NOTE: Christian content

Chapter 10:

When you don't know what to do, it is usually (albeit not always) foolish to do something anyway.

The Little Teenaged Geek (not that he would know anything)

Tina sat on her bed, cradling in her arms the lost, kangaroo-like creature she'd found. He was wrapped up in one of her sweaters. While she spoke, she had her lips pushed forward, and was talking to it the way one would talk to a baby. "Aw you scawwed, widdle guy?"

He whistled back at her.

"I'm scawwed, too. Soldiews took away my mom, and my daddy is gone, too."

He whistled again.

She whispered to him, "Where're your mommy and daddy, huh? Where are they?"

Hawkmon stepped into Tina's room, yawning. "Well, it's not a kangaroo, that's for sure."

"What makes you say that?"

"A kangaroo has a jaw that's built like yours, with a mouth that opens up-and-down. This little one has a mouth that opens left and right."

Tina hadn't noticed that before, but it was true. And his fur was a pale shade of gray, while the fur of kangaroos was usually either brownish-red or dark grey. "Then he's a baby digimon?"

"None that I've seen before," Hawkmon answered. "I looked it up on the encyclopædia we have on our computer. It's not in there."

"So it's a new kind of digimon?"

"I guess so."

"What should we do with him?"

Hawkmon shook her head. "I don't know, Tina…I just don't know. But I know what we should do with you: we should put you to bed. It's after midnight. Now, go to sleep. I shall take care of the little creature."

"His name is Joey, by the way."

"Did you make that up?"

"Yes, I did."

"Hmm… I say! His skin looks as though it's developing some sort of rash."

"Uh-oh. Well, he was covered in petrolatum when we found him." Tina paused to yawn. "Maybe he needs it for his skin, or something."

"I shall see to it that he is treated. Go to sleep."

"I think I'll do that," Tina answered.

Tina awoke to the horrible news: the Digiworld was gone. It was on every news station, and the news was all the same: only a few hundred thousand survivors out of 700 million. Tina's face went pale. Before, she had been starving for breakfast, but now her appetite was gone. She had pictured in her mind "the good guys" winning this one; she had pictured a disaster averted and a happy ending…but not this time: good guys are still fallible, mortal creatures. She didn't know what to do: she wanted to go to a friend's house and either cry on someone's shoulder or let someone cry on her shoulder, so she did…much to Hawkmon's chagrin (1), she did. She had about a one-hour chat with her neighbor, and didn't feel much better when she entered the door to her house again. "Hawkmon, tell me this is a nightmare!"

Hawkmon shook her head. "It's real, Tina. But, in future, don't go venturing out on your own!"

"Hawkmon, this is one of the safest neighborhoods in America! That's why Mom and Dad moved here to begin with!"

"I don't care: from now on, you don't go out on your own. Especially not when you've missed breakfast."

Tina rubbed her face. "So…what do we do now?"

"They're holding a prayer vigil at church this afternoon."

"What's the point? How can God be up there if something like this happens?"

"God has His reasons for letting this happen. But there's something else we can do, too: we try to contact your parents. Let's just hope that your mother's cell phone is working." Hawkmon dialed her up. "Yolei?"

"Hawkmon, it's good to hear your voice."

"Mom, is that you?" Tina asked.

"Tina! Are…are you okay?"

"Mom, where are you?"

"We're headed home right now."

"Mom…Hawkmon told me what was going on with the disc. I---I'm…"

"Hawkmon…is this true?" Yolei asked.

"She said that Ken promised to tell her."

"Didn't I tell you not to tell her?"

"No, actually, you didn't."

Tina interrupted, "Mom, what were they doing to you?"

"You heard about the refugee camp?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"We were in the middle of the refugee camp, and they had six electric-circuit computer set up there, all connected to the Internet-1. When we got the message that the doomsday digimon had arrived, we used our D3's to get everyone out of there."

Tina sighed. She was still confused and scared. "What do we do now, Mom?"

"I don't know, honey…I don't know."

"Congratulations, lieutenant. The board has given you a promotion for your discovery: you are now Sub-Major."

"Thank you, Colonel."

"There is one other thing: your records show that you have studied military strategy."

"I have, sir."

"Then I believe your career in this campaign shouldn't end here: I'm putting you at the head of the operation."

"…If you see so fit, sir. But, if I am to head the campaign, then I should be briefed."

"Of course. What do you still need to know?"

"First of all, why did we go through all that trouble to annihilate the other world?"

"It is quite simple." The Colonel handed the Sub-Major a holographic screen. "You see these creatures?"

"Yes, sir?"

"They are engineered beings that are similar to the digimon that are native to the other world. They are called ator. However, they are different from the digimon in that they are composed of ternary data instead of binary."

"Of what consequence is this?"

"They are incompatible with the other world and would be destroyed if they tried to enter it."

"I see."

"I believe it is time we moved on to the next segment of our campaign. I will have a report sent to you so as to what exactly the next step is."

(1) Look that word up!

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Now you're getting an idea where the new creatures I mentioned before are going to come in. They are called "ator" at first---"ator" being the plural and "tor" being the singular---but, eventually, they get a new nickname. It'll be a while before they get that nickname, so read on to see what it is; I don't want to give away anything about them too soon.