and Joey to come out of Joey's room; Sora, Jennifer, and Ms. Takenouchi were busily packing Sora's things in the other room. The nurse flinched as Chris pounded; she was new and hadn't experienced anybody like Chris yet. The head nurse ran down the hall to her rescue. She had heard the argument from another patient's room.

"Because the law clearly states that anybody brought in for treatment of self-inflected wounds or illnesses has to be kept here unless cleared by a psychologist! As for him," she pointed at Joey who was standing in the doorway to his room, "we reserve the right to hold anybody who shows abnormal progress in healing."

"What?" Chris took a step back from the head nurse, who was standing directly in front of him. "What's that mean?"

"Unless you are directly related to him, I have no obligation to tell you anything." The nurse spoke in a cold voice that made Chris take another step back.

"You're keeping them here against their will!? You can't do that!" Kristen ran out of Joey's room to back up Chris. Other visitors began to lean out of rooms to see what was causing the ruckus.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN NOT DO!" The nurse screamed at Kristen. A doctor came running down the hall from the room the nurse had been in a few moments before.

"Calm down! I'll take care of them!" The doctor was far taller than anybody else, causing his blue hair to stand out in sharp contrast to the sterile white hospital. He wore glasses and had an air of stress about him, but covered it very well. "Just go sit down and take a breather." The nurse walked away, mumbling under her breath.

"You're not taking care of us!" Chris yelled at the doctor with his anger renewed since the nurse was gone. "We're leaving!" Chris turned to help Joey finish packing his few things.

"Wait!" The doctor ran after Chris and caught his arm. "Let me explain our situation; please?" Chris calmed down and turned around.

"Fine." The doctor pulled out a stapled stack of papers from under his coat.

"Let's step in here for a moment." The doctor stepped into Joey's room, not noticing Sora, Ms. Takenouchi, or Jennifer, who were just coming out of the other room. Chris, Kristen, and Joey followed the doctor in and watched him lock the door behind them.

"So what's wrong with Joey?" Kristen asked, slightly worried.

"I work in another wing of the hospital that specializes in experimental medicine and research. I'm still in college, but I'm good at what I do." The doctor chuckled a little to himself, but stopped when none of the others laughed with him. He cleared his throat and began again. "Anyways, I received Joey's tests the other day and noticed an anomaly."

"A what?" Chris asked, losing track of the conversation amongst the technical terms.

"Something out of the ordinary." Kristen leaned over and whispered in Chris' ear, never breaking eye contact with the doctor. "Go on." She spoke back to the doctor.

"Well, early tests showed that something had recently caused extensive brain damage. He should have died."

"So, what's that got to do anything? He seems fine now." Chris snapped at the doctor for suggesting that Joey shouldn't exist.

"The problem is that the tests I received just yesterday showed far less damage to either his brain or skull. They are healing." Kristen's face quickly changed from its state of worry to an obvious confusion. Chris maintained his frustrated stance.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Chris leaned a little on Joey's shoulders, who was standing right in front of him.

"I thought brain and nerve cells didn't heal." Kristen spoke out loud to herself for a moment before her eyes widened. "Wait a minute! You don't mean...?"

"That's exactly what I mean. He healed from injuries that medicine can't fix." The doctor crossed his arms and sat down. "Do you have any idea how this could have happened?" Kristen looked at Chris and they both shook their heads. A smile crawled on Joey's face.

"Maybe it was my digivice again!" Joey yelled out and reached into his pocket. "It can change me into Kumamon, maybe it can change me in other ways too!" Both Chris and Kristen covered Joey's mouth before he could say more. The doctor looked up quickly.

"Digivice?" Joey broke free of the others and handed the digivice to the Doctor. "Where have I seen this before?" The doctor turned it over and looked at the back. A moment later he flipped it back over. At this, it erupted in the Doctor's face, just as it had with Sora. "What the!?? What's going on!?" The light cleared and the doctor lowered his arm, which he had thrown up to cover his eyes. A digivice had materialized and landed in his lap. "Oh my god. If this is a digivice then you three are..." The doctor jumped up and tossed Joey his digivice back. "What's happened!? How can there only be three of you!?"

"What do you mean? Who are you?" The three took a step back away from the sudden panic of the doctor.

"My name is Joe Kido. I am one of the original digidestined. Now what is wrong with the digital world? Are you the only ones?" Everybody jumped at hearing Joe's name. Without knowing it, they had stumbled across yet another digidestined.

"It's a long story. We should get out of here before we talk." Kristen spoke slowly, trying to calm herself from the sudden excitement. "But no, we aren't the only ones. There are..." Kristen stopped herself. "There is another one of us. She's next door with Sora."

"Sora's here!? Why didn't anybody tell me!? I'm always last to know these things!" Joe opened the door and barged into the neighboring room, finding Sora, Jennifer, and Ms. Takenouchi sitting on the bed. Joe's glance landed right on Sora, and vice-versa.

"Joe!?"

"Sora!? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!"

"I'm a doctor, remember? I mean we haven't seen each other in a long time but I know you haven't forgotten that much." Joe was in a hurried blur, waving his hands about as he spoke.

"You're Joe? Great! That's another one found and accounted for!" Jennifer jumped up in celebration.

"Who are you?" Joe turned to Jennifer.

"She's the other person we were telling you about." Chris stood outside the room, watching his words as not to attract any more attention to the episode taking place. "Now if you don't mind, let's get out of here. Everybody is starring at us."

"What? Oh, right. But first things first." Joe turned around and looked at the nurse's station across from the hall. "Kari!" The others were surprised again at this, as the shy young nurse Chris had yelled at stood up and looked at Joe.

"What Joe?" As the other's paid closer attention they realized that it was Kari, in the flesh. She wore a nurse's uniform that ended in a skirt and held a clipboard close to her chest, much like all the others. She was still a nervous wreck from Chris.

"Do you remember where the release forms are?"

"Yes."

"Get me two then come here. I have some people for you to meet." Kari shuffled through some drawers before finding the forms and walked out from behind the counter. The head nurse watched in shock as Joe ordered the release of the two she had fought tooth and nail to keep.

"What is it Joe? Who are they?" Kari innocently looked at the others.

"Wait a minute, if you're Kari, wouldn't you be too young to be a nurse? You should just be in high school." Kristen made a good point that the others agreed with.

"I'm just an intern for today and... wait. How did you know my age?" Kari began to freak out over the situation.

"Show her." Joe looked at Chris and he pulled out his red and white digivice. It shined in her face for a moment before Chris put it away again. Just like with the others, Kari's digivice materialized, but it was a D-3, as it had been before.

"Wait. What happened? I... I..."

"You remember, don't you? I guess we were a little too good about the memory thing." Joe smiled as he whispered to a dumbfounded Kari.

"This is weird."

"Let's go. We can talk about this elsewhere. Can we use your house Ms. Takenouchi?" Joe looked quickly at Sora's mother.

"Of course. It's so good to have things like this happening again." The crew quickly filled out the forms and left the hospital, luggage in tow.

"Okay, everybody calm and ready?" Everybody was strewn about the living room of Sora's home. Chris naturally led the conversation, being Goggles # 4. The three elder Digidestined nodded slowly. "We're the new digidestined. My name is Chris. She's Kristen, that's Joey, and her name is Jennifer; she's the oldest."

"Don't forget James!" Joey blurted out before anybody could stop him. Jennifer looked down.

"Who's James?" Joe turned to Joey, and then Kristen. "Why didn't you tell me there was another?" Joe began to talk quickly again, his eyes darting back and forth between Chris, Jennifer, and Kristen..

"Calm down Joe." Sora put her hand on Joe's shoulder and he took a deep breath. "Jeez, you sure haven't changed much." Jennifer looked back up and began to speak.

"James was a kid who was brought with me by accident. Gennai had a digivice made for him and he was adopted as a digidestined. However..." Jennifer's voice began to shake a little. She swallowed and a somewhat angry look of frustration spread across her face. "...he gave himself up in the digital world to save the rest of us from Myotismon. We don't know if he is alive or not." Joe, Sora, and Kari all jumped at the mentioning of Myotismon's name.

"So that's the problem? Myotismon is back?" Kari finally joined in. "If that's it then we can just get you guys powered up and you can beat him easily." She looked about for a moment and became alerted. "Where are your partners?" Kristen ran into a room in the house and came back with Agumon's and Tentomon's digieggs. Kari gasped.

"They were destroyed? But there are only two there! Where are the others?" Kari began to look at the other three. Sora answered for them.

"I think two of them digivolve themselves. I know Jennifer does, but..."

"I can too! I can turn into Kumamon. He's cool." Joey jumped off the couch and eagerly pulled out his digivice. "Here, let me show you! Spirit Code activate!" Light quickly ripped around Joey, blowing things over in the house and blinding the others. Kumamon stood where Joey had just seconds before. Joe and Kari looked amazed, while Sora just smiled.

"How did you do that? You aren't like Arukenimon are you?" Kari was fidgeted in her seat between Sora and Joe. Sora laughed.

"This is going to take a while to explain." Chris looked at Kristen. "Let's start from the beginning; how we all got to the Digital World."

They finished around eight that evening. The three older digidestined sat in awe at what they had been through and speculated about why Myotismon hadn't simply killed everybody when he had the chance. It was beyond everyone and they moved on to other matters.

"First of all, we need to find the rest of you original guys. Do you know where everybody is?" Chris put out orders like a military officer.

"Matt's band has been on tour, but they're due back here tomorrow. Tai replaced the drummer after he finished high school." Sora looked away at the mentioning of Matt's name. Jennifer walked over to her and led her away from the conversation. "Mimi is still in America so she'll be hard to get in touch with. Izzy lives on campus down at the university. TK should be at home right now. Davis should be too. I think Yolei is studying abroad and working sound for Matt's band. Cody is probably at home, but it's been a while since I've seen him. Anybody forgotten?" Kari turned to Joe.

"Ken, don't forget him. He should be over at Davis' house right now. I heard from TK that he tutors Davis in math." Everybody laughed at this, but Joe continued. "That's all of us, but what about those other kids? You know: the ones with the spirits?"

"Well most of the spirits were destroyed and we have copied code from the remaining ones, so I don't think they would be much help. We should probably leave them be." Kristen posted her theory and the rest agreed. "Then it's settled. We can go and get everybody else tomorrow."

"Well, Matt, Tai, and Yolei will be coming in on the band plane tonight. I'm supposed to go meet them at ten. Maybe we should go ahead and get them tonight."

"Sweet, it's a big digi-reunion!" Everybody sighed at Chris.

"You know, 'digi' doesn't exactly HAVE to belong in front of everything to do with us.

"Well anyways, it only gets bigger. I have a surprise for you two!" Jennifer walked back from Sora's room carrying two digieggs.

"Are those?" Kari finally began to stutter in excitement. "Gatomon?"

"Yeah, I think they're about to hatch." Indeed, the eggs were shaking rather vigorously, as well as Agumon's and Tentomon's eggs. Finally, a blinding light seared the room as they all hatched simultaneously. Blasts followed from everybody's digivices, causing the baby digimon to quickly digivolve to rookie. After a few moments, Agumon, Tentomon, Salamon, and Gomamon sat in their partner's laps. Down the hall, Sora could be heard exclaiming.

"Biyomon! You're back! I missed you so much!"

"Ow! Sora, you're hurting me! You're a lot bigger than before!" Everybody laughed except for Jennifer, who just smiled.

"Joe! Long time no see buddy!"

"Oh man, I can't wait to be Gatomon again. Kari, could you help me digivolve?"

Mass confusion ensued as the voices of all the digimon and their partners mingled. Kari noticed a problem just as she finished digivolving Gatomon with her digivice. "Wait, if Agumon and Tentomon are your partners, what's going to happen to Tai and Izzy?"

"We haven't figured that out yet." Agumon scratched the back of his head. "I guess we try to be partners for both."

"No, they are your new partners. You need to protect them more than anything." Joe cleared things for everybody. Agumon looked dismayed. "Don't worry though, it's not like Tai and Izzy aren't going to be your friends over this." Everybody murmured and Kari looked at the clock on the wall. It read 9:30.

"Oh no! We should have left a while ago! How could time have flown by like that?"

"I'm afraid that I can't take you all to the airport kids. My car isn't big enough for you all, especially counting them. Oh shoot! Now I'll have to make more food!" Ms. Takenouchi threw down a rag as the thought crossed her mind that she would have more cooking to do.

"Could you make something for Tai, Matt, and Yolei too? They will probably come back with us mom." Sora had come out of her room with Biyomon flying behind her.

"I guess, but it's getting crowded in here. You guys are going to have to find another place to meet soon." Ms. Takenouchi wasn't being mean, she was just telling the truth. The apartment was very small and wasn't large enough for three generations of digidestined.

"We'll figure out something! Let's go! You all stay here! We need to go incognito!" Kari shouted orders to everybody and ran out the door in a hurry.

"Just order a pizza... and no more noodles!!!" Chris shouted as he closed the door behind him, adding the noodle crack as an afterthought. The digimon stood in the kitchen saying bye to their partners as they left.

"So um... how you doing Ms. Takenouchi?" Biyomon landed beside Sora's mom.

"It's good to see you again Biyomon. Sora's missed you."

By the time everybody had arrived at the airport on the other side of town, the plane had long since landed. Matt, Tai, and Yolei were talking with their families as the digidestined ran up to meet them.

"Tai! Matt! Yolei!" Kari called out to her brother and friends. Then she noticed something else that she hadn't thought of. "TK!" TK was at the airport welcoming his brother, too.

"Hey Kari! Hey Matt, look at who's here!" Matt slowly turned around with an uninterested look on his face. He had been busily fighting off mobs of groupies.

"Oh, what do you know..." He turned back around and handed out autographs. Tai and Yolei ran up and met the group.

"Wow! It's been so long since I've seen you all! Has anything interesting happened while we were gone?"

"Matt, aren't you going to say hello?" TK was still trying to catch Matt's attention, snapping his fingers in front of his face. Matt simply pushed him out of the way.

"You have no idea." Sora laughed and turned to Joey, Chris, Kristen, and Jennifer. "These are some friends we'd like you to meet." Everybody introduced themselves, but Yolei and Tai were confused.

"So, how'd you all meet? Those goggles are cool, where did you get them?" Tai stared at Chris. Kari laughed

"Well... think we ought to do this now?" Chris looked at Joe and Sora and they nodded. "Okay. Hey! Matt, TK, Tai, Yolei! Look this way riiiiiiiight now!" Chris pulled out his digivice and aimed. TK, Tai, and Yolei turned to look, but Matt acted as if he hadn't even heard. Light shot from Chris' digivice and shot at the three older digidestined. A few moments later they stood holding their old digivices, blinking rapidly.

"Woah! What's going on? I thought we took care of everything?" Tai spoke faster than he could think. "THOSE ARE MY GOGGLES!"

"We're un-taking care of things." Chris smirked and lowered his digivice. "Sorry, but you've been drafted." TK turned and looked at Matt who stood taking pictures with fans.

"Matt! Get off your high horse for a minute and get over here!" Matt was oblivious to TK. Sora watched and frowned.

"Sorry TK. I wouldn't try with him." Tai's face grew serious. "Isn't that right Mr. King?" Matt ignored Tai's unimaginative insult.

"What's up with him?" TK looked at Tai.

"He's been stuck up ever since we left on tour. 'Who named the band, Tai? Who is the lead singer, Tai? Who was the person who let you be drummer in the first place, Tai?' I'm sick of it." Tai imitated Matt as he walked by everybody, groupies in tow. Matt crossed the tarmac to a limo that was waiting for everybody in the band, but Matt was the only one that went to it.

"Go ahead Julio; the others have their own rides."

"Si señor Ishida." The Spanish driver obeyed Matt and pulled off, leaving everybody else in the exhaust from the Stretch limo.

"That jerk!" Sora yelled at the top of her lungs. "Who does he think he is!?" She stormed over and shook Tai. "What's up with him!?"

"Fame went straight to his head."

"It's just like My Band!" Chris exclaimed while Sora, Joe, TK, and Kari looked at him confusedly. Tai and Yolei laughed hysterically.

"What are you talking about? You have a band?" Kari was bewildered at Chris' statement.

"It's a song making fun of people like Matt, Kari." Tai quickly explained it to her and recited a few lines, poorly, which made Chris and the other new digidestined laugh even harder. However, they all stopped laughing quickly. A loud rumbling had begun and the entire ground was shaking.

"What's going on?" Kristen slipped, but Chris caught her.

"Earthquake!" Tai ran over to protect Kari from any debris that could fall on her. What he didn't realize was that they were on an airplane tarmac with nothing above them. Tai's, TK's, and Yolei's families ran over to them.

"No, it's not an earthquake look!" Joe pointed into the western sky. In it, a massive light shined from the sky going to the ground.

"What's happening!?" Joey held on to Jennifer.

"It's another portal! A big one! But this one is..."

A loud speaker announced the time: Midnight.