Chapter 38 - Open Season

With the ending credits rolling, I started to get up off the couch. Truth be told, I couldn't even remember the name of the movie we had just watched. Again, I tried to rise, but Jun pulled me back. She put on a pouting face as she looked at me.

"Maaatt. You just got here, why do you have to go now?"

I sighed.

"Digidestined meeting."

She frowned. Obviously that wasn't good enough.

"You have those all the time, can't you blow off just one of them?"

I sighed and sat back down, closing my eyes.

"Any other time, yes, I'd e-mail someone and ask if I really had to be there. But not this time. This time…"

Jun frowned, more concerned than angry this time, and placed a hand on my leg.

"What's going on, Matt?"

"TK's missing, Jun. I need to find him."

She launched into a hug then.

"I'm being selfish, aren't I?"

"You didn't know Jun, but now I really should go…"

She got a little peeved then as she thought of something, and swatted my arm.

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

I stopped for a moment, stumped.

Why didn't I tell her?

"I-I think that I needed some time to calm down about this, and if I'd said anything… I wouldn't have been able to get it out of my head. Not that this worked anyways…"

Jun got up and kissed my forehead.

"Well, up now. The sooner you go get the little squirt back, the sooner I get the boyfriend I like back."

I smiled, and went to the door, then paused and looked back.

"Wait. Come out to the car with me."

She got up with me, putting on her coat as she followed.

"Why?"

"You'll see."

I led her out and down to my car, opening the back door, and lifting a heavy box out.

"Here. Let me carry it up for you, it's a bit heavy."

Her eyes brightened at the size of the box.

"What is it?"

I smiled, a bit sadly given the circumstances.

"It's supposed to be a surprise. I thought I'd give it too you now though, all things considered."

She grinned giddily.

"Yay! This is going to be so great! I don't care what it is, I love you for it already, I can just tell. Now go get your brother and hurry back."

I grinned ruefully as I worked the box into her house and set it down next to the tree.

Only Jun would refer to TK being missing like he went to the store for milk and cheer me up by doing it.

I drove off to the meeting with considerably heightened spirits.

It won't be that hard to find him, right?

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"Are we there yet, Cody?"

I groaned.

"No, we're not there yet, Upamon. It'll only be a little bit more, I promise."

"Great!"

This was repeated at least twice more before we reached our destination, Tai's apartment. Wandering in, I found the place already packed. Sora looked up, saw us, and smiled.

"Hey, Cody! You're a little early, we're still waiting on some people."

I nodded, and took Upamon over to a table with the other digimon, and conveniently, some snacks. Then I nearly jumped out of my skin as the door banged open, and Kari came storming in. She went immediately to Tai, and for a moment I'm pretty sure her eyes caught fire.

"TAI! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"

Tai looked completely mystified.

"Wha…? What'd I do?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"The last two people to see TK last night were you and me. I know I didn't do anything, but you on the other hand, had plenty of reason to… to…"

Then she collapsed crying, and Tai caught her.

"I didn't do anything Kari."

She sniffed.

"I know… I just… I…"

He rubbed her back, trying to calm her down.

"Shhh… It's okay, we'll find him, I promise."

He guided her over to a chair and set her down.

"All right is everyone here?"

Sora shook her head.

"Nope, Takato-"

Tai grumbled.

"Why is it he never makes it to any of these?"

I had wondered that same thing myself several times, but Sora held her hand up.

"Ken's not here either, so it's likely they're stuck in traffic or something."

Tai looked only slightly mollified.

"Call them, make sure they're on their way."

Sora dialed, and we all waited.

"Hello? … You guys on your way? … Yeah, that's good; Tai's having a… what? What happened? … Oh… no… All right, I'll tell them. Thanks. It could have been weeks before we'd known other wise. … Just get here fast, okay?"

She hung up, looking significantly more drawn than she did before calling. Every eye was on her.

"Ken and Takato are on their way, but… There's been another disappearance. Mimi and Izzy's resort was attacked. Everyone but them was found, and we can only assume that Palmon and Tentomon were taken with them…"

The room was pretty much silent after that.

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A week had passed since the meeting at Tai's, and I was once more questioning Azulongmon about what was going on.

"Are you absolutely sure that you have no idea of what's happening? Tai, Ken, Yolie, Kari, TK, Izzy and Mimi, not to mention Joe, are missing now! Why the hell is it just slipping past you like this?"

Azulongmon's clouds flashed, and lightning passed between them.

"I have absolutely no idea Takato. It's making me just as angry as it is you. What do you know about it?"

"Only what I've told you. BlackJyarimon senses the attack, but by the time we get there, it's already done, with no evidence that they were given a chance to strike back."

He nodded.

"Go back. Keep the remaining Digidestined together at any cost. Don't let any of them out of your sight. See if you can lure the attacker out into the open."

I nodded.

"I'm not sure if it'll work, but it's worth a shot."

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"NETWORK GRENADE!"

"VEE LASER!"

X-Veemon didn't stand a chance. He went down to the supped up ultimate level. Not that it needed it. The black haired girl smiled confidently from where she stood over Matt and Gabumon, who never had the chance to digivolve.

"Again, but softly. He doesn't want them damaged…"

"NETWORK GRENADE!"

I ran for Veemon. A Digidestined shouldn't run from a fight, he runs to his digimon. I was about ten feet from him when the blast caught me, and I saw no more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wandered through the park again, shivering as I passed where I fell in, but I needed to assimilate everything that I had learned from Gomamon, Joe's digimon…

It's just so strange… Joe was fighting even then?

Then I laughed as I remembered all the veiled references you made towards it.

Should I be angry with him for…

I shook my head.

No. Joe did the right thing by not telling me. I couldn't have handled it then, and actually didn't when I found out the hard way.

And that doesn't matter right now anyways. He's gone because I was stupid and judgmental.

I walked through a grove of trees, thinking that was safer than the water at this point, examining the snow covered ground.

"ATOMIC BURST!"

I looked up, seeing a massive amount of energy heading towards me.

"LOOK OUT MISS!"

Then I was roughly tackled to the side by what looked like a horned runaway from a kendo club. The little guy rolled to his feet and drew his kendo stick against what looked like a golden armored Rhino. The small one who had just defended me attacked.

"THUNDER KOTE!"

Electricity ran up his blade, and he swung, causing a small wave of electricity to hit the rhino-thing. It did nothing to the rhino. The rhino spoke.

"You know, you'd be amazed what properly grounded armor can do for a guy."

The kendo kid was unperturbed, however.

"Fool of a Rhinomon! No amount of grounding shall prevent me from defending yon maiden from your savagery! Your armor shall avail you not!"

I had to admit that the little guy was cute in his own way, even from my position on the ground, as he jumped up and down in his anger.

"HOT HEAD!"

The little guy's head seemed to glow, especially around the horns, and he launched himself at the Rhinomon for a headbutt.

He made an impressive 'ping' as he bounced off. He rolled to his feet, though, and I used the time wisely to hide behind the tree. The Rhino sighed.

"You know, I'm not really all that sure why Murmuxmon wanted you deleted. Other than the fact that you're so annoying."

"I'm not annoying! Thou shalt retract that statement, or we shall duel again!"

Rhinomon's jaw dropped. Then he shook his head to recover himself.

"All right, that's it. SPIRIT BLADE!"

The little guy tried, he really did, but the attack hit him like a cement truck, and he went flying, slamming into the tree I was hiding behind. Rhinomon closed in for the kill. I closed my eyes waiting for the inevitable.

Am I really going to sit here and let this happen right in front of me?

I huddled in agonizing decision for a second, then ran around the tree, placing myself in between the two. The Rhinomon looked confused.

"Get out of the way girl, or you'll get what he does."

I gulped, sweat pouring down my face despite the weather. He charged his attack, his horn glowing. Then something else happened.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit girls? Fore!"

Rhinomon, not understanding, looked around. Unfortunately for him, he didn't look behind him at the large turtle/walrus.

"VULCAN'S HAMMER!"

True to the call, a large hammer swung in and knocked Rhinomon off of the ground, out of the grove, and probably out of the park.

Then, he abruptly glowed, and shrunk back to the now familiar form of Gomamon, who fell to the ground, looking tired, but having a huge grin on his face.

"Sorry, can't maintain that long without Joe…"

I smiled.

"At least you were here… Thanks."

His smile only got wider, and he started walking over, looking at my fallen savior.

"Hmmm."

I looked at him.

"Will he be okay?"

Gomamon shrugged.

"Yeah. Kotemon here probably some food and rest, and he'll be good as new."

I nodded.

"So… um, shouldn't you be taking him back?"

Gomamon blinked.

"Back where? I don't know where he came from."

"Well, maybe at least back to Sora's…"

Gomamon looked up at me.

"Hey, it wasn't her life he saved, was it?

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An unusual sound echoed through this place of infinite darkness.

An unusual event was taking place within this place of infinite darkness.

Daemon was laughing.

Daemon was… happy?

Well, no.

But Daemon was extremely pleased with his new servant. While somewhat lazy, this prompted her to place efficiency ahead of ego when executing her orders. This was a very good thing as far as Daemon was concerned.

Daemon was also pleased by his recent ascension back to the mega level. Back to nearly where he was before the boy, and that was always how the one who had defeated him was referred, had nearly killed him.

He waved to a small pool with a single arm, opening a line of communication between realms, easy enough now that he was nearing his full spectrum of power again. A figure appeared in the pool, and didn't look pleased at Daemon's appearance.

"What is it now, Daemon? I have worlds to conquer."

Daemon smirked.

"How is my little pet working out for you?"

The figure snorted.

"You know that yourself. What you want to know is how much I would have told you. And you know the answer to that."

Daemon grunted.

"Whatever you wanted me to know, yes. I'm familiar with your tactics."

The figure in the pool allowed itself a small smile.

"And an amazing thing that the current generation of Digidestined isn't. You'd think that the older ones would have told them the stories."

Daemon grunted.

"The only one of the old ones left is him. And he doesn't even know you're here to tell them, Murmuxmon. But beware the one I told you of Murmuxmon."

"Yes, yes. She is avoiding him at all costs. I can't afford to tip the hand, as it were, at this stage."

The smile on Murmuxmon's face grew oilier.

"But, really? Imagine, the only one left is him. Makes things so much easier."

Daemon smirked as well.

"Yes. Yes it does."

And laugher echoed in the place of infinite darkness.