Chapter 17:

Be glad if you pity someone, even while you're feeling sorry for them: someday, someone might have reason to pity you!

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

Kari was just putting down the receiver on the military phone when Tai and Sora walked back in the door of the tent, back from the TTC truck. "Any luck?" Tai asked.

Kari shook her head. "The army's phones aren't giving me a dial tone. I've tried everything to get them to work, and they just won't help."

"So much for calling a cab to get us back to your apartment."

"But Tai," Sora pointed out, "If this refugee camp is supposed to be full of six hundred thousand people and digimon, then where is everybody?"

"Good question."

Kari sighed. "So…what do we do now?"

After thinking about it, Tai answered, "We have two choices: we can look around the camp and see what we can find, or we can try to walk to the city and find your apartment."

"I'm curious to know whether whatever turned us into kids affected anybody else, as well," Kari answered.

"We might as well look around," Sora agreed. "We might be able to find a few answers if we stay here a little while longer."

"Fine then," Tai said, putting his rain jacket back on. "Shall we?"

They looked around the camp, and only found a few adults and a couple children who were equally clueless. Some of them were hungry, and the three Digidestined ended up finding food for them---in fact, there were several truckloads of food for the refugees, and it was way more than enough to feed everyone.

It had been a few hours since they had awoken and found out they were children. There still wasn't a light in the sky. They were huddled around an electric lantern they had found in the army barracks, as artificial light bulbs were the only source of light that existed in their strange, dark universe. "So…what now?" Sora asked. "We've been around the camp, and we still have no answers."

"I guess the only other thing is to try to make it to the city," Tai answered. "There's nothing more that we can do sitting tight here."

"But how do we get there?" Sora asked.

"We could walk," Kari answered. "It's only a few miles away from the camp. That's why the army chose this site; they wanted it to be close to a place where there was a major airport."

"Walk? In the rain?"

"It's not that bad. I mean, we've been doing that for the past five hours," Tai answered.

"And I'm sick of it!" Gatomon spat, wringing out her tail.

Just then, Kari noticed that Gatomon's tail ring was gone. "Uh-oh, Gatomon, you're missing something."

"Huh?" Gatomon gasped as she realized what Kari meant. "But I---huh!"

"What?"

"My tail ring was a major conduit for my strength before, and, when I lost it, I didn't have champion-level power. But right now, I don't feel any weaker than usual...unless the pain in my feet counts," Gatomon added, taking off the galoshes she'd been wearing. All of a sudden, Gatomon gasped.

"Gatomon?" Kari asked.

Gatomon waved her paw, "It's okay," and coughed a few times. After collecting herself and swallowing spit, she answered, "I just realized that I don't need my tail ring. It's…it's my boots! They're my new conduits, not my tail ring!"

"Then…whatever turned us into kids fused your boots with the rest of your body?"

Gatomon nodded. "It looks that way."

Tai scratched his head. "This just gets weirder and weirder!"

"Tina, we can not keep a kangaroo in this house!"

"He's not a kangaroo, mom! We called the St. Paul Zoo, and there is no kangaroo missing! Besides, we have bigger problems than a kangaroo if you, Dad, and Davis just got about 30 years younger!"

"Exactly, and the fact that we have bigger problems is one of the reasons why we can't keep him."

"But where else does he have to go!"

"I'll have your dad drop him off at the animal shelter."

"The animal shelter? They'll put him to sleep!"

"They'll do no such thing. They'll be able to sell him to a zoo someplace and make a profit for---"

Joey, oblivious to this discussion up until then, walked in and asked, "What are two Tinas talking mad about?"

Yolei's and Tina's jaws dropped as they heard him talk. "You can talk?" Tina asked.

"Joey talk."

"Since when?"

"Since Tina teach me."

"When did I teach you how to talk?"

Joey gave the question some thought and shrugged. "What two Tinas talk mad about? And why two Tinas? Joey think there only one Tina!"

"Uh…there is only one Tina. I'm Yolei."

"Yo-lee? …Look like two Tinas."

Tina shook her head. "I'm Tina; that's Mom."

"Mom? …But Mom say 'Yo-lee'."

"I am Yolei. Tina calls me Mom because I am her mother."

"Muh-ther? …" Joey snorted loudly. He demanded, "No use words Joey no understand!" and left the room.

Tina turned to her mother and said, "Feel a little more open-minded about having Joey here, now?"

"No."

Tina's jaw dropped. "Mom! You can't turn a sentient creature out into the cold!"

"What choice do we have?"

"Why can't we have him?"

Yolei couldn't think of a reason, but didn't want to look indecisive, so she changed the subject by asking, "How did you find him, anyway?"

"Out in the rain. A few nights ago. He was cold and wet and---greasy."

"Greasy? Okay, that's a new one. I have to give you points for originality, but---"

"Ask Hawkmon: it's true! He was covered in petrolatum! And if he doesn't stay covered, he gets a rash on his skin!"

"Oh, making the lie complicated just so that it seems believable? Sure, sounds convincing to me!"

"Mom, I am not lying! He was greasy, covered in bits of fallen leaves and gravel: filthy as they come. And he had a data cube with him. Something he must've picked up off the ground."

"Really?"

"Mom, ask Hawkmon: I am not lying!"

Yolei shook her head.

"What is your problem with having Joey here? It's not like he's trouble, or anything!" There was a loud clanging noise, but it was only a fork falling off the dining room table. It was Joey's doing.

Yolei shook her head again. "Tina, there is no way we can keep him."

"Why not? We can keep Davis!"

Tina had her beaten on that one.