Digicross Chronicles 3: "Edward's Problems"
Written by Josh Johannesen
With assistance by Ninetalesuk
Note: This story takes place 2 weeks after the conclusion of the Digicross Worlds Tour.
2 weeks ago-
Several Digidestined in the city of London had just sent several Digimon back to the Digital World and destroyed a Control Spire in the city. This was the time when a young girl named Shaina and her Digimon, Muchomon (at the moment digivolved to Veedramon), made a somewhat surprising move.
Shaina and Veedramon walked up to Joe and Ryo, who were standing nearby. "If there is any time, I want to go to the Digital World to see Penguinmon. I haven't seen him for a long, long time." Veedramon asked.
"Sure... we will set a date for ya." Joe said, laughing.
Shaina giggled. "Maybe I can meet Penguinmon's partner."
"Maybe... Hey, Ryo... What would happen if Edward and Shaina met?" Joe asked.
Ryo just laughed. "That means Ed is gonna get teased by Typhlosion and Penguinmon, all the time."
1 week ago, Cinnabar Island-
"Oh, what am I going to do now?" Ryo asked himself with Charmeleon looking on. "I'm not sure I can get them together and set up a date all on my own…"
Charmeleon shook his head. "Don't look at me, Ryo. You got yourself into this mess and now you can get yourself out. Besides, don't you have enough problems with Caryl already?"
Ryo just paced around his bedroom, wondering what he was going to do. Charmeleon didn't like seeing his partner in such a panic "state", but at the same time, he had no idea what to do about Ryo's predicament either.
One of the new tenants of Ryo's household, Josh, wandered by and saw Ryo in his panic. "Is something wrong, Ryo?"
Ryo quickly responded, "Nope, nothing's wrong."
At this stage, Josh was still feeling out Ryo, so he just said, "Okay," and walked off. Some might have confused it with apathy, and there might have been some truth to that too.
Inside of Ryo's room, Ryo was clearly worried about what he could do to set up the date properly. After all, he wasn't exactly the best person to turn to when it came to romance. Just ask Caryl.
It was at that moment that Ryo's mother, Noriko, came into the room and saw Ryo with a concerned look on his face and pacing around the room.
"What's wrong, Ryo?" Noriko asked.
Ryo didn't give his mother any sort of answer, embarrassed about possibly having to ask his mom for help.
Charmeleon, however, wasn't having any of it. "Mrs. Akiyama, Ryo is having some problems because of a promise he made to a friend."
Ryo glared at his partner, but Charmeleon has said nothing but the truth, and besides that, she didn't really know anything more than when she entered the room.
Noriko just smiled and said, "Well, Ryo, if you're having problems, maybe you should give your friends a call. They can probably help you a lot better than I can."
Ryo perked up at the comment. He ran out of the room for a moment before coming back and thanking Mom for her help.
Ryo picked up the phone and called some of the girls of the Digidestined; more specifically, Kari, Mimi and Sora. Why? All of them knew about romance a lot more than Ryo did.
30 minutes later-
Kari, Mimi, Sora and Ryo sat in a room together and brainstormed what to do in regards to getting Edward and Shaina together.
"You've got to have them go somewhere nice." Kari said.
Sora added, "And have romantic food there."
"Yeah, I know that much." Ryo answered.
"Good, then all we need is some time to get things together." Mimi stated.
At that point, the three of them decided they were going to aim to have the two of them meet one week later.
They would get together every other day for the next week and plan things out, not going too fast or too slow.
5 days ago-
Kari and Ryo were at Ryo's house since trying to stay at Kyle Ellison's house to do any thinking was always a near-impossible task. They brought out a map of the continent, which included the Johto and Kanto regions.
"What kind of place would you think was romantic, Kari?" Ryo asked.
"Someplace with a nice view would be good." Kari responded.
"You mean like some sort of lookout or something?" Ryo asked.
"Yeah, or someplace near a scenic location like a lake or something." Kari answered
"There are several of those around the continent. Let's see if we can find one near a city which we can use without straying too far from the Digiports… you know, just in case."
Kari nodded and they both looked at the map of both regions. There were several lakes and various bodies of water around the continent.
"Here's a nice place… Cerulean Cape. Known for being a great date spot because of the view out onto the ocean," Kari read.
"Maybe that would work for their date…" Ryo observed.
Kari shook her head. "Nah… it says here that a fence keeps people out of the ocean, which is good, but also forces them to stand up to get a good view of the ocean, which is bad."
So they looked some more and eventually ended up at a lake to the north of Violet City… a lake called "Kaze Umi".
"Maybe that lake would work, Kari." Ryo said.
Kari could see nothing wrong with the lake in the description, but she decided that they should "scout" the lake out themselves first.
30 minutes later, Kaze Umi-
Ryo and Kari looked around the lake and they liked what they saw. The environment was peaceful. Kaze Umi was detached enough from Violet City so that very little of the noise from the city came through, but it was close enough so that if an emergency happened, they could get back within range of a Digiport in little time at all.
There was a nice hill on the south side of the lake which looked out onto the lake and provided an excellent view, making it the ideal romantic place for a first date, at least in their view. Besides, the hill had enough room to fit 2 dates at the same time, which was the case here.
They nodded to each other, satisfied that a suitable location had been found for Edward, Shaina, Penguinmon and Muchomon.
3 days ago-
Mimi and Sora came to Ryo's house and they began to plan out the dinner the four of them might eat.
Sora asked Ryo, "What do you know of Penguinmon's eating habits?"
Ryo answered, "Well, he is a penguin, so he should like fish, I would think."
Mimi responded, "Well, duh. That makes sense."
Ryo sighed. "Well, at least dinner for Penguinmon and Muchomon will be easy enough to get. But what about Edward and Shaina?"
Sora responded, "I know spaghetti is normally considered a very popular romantic food."
Mimi answered, "I think that should work well, especially considering that spaghetti is easy to make and pretty popular, especially on first dates."
Ryo nodded and gave a smile of a new-found confidence he didn't have a few days ago. "We're going to do it. We're actually going to pull this off."
Mimi gave Ryo a pat on the back and said, "Of course we are, Ryo. With me and Sora and Kari helping you out, there's no way we can miss!"
Ryo suddenly thought of something. "Penguinmon kind of broke it off with her, so how do we know he'll show up?"
Sora and Mimi began to think about how to get a reluctant date to show up.
After a few minutes, they both looked at each other and gave each other a sort of "evil grin". Mimi told Ryo not to worry about getting Penguinmon to show up. The two of them would take care of everything.
Ryo wondered what the two of them were up to, but Sora said, "We'll tell you the plan the day before the date, OK?"
Ryo nodded and with that, Sora and Mimi depart Ryo's house for home. When they get there, both of them begin to make a number of phone calls…
1 day ago-
Ryo had received a strange phone call from Kari to meet her at Kaze Umi, the site of the date the following night. When he got there, Ryo was surprised to see a number of Digimon and Digital Pokemon there in addition to Kari, Mimi and Sora.
"What's this all about?" Ryo asked.
Kari responded innocently, "These Digimon and Digital Pokemon are going to be helping us tomorrow to bring everyone together."
Ryo looked around at all of them… all 14 of them surrounding him and Charmeleon. "Why do you need all of them?" Ryo asked.
"Well, we thought about what you said about Penguinmon not being willing to come along quietly… so we decided to get a little… persuasion."
The Digimon and Digital Pokemon standing around were Tai's Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Tentomon, Veemon, Hawkmon, Patamon, Gomamon, Armadillomon, Elecmon and Kyle Ellison's Eevee and Growlithe.
Ryo sweatdropped, but Charmeleon looked at all of the Digimon and the prospect of helping them "persuade" the annoying Penguinmon and he smiled. "Can I help you out?"
Ryo looked quickly at Charmeleon and yelled, "Charmeleon!"
Charmeleon looked back and said simply, "I just want to help you get those lovebirds together, that's all."
Even though Ryo knew it wasn't the reason at all, he had no reason to think otherwise. So he sighed and said, "Fine… you can help them out."
Charmeleon went with the other Digimon to discuss strategy while Ryo stayed with Kari, Mimi and Sora to discuss how they would fulfill their roles the next day. Kari and Mimi were set to get the food for the date as well as cook it. Sora was to get Shaina. Ryo was to retrieve Edward. Biyomon and Palmon were to escort Muchomon and everyone else including Charmeleon was to get Penguinmon to the date by any means necessary…
Day of the Date, Orange Islands-
Edward was playing with Baby Lugia, which wasn't at all surprising since Edward took the duty of taking care of Lugia very seriously.
Typhlosion and Blastoise stood near both of them, watching over them to make sure that nothing happens to either Edward or Lugia.
Edward asked Lugia, "Are you having fun, little guy?"
Lugia cawed happily in response.
Penguinmon hung out in Edward's bedroom, lying on Edward's bed. As he lay there, he silently wondered to himself, 'Whatever happened to her, I wonder…'
Little did Penguinmon know he was going to get his answer sooner than one might have thought…
The doorbell rang and Edward answered the door. Much to his surprise, it was Ryo completely unannounced at the door.
"Hey there, Ryo," Edward said in greeting.
Ryo answered with, "Hi Edward."
Edward asked, "Why are you here today? I didn't get any indication anything was wrong…"
Ryo gave Edward a strange look. "You think that just because I'm here right now, there must be something wrong?"
Edward simply said, "Well, if that's not it, what is?"
Ryo said with all due honesty, "I'm here to escort you to a date."
Those words caused Edward to nearly freeze in terror. "D… d, d, d, d, d, d, date!"
Ryo had never seen Edward so rattled in his life. "Uh… yeah."
Edward froze again in front of Ryo. Ryo walked by and saw Baby Lugia playing on the floor under the watchful gaze of Typhlosion and Blastoise. Ryo approached Typhlosion and Blastoise and asked them if they would help him get Edward to a date. Typhlosion and Blastoise did their best not to break out in laughter, but they agreed to help Ryo get Edward to where he was going.
Blastoise picked up Baby Lugia and Typhlosion picked up Edward. They all followed Ryo out the door and on to the local Pokemon Center, Edward stuttering all the way.
London, U.K.-
Shaina sat in her home's living room with her brother Phil. They were watching "the telly" and were enjoying some "fish and chips" for their afternoon snack. (Don't ask me why, I really don't know)
"Are you enjoying the program, sis?" Phil asked.
Shaina smiled and then turned around to continue watching the TV.
Meanwhile, Muchomon lay in Shaina's bedroom with ModokiBetamon.
Muchomon asked, "Do you think those boys Ryo and Joe are going to keep their word, ModokiBetamon?"
ModokiBetamon looked at Muchomon and said, "How should I know? I would think they would, but I seriously don't know.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
Phil answered the door and to his surprise, he saw a young girl he had never met before standing there. "My name is Kari and I'm here to pick up your sister."
This came off as a little strange to Phil. "Why would you be needing to pick up me sis?"
Kari answered with all necessary candor, "I'm going to escort her to a date with Edward Silver."
Phil remembered that name from a couple weeks back and yelled, "Hey Sis! Someone's here to take you on a date with Edward Silver!"
Shaina shot out of her chair and went right to the door, looking Kari in the eye. "You're 'ere to take me on a date?"
Kari responded with a nod and a smile.
Shaina asked Kari, "Do I need to get all dollied up for this date?"
Kari shook her head. "Nope. You just need to bring yourself and get ready to have a good time as we're going to have this date near a big lake."
Shaina's eyes lit up at the thought. "Oh, how romantic!"
Both Kari and Phil sweatdropped as Shaina ran inside to her computer. As soon as Phil invited her inside, Kari went into Shaina's bedroom as she was talking with Muchomon. ModokiBetamon had since left the room to relax in Phil's room.
"That's not fair! You get to go on a date with Penguinmon's partner and I have to stay here!" Muchomon yelled.
Shaina shrugged. "I guess."
A knock at the window came in at that moment. Muchomon opened the window and Biyomon and Palmon came in through the open window.
"It's about time you got in here, Kari! We were getting lots of thorns in that bush outside the window!" Biyomon yelled in a rare show of emotion.
Palmon observed, "Not that it bothered me any…"
Muchomon asked, "What are you two doing here?" assuming that these two were in "alliance" with Kari, which was accurate.
"We're here to escort you to a date with Penguinmon!" Palmon exclaimed.
Muchomon jumped out of bed almost immediately. "Do you mean that?"
Biyomon observed, "If we didn't mean it, we would have told you that!"
Muchomon did a little dance on the bed before saying in an angry tone, "It's about time I got a chance to give Penguinmon a piece of my mind!"
Everybody nearby sweatdropped, unaware of why Muchomon had such feelings toward Penguinmon, despite the fact that Shaina had been with Muchomon for quite some time.
Muchomon looked around to see everyone staring at her. To change the subject, she exclaimed, "What are we waiting for? Let's get going already!"
Despite the fact that they didn't know what was up with Muchomon, they all agreed the best thing to do was to get going. So Kari opened the Digiport and all of them went to Violet City, the same place that Ryo was taking Edward, Typhlosion, Blastoise and Baby Lugia.
Orange Islands, Edward's Home-
Penguinmon lay on Edward's bed, wondering about the sudden lack of noise coming from the living room. After all, Edward had been out there a few minutes earlier playing with Lugia. Penguinmon went out into the living room and saw absolutely no one there.
"Edward? Lugia? Where are you?" Penguinmon cried.
Penguinmon wandered the room, looking for them in unusual spots, thinking that perhaps this was a game.
"This isn't funny! Where did you go!" Penguinmon was in a near panic.
Suddenly, a small rustling came from behind a curtain, making Penguinmon get a huge smile on his face, thinking he found Edward in his little game of hide-and-seek.
"Oh, so you thought you could play games with me, huh Edward?" He approached the curtain and grabbed the string which would pull back the curtains.
When Penguinmon saw who was behind the curtains after he pulled them back, he was very surprised. It was Ryo's Charmeleon who stood behind the curtain.
"Hey, Charmeleon… What are you doing here?" Penguinmon asked with some trepidation.
Charmeleon acted very non-chalant about the whole thing. "I'm just here to help you out, that's all."
Penguinmon looked at Charmeleon with a lot of skepticism. "What do you mean 'help me out'?"
Charmeleon smirked as Eevee, Growlithe, Agumon, Gabumon, Gatomon, Tentomon, Veemon, Hawkmon, Patamon, Gomamon, Armadillomon and Elecmon jumped out of various places around the room.
Penguinmon was taken aback, "But, how…"
Charmeleon said, "We snuck in and hid from you, Penguinmon. And now we're all going to help you…"
Penguinmon's look of shock changed to that of horror as the Digimon and Digital Pokemon pulled out pieces of rope.
Charmeleon finished, "Help you get to a date with Muchomon, that is."
Upon hearing her name, Penguinmon screamed and tried to run away, only to get surrounded by the thirteen creatures who stood in the room a few moments later.
Once surrounded, Penguinmon fought like a cornered animal might, firing Ice Prism attacks wildly at everyone surrounding him. Some of them hit a target, but it wasn't nearly enough as the thirteen Digimon and Digital Pokemon jumped on Penguinmon, creating a large scuffle for a few moments.
When the dust cleared, Penguinmon was neatly tied up from neck to foot. As he struggled, Penguinmon yelled, "Let me go!"
Gatomon asked, "Is there something around here we can use to shut him up?"
The others looked around and a few moments later, Veemon said, "I think this will work."
Gatomon took it from Veemon and smiled wide. "This is purrfect."
30 seconds later-
The thirteen creatures walked out of Edward Silver's house and met Ryo out front who immediately sweatdropped at Penguinmon's condition. He shrugged it off a few moments later and they went off, Ryo leading the way. Penguinmon was being held by 6 Digimon in mid-air, struggling while bound tightly and a "Do Not Open Until Xmas 3004" sticker over his mouth preventing him from speaking…
Kaze Umi-
Edward sat on the hill, waiting for the date to begin. He wasn't nearly the nervous wreck he was about 10 minutes earlier, but he was still visibly nervous. A few moments later, Kari came up the hill.
"Kari?" Edward asked, never having seen her in real life.
Kari responded with a simple, "Yes."
"What are you doing here?" Edward asked nervously.
"What do you think I'm doing here, silly?" Kari asked innocently.
Edward became even more nervous and it showed in the fact that he was visibly shaking. He had heard of Kari's relationship with Izzy from Ryo. "Isn't Izzy going to be upset?"
Kari gave Edward a strange look and responded with a simple, "No."
Edward shook a little less now, but wanted to know something from her. As he gave her a skeptical look, Edward asked, "Did you and Izzy break it off?"
Kari's look became inquisitive for a moment, but it quickly dawned on her what Edward was getting at, "Oh, no, no, no. I'm not your date, Ed. I'm merely her escort."
Kari yells down, "Everyone, come on up!"
Edward gave another strange look to Kari, but soon a brown haired girl, Biyomon, Palmon and a strange orange Penguinmon came up the hill. The brown haired girl sat next to Edward and the orange Penguinmon sat nearby.
Kari said as she looked at Ed, "Edward, I'd like you to meet Shaina."
Edward's stuttering began all over again and he wasn't sure why. "It… it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Shaina giggled and extended her hand for a handshake. "It's a pleasure to meet you too."
As Shaina and Edward completed a very shaky handshake (due to Edward), Kari indicated the strange orange Penguinmon nearby and said, "That's Muchomon, Shaina's partner."
Muchomon waved hello and began to watch the bottom of the hill intently, choosing not to say a word to Edward.
Kari went into some nearby bushes and came out in another clearing. Here, Mimi and Sora were busy cooking the spaghetti for dinner.
And over near Muchomon at the far end of the hill was Typhlosion and Blastoise, watching over Baby Lugia.
"How's dinner coming along?" Kari asked.
Mimi smiled and said, "It'll be done in about 20 minutes."
Kari breathed a sigh of relief. "It looks like for once everything is going right."
Back on the hill, an awkward silence occurred as Edward tried to calm down a little. It wasn't working very well, since he was still visibly nervous.
Shaina asked Edward, "Why are you so nervous, Ed?"
Edward looked at her and said, "This, this, this, this, this is my first d, d, d, d, d, d, date with a girl in my life."
Shaina couldn't help but laugh at Edward's nervousness. Edward thought that he was going to be made fun of, but Shaina assured him by saying, "You're cute when you're nervous."
Edward almost did a double-take, looking at Shaina in the end. "Are you serious?"
"Of course I am, silly. Why would I kid around with you now you bloke?"
"I don't know…" Edward began to calm down, knowing that "she wasn't going to bite".
When Edward next spoke, he made an obvious statement. "Your Muchomon looks a lot like my Penguinmon… except orange."
Shaina smiled. "Muchomon has been doing nothing but talking about Penguinmon ever since those Digimon appeared in London and someone mentioned Penguinmon to her."
Edward asked Shaina, "Do you know why?"
Shaina shook her head, saying, "Not really. She's been saying that she'll 'give him a piece of her mind' and 'he'll be sorry he messed with me' and stuff like that…"
Edward went into deep thought for a few moments. 'I don't think I remember Penguinmon ever mentioning someone named Muchomon… then again, I don't know much about Penguinmon's past, so it might be possible that she's met him before…'
Suddenly, Edward thought of something and looked at Shaina. "If Muchomon wanted to see Penguinmon, why wasn't he invited on this date?"
Shaina shrugged her shoulders, "Beats me. I only found out about this date today."
For Edward, it dawned on him that Ryo and Kari had set him and Shaina up. "You mean this whole thing was set up by Kari and Ryo?"
Shaina shrugged her shoulders again. "I guess so."
Muchomon continued to look down the hill intently, almost as if she was expecting someone to crest the hill. In fact, she was, but she wasn't quite sure what to expect.
Shaina changed the subject rather quickly. "I heard you're a Pokemon Trainer from Ryo."
Edward brightened up at the observation. "That's right. I am a Pokemon Trainer."
Shaina asked, "What kinds of Pokemon do you have, Edward?"
Edward pointed toward the Pokemon who were sitting nearby. "Over there are my three main Pokemon. The black and beige one is Typhlosion, my starter. The blue turtle-like one is Blastoise, and…" Edward looked confused for a moment as he realized that someone was missing.
Shaina began to look confused at well. "And… what?"
Edward gets up from his seat. "Could you hang on a minute, Shaina?"
Shaina nods her head and Edward walked over to his Pokemon.
"Typhlosion, Blastoise, let me ask you a question…" Edward said with fear and anger in his voice.
"Typh…?" Typhlosion looked up at Edward.
"Blast…?" So did Blastoise a few seconds later.
"Where's Lugia?" Edward asked with the same tone of voice.
Typhlosion and Blastoise began to look around frantically for the small Lugia. They looked all over the hill; Typhlosion even lifted Muchomon up off the ground to look under her for whatever reason. Despite this, Muchomon continued to look downhill intently the whole time and didn't even say a word to the fact that she had been lifted into the air. Even when Typhlosion put her back down, she said nothing.
Edward did the same thing, looking all around the hill. All the while, Shaina looked at the three of them strangely. Then she got up to go over toward Edward.
"What's wrong, Edward?" Shaina asked.
Edward quickly turned around and said, "Nothing's wrong, Shaina. You just go back over there and sit and relax. I'll be just a minute."
Shaina looked at Edward with an inquisitive stare, but shrugged and went back to the hill to sit down.
Meanwhile, in the clearing nearby, Palmon and Biyomon finally came through the bushes, having finished taking a nap. Mimi and Sora put some salt and pepper into the sauce and poured it over the spaghetti. With that, the dinners were done.
Two of the plates had some fish on them for Muchomon and Penguinmon, and the other two had spaghetti and tomato sauce for Shaina and Edward.
Mimi, Sora, Kari, Biyomon and Palmon began to celebrate, saying that nothing had gone wrong and everything was perfect.
Well, at that moment, Baby Lugia came through the bushes and made a beeline right for the food that he smelt from quite a distance…
Back on the hill, Blastoise, Typhlosion and Edward looked about for Lugia… until they heard the familiar voice of Ryo calling to them from down the hill.
"Hey, guys! I'm back!" Ryo called to Edward.
Edward greeted Ryo semi-warmly, saying that he was looking for Lugia at the moment. Ryo wondered what happened to Lugia, but quickly changed the subject to the fact that he was escorting someone.
"Ed, I brought someone else here to join you and Shaina and Muchomon." Ryo said.
Edward looked at Ryo with a look which screamed out "I know what's coming next"… To mirror that sentiment, Edward asked Ryo, "Is it who I think it is?"
To answer the question, all of the Digimon and Digital Pokemon who were "assigned" to the task of bringing Penguinmon to the date came up the hill. 7 of them led the "envoy" and 6 held Penguinmon bound and gagged in mid-air. Penguinmon struggled against the bindings and made a lot of muffled grunts into the sticker.
On the outside, Edward sweatdropped; on the inside, Edward laughed sadistically at finally seeing Penguinmon in the situation he had always wanted to put him in himself.
Agumon, Veemon, Gabumon, Gatomon, Hawkmon and Charmeleon placed Penguinmon next to Muchomon, than Veemon and Gabumon began to untie him. Ryo, Eevee, Growlithe, Agumon, Gatomon, Tentomon, Hawkmon, Patamon, Gomamon, Armadillomon, Charmeleon and Elecmon then went into the bushes nearby.
Shaina looked at Ryo's group as they went into the bushes. "I guess that was what they were up to, wasn't it?" Shaina asked herself.
Muchomon wanted to yell at Penguinmon so badly the moment he was put down in front of her, but Gabumon and Veemon told her to wait until they got him untied so spare their own ears. Believe me when I say that she had a very tough time restraining herself.
All of a sudden, a scream came out of the location which Ryo and company had gone into a few moments prior. This stopped all conversation and everything on the hill as everyone looked in the direction of the scream.
Before Edward and Shaina could make their way over to the scream, Kari appeared from the bushes holding Baby Lugia. But Lugia had something… different about it. Mostly, the fact that tomato stains surrounded Lugia's mouth.
Rather quickly, Edward deduced that Lugia had, in fact, eaten whatever Kari was planning to serve them for dinner. He quickly grabbed Lugia out of Kari's arms before shooting a glare at Typhlosion and Blastoise, who looked at the ground with some amount of shame.
Kari went back inside the bushes while Edward brought Lugia over. Shaina cooed a little bit at the cute little Pokemon. "Who's this little guy?" she asked in a slightly higher voice than normal.
"This is Lugia, a Pokemon who I'm taking of for awhile."
Shaina asked to hold Lugia for a minute, and though Edward was a little hesitant to let Lugia out of his sights again that night, he gave Lugia to Shaina to hold. Shaina cradled Lugia in her arms and rocked him a little bit, commenting on how cute she thought it was.
In the bushes, Sora and Mimi were looking at the now empty plates of food with a lot of disdain. "How did we let this happen?" Mimi asked.
Ryo observed, "Well, we had to figure something would go wrong, it almost always does…"
Kari asked, "Well, what do we do now, guys? We don't have any food, and no date is complete without dinner, is it?"
Everyone began to think hard about what to do about the sudden food shortage.
Suddenly, Agumon was struck with a stroke of brilliance, or at least what passed for brilliance at that moment. "I've got a great idea!" he exclaimed.
Everyone looked at Agumon as he came up to Ryo and whispered in his ear. After a few moments, Ryo pulled back from Agumon and asked him, "Are you kidding?"
Agumon shook his head and Ryo sighed before grabbing Charmeleon. "You need to digivolve, buddy… we've got a small trip to make…"
Charmeleon blinked then nodded before Ryo pulled out his digivice.
Charmeleon digivolve to… Charizard!
Ryo climbed on Charizard and flew off, heading toward Violet City. Everyone looked at Agumon as soon as Ryo took off and he assured everyone that he had things under control.
Charizard soon flew overhead heading toward Violet City, causing another question from Shaina. "Oh, that's… Charizard, isn't it?"
Edward answered in the affirmative while he wondered what in the world Charizard was doing flying toward Violet City with Ryo on him. Granted, Edward knew that their food was gone, but still, Ryo couldn't be going for that, could he?
Muchomon, who had been doing a great job of keeping herself under control, finally saw her opportunity to give Penguinmon an earful as Gabumon and Veemon finished their job of untying Penguinmon. Before she could, they had to peel off the sticker, much to the chagrin of Penguinmon who screamed out in pain as hairs were peeled off his skin, not a pleasant experience, to say the least.
Gabumon and Veemon got away from Muchomon and Penguinmon while still holding the rope, acting as a constant reminder to Penguinmon that should he try to run away, they will be right there to put him in his place again.
Muchomon began her yelling spree as soon as Gabumon and Veemon stopped. "How dare you just abandon me without even having the nerve to tell me why, you piece of trash!"
Penguinmon was only about to spit out the word, "But…"
"Don't you 'but' me, Penguinmon! You just left without any warning, without any provocation on my part, and without any signs as to why!"
Once again, Penguinmon was only able to spit out, "But I…" in between Muchomon's breaths.
Muchomon yelled, "What in the world made you think that you could just throw me away like a piece of paper that you no longer had use for? How do you think I felt, waiting day after day for you to come back? And yet you never did!"
As Muchomon breathed in, Penguinmon gave up trying to convince Muchomon that he wasn't as bad as she thought he was.
Muchomon continued, "I waited for quite some time before I was finally given a partner like you did with Edward over there… and every day I waited… hoping against hope that maybe you would come back to me. And what was it worth? Nothing!"
Muchomon took a breath and calmed down a little bit, having given Penguinmon quite the verbal thrashing.
Shaina and Edward stared wide-eyed at Muchomon and Edward asked the question on both of their minds. "What happened between you and Muchomon, Penguinmon?"
Penguinmon sighed out loud, knowing there was no way to get around telling the truth now.
"Ed, Muchomon and I go a long way back, and I do mean a long way, before I ever met you." Penguinmon began.
Flashback
Muchomon and Penguinmon are holding flippers at the start of this flashback. "Muchomon and I could be considered boyfriend and girlfriend. We liked each other a lot, but there was also another side to Muchomon which the two of you saw a few minutes ago." Penguinmon narrated.
The image changes to Muchomon chewing out Penguinmon. "Whenever Muchomon got angry about anything at all, even if it had nothing to do with me, she would yell at me like there's no tomorrow."
Muchomon responded by yelling, "I did not, Penguinmon!"
Penguinmon asked Shaina and Edward, "You see what I mean?"
Shaina answered the question in the affirmative, noting that "Muchomon always did seem to be touchy on the subject."
Edward then asked a simple question, "What does that have to do with why she's angry with you now?"
Penguinmon answered the question by saying with a touch of annoyance in his voice, "I'm getting there, Ed. Be patient a minute. Geez…"
The scene now shifts to Penguinmon by himself in front of a small lake. "This part even Muchomon doesn't know about, because I was by myself when it happened."
"Are you finally going to come clean about why you dumped me, you loser?" Muchomon asked in as calm a voice as she could muster.
"I didn't dump you, Muchomon! Now please let me finish!" Penguinmon yelled in what might be called an uncharacteristic angry voice.
Muchomon pulled back from Penguinmon, surprised that he snapped like that, because she had never known him to do that before.
"Anyway, to get back to the point, I was one day sitting by a lake when suddenly I was challenged to a battle by a large Gorillamon. Of course, I was a tiny little Penguinmon at the time, so if I had accepted, I would have surely lost. Or at least I would have were it not for the fact that I unexpectedly digivolved."
Edward looked at Penguinmon in shock. "That's when you first digivolved?"
"Right, Edward. I digivolved into Seadramon and battled it out against Gorillamon and eventually won."
Muchomon looked at Penguinmon and asked in a lot calmer of a voice, "Why does that explain why you disappeared on me?"
Penguinmon continued, "Well, after the battle, I tried to de-digivolve like I know some Digimon can, but I found myself unable to do so, and was left in the form of Seadramon. I knew if I went back to you looking like this… you'd just leave me and never want to come back."
Muchomon realized for the first time that Penguinmon still, at the very least, liked her a lot. "Oh, Penguinmon…" she said in an almost embarrassed voice.
"So, I decided to wait until I was able to de-Digivolve... then, Depthmon showed up and before I know it, I was helping him with a battle in this world... getting partnered with Edward and making friends with the world's worst babysitters!"
Edward glared at Typhlosion and Blastoise, whom both were laughing nervously with sweatdrops.
Muchomon, now embarrassed about her anger toward Penguinmon began to say, "I'm sorry."
Penguinmon nodded and put his flipper over her mouth. "It's okay, Muchomon. I can completely understand why you'd be angry after I just up and disappeared without telling you anything."
Muchomon responded by telling Penguinmon that "she didn't know that the situation was as Penguinmon had said it was".
Then, Muchomon reassumed her normal tone. "But now I have a partner and I can digivolve too, so there's no excuse why the two of us can't see each other again."
It was Penguinmon's turn to be surprised. "You can digivolve now as well?"
Muchomon called Shaina over to prove her point. "Watch this, lover boy!"
Shaina pointed her digivice at Muchomon and she glowed with the light of digivolution. Penguinmon and Edward stared at the spectacle.
Muchomon digivolve to… Veedramon!
The small orange penguin had changed into a big, bulky, blue and white dragon. Penguinmon stared, while Edward complimented Shaina on having such a "cool partner".
Veedramon asked Penguinmon, "So? Are you going to run away from me?"
Penguinmon answered the question, "No…" Instead, he got on his belly and rolled down the hill toward the lake.
Veedramon, Gabumon and Veemon ran after Penguinmon, but they were too slow and Penguinmon splashed down in the lake and swam away. He didn't care what Pokemon were in the lake, they couldn't possibly be as dangerous as an angry Veedramon. Edward sweatdropped because of Penguinmon's rash move into the lake.
Veedramon, Gabumon and Veemon ran to the edge of the lake, but Veedramon didn't jump in, instead opting to yell at Penguinmon from the shore. "Come back here, you coward! Come back here and face the music!"
Gabumon observed a simple fact. "If you don't want to go into the lake, you can go around the lake and get him that way…"
Veedramon lit up at the suggestion. "Hey, thanks Gabumon!" Veedramon ran around the shore, yelling at Penguinmon the entire way. This time, it was Shaina's turn to sweatdrop.
Edward said in a surprised voice, "Well, that was… different."
Shaina nodded in agreement. "I didn't realize that Penguinmon had such an… interesting history."
Edward nodded, adding, "Well, I know Penguinmon always got hesitant when I brought up the past, and now I know why…"
It was that moment that Ryo and Charizard chose to return from Violet City, holding white paper bags which had… McDonalds on it?
Ryo and Charizard landed on the lake and handed each of them a paper bag. Inside the bag were a hamburger and fries, as well as a soft drink. Both Shaina and Edward stared at Ryo as if to say, "Why in the world are we eating this on our first date!"
Ryo shrugged and after Charizard de-digivolved back to Charmeleon, they went into the bushes. Edward and Shaina ate their food with some hesitation, both of them thinking the same thing as Ryo was at the moment he turned around to talk with Agumon.
"You know, that probably wasn't the best idea in the world to give the fast food on a fist date." Ryo said to a sweatdropping Agumon.
Agumon fired back, "Well, at least it's the thought that counts."
The other Digimon and humans couldn't help but agree.
20 minutes later-
Edward and Shaina finished their dinner as a pooped Penguinmon came out of the lake and an even more pooped Muchomon came back and laid next to Shaina who was still holding the cute Baby Lugia in her arms.
Shaina told Edward, "In all honesty, I wasn't expecting my first date ever to end with a Happy Meal…"
Edward nodded, adding, "I didn't expect my first date ever to be a 'double date', so to speak."
Shaina smiled at Edward, telling him that despite everything, she enjoyed the date. She added as she looked down at Lugia, "Besides, if that stuff didn't happen, I might not have ever gotten the chance to hold you, little guy."
Lugia looked up at Shaina and cawed happily. "Lu!"
Edward smiled and said, "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself tonight, because I did too."
Penguinmon asked as he crawled up to Edward, "Can we go home now?"
Edward said to Penguinmon, "Wait a minute!" He then called out for Ryo and for Kari, not knowing that Mimi and Sora were also behind this.
Edward said to Ryo and to Kari, "I should thank the two of you. Without your help, I would have never gotten together with Shaina."
Both Ryo and Kari blushed in embarrassment at Edward's compliments. Shaina stood up and mirrored Edward's sentiment, giving Ryo special thanks for keeping his word.
Edward recalled Typhlosion and Blastoise, then took Baby Lugia out of Shaina's arms. As Edward took Lugia out of her arms, Shaina saw it as an excuse to sneak in and share a kiss with Edward who never saw it coming. They kissed for about 30 seconds before Shaina stopped. Edward blushed as did Shaina. But finally, it was time.
Edward and Ryo and Shaina and Kari parted ways, with Kari taking Shaina and Muchomon home and Ryo taking Edward and Penguinmon home as Mimi and Sora and all of the Digimon stood behind the bushes, not really wanting a whole lot of the credit for their role in the date. In their minds, the happiness shared by Edward and Shaina was enough for them.
About the only thing they wished was that Ryo and Kari had stuck around long enough to help clean up…
Digicross Advanced Narrator: And so, thanks to some feminine assistance, Ryo was able to keep his promise to Shaina and Muchomon and set up the date. For both parties, mixed feelings came out of the date. Shaina appreciated Edward for who he was, and similar sentiment about Shaina was held by Edward. However, the relationship between Penguinmon and Muchomon remains sour at best. Will Shaina and Edward become an item, and if they do, will they be able to mend bridges between Penguinmon and Muchomon? Only time will tell…
