Chapter 23:
Stark changes from one place or time to another tend to make one more aware of diversity. Depending on the circumstances, that may be a bad thing.
The Little Teenaged Geek (not that he would know anything)
Hare looked over his shoulder, away from the discussion they were having about the slagster that had attacked them. "Huh? Who's that?" There was a girl with red hair like Misty's inside the rain, and she was wearing a clear poncho and a khaki jacket. She didn't seem to be running, but she was moving very quickly towards them. Walking next to her was a tall, fox-like creature with golden-yellow fur…beautiful golden-yellow fur! Before he knew it, Hare was staring at her with hearts dancing around his head.
The girl's and the fox's speeds returned to normal as they exited the rain zone. To the eyes of the Monsters, Ghenki, Misty, and Holly, it looked as though the colors that the two approaching figures wore suddenly got darker as they exited the rain zone. They seemed shocked to find that they weren't being rained on and looked up at the sky. "What on earth…?"
"Excuse us," Misty asked.
Rika looked Misty over. She seemed to fit the description of the girl that boy was looking for. "Your name wouldn't happen to be 'Misty', would it?"
"It is. Why do you ask?"
"There was a guy back there who was looking for you. He mistook me for you because we both have red hair and look alike from a distance."
"Oh? Who was this guy?"
"I didn't get his name. He was wearing a blue raincoat, and he had on a red and white baseball cap. He was sitting on a bench taking care of an unconscious guy and an Agumon."
Hare asked, "Agumon? What's an agumon?"
She opened her mouth to answer, but thought better of it and just said, "A little dinosaur." The girl's gaze shifted to the wreckage of the slagster that had just attacked. "What happened to that thing?"
"It was attacking us, so we trashed it, chi," Moochi answered.
"It was attacking you?"
"And the strange part is, it had no actual chance of winning against all of us. One hit was all it took to stop it, but it attacked anyway," Golem continued.
The girl's eyebrow went up. So there really were wild digimon attacking---hold on a sec! These digimon were outside a digital field. So what was going on here…? She didn't exactly enjoy the feeling of being around digimon outside a digital field, even with Renamon by her side, so she said, "Excuse us…we have a ways to go yet tonight," and left the team of Monsters and Misty to continue her trek to her home.
They also left Misty and the others with a lot of questions. Misty thought over what she knew: Ash was looking for her and he couldn't move, so she had to find him. She reached into her backpack.
"What're you looking for?" Ghenki asked.
"My rain jacket."
"You're going in there?"
"Yeah. That boy she was talking about, Ash, is waiting for me in there."
Barely coming out of his hormone-induced trance, Hare asked, "You're sure that's such a great idea? I mean, it seems to be coming down pretty hard in there. Besides, when you stuck your hand in, it hurt! Imagine what agony you'd be in if what happened to your hand happened to your entire body!"
"That other girl and her pokémon came out okay," she answered.
"But what if it's only a one-way thing? I mean, maybe only hurts when you're going from this side to the other side."
"There's only one way to find out…." She tightened her hood strings, took a few steps into the rain side of the wall, and waited. There was no pain…in fact, the only bad things about it were that it was a lot darker, a few degrees colder, and she was getting soaked. "See? No problem!" she said to the others. They didn't answer…and there was something strange about the way they looked, too: it seemed almost as if everything had gotten darker when she crossed the wall; the others and the street surrounding them looked a few shades closer to black than they had before. And the way they were moving looked slower than normal. She asked, "Guys? Are you okay?"
The answer slowly came out of Ghenki, in a low, stretched-out voice: "Wwwwwhhoooooaa……! …Shhhhheeee'sssss aaaaalllll ssssppppeeeeeddddyyyyyy!"
"Huh? I'm not speedy; you're slow!"
"Wwwweeeee…ssseeeemmmm…ssssllllooowwww…ttttooooo…yyyooouuuuuu?" Hare asked.
"Yes!" Misty moved out of the rain side of the wall and began walking towards them. "You seem very slow, and it was darker on your---side---" her sentence trailed off as she saw the lighting around the Monsters return to normal and she saw the rain side of the wall get a lot lighter, too. "Hey, all of a sudden, it got brighter!"
"What are you talking about?" Holly asked.
Misty was just as confused as Holly was about this. "It seems like time is going faster on that side than on this side."
Hare thought about it. "Hmm…I've got it! Your hand hurt because blood was getting pumped more slowly to it there than on this side! And everything on the other side of the barrier looks brighter than it really is to people on this side because light is coming from that side five times faster than normal!"
"And, for every minute I spend here, five minutes have gone by for Ash! I need to stay in that side! Togepi! Come here!" Togepi had been playing with Moochi for the past few moments, and was sorry he had to leave the game. Misty picked him up and put him inside her backpack. "You'll be drier in here," she said, pulling the drawstrings shut. Looking up at the team of monsters, she said, "I have to get moving," as she hoisted the bag over her shoulder.
"Wait," Ghenki said. "Should we come, too?"
"If you don't mind being soaking wet," she answered.
"There's a solution to that," Golem said, extending his arms over the group.
Misty shrugged. "I don't mind if you come---if there are other creatures like that one you just nailed, then it'd be safer for me if you came with me. But I don't see what you gain by coming along."
"I don't see what we lose," Holly answered.
"Well, we'd lose time, but going to that side would make up for the loss," Hare pointed out.
Misty smiled gratefully. "Thanks."
Davis and Ken looked at each other. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"DNA digivolve?"
"Right on!" The two clapped their digivices together, so that their screens touched.
"Exveemon!"
"Stingmon!"
"DNA-digivolve to…Paildramon!"
Unlike Hawkmon and Veemon, who had both been changed by whatever had messed up time, Paildramon didn't look different from what he'd looked like in their previous adventure. He pulled his cannons forward. "Time to show these creeps what we're made of! Desperado Blaster!" A volley of missiles went flying at the saberstrikes. Some of them dodged while others succumbed to the attacks.
Anserimon shouted, "I'll hold this one still!" She flew above the saberstrike.
The saberstrike looked up at her, roared, and fired his sonic cannon at her. "Garem Non!" he shouted, aiming his tail up at Anserimon.
Anserimon dodged underneath the saberstrike's attack and shouted back her answer: "Aqua Cannon!" A heavy spray of water blasted out of Anserimon's cannon and pinned the saberstrike to the ground. She shouted, "Quick! Paildramon!"
"Desperado Blaster!" The saberstrike was down.
"Hey, you only left me the last one!" Gryllotamon complained. "You guys are so rude!" She charged her mandibles so that they glowed green.
The saberstrike growled. "Hin Tarr!" A pair of yellow heat rods extended from the saberstrike's claws.
"So that's they way we play it, huh?" Gryllotamon and the saberstrike got into an energy sword fight, a lot like in Star Wars, except that there were two heat rods to each opponent. Finally, Gryllotamon got sick of the battle and shouted, "Acid Bombardier!" A spray of green liquid flew in the saberstrike's face. It did little more than blind it, but even that was enough: Gryllotamon landed a hit on its head, and the battle was over.
The digimon and humans alike were breathing heavily, but they'd won. The digimon regressed back to their rookie forms, and the digi-eggs of love and adventure shot into the hands of their human owners. Tina and Youngdramon dove into each other's arms. Thrilled by the battle, they both shouted, "You did it!" "Wa-hoo!" "Unbeatable!" "Ka-pow!"
Davis rolled his eyes. "Will you shut up? If there are more---things like the ones we just destroyed, then we'll want to be quiet so they won't hear us!" Turning to Yolei, he asked, "What now? What do we do about a bazillion evil monsters roaming the streets?"
"We get any people left to safety, that's what," Ken answered. Ken noticed Yolei rubbing her temples in frustration and worry. "What is it, honey?" Ken asked.
She sighed. "It's Tina. Look at her; she's having a blast." Tina was a few meters away, still chatting with Youngdramon about how well the battle had gone. Both of them looked overjoyed.
"What's wrong with that?" Davis asked.
"She's always had this wanderlust, this desire for adventure, and I'm scared that it'll get her killed. Especially now that she's a Digidestined. I---…" Yolei paused to collect her feelings and try to translate them into words.
Davis cut in, "Every mother worries about her kids. Just give her time to learn the ropes, and she'll be fine. You and Ken were great Digidestined, and she is what you are."
Yolei sighed. "Davis, I'm going to have to ask a huge favor of you."
Davis could tell she was feeling very distressed, so he answered, "Anything at all."
"Ken and I can't keep our eyes on Tina 24/7. And if there's going to be a huge, bigger-picture problem like we had with the fight against Malomyotismon, then we might need to split up, so…could you look after Tina?"
"WHAT! You want me to look after that little brat!"
"You said anything, Davis," Yolei sobbed.
Davis gulped. "Did I really say that, Veemon?"
"Sounded like it, yeah."
Davis slapped his hand on his forehead. "I'm dead."