Chapter Two: A Heroes Path

Rika called the others and told them about what had happened with the Leomon clone. They all decided to meet at the park at Guilmon's hideout. When they had the meeting, there was only one question on all of their minds: How can Karu become a digimon? He explained about there being different dimensions and how his abilities came from a digital world parallel to their own. He told them it was called "spirit evolution" where they use digimon spirits to become those digimon.

They all decided, since it was getting late, that they should all head home for the evening. Karu said he would patrol the streets, seeing as how he didn't have anywhere to go, but none of them would have it. To their surprise, Rika offered to let him come to her house. She didn't want to admit it but in the short time she had known him, she had grown fond of Karu. Shortly after their battle with the D-Reaper, Ryo and his family had moved to India and she hadn't heard from him since. After a while she finally gave up on him. Who needs him anyway? I'm perfectly fine on my own.

Rika's mom and grandma were more than happy to have Karu stay with them that night. Karu was happy to be staying with them too. He didn't want to admit it, but he, too, had grown fond of Rika in the short time he had known her. All they said to each other was "Good night" as they went to bed.

While Karu was sleeping, a strange digimon invaded his dreams to tell him something. It came to tell him of his destiny.

Karu…Karu…?

What? Who's there?

I am here to tell you about your destiny.

Who are you?

The digimon sovereign sent me.

And you are here to tell me about my destiny?

Yes. You have a great power within you, Karu. You mustn't be afraid to use it.

I will always do all that I can in order to defeat my enemies.

That is only part of what you must do, Karu.

What else must I do?

Have faith in your friends and compassion for them.

But I don't have any friends. The tamers are the closest things to friends I've got.

Yes. In time they will be the best friends you could ever hope to have.

But I hardly even know them.

In time you will. Have faith, Karu. Have faith. Have faith. And he woke up with those words echoing in his head.

He heard footsteps, someone was running. Then he heard the familiar "beep beep" of his digivice and he knew it was time for action. He got up quickly, just as Rika opened the door to tell him a new digimon had bio-emerged. She saw that he was ready and with a nod, they were off. They met the others at the bio-emergence point and got ready for battle.

"Digi-modify! Digivolution activate!" The tamers said in unison.

"Guilmon digivolve to! Growlmon!"

"Renamon digivolve to! Kyuubimon!"

"Terriermon digivolve to! Gargomon!"

"Execute! Spirit Evolution! Stingmon!" and with that, Karu had become Stingmon.

They all stormed into the digital field to see who their new enemy was. When they saw who it was they just stood there, dumbstruck. There before them stood Growlmon. But how was the thought that ran through the tamers minds. But Karu knew how. It was the D-Reaper, using its memories to create replicas of the tamers digimon. He also knew that defeating this replica wouldn't be easy, and he was right.

"Dragon Wheel!"

"Pyro Blaster!"

"Rapid Fire!"

"Spiking Strike!"

Once the smoke from their attacks cleared, there stood the evil Growlmon, without a scratch on him. With a fierce yell of "Pyro Blaster!" the evil Growlmon had all four digimon on the ground. Now the tamers were thinking How can he be this strong? But Karu was thinking I need to become stronger! Then it hit him. He remembered that when he got his spirits, he was told of a way to switch between them in times of need.

"Slide Evolution!" He said to himself. Then he bellowed it. "Slide evolution! Exveemon!" and with that, a new digimon was born! Exveemon! He then stormed into battle to defeat the evil Growlmon.

'Vee Punch!" Exveemon yelled as he landed several blows on Growlmon. This only slowed Growlmon down as he retaliated with a swift "Pyro Blaster!" Exveemon managed to deflect it, but it was too close for comfort.

"You have no chance of defeating the D-Reaper. Not even the last attempt succeeded!" Growlmon said emotionlessly. "Now the D-Reaper is stronger than it was before. You don't stand a chance!"

"That doesn't mean I won't try! Vee Laser!" Exveemon bellowed as he shot his laser at the evil Growlmon. This, amazingly, managed to defeat him, but he managed to say, "This was a hollow victory, Exveemon! There will be more like me! You cannot win!" before he dissolved into the red data that he was comprised of. All the tamers and their digimon couldn't help but stare at Exveemon, having been Stingmon not long before.

Rika pointed her digivice at him and read off the data it gave her. "Exveemon. Dragon-type digimon. Vaccine. His attacks are Vee Punch, Vee Kick, Critical Punch and Vee laser." She saw it, but she couldn't believe it.

"That sounds right to me." Exveemon said with a grin. They still couldn't believe it.

Takato was thinking I know that digimon from somewhere. Then it hit him. "You're from the TV show!"

"Technically I'm not. But you're close. My Exveemon spirit and Stingmon spirit are based on the same Exveemon and Stingmon that were in the TV show. You see, the TV show was also a separate reality to your own. That's where the dimensions I was telling you about come in. My spirit evolution ability comes from one dimension while my spirits are based on digimon from a completely different dimension."

"Does that mean you can become Paildramon too?" Takato asked eagerly.

"If I can, I can't do it yet. But maybe someday." Then Exveemon reverted and became Karu again. "C'mon. Let's go get some breakfast. I'm starving!" And with that, they all went to Takato's family bakery.