Chapter 10: Back to Basics

"Glad that's over." Skymon said with a smile. His eye's slowly turned back to brown. Also his face, which was intensely fierce earlier, became the gentle and goofy face I knew. He looked essentially like a larger version of Herpetomon. The main difference was Skymon is a bit more built muscularly. And of course he was wearing pants now. As we all stood there gawking at him I began to think "Maybe I should get my 2 story tall Digimon out of the open."

"Are you guys alright?" I turned to the others as Skymon bent down to be included.

"Gotsumon's going to be OK." K said, I could see Gotsumon was able to sit up. "You fought great, thanks for saving me again." She whispered to him.

"Nick, how about you guys?" I asked

"I'm fine how about you Fatomon?" Nick said

"I'll live another day." He replied. Then he walked over to Skymon and said "You were pretty good back there."

"Yeah" Skymon said "I know." He turned away at Fatomon's extension of friendship. I don't get what his problem is.

"Shouldn't we be getting Skymon out of the open?" K said matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah, duh." I said "What the hell am I going to do with you?" I said to him. He looked down at me

"I dunno." He said.

"Great thanks for your helpful input" I said, he just smiled at me. Then I had an idea.

"Wait why don't we hide him in the 'Fort'" The Fort I was referring to was in the woods near my old house in the same town. Nick and I used to play there all the time, I was fairly sure that would work.

"What that is?" Herpetomon asked.

Nick replied "It's this old woods that Brendan and I used to play in when he lived in Abington too. That was so fun we'd just make little lean-tos and stuff."

"Yeah, well that's cool, but we have to go. See ya'" K said to me. She got up, came and gave me a hug, and carried Gotsumon off. 'Le pauvre' (French for 'poor thing') apparently he wasn't well enough to walk yet.

"OK, bye, get better Gotsumon." I called to them. I turned to find Nick and Fatomon walking around and checking out Skymon.

"Yeah, I am pretty awesome." Skymon said to Nick who must've made some comment about his size or something.

"Skymon and I better go." I said to them.

"Do you think you could carry us home?" He asked Skymon.

"That's pretty rude." I broke in.

"No problem." Herpetomon said, beaming. With that he picked me up and put me on his shoulder.

"Woah, awesome." I said.

"You guys can hold onto my tail and I'll get you home in no time." He said to Nick and Fatomon, so they did. Skymon stretched a little and braced for a huge jump. Then from the field in back he jumped all the way over the school. It was an incredible feeling. It was like we were suspended in air. I gazed across the horizon and thought I saw a flying, glowing figure near the woods behind the school, but after a double take it was gone. Skymon landed almost soundlessly and I pointed the way to Nick's house. He only lived down the street from the school so we went halfway with them so as not to run an extra risk. They got off Skymon's tail looking scared half to death.

"Next time I think I'll just walk." Nick said falling over, Fatomon caught him.

"Goodbye, friends." Fatomon said for Nick who was a little shaken up from the ride.

"Ok, see ya next time." We said. Fatomon ran to the back of Nick's house while Nick went in the front. This made me wonder what Nick did with Fatomon, I guess he kept him around the house like I do.

"OK, Skymon let's get out of here before we get compromised." I said to him, then I told him the way to the Fort. It was in the woods of the Condo complex I used to live in. I instructed Skymon to stick to jumping in the wooded back routes. We were rapidly approaching.

"I'm really proud of you." I said to him.

"Thanks, I try." He said smiling. I could already see the condos approaching. The woods were adjacent to a big field. I told Skymon to go through the field and then land in the woods. I happened to know that the fort was a large open area that's surrounded by rows of trees. He jumped into the opening and I told him to stay down.

"I'm sorry I have to leave you out here, but you understand I can't have you at home." I said to him as I gave him a sad smile. He laid down over the wide expanse.

"Nah, it's no problem, I'll take one for the team. Plus this is probably the last time this will happen. When a Digimon digivolves for the first time it usually takes a while for him to go back to normal." Skymon explained.

"Ok, but I still feel bad. I'm going to come by with Nick tomorrow and check on you." I told him. "Bye"

"Bye." He replied. I left regrettably and began my long walk home. Mom and Dave were probably freaking out. I walked drearily down the cold, damp streets. It was beginning to feel a lot like winter. "Oh Crap" I thought, I'd forgotten to tell the others about Protagamon and all that, oh well, I'll call them in the morning. I got home surprisingly quick and was very pleased to find no one had even come home yet. I let myself in and went to my room. I hung around watching TV until Mom came home and made us dinner. I sat there glumly, thinking about Skymon who was probably lying freezing cold in the woods. I felt so guilty. Surprisingly I sat through dinner without being pestered and asked 20 questions. I went back to my room and saw that it was 9:00. It was still early, but I decided to go to bed anyway. The sooner I got to bed the sooner I could go check on Skymon. Before I could even get in bed there was a knock at the door. Mom and Dave were in the basement so I answered it. There was a stern and angry looking man at the door. He peered at me from under matted wisps of grizzled hair. I opened the door.

"Hello, I'm Inspector Lyons." The man said dutifully.

"What do want?" I asked.

"That wasn't very nice young man." He said. I hated being told that. "I'm investigating a series of 'Monster Sightings' around here, You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you boy?"

"I have a name "Sir" It's Brendan, and no I don't know anything about that. When did all this start?" I asked, if I could trust him I'd find out when all of this Bioemerging started. I was fairly sure he didn't have anything on me so I wasn't too worried about being caught.

"Well, Brendan, I really don't think that's any of your business." Lyons said. "So you don't know anything about these sightings?"

"No, I don't." I said

"Are you sure, at the station we've had a few reports of a tall and dark-skinned teenager running around with one of these monsters." He said, sneering at me.

"Oh. No, it couldn't have been me, I've been around the house all week, Highschool, y'know." I said, excusing myself quickly. That description matched me, but I tried to keep cool.

"Right, never seen any of these monsters, huh?" He asked.

"Nope, never seen one." I said.

"OK, that's all I needed to know." He said "I'll be in touch."

With that he left me standing there. I watched him pull away in his car. This definitely wasn't over. He looked like the type that would stalk the other tamers and I until he figured out exactly what we were up to. I would have to tell the others about him tomorrow too. Once that close encounter was over with I went to bed. I lay there turning over and over with the worried thoughts of Herpetomon being found out in my head. If the police ever discovered him, we'd be in big trouble. Who knows what would happen he would probably be seen as some kind of Alien terrorist or something ridiculous like that.

I got up around 7:00 which was late for me, especially considering that I went to bed early. I hung around not doing much of anything in the morning. I thought of talking to Skymon on the D-Gadget, but I figured I should let him rest. I called Nick at 11:00 and went over at 11:30. Mom dropped me off at his house.

"Call me and let me know when you need to be picked up." She said as I walked into Nick's house. His parents weren't home so I'd need a ride. Nick had an average sized house; I walked through the foyer and into the kitchen where Nick and Fatomon were waiting.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked.

"Nothing, let's go." I said quickly as I became overcome with worry over Skymon.

"What do you mean? You just got here." Nick said.

"He's obviously worried about his Digimon whom he left sleeping in the woods." Fatomon told Nick.

"Yes, I am, come on let's go." I said

"OK. Fatomon, go chill in my room, We don't need you coming along end getting seen. We'll be back in a while, hopefully with Herpetomon." Nick instructed.

"Right, good luck." Fatomon said.

As I may have mentioned before, until one year ago Nick, Kayla, and I lived in the same town, Abington. Last year my family moved to Whitman, which is a town over. Therefore we are all very familiar with the little town. Nick and I walked back to the condo complex where I used to live, which was also where I left Skymon. We took a route through the graveyard that stretched along the grounds beyond the field where we'd had our battle yesterday. It wasn't the most cheery route, but it would get us there faster. Nick and I walked together quietly. Occasionally Nick would compliment how 'awesome' Skymon was yesterday. When we were nearly there I remembered to tell Nick about Protagamon, but then I figured I'd wait 'till we got Herpetomon back to Nick's house. We went through the old familiar condos to the edge of the woods where we left Skymon. As I peered in I was relieved to see that the giant Digimon I had left the night before was gone, but Herpetomon was also no where to be seen.

"Where'd he go?" Nick asked

"He didn't go anywhere." I said "He's smarter than that, trust me. Herpetomon!"

I walked around looking for him. There were 'relics strewn all around the floor of the woods dating back to the times when Nick and I would make elaborate innovations in our own all-natural technology. These included stick-swords, traps, and forts. Those were the good old days. Then, I noticed a lean-to that wasn't there before.

"Hey Nick, was this here the last time you checked?" I asked Nick because I knew he would occasionally come back to The Fort to check things out.

"Nah, I've never seen it before." He said. Right when he responded I knew who made it. I peeked inside and sure enough there was Herpetomon, out cold in a pile of leaves.

"Well that's my Digimon alright, he's creative enough to make this fancy thing, then he passes out in it." I said, laughing at him.

"Oh yeah." Nick said. I walked around to Herpetomon's head. I poked him until he woke up.

"Oh good you're here." Herpetomon said sluggishly. "Look what I made." He said beaming proudly.

"Yeah, I saw, it's great. You're a Digimon after my own heart." I told him. "So when did you turn back to normal?"

"Once you left I went to sleep as Skymon, then I woke up at night and I was Herpetomon. I was freezing cold so I built this thing and went back to sleep."

"OK, cool, well glad to have you back." I said as I helped him up. "Come one, we're going back Nick's house." Nick began heading home, Herpetomon and I followed. When we got out to the condos I told Herpetomon to follow us from the roofs. I was in a much cheerier mood as Nick, Herpetomon, and I made our way back to Nick's house. The walk back seemed a lot faster and when we came to Nick's house we were relieved to find that his parents were still out. I saw Herpetomon go through one of the windows on the second floor. We went in the front door as Fatomon was coming down the stairs with Herpetomon behind him.

"Mission accomplished!" Nick said

"Yeah, I can see that. Spare me the story." Fatomon said.

"Come on, I'll make us lunch." Nick said.

"Good, I'm starved." Herpetomon said.

"Word." I continued. We all lounged around Nick's kitchen. Nick labored over some French fries and such things, Fatomon stood stoically in the corner, I sat in one of the chairs and Herpetomon sat next to me sprawled over the table. At this point I remembered to tell everybody the news.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you something, well somethings actually." I told everyone. "Ok well, a few days ago Herpetomon went out while I was at school. He was just hanging out at the lake, when a Digimon approached. It was an advocate of the sovereign. Her name is Protagamon, she's an angel-warrior type, and obviously a vaccine."

"Wow! The sovereign." Nick said

"Wow, Protagamon." Fatomon said. "I don't believe it, she used to come to me asking me to join her elite D-Corps."

"Well why didn't you?" Nick asked

"I it just wasn't my thing. Plus, if I had joined I probably wouldn't have come here and met you." Fatomon replied.

"Can I continue!" I asked, and everyone stopped talking. "So anyway Herpetomon asked what she wanted and she said that the sovereign are watching us."

"Watching us! What's that supposed to mean? Are they looking at us right now?" Nick asked foolishly.

"How would I know?" I responded "All we know is that something must be going on, why else would the sovereign be interested in us."

"Good point." Nick said "So what do we do?"

"I think we should just keep doing what we're doing, I have a feeling they'll contact us again." I said. "But before I do anything else, I'd better call Kayla and tell her." I went out side with my cell phone and called her. I contacted her at home. I went through and explained what happened. She wasn't so surprised, but then I realized she has no idea what the sovereign is. I explained the sovereign and she understood the severity of the situation. She was busy so I let her go. I went back inside Nick's house to find Herpetomon out cold on the table while Nick and Fatomon were enjoying their oven-cooked lunch. I woke up Herpetomon for lunch and after we ate I suggested that we leave. I went outside and called for mom to come pick me up. I went back inside.

"She'll be here in about 15 minutes. Herpetomon you should be able to follow the car right?" I said.

"Yeah, I guess, but that's a long way." Herpetomon said.

"Alright, good." I said. "I guess everything's back to normal, for now."