The greenhouse from the last chapter is a public place that sells plants. There's one down the street from me. I figure somebody in the huge, densely populated city likes potted plants. They probably have good business.

This is probably the last chapter I'll be able to post on anything before I ship off to Germany on the 22nd. I'm staying there until early January, so please be patient with me if I can't update. Merry Christmas, all, and a Happy New Year.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything to do with it. I am just, quite simply, utterly and completely obsessed.

More More Happy Christmas

Chapter 5: Digivolution

"Man, I haven't been to Odaiba in years."

"I know what you mean. Everything looks so different."

"Well, they've done a lot of renovations over the years. I heard some of the buildings were pretty unsound."

"Unsound? Whattya mean?"

"Well, back around the same time as the blackout, there was this whole building that just collapsed 'cause of some structural problem."

"I've heard of that. They were lucky, all things considered. Construction had only just finished , and no one have moved in yet…"

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Tokyo, Japan - Odaiba District

December 24th, 1996 - 4:22 PM

"But Mommy, I…"

"Not 'buts' young man." Mrs. Kanbara shook her finger at her son, frowning. "I told you to watch Shinya this morning! What on earth were you going?"

"It's not like I went anywhere!" Takuya pouted, up to his elbows in suds. "I was upstairs in my room the whole time, I could everything he did!"

"Oh, really?" Mrs. Kanbara put her hands on her hips. "So I suppose you just thought the house could use a nice mural, did you?"

Takuya groaned and quickly finished his chore of scrubbing the wax crayon off the apartment wall. So maybe 'quickly' wasn't the right word, as it took another twenty minutes, but he did manage to complete the task to his mother's satisfaction and stormed up to his room. He made sure to slam the door, and felt very satisfied when his brother woke up crying just down the hall.

"Hmph. Stupid Shinya." He muttered, blowing up a tuft of brown hair as he crossed the room.

From under the bed a pair of wide, green eyes seamed almost to glow as they blinked at him from the darkness. "You sound like you're in a bad mood, Takuya."

"Stupid Shinya got me in trouble again." Takuya crouched down to gaze under the bed. "You can come out now, Flamon."

The Digimon scrambled out on all fours and straightened with a sigh. He was now almost twice Takuya's size, easily big enough to pick the little boy up. He stretched his long limbs lazily, his tail twitching. "Your brother got you in trouble?"

"Yeah!" Takuya plopped down onto his bed, crossing his arms and pouting. "He drew on the walls, and Mommy made me clean it 'cause she said I wasn't watching him good enough. The little brat gets away with everything."

"Is he really that bad?" Flamon asked, crouching down on all fours.

"Uh-huh!" Takuya bobbed his head up and down. "He cried all the time, and he's always gettin' me in trouble! It's not fair!"

Flamon nodded in somewhat bewildered understanding, but there was an odd expression on his face. His long, bushy yellow tail swished back and forth across the floor as his ears twitched restlessly.

Takuya took notice. "What's the matter, Flamon?"

"I don't know." The Digimon gazed longingly out the window. "I feel like…something's happening out there. Something important."

Takuya watched the long, elf-like ears twitch. His face stretched into a smile as he jumped off the bed and ran to the window. "If you wanna go out, you can, you know!" He said, opening the window wide.

Flamon's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah, sure!" Takuya grinned. "As long as nobody sees you, you can stay out all day! Just make sure you're home before it's too dark, okay?"

"All right!" Flamon took a running leap out the window, grabbing ahold of a tree branch and swung around twice before righting himself. "I'll be back, Takuya! Good luck with your mom!"

The little boy had to grin as he watched the brown shape disappear across the rooftops.

( - )

Kousei Minamoto yawned, stepping out of his office with belatedly-empty coffee mug. He rubbed his temple restlessly. Deals to make, bills to pay, phones ringing off the hook , and he still hadn't heard back from his lawyer with Tomoko's response…

A light giggling interrupted his groggy thoughts. He turned just in time to see his son Kouji scrambling across the hall, his twin brother Kouichi on his heals and laughing wildly.

Kousei couldn't help but smile. "Oh, boys."

Two identical heads popped back around the edge of the door. "Hi, Daddy!"

"Hello yourselves." Kousei leaned down to pat Kouji on the head. "What are you two up to?"

"Just playing, Papa." Kouji smiled up at him cutely.

"Yeah, playing!" Kouichi piped, his identical smile beaming up at him just as adorably.

There was a small crash from inside the boy's play room. Kousei looked up sharply. "What was that?"

"Our…Our ball!" Kouichi's grin turned into a nervous one.

"It must've rolled into the closet again!" Kouji added, scrambling for an excuse.

Kousei raised an eyebrow. "Well then…" He sighed, stepping over his sons into the play room. "We better check to make sure nothing is broken."

The twins looked at each other in panic, but neither could stop their father as he strode across the room and right to the closet.

There was a small pile of boxed-up board games on the floor, tipped over into a mini-landslide with a stack of pop-up books beside it. A small musical toy was tink-tinkling away happily to itself beneath it all, but it soon died away as the tune ended.

"Looks like no harm done." He sighed, straightening a bit and patting Kouichi's head on the way out. "But you boys better be more careful, okay?"

"Okay!" The two chorused, and kept their broad smiles on their faces until the door closed behind him.

Both boys let their faces relax with a relieved sigh, then raced over to the now-collapsed pile of stuffed animals and started digging. Before too long they uncovered their cute little blob-like friends to find Kuroimon whimpering with pain over a rather red nose.

"What happened?" Kouichi asked gently, picking up his friend.

"I ran into the wall…" Kuroimon whimpered.

Then the stuffed things all went plop!" Karuimon added as Kouji scooped him out. "Right on top of us, too!"

Kouji patted his head sweetly. "You guys gotta calm down." He sighed. "Or Daddy'll find you, and he'll be mad…"

"Okay…" Karuimon groaned, wiggling free to drop down next to Kuroimon on the ground. Both Digimon cooed softly to each other, brushing their cheeks against each other's warmly.

Kouichi frowned worriedly, crouching down. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Kuroimon sighed, turning his eyes towards the window. "I just feel kinda…nervous:

"Me too." Added Karuimon, shifting.

"Nervous?" Kouji crouched down next to his brother. The twins turned and blinked at each other in confusion. "About…what?"

( - )

"I-zuuuu-miii!"

Makumon fluttered her wings desperately to push herself forward. A sudden gust of icy-cold wind sent the little purple-and-blue Digimon tumbling into the blonde girl's outstretched arms.

"What's wrong, Makumon?" Izumi asked, cuddling her friend close.

"I-It's c-cold!" Makumon shrieked, curling into the fleece of Izumi's hoodie. "Wh-Why's it so cold, Zumi-chan?"

"'Cause it's winter, silly." Izumi giggled, unzipping her jacket a bit to let the Digimon snuggle inside. "Just you wait, it'll snow any day now, and then everything'll be real pretty!"

"What's snow?" Makumon blinked at her. "Is it cold?"

"Well, yeah." Izumi grinned down at Makumon warmly. "But it's so pretty you won't care how cold it is!"

"Well, it better get pretty real so!" Makumon whined, burying herself deeper into the folds of fabric. "…I hate the cold."

( - )

"Ready? Thunder Bubble!"

Junpei jumped back from the tree just as Raiumon fired the small bubble of glowing, flashing yellow. The bubble soared up into the branches of the tree and burst into a large flurry of violent sparks. The tree crackled with electricity, the few leaves that remained gripping at its branches falling loose.

The kite which had become stuck in those branches, however, remained ignorant of the sparks and firmly held its place. "Auw…" Raiumon groaned, curling up under his helmet-like cover. "It didn't work."

"Oh well." Junpei sighed, dropping down next to the Digimon and blowing on his gloved hands. "I guess it's a bit cold for kite-flying anyway."

Raiumon bounced over to his friend and jumped into Junpei's lap. The boy looked down at him. "Something wrong?"

"The air changed." Raiumon muttered, his brown eyes peaking out from under the hard blue shell. "Something's coming, Junpei. I don't think we should stay 'round here. We better go."

"Go?" Junpei asked, and the Digimon nodded. "Well, okay…if you say so, Raiumon."

He scrambled to his feet, wrapping the blue creature tightly in his windbreaker. The boy then headed out of the park and onto the slightly-icy sidewalks of the city, lightly lit by pale street lights in the gloomy, fading light.

Junpei sudden stopped and blinked up at the lamp above him as it flickered on and off quietly. Down the street the other lights were doing the same, as were the street signs, and the televisions in the windows.

"Uh-oh." He whispered breathlessly. "Something's happening again…"

( - )

Tomoki blinked up at the ceiling as the florescent lights above him began to flash on and off. In the next room, Yutaka began to complain as his electric guitar amp suddenly dropped to mute, then began blaring static. From the kitchen came his mother's worried mutterings as the rice cooker's timer sudden showed 12 hours and seventy-nine minutes to go.

The two-year-old grabbed ahold of the couch he was sitting beside and pulled himself unsteadily to his feet. "Chiemon-mon." He mumbled to himself, and set off down to his room.

He stumbled in almost haphazardly, grabbing onto the doorframe to steady himself. A broad smile spread over his face as he spotted his white-and-green friend. "Chiemon!" He piped happily, waddling forward. He tripped on the carpet, landing on his friend with arms spread wide in a hug…

And realized, abruptly, that what he had landed on was not Chiemon.

That is to say, it was Chiemon, but he wasn't Chiemon anymore. The little white blob had changed again, this time into something like a smallish polar bear. Though it walked on all fours, it was at least as big as Yutaka and easily able to carry Tomoki on its back as it stood. His eyes were big and blue, his white coat decorated with pale green tribe-like markings. A sort of green vest wrapped around his front legs, holding a sort of metal breast-plate with a silver symbol in the center of his chest.

Tomoki blinked at him sitting up slightly. "Chiemon?"

"It's me." The bear nodded slightly. "But I'm Kemmeimon now, Tomoki."

"Kemmeimon…" Tomoki repeated slowly. "Kemmeimon is…big!"

The bear-creature laughed softly, rubbing his muzzle with his paw in an embarrassed manner. "I'm not that big." He giggled a moment, then stopped.

He sat up and stared pointedly out the open porch door in front of him, sniffing the air cautiously. Tomoki held on to the green vest to lean forward. "Kemmeimon…?"

"Something's coming." Kemmeimon stood up on all fours, stretching his limbs ever so slowly and still carrying the boy on his back. Tomoki, hold on tight. We're going for a ride."

"Yea! Ride!" Tomoki cheered, and held onto the bear's neck as he'd been told. "Yip yip!"

Kemmeimon shot off into an instant run and cleared the balcony easily. He landed with ease when they hit the ground, taking care not to jostle the toddler on his back, and took off for the trouble his nose was picking up ever-so-faintly.

( - )

Generally, once concreted is set and has solidified into a certain shape, it tends to stay that way. It is a rather rare and powerful sort of event indeed to cause this strong, solid substance to give up its taken state in any way, whether it be broken, crumbled or even moved.

One can only imagine, then, what it would take for such a solid, study object to boil, but that's exactly what it was doing beneath the newly-built Heighten Rise Apartments deep within the Odaiba prefecture.

The freshly-laid concrete floor of the lowest basement shifted and moaned, bubbling up into a rising boil. Support beams sank down and disappeared as something new began to form slowly. Across the city, lights and electronics fizzled out, short-circuited, went haywire, the flying sparks drifting in the wind towards the building as it began to shake from below.

From the floor rose and absolutely gargantuan figure, a tower shape almost too large to fit in the gap of the basement. Its skin was scaly, grayish-green, its eyes wide and golden, its claws the size of small cars. From the looks of it, it seamed to have only recently escaped Jurassic Park, but any historian could have told you that its namesake was never quite this big…

The giant creature was not pleased with his current enclosed location. With a low roar he jutted his great head upwards, the great three-pronged horns breaking through the ground-floor level of the building all too easily. With its last support crushed under his huge foot the apartments tumbled down, crashing around and over the great beast without pause.

For a moment, all was quiet. Then Triceramon's roar echoed into the darkened night sky.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Tokyo, Japan - Odaiba District

December 24th, 1996 - 7:15 PM

Flamon's ears twitched at the noise, his entire body going tense. "What…what was that?" He whispered breathlessly, green eyes wide. The clawed hand gripping the lamppost in mid-climb almost dug into the wood, it was so tense. The scream…roar, yell, whatever it had been…was bone-chilling and almost deafening. Something bad was happening. Really bad.

"…Takuya." He muttered, and dropped from the lamppost to run on all fours along the deserted street.

Or rather, the almost-deserted street. A new scent drifted to Flamon's nose, growing closer, carried on the wind, familiar, cool and minty and…icy…

"Woah!"

Flamon slid to a stop, just centimeters from hitting the white blur that shot past him. The bear-shaped Digimon was startled as well, sliding to a stop a few feet away. He turned back to blink at Flamon with big, blue eyes as the orange-clothed toddler on his back giggled.

Flamon straightened. "You. You're…Who…are you?" He breathed. He knew this Digimon. He knew he knew it. Why couldn't he remember?

"I'm Kemmeimon." The polar bear muttered, lumbering up to him. "You're a Digimon too, right?"

"Yeah. I'm Flamon."

"Moki moki!" The toddler called suddenly, smiling up at Flamon. "To-mo-ki!"

Flamon laughed. "Wow you're even smaller than Shinya!" He picked the child up in his hands. "Your name's Tomoki?"

"Yeah-yeah!"

Their conversation was cut off suddenly by an echoed roar as a cloud of dust rose up from the horizon. Flamon and Kemmeimon stiffened, both moving instinctively to protect the child from attacks that never actually came.

"What that?" Tomoki asked.

"A Digimon?" Flamon whispered.

"No doubt of it." Kemmeimon looked up at the other Digimon. "I wanna check it out. Do me a favor and take care of him."

Without waiting of an answer, he took off. "Hey, wait!"

"Kemmeimon!" Tomoki called, squirming. "Go…Go-no! Go-no!"

"It's okay…" Flamon struggled to keep ahold of the little boy. "He'll be back…in a bit…"

Not knowing what else to do, he put Tomoki over his shoulder and took off back down the street. "Man, Takuya's not gonna like this…"

( - )

Makumon nearly dropped out of the sky at the monstrous roar, one that was dangerously close and made the ground shake beneath them.

"What was that?" Izumi asked out loud, turning her head slightly to look up at the gray sky.

"Izumi!" Makumon shrieked, flapping her wings. "We have to get out of…"

Before she could finish, the trees behind her were suddenly felled by one swipe of huge, scaly green claws. The child and Digimon found themselves staring up into the many glistening silver rows of fireplug-sized teeth, the gates that opened and closed around a tongue as large as a taxi cab, all of which was only the beginning to the huge, monstrously ugly face framed by think, wide sets of horns.

Izumi did what any six-year-old girl would have done in the same situation. She screamed. Loudly. And in a rather high octave.

"Izumi, move!" Makumon shouted. She adjusted her wings to crash into Izumi's side, knocking the girl to the side just as the huge claw came down again, throwing up a huge cloud of dust.

Izumi coughed against the sand. "Makumon!"

"Izumi!" The Digimon shrieked, being tossed head-over-heels through the air. "We gotta get out of here!"

The little girl didn't waste any breath on agreeing. She leapt up and snatched her floaty little friend in mid-air, sprinting down the sidewalk at top speed.

Triceramon growled low in his throat, lumbering after them. For such a huge Digimon, he moved remarkably fast, ripping the park-grown trees from the ground as he charged, roaring as he did.

"Why's he chasing us?" Izumi cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "What is he?"

"It's Triceramon!" Makumon gasped from her arms. "I remember Digimon like him! They're mean!"

"Then he's a bully!" Izumi shrieked and tripped as her foot caught on an uneven piece of concrete. She crashed to the ground and the Digimon flew out of her arms. "Makumon!"

The Digimon bounced, trying to right herself. "Izumi, watch out!"

Izumi rolled over and found herself staring up into Triceramon's beady yellow eyes. The huge jaws opened to fire a huge gust of hot air over the girl, bearing all his teeth in preparation for decent.

"Makumon!" The child screamed, backing away frantically.

"Izumi!" Makumon launched herself through the air. Above and around them, street lights suddenly shortened and blinked…

"Makumon, Digivolve to…Fushamon!"

( - )

Junpei ran through the park.

He didn't honestly know why he was running, but he was. His muscles fired one after another at a rapid pace, his heart racing alongside them in panic. Raiumon, still being carried in his arms, glance around them nervously as well, he blue eyes wide in panic. Something was coming.

Something was here.

"This is bad…" Raiumon muttered.

"No kidding." Junpei groaned. "It's getting late. Mom's gonna kill me!"

"not that!" Raiumon struggled free from his hold, bounding along the sidewalk deeper into the trees. "Someone's in trouble!"

"What? Hey!" Junpei took off after him. "Raiumon!"

They ran faster than before, and it wasn't long before they saw something really…strange.

A huge dinosaur had cleared a path as thick as a building through the trees and was currently in a furious fight with a second, much small creature.

The smaller one was about the size of your average eleven-year-old girl, with two legs and a head, but that's where the normalcy ended. Her arms were actually lush purple wings that sparkled iridescently in the sun, the same feather covering her upper body just beneath a pair of soft-looking blue sashes, crossed over her chest and connected with an odd silver symbol. The lower half of her body was covered in a dark blue down, ending with pointed toes hidden by purple ballet slippers. Her face was rather attractive, though pointed and covered by the same purple as the rest of her body, pulling back into a head of long blue feathers, making her pretty emerald eyes stand out even more.

Beneath them both, it the sheltering shade of the smaller creature's wings, was a little blonde girl dressed in purple. She was staring up at the battle, eyes wide with fear. "Fushamon!"

"Oh, man." Junpei's eyes bugged out.

"That girl's in trouble!" Raiumon called, bouncing. "We gotta help!"

"Yeah, but how?" Junpei suddenly noticed that the dinosaur's feet were stomping dangerously close to the girl, who was so busy watching her friend that she didn't even notice. "Hey, watch out!"

He dove forward, just in time to bust her out of the way. Raiumon leapt out as well, an a strange electronic beeping filled the air…

"Raiumon, Digivolve to…Kaminarimon!"

Junpei looked up from where he and the girl were crouched, just as Kaminarimon caught Triceramon's clawed foot, tossing it away and throwing the giant Digimon off-balance. Then he landed, his gossamer wings disappearing behind his hard blue beetle-like shell, marked with another strange yellow symbol. The body beneath the cover was yellow and segmented with four arms, which ending in a blue glow, and four legs ending in heavy blue boots. When he moved on the ground, he walked on all his feet as well as his hands, so that he scuttled like a bug. His head was covered by a blue helmet, just over his dark brown eyes in a permanently-serious expression.

Kaminarimon blinked up at Fushamon ads she landed next to him. "You okay?"

"Fine." Fushamon nodded, her body still tense as they faced the Triceramon.

"What about you?" Junpei asked, helping the girl up.

"I'm okay…" She sighed, pulling her arm free. "Thanks."

Junpei blushed lightly. "No problem…"

"Izumi." Fushamon muttered as Triceramon started to stand, growling and snorting. "You two gotta get out of the way."

"Right." Izumi nodded. "Come on!"

The kids scrambled back, as far out of the way as they could without loosing sight of them. The two smaller Digimon faced Triceramon, tensing all over.

"You think we can beat him?" Kaminarimon asked.

"Not by ourselves." Fushamon gulped. "We're gonna need help…"

( - )

Karuimon and Kuroimon sat in the window of the twin's playroom, staring pointedly out at the lightly-glowing city evening. Kuroimon whimpered slightly, his spiritual 'brother' nudging him over to rub against him comfortingly.

Kouichi looked up at them, clutching Neko-chan close to him from where he'd been playing. What's wrong, Kuroimon?"

"Is something happening, Karuimon?" Kouji asked, leaning over the two Digimon to gaze out the window.

Karuimon's ears twitched. "Something bad."

"Someone's in trouble." Kuroimon whimpered.

"In trouble?" Kouichi stood. "Who?"

"I dunno" Kuroimon looked up at him. "But they need out help!"

"Yeah!" Karuimon echoed, jumping down. The two Digimon leapt from the room, running through the house and straight for the front door.

"W-Wait!" Kouichi cried as the twins raced after them.

"Where're you going?"

Karuimon jumped up, undoing the lock on the front door, and Kuroimon turned the knob. "We gotta help." Whispered the white Digimon, and they jumped out.

The twins paused in the door, looking at each other worriedly. "Should we follow them?" Kouichi asked.

"Yeah, we gotta." Kouji ran to the closet to fetch both of their coats and shoes. "Come on, let's hurry!"

( - )

"Takuya."

"The boy shifted and rolled over, snoring lightly. The blanket pulled over his shoulders, slipped down them and onto the windowsill he was sitting on.

"Takuya?" Poke poke.

"Nrmph…" The boy groaned, burying his eyes in his arms.

"Um, Takuya…"

Poke, poke, poke…yank.

"Ow!" Takuya shot straight up, snatching up the toddler whose tiny hands had gripped his hair. "Darn it, Shinya, what have I…"

He stopped suddenly, staring into big green eyes as they poked out from under mousy brown hair. The two year old in his hands blinked at him, turning his head cutely. "Taku?"

Takuya blinked sleepily. "You're not Shinya."

"Uh, no." Flamon crouched on the windowsill, his tail twitching as it dangled out the window. "His name's Tomoki."

"Moki-moki." Piped the toddler.

Takuya's eyes went wide. "Flamon? What…Where'd the kid come from?"

"He was with a Digimon," Flamon's ears twitched a bit. "who asked me to take care of him."

"A Digimon?" Takuya exclaimed. "Like you?"

"Kemmeimon!" Tomoki giggled happily.

"He's not the only one." Flamon turned to stare out at the cloud of dust rising against the stars.

Takuya shifted the toddler to carry him sitting on his hip, the way he usually held Shinya, and went to stand next to his feral friend's post. "Is that where the other Digimon is?"

"Yeah. And he's in trouble."

Tomoki frowned, his lower lip jutting out. "Kemmeimon."

Takuya took a deep breath. "Could you help him, Flamon?"

"I think so." Whispered the Digimon, looking down at his friend curiously.

Takuya's face was set in determination. "Let's go."

TBC…