Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Summery: AU.
Quick note: Finally, I present the much-delayed chapter for this story, a delayed chapter due to 3 reasons. One: My computer died and took the 80% completed chapter with it. Two: I was left with a 45% completed draft to be rewritten. Three: I had a few problems thinking of how to get things to come out the way I wanted them too.
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A lone digi destined
Part III
Selection of Allies
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Stopping in his tracks, Tai stared up at the sky above them, his eyes narrowing to better see through the glare of the crimson evening sky better, in the distance, the sound of running water could be hear, as well as several birds singing from a single tree. "Tailmon, are you sure we're still heading in the right direction?" it was simple question, but one he felt like asking for far to long.
Next to him, the white feline digimon snorted at the doubt in his partners voice, the very thought that they were going in the wrong direction was a great insult to him, still, he had to admit, it was a bit hard to say where they were headed since everything looked and smelled the same around here, but he wasn't going to tell his partner that, no way, he was the mon, and he didn't get lost. "Of course I'm sure, we're going west, can't you see the sinking sun over there, it means we're headed in the right direction."
Tai shot a quick look at the sun to their left and groaned loudly as one of the things he had learned early on in his school life popped up in his mind. "Tailmon, the sun sets in the west, and we have been going with our left side to it for the past 40 minutes." Shooting a glare at his digimon partner, he lifted up his D3 and stared at it, hoping that somehow it came complete with a map telling him where to go programmed into it, as it was, all he got was a black screen with a series of green lines running in a grid over it. "Nothing, that means we're lost, and with no food to boot." Tai complained as his stomach rumbled out a protest loudly.
Besides him, Tailmon had the decency to at least look slightly embarrassed as he sat down, his tail moving from side to side as he took in a good feel of the area around them. "Hey Tai, you mad at me." The question was blurted out as the digimon had his head turned towards the sound of running water. "I was the one who got us lost."
Looking down at his partner, Tai grinned as he ignored the pain of his empty stomach and its demand to be filled as he pulled his Tailmon into a crushing hug. "Aw, I could never hate my whittle Tailmon." petting the struggling white digimon on the head as he smiled, he grinned at the rather loud protest coming from it.
Pushing the hands holding him away at last, Tailmon rushed out of the hold and jumped down to land on the ground before his partner, his fur standing on his back and tail, the sight sending his partner into another fit of laughter. "Haha, very funny." Licking his fur and trying to hide his annoyance at getting rubbed like a small kitten, he returned to staring darkly out over the landscape. "So, got any idea on where we go from here?"
Tai sighed as he lifted up his D3 gently, hitting the button that opened up the clock function on it, the green numbers flashed over the screen and was followed by a groan form Tai as he dropped down to lie on the ground as well. "Mom's going to kill me, we've been here for more then five hours, I was supposed to have been home ages ago." Turning his head to stare at his own partner lying on the ground, he smiled at the cute scene it made. "I guess all we can do is go home for now, we can try again tomorrow."
Grinning as he stood up, Tailmon nodded as he seconded the idea, the thought of a nice nap and a good meal was also starting to sound good to him as well. "Let's go."
Standing Tai turned around and then gave a loud sigh as he lowered his digivice back down again, as another thing became clear to him. "Um Tailmon." His digimon partner looked up in confusion at the rather sheepish way he had spoken. "Do you know where the nearest TV set is?"
Tailmon's happy thoughts of eating and sleeping suddenly vanished as fast as they had come at the simple question, the fact that they would need a TV set to leave the digital world hadn't even occurred to him. "Ah no."
Tai nodded as he returned the digivice to its place at his belt. "So we're still lost huh?"
"Shut up."
Laughter filled the area as the brown haired boy and his digimon began to walk once more.
Tailmon chuckled a bit and then looked up at Tai in a serious manner. "Let's check out the sound of running water, maybe we can find something to eat, or a TV set."
Tai grinned as he pattered his growling stomach. "I second that."
Hours later found a very content human and his digimon partner leaning on a tree, the remains of several fish lying on the ground next to a small vamp fire. "This is the life eh Tailmon." Tai mumbled as he used a fishbone to clean his teeth with, his eyes going over the star filled sky above them. "Just you, me and the whole digital world and a lifetime of adventures."
Tailmon nodded in agreement as he let out a small burp, his face showing just how much he had enjoyed their fish dinner, his tail moving down to curl around him as he began to doze off. "Yeah, I wouldn't give up this for anything." Closing his eyes, he managed to hot a quick look towards his partner in order to see what he was doing. Finding him still gazing up on the stars above, he smiled and allowed himself to drift off into a well deserved sleep. "Night Taichi."
Smiling back at his digimon, Tai smiled as he saw the content look on his face. "Night Tailmon." Then he returned to gazing up into the sky, his mind drifting off into the more unhappy parts of his memory, the ones he didn't want to think off. "Kari... Sora... both of you changed because of this world, will I change as well?" Smiling a bit to himself at his question, Tai dropped his head down on the ground and stared up into the star filled night. "I don't know what to think anymore Sora, we were so close, best friends, we thought nothing could break our friendship. And yet, something did, this world." Silence filled the camp as Tai continued his quiet watch of the night sky. Listening to the low purring sound coming from his partner.
In the distance, a pair of eyes stared down at him form the sky, a puzzled look on the larges bird type Digimon's face. Her eyes could clearly see one human sitting at a campfire, but it was also rather confusion as this one wasn't one of the kids she knew. Resolving to speak with Sora as soon as she could, Birddramon continued her track southward, scanning for control towers or other signs of the Digimon Kaiser in her area.
On the ground, Tai blinked as something briefly covered the moon, then vanished towards the south. Pulling out a small telescope, he spotted the outline of a large bird like digimon flying through the night sky in a direction somewhat similar to the one he had been following all day.
In the sky, Birddramon dismissed the thought and focused on getting out of the area, hoping that she could live up to her promise to Sora and continued protecting the area and digimons from the Digimon Emperor, still, maybe she should at least mention to the others that she had spotted someone camping in the digital world.
Lowering the telescope as soon as he couldn't see it anymore, Tai slowly turned the small thing around in his hands as he thought about what he had just seen. "Wonder what that was, didn't looked evil though. Then again, have I ever met a digimon that wasn't out to get me in anyway yet?" Settling back to relax a bit as he pushed the dark thoughts aside, he turned his telescope back up to stare at the stars glittering in the digital sky above him.
At the same time as Birddramon had flown over by Tai's camp, someone else had made their way though the night sky, passing the camp as well, but in a different direction then Birddramon had. But unlike the bird like digimon, these two were headed in the same direction as Tai.
"Flymon. Did you see that?" A voice spoke as curios eyes turned away from staring at the ground far below them, to stare at the massive digital wasp like digimon flying through the air. "It looked like a camp fire."
Flymon didn't answer right away as the digimon had to concentrate on flying through the cloudless night sky, something he was not very happy about doing. "I'm afraid not, but if you want me too, I can turn around and take a look at it." He spoke in a kind voice as he slowed down his flight speed a bit.
Silence ranged for a bit before a loud sigh could be heard. "I want too, but we can't." a small light shimmered into view as a hand unclenched, a shimmering triangle like gold plate lying in the center of the open hand. "We have to find a way out of this world, I can't stay here like this for much longer."
Flymon didn't reply or protest to the statement. Instead, he just proceed to return to his former flight speed, his insect like eyes continuing to scout for anything that could harm them as they flew across the night sky.
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In the real world, someone else was having a hard time sleeping as well, her brown eyes staring up at the white colored ceiling above her as her mind went through a hundred different paths every second, only to stop at one thought in the end. "Gatomon?" Getting no answer but feeling her digimon was listing to her anyway, Kari continued her talking. "You think, something has happened to Tai? He hasn't come home yet, and he didn't call either."
On her sleeping spot next to her partner, Gatomon tried to close her eyes and return to sleep, but her thoughts kept coming back to the concern her partner had for her brother, the strange digimon she had been smelling around the apartment lately, yet never seeing. "I don't know Kari, but I'm sure he's fine."
Rolling over to look into the glowing eyes of her partner, Karri reached out a hand and started to rub the ears for comfort. "Still, why do you think he been changing lately, he's more open and less angry." Closing her eyes a bit, she smiled as she finally felt sleep coming to her and with it, the rest she needed. "He's reminding me of the way he was, before the digital world."
Gatomon closed her eyes and wondered over the fact herself, she had been forced to either hide in the backpack around the house or under the bed when she was in the real world, her partners fear that her brother would be lost to her completely if he ever saw a reminder of the day he lost his friendship with both Kari and Sora. {How, how do I tell her that her brother might be talking with a digimon, or even, working with it} Eyes closing, the last thought she had wasn't as nice as her dreams would be. {He might even be the Digimon Kaiser.}
Both of them slowly looked up as loud beeping filled the room, Turning to the side, they glared down at the book bag on the floor, the sound coming from it. "Great, who would mail us at this time of the night." Stepping out of the lower bunk bed and walking over to retrieve her bag, she stared down at Gatomon with a apologetic look as the feline digimon snorted. "I'll look it and tell whoever sent it that we're sleeping okay."
Pulling out her D-terminal, she flipped over the lid on it and pulled up the new e-mail, her eyes briefly scanning whom it was from before she clicked on it. "Don't you ever sleep Izzy." Scanning over the lines, she nearly dropped her D-terminal when she finished reading it, her eyes turning to stare at the computer in her room. "No way, Gatomon, Tai's in the digital World."
Opening her eyes as she heard Kari call her, Gatomon stared up at Kari with a puzzled look, her eyes becoming even more puzzled as she spotted her pulling out her clothes. "What are you doing?" Asking nervously, the white feline digimon jumped down from the bad and walked up to stare more closely at her partner. "You can't go after him now."
Turning to look at her partner, Kari's eyes flashed in anger as she shot a dark glare at the white feline. "If Tai's in the digital world, then I'm going in after him." Having gotten her shorts on, Kari turned and fished out her pink shirt and digivice. "And no one going to stop me."
"Except you mom." Gatomon pointed out as she jumped back down onto the floor freezing as she could hear a hand grab onto the door handle. "What are you waiting for, hide." The feline like digimon hissed out as she started to move forward, but stopped when it became clear that there wasn't time to hide.
At her digimon partner's words, Kari all but jumped back into the bed, pulling the covers up over her and pretending to be asleep as the door cracked open and her mother stuck her head inside. "Honey, Tai's still not in here, do you think we should call the police?"
Sitting up as the door closed, Kari breathed out in relief, only to stop, as she became a where of what her mother had said about Tai and the police. "Great, if we don't find Tai and get him back home right now, the police will be looking for him, not to mention Mom and Dad will be freaking out at us."
Gatomon, jumping up in front of the computer, put out her gloved paw and looked up at Kari as she resumed putting on her shirt. "And do you think it will be any better of your parents find you missing as well?" Seeing the angry expression on Kari's Face, Gatomon sighed as she jumped down onto the floor. "Look, your brothers in the digital world, which means he a digi destined, and that also means he has a digimon."
"So." Kari countered as she reached down and grabbed her D-terminal and digivice from their places. "Tai's never been in the digital world before, he might need help or something."
"Kari, are you awake?"
Spinning around and staring at the door, Kari once again dove into her bed, pulling the covers up and pretending to be asleep as the door opened and her mother stuck her head in to look at her. "Kari?" Silence filled the room for a few moments as her mother walked in and sat down next to the bed. "Guess she's still asleep."
Feeling a hand stroking her hair, Kari nearly twisted to the side to get away, when she remembered that she was supposed to be asleep. And that meant she had to lie still and maintain a slow and steady breathing, even if it meant making her feel so sleepy.
On the ground, Gatomon grumbled as she found herself sitting in the most uncomfortable position so far, on foot tucked in under her while her arms were spread out to the side, and to top it off, she could hear her partner fall asleep in a nice comfy bed, with her mother keeping her company, which also meant she had to remain lying on the ground like this for a rather long time.
Oh yeah, Gatomon thought a good ten minutes later as Kari's mother finally stood up from her place next to the bed. That puffy haired boy was really going to get it from her, if her body didn't get deleted from the massive cramp going through it, or the foot about to hit her.
"Did you hear something?" Kari's mother asked, as she looked at her husband standing in the main hallway, moving her foot away from the back of her daughters stuffed toy. His eyes turning to stare at her when she exited the room, stepping on the stuffed toys tail as she turned around. "No, guess it means it wasn't Tai trying to sneak in."
Shaking his head as he walked over to hold her, his eyes narrowed as he looked into the bedroom. "You better be okay Taichi, and with a very good excuse for this." Tai and Kari's father mumbled out as he walked his wife back towards their bedroom.
Inside Tai and Kari's bedroom, Gatomon hissed as she pushed herself up from the ground. Her eyes rather big and watery as she turned to stroke her poor tail, which was now sporting a large bruise near the middle of it. "Oh yeah Tai, we will be talking about this." She mumbled to herself as she jumped up onto Kari's part of the bunk bed.
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Besides Kari and Gatomon, and several other people living in Tokyo, one other kid where also having trouble falling asleep that night. But unlike Kari, these one had a very different reason for it as he faced with the worst thing ever known to him or a lot of other kids.
Sitting calmly at his desk in the somewhat large bedroom, a blond haired boy were currently swearing rather loudly in English as he scribbled down an answer on a piece of paper, one eyes going form it to the book lying open next to him on the somewhat clean desk.
Grumbling as he struggled to make his way through the textbook before him, Michael gladly admitted math had been bad enough to do back home in America, but now he had to deal with it in another langue as well as the difficulty of it all. "Man, I should have told my dad to just get me a baby sitter or to drop me off with Uncle O'Neill like usually, but nooo, I had to come see this part of the world." Slamming the book shut, Michael leaned back in his chair as he grumbled over the unfairness of it all and why everyone couldn't just speak English like him.
Outside his room, his father laughed as he looked up from his newspaper, the comics' side getting closed as he shook his head. "Michael, go to bed already, we both have to be up early tomorrow remember?" Walking down the hallway, he knocked on the door to his son's bedroom and grinned as he got the usual "yeah, yeah" comment from the other side of it. "Hey, if you do it now without complaints, I will get you your favorite breakfast tomorrow."
Michael grumbled a bit as he walked over to his bed, reaching up a hand to put out the bedside lamp as he curled up under the covers, shooting a brief thought towards getting some help for his homework, or at least with the translation of the assignments themselves. "Night dad, see you tomorrow." Calling out the words, he smile dot himself as he got a faint reply from his dad.
Turning over in his bed, he suddenly opened his eyes as a cold feeling ran down his back, the feeling of someone looking at him slowly making his sweat. "Okay, if that's you dad, it isn't funny." Rolling over in his bed to stare out into his room, he reached up a hand to turn on the light, barely getting a hold of the light switch when he felt someone grab his hand and cover both the button and his hand at the same time. "Dad, stop it!"
"No can do kid, and I am not your father." A woman's voice spoke out in a slightly mocking manner as he felt himself get lifted up from the bed by his chest. "Now that I finally found you, you can't just expect me to leave can you?" At her last word, the light in the room finally turned as he hit the button.
Closing his eyes as the sudden brightness filled the room, Michael hissed a bit as he hand was roughly pulled away from the light switch. Then he reopened his eyes and felt a scream work it's way up his throat at the sight of the woman holding him above his bed.
For starters, she wore a large pointed hat on her head with a small cat motif hanging around the lower part of it, that as well as the rest of her clothes mad her look lie a witch. Her mouth and eyes had a heavy amount of black makeup making her look slightly gothic, even without the smile she was giving him. But what scared him the most was the large inhuman hand holding him up over the bed, the other one covering his mouth to prevent him form screaming.
As he calmed own a bit, he felt the hand slowly removed as the woman turned and began to drag him over towards the computer in the room. "Who are you? What are you?" He gasped out as he watched her wave her hand in front of the screen. Pulling out a light blue sphere from it. "Are you... a monster?" The question sounded stupid to him, but somehow, he felt that it was closer to the truth then it should be.
Holding up the sphere towards the blond haired boy, the woman smiled as the sphere shot out of her hand and down into Michael's free hand, morphing a bit before it turned into a D3 that beeped a bit. "Name's Witchmon kid." She spoke as she dropped him down on the ground. "And yes, I am a monster, a digital monster or digimon for short." smirking at Michael's silence after her little talk, she gave him a light push towards the computer as she stepped back herself. "And you have been chosen by my master to help save the Server Islands and all of the digimons living there."
Finally giving a loud scream, Michael felt the object in his left hand begin to beep even louder as a white light washed over him. A sense of weightlessness following as he fell backwards into the light.
A few precious seconds later, his father almost tore the door free from it's hinges as he rushed into the room, eyes widening as all he could see were a few traces of struggle and a computer beeping madly as a program on it shut down. "Michael, Michael?"
Landing with a loud bump, Michael took the time to grit his teeth as his left knee protested against the somewhat soft landing in the wet sand. Soft landing except for the single stone having somehow been placed right where his knee would hit when he landed.
As the pain began to dull into a somewhat mild throbbing, the blond haired boy rolled over and began to examine what he could see and hear around him. Star filled sky above him, a few clouds blocking out the stars and the sound of water rushing onto a beach nearby. It all finished off with a mild breeze making a few leaves move on the palm trees nearby.
All in all, it added up to a very bad way of waking up for the blond haired boy. Mostly since his clothes were starting to become damp from the wet sand under him. "Okay, what the heck happened, who was hat lady and where the..." Tailing off his rant, Michael froze halfway through rising up as his eyes fell onto what he had not really expected to see. "A tropical beach?"
Stepping further down towards the water as he dared, the blond haired boy kept on casting a curious look in every direction he could. Taking note of the face that beach seemed to turn into a savanna not more then 200 meters from the water something he could only see as moon light filtered down as a cloud moved out of its way. "Great, a beach in the middle of nowhere."
Returning his vision to the water, Michael gave a loud sign as he stared at it. The lack of light to see by never really gave him any hints as too where he was, all he could really figure out were two things. First off he was on a beach, next to a savanna if the tall grass and spread out trees he had seen in the moonlight were any hints. "Maybe, I've been kidnapped, and that woman was just a sick dream like result of some kind of weird drug they used on me."
Smirking at his explanation, Michael stopped after a few seconds as every single hole in it became clear. "But, why leave me here, with no one to watch me." Looking down at the ground again, Michael blinked as his fingers brushed over the light blue pants and Hawaiian shirt over a very light sleeveless undershirt. "Okay, so someone kidnapped me, put me into a vacation outfit and left me in the middle of no where." Looking rather hopeless as a bit of laughter came from him, Michael simply took four steps backwards and sat down in the sand again. "Okay, that just doesn't make any sense."
Still thinking rather loudly, the blond haired boy failed to notice the single pair of eyes looking at him from the edge of the ocean. "Okay, so if I'm not kidnapped, what am I then?" Stepping out of the water as the blond haired boy dropped back down to rest of the sand while talking, a big grin formed on the creatures head.
"Think Michael, think." Muttering the same words over and over again, the blond haired boy shivered a bit as a wind passed by them. "Okay, I got it. This is just a strange dream brought out by too much homework in another langue."
"What's homework?"
Freezing as the voice registered, Michael, still lying down, almost gave himself a whiplash as he turned his head to the side, frowning as the wet sand got stuck in his hair. "Who are....you?" Seeing nothing but the beach, Michael got a small tick to his left eyes as he began to wonder if he had gone insane, then he began to look downward as a small shuffling sound became clear.
"Hiya!"
Michael eyes grew rather big as he took in the creature looking a thim, The thing having a sort of appearance in the middle of a cross between a toad and a shark. Four legs with toad like feet at then end of them, a streamline body like that of a shark from the head to the end, and a fin sticking up from the back. "What the ยค%#& are you?"
Looking a bit taken back the question, the creature gave a hurt look as it lifted up a hand. "Betamon's the name, I'm a..."
"You can talk!" Cutting of Betamon's sentence, Michael began to back away from it. "Okay, whatever this dream is brought on by, I'm quitting it." Then his eyes narrowed, as he looked closer at Betamon. "You're not an alien are you, cause that's not what I need right now." The creature look at him in a very puzzled way as it still out a front leg for him to shake in a greeting. "You know kidnapped by beings from outer space that wants to suck out my brains and all."
Staring at the human boy as he continued to ramble on about aliens and kidnappings, Betamon closed his eyes in embarrassment over the boy's behavior. "Will you listen to me!?" Betamon roared out as he jumped up on Michael chest as it became too much for him. "Like I said, I'm Betamon, I'm a digital monster, digimon for short and I'm your digimon partner"
Blinking his eyes, Michael lifted up a hand, and then lowered it a bit as he got a doubtful look on his face. "Come again."
Betamon froze at the strange sentence and stared at his partner with a look of complete puzzlement. "What?"
"Huh?" Michael had the same look as he pushed a bit of sand caked hair out of his face. "Well for starters, what's a digimon? And more importantly, where am I?"
"Well." Betamon began, as he got comfortable on the ground. Going into a rather long talk about digimons, the digital world and what he was.
After it ended, Michael had moved away form the wet sand and gotten his hair somewhat clean again, his eyes looking out at the sea as the sun began to move e. "So, you're my partner, and together we have a mission to complete."
Looking rather pleased so far, Betamon nodded as he jumped over to sit next to his partner. "I remember it clearly, I was to wait here until my partner showed up, and together we would defeat someone evil and..."
Michael reached out a hand and cut off his digimon partner in mid talk. "What do you mean someone evil, you know who we have to defeat right?"
"Well." Betamon began as an embarrassed look crossed his face. "I kind of forgot, it was so long ago, and I wasn't really paying attention when they told me about it."
"Oh boy." Michael muttered out as he dropped his head into his hands. Trust him to get a partner with the mind and attention span of a five year. "So, now what. I hope you at least know where we're should go to fight this evil?"
"Um." Betamon began as he looked away. "We can't leave yet, we have to find the others. Only together with them can we defeat this evil."
Michael grinned as he stood up, brushing the sand from his pants. "Okay, we got a lead on what to do then. So, where can we find the others?"
Betamon gave the best impression of a shrug he could as he looked up at his partner.
Feeling just about ready to cry at that point, Michael settled for staring out over the savanna behind them. "Okay, first things first. We need food, shelter and a phone so we can contact someone."
Betamon looked puzzled after the human boy as he stood up and began to walk away. "What's a phone?" Jumping after his partner, the digimon looked a bit more puzzled before he gave a small sigh. "Michael, maybe we shouldn't move around in the dark, there are bad digimons out there."
Freezing in mid step, Michael turned his head and looked down at his partner with big eyes. "Bad digimons, you mean, more creatures like you?"
"Well yes and no." Betamon replied as he stopped next to his partner, his eyes looking out at the tall grass rising up from the ground in front of them. "Most champion level digimons are bigger then you, but I never really saw that many of them."
"Bigger then me?" Michael mumbled out as he looked out over the dark area. "Okay, new plan, we're going to stay here until tomorrow." Turning and walking over to a tree, Michael grinned as he dropped down to rest under it. "Now, all we need is a campfire and I can pretend it's a vacation after all."
"What's a campfire?"
Michael sighed as his head dropped forward over the question. "Great, why do I feel like this won't as fun a dream as I thought it would be?"
Betamon stared up at his partner as the human boy began to explain what a bon fire was and how one made it, his eyes growing big at each word. "Oh, so you set things on fire and rest next to them to keep warm huh?" Smiling at the words, the digimon turned around and began to hop around on the beach.
Still leaning on the tree, Michael sighed as he stuffed his hands into his pockets for some kind of warmth, despite having all the looks of a tropical beach, it was far from being as warm as he had been told they were. Leaning back his head and closing his eye, Michael grumbled a bit as he curled up for what would be a very uncomfortable night.
"Electro Shocker!"
Sitting up with a cry of shock, Michael jumped back as a shower of electricity shot form hsi digimon into a small hole next to him with a loud humming sound. "What are you doing?" Even as he yelled out, Betamon landed on the ground as a trail of smoke raised up from the hole before a small fire began to crackle. "Fire?" Looking at his proud looking digimon, he shook his head. "Betamon, next time, give me a warning before you try something like that again okay?"
Betamon jumped around to the spot next to Michael and grinned up at him. "I will, don't worry about it." Lying down to sleep, the digimon smiled up at the blond haired boy. "Do you like it?"
"Yes." Michael answered as he lay back down again, a bit more comfortable this time as the fire kept him warm. "See you tomorrow Betamon."
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Tai opened his eyes wide and looked up into the morning sky, his back telling just what it thought of sleeping on the ground in a very painful manner as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, the movement of his body sounding like someone stepped on a pile of corn flakes. "Tailmon?" Looking around the campsite they had camped out in for the night, he frowned when he couldn't see his digimon partner anywhere. "Tailmon?"
"Tai, come on, you got to see this."
Turning around in the direction of the cry, Tai slowly stood up and began to limper over to his partner, the movement of his walk sending needles up and down his back as the muscles protested against moving so soon after waking up from a rather harsh sleep. "What is it, Tailmon?" Stepping up over the small hill, he stopped at what he saw on the other side surprised him, a large line of zebra like digimons were walking around the grass filled digital savanna below, each of then had a metal mask with a red visor and a large metal horn on their heads. "Tailmon?"
Looking up with a big smile on his face, the feline digimon smiled up at him as he began to run down the hill towards the digimons in a hurry. "Come on Tai, they want to talk with you." Shooting a look back at his partner, he smiled when he watched the boy rushing down towards him.
Walking past the first few of the digimons, Tai nervously smiled when they looked up at him in a somewhat curious way, before returning to eating the grass before them, turning away from a rather large one, he stopped when he noticed Tailmon a good up ahead of him. "Hey, wait up Tailmon."
Stopping, Tailmon smiled as his partner finally caught up with him. "What do you think of them." the question was asked a glove covered paw moved out to in a wide arc. "neat huh."
Tai smiled as he looked at the digimons eating, walking or simply resting around them. The sight was something he hadn't expected to find in the digital world. "Very neat, kind of reminds me of some of the nature programs back home." Shooting a quick look down at his patent, he reached down and slowly picked him up. "But what are we doing here."
Tailmon smiled as he pulled a paw free and pointed towards one of the digimon lying on the ground, the head of the digimon regarding them from it was lying. "Come on, I told them about us and where we needed to go, and they say they can help us." Dragging his partner close by the pant's leg, the feline digimon stopped right in front of the digimon. "I'm back, and this is my partner I was telling you about."
Lifting the head, the digimon looked closer at Tai and then smiled, a rather strange thing to see on a horse like digimon. "So, this is your human partner, have to admit I didn't think he existed." The digimon spoke in a rather low, yet clearly accented voice as it stood up to its full height. "Welcome human, to the Shimaunimons migration to the western parts of Server."
Smiling a bit at having met another friendly digimon that didn't want to fight jut because they had entered his or hers domain. Tai slowly nodded as he looked around the herd of digimons. "Thanks."
Smiling a bit as he rose up from the ground. Shimaunimon walked over to look down at Tai. "So, I hear you need to get to Lake Destiny in a hurry?"
Tai, not sure what to say, looked up at the digimon as he gave another smile at it. "Yes, we were told we could find Babamon living nearby."
Shimaunimon gave his best impression of a grin as he looked around the herd starting to become more restless with each passing moment. "Well, we may be able to help you with that."
Looking a bit puzzled at the words, Tailmon and Tai shared a look as Shimaunimon stood up.
"Yahoo!!"
The Shimaunimon caring Tai and Tailmon gave a cry of it's own as it made another jump, taking pride in feeling the joy and excitement coming from it's passengers. "Hang on, we'll be at Lake Destiny in 3 hours minimum." He cried out as two other Shimaunimons passed by, as well as the leader of the Herd, a grin on his face as he gave a quick look.
Tai, looking over at Shimaunimon from where he was clinging to the other one, smiled as he felt the Zebra like digimon sprint even faster across the ground. "Thanks for the lift, I just don't know to repay you!"
Shimaunimon moved closer and adjusted his pace to match the others as he listen to what Tai was yelling to him. "Don't worry about it, you can repay me by looking in on Babamon, rumor's has it something has happened to her." Seeing Tailmon giving him a curios glance, he snorted a bit. "I would love to do it myself, but I have to lead the herd to the next grassing field."
Tailmon, huffed a bit as the Zebra like digimon speed off to run in the front of the whole herd. "Well, he could have told us that a bit sooner." Looking down at Tai who seemed to be deep in thought, Tailmon leaned in closer. "Tai, what do you think he meant with that?"
Not looking back at his Partner, Tai focused on making sure he wasn't going to fall of the Shimaunimon, as well as thinking about the new information the lead Shimaunimon had given him. "I'm not sure, but that Tentomon told us Babamon knew about the Server Islands, and that means she must know about Karatenmon as well."
"You think she was?" Tailmon asked as he got a concerned look on his face.
Not answering right away, Tai settled for holding onto the Shimaunimon. "Could be, Karatenmon wants me dead, he put that poison in me remember?" Seeing Tailmon's concerned look aimed at him instead, Tai gave a soft smile as he tried to get the cat like digimon to calm down. "I'll be fine, we'll defeat that bird brain before the year is over, and remember Babamon could know how to do that."
Tailmon nodded as well as he could while trying to hold on. "I hope so."
"Me too." Tai mumbled out as he watched the ground move past them below.
------------------------
Landing in the digital world in the normal calm manner, the new team of Digi destined turned to face the two older kids standing behind them with a questioning look on their faces, it wasn't often that more then one of them came into the digital with them at the same time, but today it was needed for them to come. "So, are you two going to try and find him while we destroy the control tower??" Kari asked as she held Gatomon close to her in a hug as she spoke.
Izzy looked up from his trusted laptop and nodded, his eyes turning to scan the horizon for his trusted digimon partner. "Yes, I for one would like to know why he hasn't shown himself or talked with us about this." Voice full of his curiosity as he spoke, the computer wiz began to walk towards the last place he had heard from Tentomon.
Behind them, the second one of the older DD's snorted as she stepped away from the group, her opinion of the boy still hadn't improved one bit since their first somewhat real meeting. "I still can't believe he's one of us, a Digi destined." Her voice was low, but still managed to reach the younger girl's ears standing up in front of them.
Spinning around and glaring at the pink haired girl, Kari clenched her hand and shot a dark look at Mimi. "What is your problem Mimi?" Eyes flashing, the younger girl stepped over to glare at the older one with no concern to the shocked gasps from around her. "You haven't done anything but complain over him every chance you get."
Returning the glare with one just as ice cold as Kari's. Mimi crossed her arms over her chest and snorted. "Maybe if he wasn't always such a jerk, I might be able to stand actually him." The anger dripped from Mimi's voice as she turned her back on Kari, the pink haired nearly hitting the younger girl in the process.
Biting back a rather nasty and hurtful response about the pink haired girl and some of her friends and family members, Kari settled for shooting a dark look at her back as she fired off her own remaining verbal attack. "Did it ever occur to you that he acts like a jerk towards you, because you never have anything nice to say about him?" Voice dripping with her annoyance, she didn't wait for an answer but simple turned to walk away. "Come on, you need to find Ken while me and Izzy will look for Tai okay?"
Nodding, Yolie and Cody began to walk towards the control tower, their faces showing a lot of puzzlement over the event that had just taken place. Still standing behind them, Davis looked at TK with a questioning look on his face. "Well, you coming TF?" Turning to walk, he blinked when he felt TK grab his arm and pull him back. "Hey, now what?"
Looking after Kari and the other four a brief second, he turned to face Davis with very serious look on his face. "Look, I think I'll go with Kari, Izzy and Mimi." At the puzzled and very jealous look on Davis face, he narrowed his eyes and stepped even closer to him. "This area was taken over by Ken last night, so it wouldn't do to have them run around without more then one digimon to fight against him."
Nodding in understanding, Davis pulled his shoulder free and stared back at TK with the same look of determination in his eyes as he pulled out his D-terminal and D3, understanding the hidden message from the blond haired boy. "Okay, I'll look after the others then, and you keep an eye on Kari for the both of us in this, but once you get back..." Leaving the sentence unfinished, Davis stepped away from TK and turned around. "Mail us when something happens or if you find him okay."
Stepping back as their small conversation was over, TK gave a quick nod with his head. "Count on it, and I expect you to do the same as well Davis."
"Okay." Kari nearly yelled as she pulled out her D3 and pointed it at her feline like digimon. "Digi Armor Energize!"
Gatomon glowed bright white as the digimental of light flew into her. "Gatomon Armor digiovle too... Nefertimon, Angel of Light!" Landing on the ground, the sphinx like digimon looked at Kari standing next to her.
Next to her, TK pulled out his D3 as well, looking at Patamon hovering in the air above him, he nodded as he held his digivice out towards him. "Digi Armor Energize."
Glowing white just like Gatomon had as the digimental of Hope fused with him, Patamon flew up into the air. "Patamon Armor Digivolve too... Pegasusmon, The flying hope." Landing on the ground next to TK, the horse looked at his partner as the blond haired boy stepped closer.
"Okay." TK started as he turned to look at the rest of the group around him. His eyes landing on Kari and Mimi who stood a good apart form one another. "I think Mimi should ride on Pegasusmon along with Palmon and Tentomon, me, Kari and Izzy will stay on Nerfertimon."
Mimi gave a hmphing sound as she walked past the blond haired boy and settled onto Pegasusmon back, making sure that Palmon were settled in perfectly in front of her before she turned to stare at the rest of them. "Fine, but as soon as we get back, I'm going back home."
TK sighed as he briefly wondered if this was how his brother and Davis felt when they had to lead the group around, cause if it was, they could keep the job as far as he cared. "Whatever, let's just go already."
On Nefertimon's back, Izzy and Kari as well as TK settled down at the very back on the sphinx like digimon as he placed his digivice back onto his belt. "Okay, let's get going."
------------------------
Smoke moved into the air in a lazy fashion as Karatenmon stared at the ruined village below him, a few digimon slaves being lead through the village by his faithful army. A sight, which had him grinning, but it was another thing that really mattered the most to him at the moment. "Hyogamon, is the temple secured?"
The blue colored Ogremon like digimon bowered to his master as he stepped up to him. "It is my lord, the temple guardian offered little resistance to out forces." Looking down at the village as well, the ice type digimon grinned a bit. "With this under our control, the Island of Earth has fallen completely."
"Yes." Karatenmon replied as he turned to walk past his general, his wings shuffling a bit as he stopped to stare at the white colored temple building behind him. "The forest kingdoms have fallen, the Temple of Earth is under my control and I already have the key from the temple of Air and complete dominance over the Northern Island."
Grinning as well at the words, Hyogamon turned around and began to follow after his master. "My lord, will we be invading the Island of Fire next?" Holding onto his cross-shaped club of ice, the ogre like digimon waited for an answer to his question.
"No, The temple of fire on that island was plundered by a special servant of mine yesterday, and as such, we only need to secure one more temple, the one on the Island of water." Smirking a bit as he grinned, Karatenmon shut a look up at the large doors before him as he stepped into the front room of the temple. "Hyogamon, go join Fuugamon in running up the last of our my new slaves."
Bowing at the words, Hyogamon slipped his club up onto his shoulder. "At once my lord." Turning around ad running from the room, Hyogamon turned to face the village and began to run a bite faster then before as his eyes narrowed at the sight of a few digimons trying to hide behidn a building. "Well, well, guess Fuugamon left something for me to do after all."
Ignoring the salutes and bows from his troops inside the main room of them temple, the bird man like digimon calmly walked through the rubble filled part off it, taking in the sight of the finely engraved pillars and paintings on the walls around him that hadn't been destroyed in the battle. "Worthless, they worship a digimon of great power and strength, yet it didn't even come to protect them when they needed it."
Reaching the backend of the room, his eyes lowered until they stared at the simple looking metal floating in the air floating above a small marble pillar, the whole thing set on the ground before a much larger statue of the digimon worshipped in the temple. "Yes, my lord will be pleases with this, and so will I."
Picking it up, Karatenmon froze as he turned his head to the side, his eyes glazing over as he almost looked like he was listing to someone talking nearby. "What do you mean she ran off? She has the third key, you idiot." Hissing loudly as he fully turned to look at the broken doorway, Karatenmon clenched his free hand. "Fool, return to my castle at once, I will deal with you later."
Holding the key loosely in one hand, the bird man like digimon turned around and closed his eyes as he reached out again to one of his most used servants "Gorillamon, I decided to take you off the Tailmon brat case for a moment, Masyamon failed in obtaining the key from the fire temple, seems he lost it to a human girl of all things. Find her, kill her and bring the key to me."
Feeling Gorillamon dragging away from his mind, Karatenmon snorted as he stepped out the door and into a scene of pure carnage, a ruined hallway leading out to a wide-open area with a ruined village in it. "First Babamon, now this girl who dared to steal a key from a temple before you could get it." A feeling of hate filled the air as Karatenmon began to lift off from the ground. "And the child with the Tailmon, still haven't been stopped. Perhaps, it's time to leave the job of killing him to someone else."
Smirking as he flew off, Karatenmon laughed darkly as his troops began to follow him, the survivors of his attack forced to watch the remains of the village as they were dragged away to a dark future of slavery.
Reaching a height that he liked, the birdman like digimon began to head in a northern direction, his thoughts going over the few members of his army that might be able to stand up to the strength of Tailmon and his armor form. Now that he had taken Gorillamon off that case, he would need to send someone out to finish it. "Masyamon, my loyal servant, Redeem yourself by finding the digi destined brat who had trouble me for so long, and kill him."
Flickering a bit in the air, a shadowy outline of a digimon dressed like a samurai kneeled as it lifted up a sword before it's head. "It shall be as you wish my lord, I will not fail you in this mission." Then the shadowy outline fade away again as Karatenmon nodded, his yellow eyes closing a bit as he thought about the future plans he had to take in order to secure his complete control of everything on the islands.
Flying up right behind him, two more of the incest like digimon fell into a side by side formation as two ogre like digimon looked at the ultimate virus digimon as the both lifted up a club like item to rest on their shoulders. "Lord Karatenmon, I strongly feel it would be better if you left the job up to us. "
Karatenmon hissed as he heard the complaint from his best generals and leaders of his army. "Silence." Moving around to hover before them, his yellow eyes moved from one of them to the other one as she clenched his free hand. "Hyogamon, Fuugamon, you are both strong warriors, but this mission demands a use of stealth and cunning." Turning around and continuing on his flight, the Birdman like digimon closed his eyes and grinned. "Besides, you two have to make sure that the remaining Kingdom's of the Server Islands falls before me just as easily as the others have."
Not saying a word in defense, the two ogre like digimons slammed their free hand onto their chest. "As you command my lord, so just which one is next on our list?" Their voice were perfectly synched as they spoke.
Karatenmon's eyes flashed with joy as he chuckled darkly. "The sunken Kingdom, rumors have it the temple of water lies buried somewhere in the vast number water covered ruins in their little realm."
"It shall be as you wish!" Came the dual response from the two generals of his kingdom..
------------------------
The Shimaunimon slowed down to an almost silent walk as a rather large lake glinted in the distance, a forest forming in one direction as the Savanna zone ended a few hundred meters away form the side of the lake. "Here we are" spoke the Shimaunimon leader as he came down to them. "This is Lake Destiny"
Slowly slipping to the side, Tai neatly fell of the Shimaunimon who had carried him the whole way, to land on his butt on the ground. "Thanks." Standing when he was sure the ground would move, he gave a silly grin as he ignored Tailmon laughing from the back of the Shimaunimon. "So, Babamon's house is?"
"Over by the forest" The head Shimaunimon answered as he pointed his head in the direction of the forest. "You can't miss it, it's the only building in this place."
Tai nodded as he felt Tailmon jump up onto his shoulder. "Well, thanks again Shimaunimon." Seeing the zebra like digimons turning around and walking away, Tai turned his head around and began to walk towards the forest. "Let's just hope this Babamon is home."
Tailmon turned his to stare at Tai as he grinned. "I just hope she has something to eat."
"Tailmon, don't you ever think of anything but..." Tai started but stopped as they passed up over a small hill.
Tailmon frowned as Tai stopped talking as he looked straight ahead of them. Turning his own head, Tailmon felt his eyes narrow as he saw what Tai was staring at. "What the?" Jumping down from Tai's shoulder as the messy haired boy shook his head, Tailmon looked up at his partner to see his reaction.
Staring right ahead, Tai shook his head as he took in the sight of the rather ravaged looking ruin right in front of them, judging by the vines growing over the only complete wall still standing up, it had been a long time since anyone was there at all. "I really hope that's not Babamon's home" Tai stated as he began to walk forward again.
At his side, Tailmon was just as puzzled over the place they had ended up at, if this was the home of some wise and powerful digimon it could really do with a clean up and a PR guy. "Don't really know, but if you ask me, Babamon left a long time ago." Turning to look back at the plains behind them, he sighed loudly as he return his eyes to Tai. "Guess it was too much to hope that the Shimaunimons would have waited for us."
Shrugging, Tai gave a small grin at his partner as he began to walk forward. "Well, whatever happened here, we have at least gotten somewhere." Pushing aside a wine as he moved into the ruin, Tai looked around the inside of it. "May as well take a look around, who knows, maybe something got left behind."
Walking in behind Tai, Tailmon looked around the place, but being more careful to stay away from the rubble covered parts of it with a look of hesitation as he turned to one corner of the ruin. "Well, whoever this Babamon was, one things clear by now, great taste in art, is not his strong side."
Turning around at the comment, Tai narrowed his eyes as he saw his digimon partner staring at a small statue of an old lady like digimon with long hair standing in the corner of the ruin. "Leave it alone and keep looking for some clue as too where Babamon could have gone too okay." Returning to his task of lifting a half burnt wooden beam, Tai stopped when his eyes landed on a small object on the ground. "Huh?"
Moving away from the statue, Tailmon stopped and began to sniff the air, his nose picking up yp the faint smell of someone he had only crossed paths with once, but it was a smell he wouldn't forget right away. "Tai, Karatenmon was here recently." He hissed out as he began to move back towards his partner.
Not looking back at his partner, Tai slowly lifted up the object he had spotted before and stared at in puzzlement, the light glinting off the side of it. "Hey, Tailmon what do you think this is?" Asking his partner, Tai turned around and blinked when he noticed Tailmon's face was full of anger. "What is it?"
"Someone's here." The words were hissed out, as Tailmon kept moving slowly towards Taichi, his eyes moving from one part of the room to another. "Someone powerful, but I'm not sure who it could be."
Looking around the place, Tai suddenly gave a small shiver as he felt a cold wind pass by him, his eyes turning around to face whatever had cause it, only to find a large hole in the wall leading back towards the plains where they had come from. "I don't know Tailmon, there doesn't seem to be anyone here."
"Look out!"
Moving as fast as he could at the cry, Tailmon jumped up and knocked Tai over with all of his strength, giving a loud cry of pain as something gazed over his back and sent a spike of pain through him. "No one's here huh." he mumbled in a sarcastic manner as he spun around to face the air before him. "Show yourself you coward."
"As you wish."
Both Tai and Tailmon shivered at the voice, the sound of it coming rather close to someone rubbing a fork on a plate. Then they stared in muted shock and surprise as the air began to shimmer before them as an unnatural darkness seemed to seep out from the corners of the ruin and covered the entire place in twilight as a ragged looking piece of cloth with a large top hat formed before them. "A ghost!"
Giving a dark and booming laughter at the cry, the digimon slowly began to hover towards them, a hungry look passing over what would have been its face if the top hat hadn't covered everything but the mouth of it. "I am Soulmon, a ghost type digimon, my Necro Magic attack will be end of you all." Soulmon proclaimed as he began to move the part of his body that acted as his arms. "Lord Karatenmon ordered me to guard this place and keep anyone from reawaking the old crone."
Clenching his hand, Tai glared at the ghost digimon with a look of anger in them. "Karatenmon again." Looking down at his D3, his eyes turned from it to his digimon partner as a fire of determination lit up in him at the thought of losing another chance at finding his enemy's whereabouts. "Ready buddy?"
Nodding as he stepped forward, Tailmon gave a small grin up at the ghost digimon. "So, all I have to do is defeat you and Babamon will be free?"
Soulmon chuckled at the question and began to hover a bit up in the air. "No, as long as Lord Karatenmon lives, the curse on the old crone will never be lifted."
At the words, both Tai and Tailmon eyes narrowed in anger. "That bastard." Tai spat out as he lifted up his D-terminal and D3 in a rapid move. "I don't care who you are, but I won't let you or Karatenmon get away with something like that." Snapping open the D-terminal, the digimental of courage rushed out into the air. "Digi Armor Energize!"
Jumping up into the air, Tailmon glowed with raw power as he once again armor digivolved. "Tailmon Armor digivolve too... Lynxmon, the flames of courage!" Landing on the ground, Lynxmon wasted no time in rushing forward, the fire on his body whipping through the air with each move he made. "Thermal Mane!" Fire rushing out at the roar, Lynxmon grinned as Soulmon found his body covered in the blazing hot fire attack. "Got him." Then he stopped when he noticed Soulmon looking down at him. "Or not."
Floating backwards and grumbling at the sudden fire attack, Soulmon turned to stare at the armor digimon looking back up at him with a bit of doubt in those proud eyes. "You'll pay for that you little fire cracker." Moving his arms or what looked like arms into the air before him, Soulmon powered up an attack of his own. "Soul Cry!" Smacking his arms out as he opened his mouth, Soulmon let out an ear-shattering scream that had both Tai and Lynxmon screaming in pain as they dropped to the knees and finally completely down onto the ground. "And now, I finish you two off." Soulmon stated as he hovered as high up into the air as he dared.
Looking up as he struggled to recover from the pain in his head, Tai looked over at Lynxmon. The armor digimon was also struggling to recover from the attack and had almost gotten back on his feet, but he was still looking a bit shaken at the sonic attack they had been attacked with. "Lynxmon, go get him." Tai mumbled out as he began to force himself up.
Soulmon's laughter filled the ruin, as his hands trust out with a sick green glow around them. "Too late, Necro Magic." The attacks rushed through the air and smacked into Lynxmon head on, sending the armor digimon flying backwards and right into a wall that crumbled down over him. "Now, it ends."
"We have to help them."
"I don't know, I don't want you to get hurt."
"But... They need help."
"I... Okay, help them."
Soulmon grinned as he lashed out with his hands again, the green energy already forming into another Necro Magic attack, the top hat slightly off from the rapid movements of the ghost digimon. "Brown Stinger!" Turning around in a hurry, Soulmon barely managed to duck the attack, still, his hat was ripped off his head and nailed to the wall with a thick brown stinger.
Looking up in anger with the same dark glare of most ghost digimons, Soulmon growled as he spotted his attack flying around in a circle above him. "Who are you?"
"Flymon!"
The three digimons, Flymon, Soulmon and Lynxmon turned to stare at the source of the voice, trying harder to see whom it was when all they could see was the outline of a small person standing in the shadow of a tree. "He's my digimon." The voice spoke out with a bit of hesitation and fear, as if the person wasn't used to sounding confident and in control.
Souldmon growled as he began the rush towards the outlined person, his eyes narrowed in anger. "I don't really care, cause in a few minutes, you'll both be dead." Spit flying out of his mouth as he yelled, Soulmon focused completely on getting the person and the digimon.
"Thermal Mane!"
Screaming out in anger and frustration, Soulmon smashed into a nearby wall from the force off the fireball impacting with him in mid flight. "Now what?" Pushing himself off the cracked stone bricks, he stopped and glared at Lynxmon and Tai as they grinned at him. "You two, but you should both still be down by now."
Tai grinned as he pointed his finger at the ghost digimon in a mocking manner as they stepped forward. "Yeah, but maybe we're a bit tougher then you thought." Looking to side and seeing his partner back on his feet and fully recovered, Tai grin grew even bigger. "And this time, we won't be fooled by you little screaming trick."
Eyes and body nearly blazing with his anger, Soulmon launched into a series of curses as he formed a glowing ball of green light between his hands, the ball growing rapidly larger. "You'll all pay for this outrage, I won't let anyone one of you escape from here alive."
"Lynxmon!"
Rushing forward at his partners cry, the Flame covered tiger digimon jumped up into the air, his eyes glowing bright yellow as the fire covering him blazed wildly. "Wild Nine Rush!" And shot out in nine streams of fire, Each of them homing in on the ghost digimon screaming in anger and shock as they struck him, tearing through the white fabric of his body and reducing him to a cloud of digital data floating in the air.
On the ground, Tai gave a loud cheer as he looked up at the sight, for once; they had managed to defeat a digimon working for Karatenmon and not one of Gorillamon's many hunter digimons. "Way to go Lynxmon, you did it, and thanks to you too..." Turning to look in the direction of the Tree, Tai stopped when he noticed that the person was gone, along with Flymon. "Hey, where did they go?"
Glowing a bright white, Lynxmon shrunk down into Tailmon, the feline digimon rushing over to stand next to Tai in a protective manner as he continued to stare in the same direction. "They're gone." It almost sounded like a question, but was more of a statement that Tailmon made as he looked at the tree. "Well, maybe we'll meet them again."
Tai nodded as he turned around to look back at the ruin behind them, the place looked a lot less foreboding now that the evil surrounding it had been removed. "Guess we won't be able to ask Babamon where we can find Karatenmon." He stated as his eyes fell on the statue in the corner of the ruin.
Tailmon nodded as he jumped up on Tai's shoulder, settling in to stare straight ahead with a concerned look. "Yeah, but I can't help but feel that we're getting closer to him." the feline digimon said as he looked into the sky with a bit more happier look on his face as he felt Tai rub his ear. "Maybe, we should try and ask someone else for help on this."
Tai nodded absently as he began to walk towards the statue in the corner of the ruin, his eyes trained on the horizon as he fought back a sudden guilt streak over being away from home for so long . "Maybe, but right now, we need to see if Babamon is still alive."
Walking up to the statue, Tai kneeled down and stared at it, the eyes of the digimon looking right through him as he waved a hand up and down in front of it. "I don't know Tailmon, do you think we can bring her back again?"
"Maybe." Tailmon replied as he poked the lower part of the statue in curiosity, the claws on his gloves making a loud scratching sound as he dragged them down the dress part of the statue. "But really, Babamon is supposed to be a mega digimon, so how did an Ultimate level digimon like Karatenmon do this to her?"
Giving his digimon partner a skeptic look, Tai stood up and looked out over the part of the lake visible from the ruins, his eyes closing as he wondered about it as well. "Beats me, guess he got a trick or two up his feathers." Tai Joked as he saw Tailmon slap a paw over his eyes at the bad joke. "Okay, but Babamon was a bust, should we try and find someone else to help us?"
Tailmon, shrugging his shoulder, stood up and looked around the place as well, his ears twisting around to hear if anyone were nearby. "Maybe, but for now, I think we should head home, unless you want your mother to freak out completely."
Shrugging his shoulders at the comment, Tai turned around and cast a look out over the digital field they were in. "So, any idea where we can find a TV to get home with."
"Well." Tailmon started as he cast a sheepish gaze on his human partner. "I'm not sure, I wasn't really paying attention on the way here."
"Great" Tai mumbled out as he stomped out of the ruins. "Guess it's another camp out for us tonight." Staring down at his partner, Tai shook his head. "When we get home, I'm so going to show you to my mother, there's no way I'm taking all of the blame myself."
"Hey Taichi!"
Freezing, Tai slowly turned his head as a voice broke out near him, the sound of it making him blink, as it was hard to make out just whom it was from where he was standing. "Okay, who are you?"
"Relax, I don't want to fight, just talk okay." The voice came again as a figure became clear in the sun light, one hand resting on a tree trunk as a small shadow popped up at his legs. "I just wanted to talk, I haven't met any other kids my age lately, well, not since yesterday when I ended up in this weird world."
Tai frowned as the voice started to sound rather familiar too him, like one he had heard rather recently, but not that much to fully remember who it belonged too. "Sorry, but this might sound dump, but, do we know one another?"
"Man, we only known one another for a day." The voice replied as a familiar blond haired boy stepped into the clearing with a grin on his face. "But I had kind of hoped someone as great as me had at least made an impression on you."
Tai nearly dropped his digivice in shock as he saw the familiar face smiling at him for the second time in his life, the boy holding up a hand as he gave a short wave at him. "Michael?" Tai mumbled out the name as his eyes blinked and extra time to make he wasn't seeing things. "What are you doing here?"
Michael grinned as he saw the shocked expression on Tai's face when he finally recognized him. "You know, I really should ask you the same thing." Then he looked down at the digimon next to him. "Oh yeah, meet Betamon, he's my digimon partner."
Tai stared at the digimon as it greeted him for a few seconds before looking back up at Michael. "So, you're also a digi destined, just like me I guess." Grinning a bit, Tai motioned to the white cat like digimon at his feet. "Oh yeah, this is Tailmon, he and I've been partners for around a month I think."
Michael grinned as he settled down to stare at Tailmon. "Cute one." Then he stood back up and stared at Tai with a determined feel about him. "We need to talk about this, Betamon told me I had to find other kids and fight some kind of evil with them, but that was all he could tell me."
Tai stared hard at the blond haired boy as he rubbed a hand through his hair. "Well, there's the digimon Kaiser, he's currently operating in the northern parts of the digital world ", his eyes half closed in anger as his other hand clenched at his side. "I've destroyed some of his spires, but right now, I'm only interested in fighting Karatenmon."
Betamon looked up at the digimon name as a look of terror passed over it. "Karatenmon?" Then he felt Tailmon, Michael and Tailmon's eyes on him. "I heard rumors form other water digimons, that he's the main bad mon on the server Islands."
"Sever Islands." Tai mumbled out as he looked around to hide just how angry he was. "There's that place again, I heard it mention with Karatenmon before." Looking down at Betamon, Tai grinned a bit as he smiled at the digimon. "Listen Betamon, this is very important to me, do you know where the Server Islands are?"
The shark-frog like digimon smiled as he nodded. "Yes, they lie on the other side of the ocean me and Michael just left." Smiling proudly at his help, Betamon turned to his partner with a big smile on his face. "Many water digimons live there, most of them on the Island of Water."
Tai stood up and looked down at Tailmon next to him. "Well, we know how to get there, now all we need to do is find a way to get there."
Tailmon nodded as he looked over at Betamon. "Yu said you and your friend came omr the ocean right, can you show us where it is, we wanna check it out a bit."
Betamon grinned a bit, as he looked at the feline like digimon. "We'll be happy to do that, right Michael?" Seeing the blond haired boy he had for a partner talking with Tailmon's partner, Betamon gave his best shrug and turned to face the feline like digimon. "Um, you wouldn't have anything to eat would you, I haven't had anything for some time now."
Tailmon shook his head as he turned to stare at Tai across from them. "No, but I think they can help us find some, if we look around a bit for it."
Tai stared at Michael as they stood a bit off to the side of their talking digimon partners. "So, how did you find your way here anyway, the digital Worlds pretty big." Looking rather puzzled as he spoke, Tai moved to hand over the horizon to imprecise his point.
"I'm not completely sure." Michael started as he turned to stare into the horizon with a frown. "Betamon told me to look for a place with food." Turning back to face Tai, he shrugged. "We followed whatever water we could, when we heard a rumor of another human nearby from a group of Elecmons." Michael's eyes narrowed as he looked down at Tai's digimon. "But, I don't see the Flymon the human was rumored to have."
"A Flymon." Taichi's head snapped up at the words as he grabbed the blond haired boy. "Wait, I just saw a Flymon a few minutes ago, it helped save our life, but, neither he or his partner stayed to talk." Turning to stare back at the ruins Taichi shook his head. "I swear, this whole digi destined business is getting more and more complicated with each passing minute"
Michael nodded as he pushed both his hands into his clothes. "Okay, so now what." Turning to Tai again, he gave a deep sigh as he closed his eyes. "Do we go out to look for them or what." Staring at Taichi to see what his reaction was, the blond haired boy continued talking. "Betamon told us we had to form a team, well, that's what I think he meant."
Staring at the boy, Tai shook his head. "I wanna find out who it was that helped me and Tailmon, but not right now." Seeing the question glance Michael shot at him, Tai shook his head as he held up both his hands. "Our Digimon's need to rest, or at least mine do." Staring down at Tailmon, Tai gave a smile as he picked him up. "We also need to find something to eat and fast, otherwise this adventure over."
Not saying a word for a few seconds, the blond haired boy let out a breath of air as he looked around the place again with a tired feel to him. Reaching down a hand, he gave Betamon sitting at his feet a small pet on the head. "Okay, but only because I agree on the food and rest part."
Nodding as he placed Tailmon on his shoulder, Tai began to walk back towards the lake. "We can rest at it's side, but I not sure where we can find food around here."
"Leave that to us." Tailmon added in as he jumped down from Tai's shoulder. "Me and Betamon will search through the trees and places here for food, all you two have to do, is stay out of trouble." Not waiting for Tai answer, Tailmon had already run off into the nearby trees.
Staring after them as Betamon left as well, Michael shrugged and turned to walk down to the lake. "So, what's up with your outfit, you look like a comic book character with that scarf." He spoke at Tai as he stared at the messy haired boy's outfit.
"Hey." Tai countered as he grinned. "It beats looking like a tourist."
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At the same time back in Odaiba as Tai and Michael were talking, Jun Motomiya sighed as she dropped down on her bed as she gave into the tiredness running through her, her best friend Momo Inoue were still talking like a human waterfall over the cell phone to her in that normal reserved manner she always used. "Look Momo, I admit that Michael is hot, but you have to admit that Matt is even hotter, I mean, there's just so many things that makes Matt so much more cooler then the other blond haired kids I've seen."
Jun frowned as she gave a loud snort in response to something the other girl had just said to her. "No, I don't really think they even come closer to comparing with one another." Sighing dramatically as she waited for a response, Jun lifted up her foot to see if the nail polis on them had dried yet. "So, Matt's a rock star." Waiting a few more seconds, Jun shook her head and sighed again. "I know his dad's a movie star, I'm just saying I have no intention of going out with him, my eyes and heart are all set on the Ishida boy..."
Smiling as she rolled over in her bed, Jun froze in mid talk, as her eyes took in the sudden new thing hanging right outside her window, the eyes of whatever he or it was looking right into hers. "Momo, there's, someone, something outside my window." Looking down at her phone, as she got no answer from it, Jun dropped it when the small battery lamp began to flash madly, the same thing happening with her somewhat out of date laptop standing on her desk. "Mom! Dad!"
Screaming out loudly, Jun turned her head as the window into her room slammed open to allow the person outside to step into the room, or rather float in as he clearly did. Landing on the ground a good deal away from her, the blue eyes looked right into her from under an oversized white wizards hat with a black strip near the bottom of the pointed part.
Stepping back as she went over the intruder's outfit, she blinked as she spotted a white full body costume sporting a lot of zippers in all the wrongs places. A green west, white cape that also covered most of the face from sight, leaving only those blue eyes to stare at her form under a mop of brown hair, the whole thing was complete with a small staff sporting a snow flake ornament on the tip of it.
"Who are you?" Jun blurted out the question as she pressed the wall, having no further places to back up too. Briefly, she glanced over at the door, but saw that the person was blocking it as he moved closer. "No, Stay away!"
"Jun!"
"Jun, Open the door!"
"Sis!"
Turning her head at the pounding sound on her door, Jun blinked as she suddenly felt the person grab her wrist in a somewhat gentle hold, the blue eyes looking right into her own again, but with a bit of sadness in them. "I'm sorry about this child, but I hope, that one day you will forgive me."
At his last words, he turned and pointed his staff at her laptop, the screen flashing wildly for a few seconds before a program popped up on it, the red symbol in the corner flashing to a green one. Only a single second after that, a beam of light shot out of it and flashed into the hand the strange person was holding. "Let go of me, what's going on, what is this thing?"
Screaming and trying to toss the weird object away, Jun gave an even bigger scream as the light form the computer began to grow stronger. "Jun Motomiya, know this." The person yelled as Jun felt herself getting dragged off from the bed and towards the computer screen. "On your shoulders lies the fate of the Server Islands and mine as well."
Giving a last scream, Jun barely heard the last words form the person as he gave a sad look at her again. "Find Taichi Yagami, he will lead you and the others in the battles to come." Then a a bright light washed over her, making her stomach do a strange flip flop as everything rushed by her in a bright flow of colors.
But through all of this, one thought managed to get to the front of her mind, making her grit her teeth in anger as her stomach struggled to keep her last meal from coming up again. "Taichi Yagami, this is all your fault!!" Screaming out her words, the messy haired girl failed to notice that she had stopped falling, and was instead lying on her back on a solid surface.
"Taichi Yagami, who is that?"
Opening her eyes her at the question aimed at her, she blinked as she spotted a human figure blocking out the sun as it stared down at her.
Tbc: A Gathering of Heroes, Facing Musyamon's army.
AN: Finally, a new chapter completed at last. Five months I think it's taken to get this out. But in an excuse it's was hard to make it all work. Plus I was rather put off when my computer died and took the story with it, leaving me with only a draft that was halfway complete.
But, I took some time recently to sit down and go over the general plot for this story. And some changes have been made to it. The other DD's, meaning the 02 kids, and the rest of the 01 digi destined, will be seen even less in this story from now on.
I'm going to focus on Tai and the group as the area of this story moves to the Server Islands. Getting to the main part of the plot is something I want to get over with.
Next digimon story to be focused on, "Tai's little secret Alternate."