You are my Sunshine…

Time: Four years ago

Location: Digital World, in sewers

"Mmm…"

"Izzy look, I think she's coming around!"

"Tentomon not so loud," Izzy said as he pushed his laptop aside. Kari's eyelids fluttered and her eyes opened slowly. The first thing she saw was Izzy's relieved face above her, then Tentomon flapping above him and Koromon patting her arm. Kari sat up.

"Where's Tai?" she asked, worried.

"He's gone with Sora and T.K to get healing flowers for you," Izzy responded, helping her sit up. "Gatomon went with them too."

"I see," Kari said. She looked at Izzy. "Izzy, I haven't known you long enough, but Tai's told me a lot about you."

"He did?" Izzy said, dumbfounded. "What did he say?"

"Things," Kari said as she brought her knees to her chest. She rested her head on her knees. "He said without you, we wouldn't be here now."

"Oh, I see," Izzy said. He sat back and sighed. Tai always said that about him. "He's told us a lot about you too. He said 'Kari's a self-less person who'd even give her life to make sure one person is happy and healthy.'"

Kari giggled. "You sounded just like him when you said that part."

A smile spread across Izzy's lips. "Yeah, I know. Anyway, how do you feel?"

"Just fine," Kari said, standing up. "You know what else Tai told me about you? He said you're smart. Really smart. And now I know why. You're always on your laptop."

"Yeah, I know that," Izzy remarked as he stood up. "If you're strong enough we should start looking for the others."

"Izzy," Kari said, acting as if she hadn't heard him. "Sometimes, knowledge isn't enough."

"What do you mean?" Izzy asked, staring at her.

"Well, you saw what just happened to me back there with the Numemon. The only way I could bring out that light was to face the darkness, and accept it. So, sometimes you have to do the opposite of knowledge."

"Oh," Izzy said. "But the opposite of knowledge would be dense."

Kari giggled again, that seemed to take a lot from her because she collapsed to her knees again. Izzy ran over to her.

"Kari, you're perspiration rather quickly," Izzy exclaimed as he laid her on her back. "You're going pale."

Kari moaned, but she smiled. "No silly, the opposite of knowledge isn't being stupid. It's intuition."

Izzy stopped panicking. "Intuition? As in, a gut feeling?"

Kari nodded. "In some situations, there won't be time where you can spend hours on your laptop trying to figure something out. There are times in which you have to listen to what your heart is telling you to do." Kari coughed weakly. "Take care of my brother, okay?"

"What are you talking about," Izzy yelled at her. "You'll be fine!"

Izzy grabbed her hand and gasped. "She's getting colder."

"Izzy," Tentomon said. "Are humans supposed to turn blue around the mouth?"

Izzy started sweating out of fear. "She's dying…"

Time: Present Day

Location: Hospital

"Are you Ms. Kamiya's friends?"

"We are," Yolei said, jumping up from the chair in the waiting room. "Will she be okay?"

"She's resting," the doctor said, pushing up his square rimmed glasses. He hesitated for a moment and pushed back a strand of brown curly hair. "Unfortunately, we don't know what's wrong with her. We think it may be low blood pressure, but we can't be sure. We'll have to keep her here for a couple of days and run tests."

Yolei nodded helplessly. Like poor Kari had a choice.

"Thanks doctor," T.K said, shepherding the others out of the waiting room. When they made it outside, Izzy and Matt came running up to them.

"How…is…she?" Matt panted.

"They don't know what's wrong with her," Yolei frowned. "I'm scared. Maybe it's my fault."

"Why would it be?" T.K asked, surprised.

"Ever since we combined to DNA digivolved," Yolei explained. "Kari's been really weak and collapsing all too often."

"Maybe it doesn't have to do with DNA digivolving," Ken said. "Maybe it has to do with the Dark Ocean."

"That's that weird realm you guys were transported to, right?" Izzy asked.

Ken and Yolei nodded. Yolei sighed. "That makes sense. But, what really gets me is the fact the doctors don't know what's wrong with her."

"Then it has to do with the Digital World," Matt said. Izzy frowned, he was deep in thought.

"Matt," he finally said. "Come with me, we have something to do."

Matt gave Izzy an odd look, but the teenager was already down the street. Matt followed him.

"Wait!" Yolei called after them. "What do you want us to do?"

"Go home," Izzy called over his shoulder. "And try not to tell Mrs. Kamiya yet!"

Yolei's shoulders slumped. "I hate it when I can't do anything!"

"Izzy, slow down!"

"We have to hurry Matt!"

"Hurry where to? Ugh, I picked the wrong day to wear jeans and boots."

Izzy stopped and turned around. Sure enough, Matt dressed more like a teenager going to a club in his dark blue jeans, tan boots, and band t-shirt, instead of a marathon runner. Izzy was different, he was wearing long green shorts, an orange tee under a thin green vest, and his shoes were brown tennis. He looked more suitable for running long distances.

"Matt," Izzy said while Matt panted against an old apartment building. "We have to get Tai here."

Matt stopped panting and gave Izzy a how-the-hell-do-we-do-that? look.

"Simple," Izzy explained as if Matt had asked. "We find a successful portal to the conference, and use the Digital World as a means to get to our, hopeful, destination."

"In English?" Matt remarked, looking stupefied. Izzy sighed and bit his lip.

"We…uh…use the gate to the Digital World to get to Italy."

"Where Tai is?" Matt asked. Izzy nodded. "That's a great plan, Iz, but there's a problem."

"What's implausible enough to ruin our plan?" Izzy frowned.

"Simple," Matt mocked. "In ten words. We. Have. No. Clue. What. Part. Of. Italy. Tai's. In."

"I suppose you're right," Izzy said, scratching his head. "But, that's simple to locate."

"Really, how?" Matt asked, blinking.

"Follow me," Izzy said.

Within five minutes, they were sitting in front of Izzy's home computer, searching the internet.

"If we can just find out which soccer conference Tai went with, we can find the proper location," Izzy said, clicking away. Matt grinned, he was watching over his shoulder.

"Izzy, you're a genius," Matt said. Izzy grinned.

"Tell me something I don't already know."

There was a sharp beep, and two windows popped up on the screen.

"Prodigious!" Izzy exclaimed, but in a moment his face fell.

"What is it?" Matt asked, worried.

"It says here," Izzy explained. "That two Japanese teams went to Italy. I'm not sure which one is Tai's."

"Well, what do they say?" Matt groaned.

"This one here says that this team consists of boys ages 14-17, and they went to Naples to settle the Junior Division. The other one consists of boys 15 & 16 and they went to Rome for the Final Championship. I'm not sure which one Tai's in."

"Why not try both?" Matt suggested.

"Are you crazy?" Izzy shouted. "They're at least 100 miles apart!"

"Sorry," Matt said, taking a step back. "Don't bite my head off. And why are you so uptight anyway?"

Izzy realized he was on his feet. He sighed and sat back down. "Sorry Matt. It just makes me really mad. Tai used to always beat me up even if I thought about leaving Kari behind. Now he's sacrificing his sister in order to win some tournament."

"Well," Matt said. "We could research each team, but that would take too long. Izzy, you choose."

"What?" Izzy said, dumbstruck. "You want me to…pick?"

"Did I stutter?" Matt said. "Pick which one. If we're planning on getting Tai, we have to do it now. So pick: Naples or Rome?"

Izzy bit his lower lip. You once told me there would be a time when I'd have to use my instincts. But this time, I'm using it to save you. Again…But, which do I chose?

"Naples."

Matt smiled. "That's perfect! Now, all we need is a gate."

Izzy nodded, surprised at his sudden decision. That was easy; all we need is a gate. "The closest gate to Naples is in Salerno. But…that's at least 50 miles from Naples."

Matt punched his fist in his palm. "That could take hours to get to."

"Hey, Izzy? Are you there?"

"Sora?" Izzy said, jumping to his feet. "Where are you?"

"Open the gate," Sora's voice said. "I'm here with Cody, Gatomon, and Hawkmon."

"Great," Izzy said as the gate window popped up.

"We heard you talking about Italy," Cody admitted.

"Yeah," Sora said. "And there's a closer gate to Naples, I had to use it once when I missed the bus to the tennis championship."

"You transported through the Digital World?" Matt asked.

Sora blushed. "Yeah, but it's really simple. I'll take you guys to the gate."

Izzy and Matt took out their digivices and held it to the screen, within minutes the two were swallowed in the light and found themselves traveling to the Digital World. When the 'rinse cycle' feeling was over, Izzy and Matt were standing next to Sora and Cody, along with Hawkmon, Biyomon, Armadillomon, and Gatomon.

"It's just down that way," Sora said, pointing to a mountainous region. "We'll let Birdramon take us there." Sora held up her digivice to Biyomon. "Ready?"

The pink bird nodded as she started to glow. The little glowing bird became a large figure.

"Biyomon digivolve to…Birdramon!"

When Sora, Cody, Izzy, Matt, and the other digimon jumped on her, Birdramon flew off in the direction of the mountains. When the rough valley was underneath them, Sora scanned the area. Finally, she pointed to a dense mountain region.

"There's the screen," Sora said as Birdramon landed and let them off. "When you're finished, contact us on the D-Terminal. Cody and I will take Hawkmon and Gatomon home, and then we'll check up on Kari."

Izzy nodded. "Okay, I'll see you later."

Sora grinned. "Good luck finding Tai. I hope he's in Naples."

When Sora and Birdramon vanished behind distant mountains, Matt turned to Izzy.

"Let's round up Oni-chan," Matt said, holding up his digivice to the screen.

"Ditto that," Izzy said, doing the same.