Chapter 19:

Success feels even better when you had to overcome something big to get it.

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

Sora was stirred from her sleep by a loud, "Aaawww!" from Kari. Kari had awoken to an endearing scene: Sora was curled up, nearly in the fetal position, asleep with her arms wrapped around Biyomon.

"Hmm?" Sora asked with one eye open.

"Uh---sorry," Kari sheepishly answered. Sora got the idea of what Kari had really been emitting that pity party about her. She brushed the thought aside: she'd made it through the night, and she was in the same place she'd been when she had gone to sleep: she was still with Biyomon, Tai, Agumon, Kari, and Gatomon. That was the important thing.

She stretched and yawned. She listened and looked around. The only light was from a flashlight Kari was holding, and she still heard trickling and pattering noises outside. "Oh, no! It's not still raining, is it?"

"And it's not light out, either," Kari agreed. "Tai's out using the latrine. Once he's back, we're breaking out some of the food and having breakfast."

Sora groaned and sat up, hugging her knees. She looked at the door to the tent and sighed.

"I know," Kari answered. "I don't like it, either. I'm almost scared that there isn't even a sun in the sky, anymore. But I know that's not possible; if there wasn't a sun, we wouldn't even be alive."

Sora shook her head. "So…let's say that we get back to the city and we find out that the camp and this road were the only areas that were affected by whatever turned us into kids. And if I'm really a CEO…" Sora buried her face in her arms. "I'm just a kid! I don't know how to handle a big company!"

"Sora, you could just resign as CEO and the job would go to one of your vice presidents. You'd still be the owner, and that would give you enough money to live on."

Sora answered with a sigh.

"Sora, what's your problem with believing that everything is going to be all right?"

"Take a look outside. There's no sun, no moon, no stars, and not even light reflecting off the clouds from the city. It's pouring out there. And we have a long ways to walk before we get to shelter again."

"But there is shelter," Kari pointed out.

"Are we sure? Are we sure about anything?" Sora shot back.

Kari sighed and put a hand on Sora's shoulder. "Sora, someone had to have built the road we've been walking on since last night. And every landmark we've seen along the road I've seen a dozen times. I'm from the city, so I'd know."

Sora sighed.

Kari patted her shoulder. "Relax. We have no reason to think that the city isn't still there. And, even if it's not, it's better to try to find it than to sit here forever."

Sora groaned. "I guess you're right."

After they'd eaten breakfast, the three of them packed up the tent and set off again. After a few miles, there was a sudden flash of light. It took a while for their eyes to adjust, but, when they could finally see again, they saw the most brilliant sight ever: two suns burned brightly in the sky behind them, one a little to their left and one to their right. But in front of them, the raindrops in the sky before them cut, baked, and polished the light from those two suns into two spectacular rainbows. It was awe-inspiring. And they could clearly see the light from those two suns, even though it was still raining.

There was an awesome silence that hung over them that was filled only with the loud patter of raindrops. Kari was the one who broke the silence: "I wish I had my camera! ---Hold on a second, I do!" She pulled her camera out of her pocket and snapped a photo of the rainbows that were in front of them. She hoped the photo would turn out.

It was a long time before Gatomon said, "So…this is---how is it possible?"

"I don't know," Tai answered. "Unless one of those two lights in the sky isn't the sun."

"Well, it is weird…but it's beautiful," Biyomon thought aloud.

"Hmm…Almost worth walking this far in the dark. But how can it be raining and sunny out at the exact same time?" Sora asked.

"Good question."

The light from those two suns suddenly took on a very red color, and the rain immediately stopped. Sora looked up at the sky, just in time to see that the rain had been replaced by a much more deadly weather condition: huge meteors of ice were raining out of the sky, each irregularly shaped in chunks about a half a meter across. She had to dodge bomb after bomb of ice.

Agumon took off the digimon-sized poncho that he'd been wearing so that he wouldn't break it when he grew, and he yelled, "Agumon, digivolve to…Greymon! …Quick, everyone, get beneath me!"

The other five scurried underneath Greymon's bulk. Sora was so terrified that she clung to Tai's arm. It was no more settling to have nothing but light the color of blood to see by. The red light and the hail of icy meteors disappeared as quickly as they had come after a gruelingly long minute. The world was as it had been before it started: bright and wet. Greymon regressed back to Agumon.

"Agumon, are you okay?" Tai asked.

"I'm a little scratched up, but I'll be fine," he answered as he put his poncho back on to cover himself from the rain.

Sora was still shaken up. "What on Earth was that?"

"I have no clue. But the next time I see nothing but red light coming from the sun, I'll know to stop!"

Sora slowly let go of Tai's arm, clutched her elbows, and shivered. It was unnerving, how she stood there, getting rained on and not even bothering to replace her hood. She wasn't crying, but she was pale.

Tai had seen enough: he opened his umbrella over her, put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "Sora…I need you to look me in the face and tell me that you're going to be okay." There was silence for a few moments. "Sora, we can't go on until you look me in the face and tell me that you're going to be okay." So, finally, Sora bit back her fear, looked up into Tai's eyes. His eyes were both dissecting and compassionate, both studying and worrying. She inhaled deeply and forced her vocal cords to say, "I'm going to be okay."

Tai didn't congratulate her. He knew how shy she could sometimes be, so he just motioned for them to continue and began walking down the road some more. As time and distance wore on, the light from one of the two suns dwindled and died, and the other sun was covered by the same, homogeneous white clouds that had at first covered the sky over the refugee camp. The rain slowly rolled to a stop. Then, over the last hill, there it was: the city. They had made it.

Pikachu opened his eyes. He was sprawled out on pavement, which was strange: he didn't recall going unconscious anywhere near a blacktop. Pikachu looked around. Ash was next to him, and he was asleep. Pikachu got up and nuzzled his neck.

"Nnngh," Ash answered.

Pikachu became more vocal: "Pika-pi! Ika, pi pika chu pi pikaaa!"

Ash opened one of his eyes and looked at Pikachu. "Pikachu? Uh…why am I lying out in the middle of the street?"

Pikachu shrugged. "Pika," he admitted.

"The middle of the road isn't the safest place for us to take a nap, so…hey, wait a sec! The arena where we were fighting Gary isn't anywhere near here! So…where are we?"

He heard a noise in a nearby alleyway. It was an unfamiliar female voice. He could hear the voice, but, at that distance, he couldn't understand the words she was saying. He got closer, wondering what was going on. He was taken aback when he saw a huge hand made out of blue marble stone touching the ground. Its palm was down, and whomever that hand belonged to was using it to get up. Ash crept closer in, and he saw a woman and a huge, blue, stone giant talking to each other. They were discussing where they were and how the people there must have very little wood if they make their houses out of stone. She also looked at a trash bag nearby, and said, "I've never seen a sack made of this kind of material. It's much more flexible than any cloth I have ever seen."

"This is clearly far from the temple where Moo knocked us out, milady."

"But if Moo knocked us out, then why would he take us here? If I were Moo, I'd put us in a dungeon or a holding cell on his flying castle---assuming I wanted us alive at all. I wouldn't have dumped my prisoners in some deserted city."

"He might put us in a city if he had the place riddled with booby traps."

"That's the only reason I can think of, too. I think we ought to be careful."

Pikachu found these two creatures very strange. The female creature sounded like a woman, but looked like a cross between a woman and a bat. She had two furry wings, a tail, and was partly covered in fur. Pikachu could catch her scent, and it was unlike anything he'd ever smelled before. It had the combination of the scent of human skin and of a living, furry creature's pelt. Pikachu found it even stranger when he saw her fly up onto the huge, stone giant's shoulder. He looked up at Ash, and he could tell that Ash wasn't any less stunned.

Ash looked down at Pikachu. "You think we should ask questions?" he asked.

Pikachu shrugged. "Ka, chu pi pika piiii chu pi-chu-ka."

"You're right, they don't seem that unfriendly." He turned and said out loud (but not too loud) "Um…excuse us?"

She looked at him. "Yes?"

"Ah…this may be a stupid question, but---who are you?"

"My name is Pixie, and this is Big Blue."

"I could see that," Ash commented. "But I've---uh...what're those wings on your back? I've never seen a person fly like that."

"You haven't? ...Did you think I was human, young man?"

"Uh---yeah. I mean, you kind of look human, to me."

"I'm not," she answered.

"Then what are you?"

"You talk as though you've never seen a Monster before," she chuckled.

"Well…I…haven't," he admitted.

"Then what's that creature at your feet?"

"Pikachu? He's not a Monster, he's a pokémon!"

"A pokémon? I've never heard of one of those. Unless…oh, I get it: what we call a Monster, you call a pokémon. You have a different word for it, here, that's all. You see, Big Blue and I aren't from around here."

"Huh? …Well, I guess that makes sense. I'm…well, I overheard your conversation, and I thought I heard you mention that something knocked you out and you woke up here, and it's nowhere near where you went out. The exact same thing happened to me."

"Really?" Pixie and Big Blue thought this might be one of Moo's plots to lead them into a trap. "What knocked you out?"

"Well, all of a sudden, there was this bright light, and then all my friends and I passed out and then that's the last thing I remember."

"Friends?"

"Yeah, I've been traveling with three friends of mine, Misty, Tracy, and Brock, and I'd just finished a pokémon match against Gary---"

"Pokémon match?"

"Uh…yeah. I'm a pokémon trainer, and I had just beaten Gary in a match. Gary's an old friend of mine, who, for some reason, seems to half-hate and half-like me. But, anyway, I'd just beaten him, and then this thief came and tried to steal one of Gary's pokémon. Then Gary and I stopped him and his pokémon were fighting the thief's pokémon. Then there was the light, and we went out."

Pixie and Big Blue weren't totally trusting of Ash's testimony. "Can you tell us what city this is?" Pixie asked.

"Uh…no, I can't. I've never been here before---" all of a sudden, there was a horrible roar behind them. It was a metal-looking, dinosaur-like creature. "What's that thing?" Ash wondered. He pulled out his Pokédex, but it was no help: "Pokémon unknown. No available data." Ash put the Pokédex away. Ash looked up at it, and it seemed to be walking towards them with its mouth watering. "Uh, Pikachu, this guy doesn't look very friendly…"

Pixie and Big Blue looked at the metal creature. They were equally confused by it. "What is that thing?"

"I have no idea," Ash answered. "Dexter doesn't recognize it!"

"Dexter? What're you talking about---" an earsplitting shriek interrupted Pixie, and Golem was knocked backward by an invisible blast. She was thrown off his back and spread her wings to fly before she hit the ground.

Ash gulped. He reached down to pluck a pokéball from his belt, only to find that he had eighteen pokéballs at his disposal. He didn't stop to wonder why, he just sent out Charizard. "Charizard, use flamethrower on that thing!" Charizard blew a stream of flame onto the monster, and the creature was knocked back. It seemed to be in a daze of some sort.

Pixie flew in and landed. She pointed at the metal creature and yelled at him, "Hey! I used to be one of the Big, Bad Four! If you choose to fight me, you aren't going to win!"

The creature only roared and shot Big Blue again, completely ignoring Pixie.

"Fine, then!" She spat. She extended both hands towards the creature and yelled, "Lightning!" A white blob of energy shot at the creature and blew him to bits.

Ash was perplexed: these were pokémon he had never seen before. What on Earth was going on? And…would he be able to catch some new pokémon, or compete in these new leagues? And what about Misty, Brock, and Tracy…or Gary and the thief, for that matter?

GAZRIITOR:

Nickname: Saberstrike (Dainokotetsu)

Real Name: Ferra-tor-grend'l

Caste: Nut'ka

Special Attacks: Garem Non Hin Tarr

Modes: One

The saberstrike is an assault fighter that, like other members of the Nut'ka caste, has a preprogrammed way of attacking people and digimon: it first attacks the digimon and armed humans. It then disables adults with a blast of sonic energy from its tail, and then eats the children alive before the adults' eyes. It is also armed with heat rods in its claws that let it reflect away enemy attacks.