Digimon: After the Fight Series
Part Six: The Beginning, Part 2
I'd like to dedicate this story to CrazygirlHayley5555/Sam, my best reviewer and the one who's read this story, no matter how insane it gets:P
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"Hi guys!" she said, cheerily.
"What are you doing here?" Davis asked, bluntly. The girl tsked.
"Always rushing to conclusions, Davis," she said. Adrian pushed his way to Tai.
"Who is she?" Adrian asked. Ken turned around to look at Adrian.
"Another Digidestined," Ken explained. "Her name's Mimi Tachikawa, and we're wondering what she's doing here."
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"Love would never be a promise of a rose garden unless it is showered with light of faith, water of sincerity and air of passion."
-Author Unknown
"T.K? Izzy? Yolei?"
"Did it work?"
"Yolei! Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, thanks Kari."
"I couldn't be better, thank you very much!" a very sarcastic voice called
"Izzy!" both girls called as they ran over to him. He was sprawled in a bush with B.Gatomon yanking on his feet to pull him free.
"Why can't you humans ever land on your feet?" B.Gatomon moaned between pulls. Kari and Yolei giggled before helping the digimon pull their friend free.
"Well, at least I'm not the one stuck in a tree," Izzy remarked as he pulled twigs out of his sweater. He pointed over his shoulder at a tall tree. Yolei and Kari looked up, and gave 'oo's at what they saw. T.K had landed in a very uncomfortable position for a boy, and he seemed to be panting from the pain.
"I'm okay," he said, his hat askew. He had wrapped his arms around the branch to keep him from falling. Kari managed a smile.
"We'll help you down T.K! Just hold on!"
"How do you expect us to do that?" Yolei asked. Kari turned to her and shrugged.
"I don't know. But what I do know is we're not in Kansas anymore."
Yolei followed Kari's gaze and found her clothes had changed. Yolei gave a loud 'whoop'.
"We did it! We're in the Digital World! Izzy, you're a genius!"
"Not yet," Izzy said with a small smile. "We still have to find Sora, Matt, and Katrina."
"Have you guys forgotten about me?" T.K called. Kari, Yolei, and even Izzy laughed before helping T.K out of the tree. As soon as T.K was safely down, the four of them and the digimon started walking on the outskirts of the forest. It wasn't until they got deeper into the forest that a moaning filled their ears.
"Did you hear that?" Yolei paused. Izzy, T.K, and Kari all stopped to look at her. The noise repeated.
"I heard it!" Kari exclaimed and she took off into the forest.
"Slow down!" T.K called as he followed her. Kari stopped a few feet away, and she dropped to the ground. T.K, Yolei, Izzy, and B.Gatomon stopped as they reached her. Kari was kneeling next to a body; the only thing T.K could see from behind Kari's back was a white skirt, tennis shoes…and auburn hair.
"Sora!" T.K cried as he dropped next to Kari. Sora was lying on her stomach, her face half-buried in the blades of grass. She squeezed her eyes when she heard them, then her eyes opened slowly.
"Kari!" Sora exclaimed, sitting up. "And T.K! When did you guys get here?"
"Just now," Izzy said walking over. "What happened overnight? Where are Matt and Katrina?"
Sora looked down at her knees which her scraped and grass-stained. "We were attacked."
"By who?" Kari asked. Sora looked at her.
"I think his name was 'Demon.' Katrina got really scared when he showed up, Matt and I tried to defend her, but we couldn't hold him off. So, we ran for it, and ran into our digimon."
"How are they?" T.K asked.
"Let her finish her story," Izzy said gently.
"Thanks," Sora smiled. "Well, anyway, Gabumon and Biyomon tried their best, but Demon…well…" Sora sniffled.
"He what?" Kari prompted her to continue.
"Oh Kari," Sora said, grabbing her shoulders and cried into them. "He turned them into statues and took them back to his castle! After that, he sent his henchmen after Matt, Katrina, and me so we had to split up to escape him!"
Kari patted Sora's back to comfort her. She gave T.K a 'what-do-we-do' look.
"The only thing we can do now is find the other two," T.K stated. Izzy nodded.
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Yolei snapped. T.K looked at her.
"Well, I…didn't think that far."
"Well, we could use the digivices to locate them," Izzy said pulling his out. Nothing.
"I'm not getting a signal either," Sora said soberly, as she pulled her digivice out.
"I am," Kari, T.K, and Yolei all said in unison as their D-3's let out a soft 'beep, beep.'
"Well, the only signals we're getting is from you guys," T.K moaned as he examined the blinking red dots in his device.
"No, wait!" Sora said as a faint 'beep' came from her digivice. "I see one more dot! It's not too far from here."
"Me too," Izzy said. "It has to be Matt."
"Let's go then!" Sora said as she took off in the direction of the blinking dot.
"Sora!" Izzy called as he followed her. The others followed soon.
"Hi guys!" the girl said grinning at them. "Long time no see!"
"I'll say," Tai said, sarcastically. "Only three days since we last saw you."
Mimi Tachikawa sighed sadly. "Yeah, that was a sad day for me."
"Why?" Ken asked, confused. "Wait a minute, why are you here?"
Mimi looked at him. "My father won the contest for the National Rice Museum and he won seven tickets. Since we didn't have seven people in our family, and my mom didn't want to come, he gave the tickets away to an employee in Miami. I wonder what the employee did with it…?"
"Wait a minute," Adrian said. "Tickets to a museum? We've got five tickets!"
"Really?" Mimi asked, looking at her nails. "Well them, I guess you can do the math, huh?"
"Mimi, be nice," Mr. Tachikawa said, turning to look at Adrian. He stopped and stared at him. "Jon?"
"Ah," Adrian said, blinking in confusion. "No, I'm Adrian Wyatt."
"Sorry," Mr. Tachikawa said. "It's just; you look like a dear friend of mine. He looks just like you."
"If his name is Jonathon Strauss then he's my father," Adrian explained. "Before he moved away a few years back, people used to always say I look just like my dad."
"Jon…is your father?" Mimi asked, now she was looking at him. Mimi's breath caught in her throat as she looked at him. The same happened to Adrian. He found he couldn't breathe when he looked at the way her wavy golden-brown hair framed her perfectly squared face. Her brown eyes glistened in the sunlight that shot through the small airplane windows. He could see her blushing.
"Kids, don't block the alley," Jon's voice carried over to them. Adrian spun around, completely out of his trance.
"Dad, you know Mimi's dad?"
"Who?" Jon frowned as he stopped behind his son. A flicker of familiarity flashed in his eyes as he spotted Mr. Tachikawa. "Monty?"
"Jon," Mr. Tachikawa said, turning in his seat. "I didn't think you'd be here."
"I am," he said. "Oh, this is Tai Kamiya, Ken Ichijouji, and Davis Motomiya. And my son, Adrian Wyatt."
"I didn't know you had a son," Mr. Tachikawa said, shaking their hands. "Of course, I know Tai. I've met Davis too, but I thought he was one of Mimi's friends from New York."
"I already told you dad," Mimi explained. "Davis was visiting from Japan."
The atmosphere changed as Ken, Davis, Tai, and Mimi remembered their 'around the world' fiasco with the digimon.
"Anyway, I have a daughter too," Jon said, pushing through. Tai grabbed Mimi's arm.
"C'mon, let's go back to our seats and we'll explain the situation."
When Ken, Davis, Tai, and Adrian returned to the back of the plane, Tai was the first to speak.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm on vacation," Mimi huffed. "I want to see all the world's rice balls shoved into one building."
"It's not vacation time, have you realized that the Digital World has been sealed shut?" Tai said.
"Yeah," Davis added. He lowered his voice. "Or that no one knows about digimon?"
"I've realized," Mimi said. "But I'm on vacation. I don't need to worry about this now. Speaking of vacation, what are you guys doing here?"
"Yeah," Davis said. "What's going on Tai? All you told us is that we're covering up for the others. You never told us what really happened."
With immense difficulty, Tai explained to Mimi, Davis, Ken, and Adrian what had happened in the school that night.
"Demon, huh?" Mimi asked. "Sounds like that evil digimon we face a few days ago. What was his name?"
"He called himself 'MaloMyotismon,'" Davis and Ken replied. Mimi giggled.
"Still DNA partners, huh?"
"If we had digimon to DNA digivolve," Davis replied. Mimi's gigging died down and Tai bonked Davis on the head.
"Don't be rude," Tai snapped. Mimi nodded.
"It's okay. So, we're not on vacation. I'll help out the best I can, too."
Adrian smiled. "That's what we're here for. Oh, and Mimi?"
"Hmm?" she asked.
"What did you mean by the battle with MaloMyotismon was a sad day for you?"
"Well," Mimi explained looking at him. "It's not entirely a sad day. But it is for my friends in N.Y. You see, the reason my mother isn't here is because she's setting up our new house."
Tai slapped his hand on his forehead. "Aw, you're moving again! Where to this time? Alaska? Mexico? Siberia?"
A smirk appeared on her face. "Try this one: 'Back to Odeiba, Japan.'"
"The signal's closer!" Sora called over her shoulder. "Just a little closer."
The faint beep, beep grew stronger as she got closer. She slowed her pace when she was…right on top of it? Sora looked around her and jumped backwards, falling on her back with a soft 'thud.' She had been standing at the edge of a cliff. If she hadn't paid attention, she'd be falling down into…what was down there, anyway?
"Sora!" Kari called from somewhere behind her. Sora stopped pondering about the cliff and turned around. The others were running to catch up with her. She looked over her shoulder at the bottomless pit below her.
Matt's down there with Katrina, Sora thought. And I'm going to find him.
"Sora! You run too fast!" Yolei complained as she caught up to her. Sora smirked.
"I guess that is what happens when all you do is sit in front of the computer all day long instead of playing tennis."
Yolei stuck her tongue out at Sora as the others caught up. When everyone caught their breaths, Sora pointed to the cliff.
"I think Matt and Katrina must've fallen down there overnight," Sora hypothesized.
"Only one way to make that statement true," Izzy said as he observed his digivice once more. He frowned. "Just how deep is that canyon?"
B.Gatomon peered down at the dark hole.
"Hard to tell, actually. Could be miles deep and take forever to fall down. Could take seconds and be only a few feet, who knows?"
"Someone does," Kari said as she stood next to Sora and looked down. "Either Matt really did fall, or this is a trick."
"There's no way to know for sure," T.K said. "But we can't just leave Matt down there if he really is."
"This is risky guys," Kari argued. "I just don't know if we can do this."
"What, so now you want to go and call big brother and Davis for help?" T.K replied. Kari turned to him.
"Sorry T.K," he voice rising slightly. "But we have no choice! Tai and Davis-"
"Oh, so now we're going to get Davis involved?" T.K almost shouted. "Is that it?"
"Are you jealous, T.K?" Kari asked, bluntly. T.K's face turned tomato red.
"I'm not jealous of anyone; not Davis, not Tai, and especially not you! All I want to do is save my brother!"
Kari's face softened and she touched his arm comfortably. "I know, T.K. I want to save Matt too. But we can't be hotheads like Davis and Tai and get ourselves hurt, or worse, by barging in like maniacs. Demon must be setting this up to get us, and you know what he's capable of doing. None of us are going to die at his hands, got it?"
T.K's anger melted down into a small smile. He nodded. "Okay. Sorry for being so stupid."
Kari smiled. "No problem."
Just as B.Gatomon opened her mouth to add something, a rustling came from the trees behind them.
"Oh no!" Sora cried. Izzy looked at her.
"What is it?"
"One of Demon's henchmen!" Sora called, and soon enough, the trees bowled over and a grey digimon flew over them. T.K pushed Kari and Yolei to the ground as Izzy grabbed Sora's wrist and dragged her and B.Gatomon to the ground with him.
"Was that a Kuwagamon?" Izzy asked, perplexed. Sora nodded at him. T.K looked up.
"You mean, like that red one that attacked us the first time we were transported here? But the one that just attacked us was grey!"
Sora nodded again. "I know that. The only reason that Kuwagamon is grey is because Demon turns all of his digimon servants into grey creatures!"
B.Gatomon's eyes went distant, as if she were remembering a past experience. Izzy blinked. Of course, B.Gatomon was a servant of Demon's…but, B.Gatomon isn't grey, or is she?
"Izzy!" Sora screeched as the ground below her gave way and she was falling into the cliff. Izzy grabbed her wrists and she dangled. T.K stood up and ran over to them; dropping to the ground to grabbing Sora's other wrist.
"Don't let go," Sora begged. T.K shook his head.
"Wouldn't dream of it!"
"Guys, he's coming back!" Yolei shouted.
"What do you want us to do?" Izzy snapped as the dirt beneath him started to crumble from the weight. "Our hands are full right now!"
Kuwagamon flew over them again, but this time he managed to weather away the rest of the soil underneath Izzy and T.K. The ground collapsed beneath them, sending Sora, Izzy, and T.K headlong down the cliff. B.Gatomon spun around as the ground continued to be swallowed by the black pit.
"Run for it!" B.Gatomon called, but just as the girls took a few steps, they too were falling into the bottomless pit.