FYI, the original name of this chapter was 'Leave no man behind...or cat'

But it doesn't allow dots so it came out as 'Leave no man behindor cat'

Grrrr...had to export and change the chapter name...grrr...ah well

Anyways, thanks Haichi, that helped alot. Lets see if it paid off.

BTW, mike, what were apologizing about?

Chapter 18 – Leave no man or Cat behind

"Wow…" The younger Flight Marshal was amazed. The portal room had been completely obliterated. In fact, it was better to say that the courtyard had been extended.

Unknown to them, deep beneath the rubble lay the crushed body of Patrick O'Reilly. Also in the rubble, a digivice started to glow and vibrate…but it wasn't Patrick's grey D3.

It was someone else's…a pink D3.

Part of the rubble started to shake. The two men pointed their rifles at the shaking stone.

Suddenly, the rubble was thrust aside by a huge beam of light, and a few seconds later a boy climbed out from under it. He had a Koromon in his arms. When he saw the two rifles pointing at him he said, "Hey guys…what's shaking?"

This threw the flight marshals completely off guard, "Are you…ok?" The boy seemed quite dazed, almost drunken. He also seemed to be glowing slightly.

"Of course. I've just been BURIED ALIVE for the last FIVETEEN MINUTES," he grinned, "Yeah, I'll live…just about."

The two men lowered their rifles, "Good, then lets get you cleaned up…"

He reached over and put an arm around him since he seemed pretty unsteady.

"…Paddy."

Patrick passed out before he realised the man knew his name.

But none of them noticed that the beam of light had struck something else.

Sora's rucksack.

"So where are we going?" Kari asked.

"An air force base out in the desert," he smiled, "I doubt your friends will find us there – that is of course, if they're still alive. The digital desert is vast and barren."

The robed man stood up and walked into the back compartment of the fuselage, "Now if you'd excuse me, I've some planning to do."

Kari watched the last bodyguard lock the door behind her. She relaxed…well, as much as she could strapped to a chair in a plane going to an enemy air force base.

The girl took a moment to reflect on what the man on the wall monitor had told her.

The man who claimed to be TK.

Earlier:

"Kari? Is that really you?" The man seemed shocked to see her.

The girl just remained silent. She was far too tired to start asking the obvious questions.

"It's been so long since I saw you last. Even in a picture."

"How do you know me?"

"I was afraid you'd ask that. You see, the world has changed a great deal in the past ten or so years."

'Ten years?' Kari thought.

"Look, I don't have much time, I'd just like you to know that Matt and I are coming to save you. Kay?"

Kari just nodded, and the screen went black.

"The future…"

Patrick opened his eyes and looked around him. He was in a white room with consoles lining the walls. Koromon jumped onto his chest, "You're awake!"

Patrick tried to lift himself up, but found it too painful, "Where are we…what happened?"

"When we used our Terra Explosion, we killed all the riflemen, but the roof caved in and we were buried."

"Then…how did we survive?"

"That's the thing," another voice said, "We have no idea how you're still alive."

The boy painfully turned his neck to one side. Sitting at one of the consoles was a blue haired man in a white lab coat, typing away. He stood up and walked over too him. Patrick noted he was wearing glasses, "How are you feeling anyway."

"Stiff, painful and tired," the teenager grinned, "The usual."

"If this is the usual, I don't want to even imagine what crippled is," the man picked up a clipboard and flipped through a few pages, "Twenty-three fractures, severe muscle damage, internal bleeding, you had it all."

He set the clipboard down, "I have never in all my years seen a more beat up man survive - and trust me, I've seen it all!"

"Then how am I still here?"

"You healed. Yep, you somehow took an hour to recover from something that would be terminal to anyone else."

"An hour?" Something finally struck Patrick, "Were are those two guys…and how did they know my name?"

"Don't worry, we're friendly," the two flight marshals walked in, "Joe here has been looking after you."

"Joe…hey, you're friends with Tai aren't you? By the way, you two didn't answer my question."

"Firstly, yeah, I know Tai well, but he joined the resistance, along with Izzy, Yolei and a load of other international digidestined"

"Secondly, you already know us," The younger flight marshal pointed out, "Well, me anyway."

"Don't be offended…but I don't."

"Ok then, I won't keep you in suspense," he thumbed the older man beside him, "I'm TK and this is my brother, Matt."

Patrick processed this for a second, "So…Cody was right…this is the future"

"You met Cody?"

"Yeah, while we were in the woods. By the way, where is the wee bastard? I have a magazine with his name on it."

"Cody…well…he's…"

"A spy." the older flight marshal said bluntly.

"In a word, yes. He's officially part of the Dark Forces, but he fights among the resistance, finding information and transmitting it to this complex."

"So technically, Cody is working for both the Resistance and the Dark Forces."

"Yeah, but trust me, NEVER listen to anything he says. Ninety-nine per cent of it is lies," Joe walked back to his console, "Anyway, I'd say at this current rate of healing you sound be up and about in no time…say, half an hour"

Matt nodded, "That should give us enough time to make our plans. That reminds me - Patrick, you still know how to fly?"

"Of course, wh…hey, what do you mean by 'still'?"

"Well, this is the future isn't it? We already know about your self-training"

Patrick nodded, "Sure, I'll fly anything that's was in service around 2005"

"Good, come down to the flight prep room beside the hanger when your ready. We've given you clearance to go just about anywhere, so the guards shouldn't bother you. Just try not to look too suspicious, kay?" the two men walked out.

When they were well away from the medical room, TK asked, "Why can't we tell him the truth? About what's going on in their Digital World?"

Matt shook his head, "No, that would cause a huge time paradox. It's better if we left him alone."

TK shrugged, "You're the boss"

When the beam of light hit the buried rucksack, it started to rumble and move. Suddenly, when the other three were gone, it exploded upwards and out of the rubble.

When the dust settled, a digimon was left lying on the ground.

Gatomon.

Kari slowly started to drift of to sleep. The last thing she heard was the pilot announcing over the intercom, "Flight path set, Autopilot programmed and engaged. ETA, one hour."
30 minutes later

Patrick limped into the flight prep room, Koromon in his arms. TK and Matt were standing beside a table with a map of the digital world spread across it.

"Hey Paddy, still alive?" Matt asked.

"I'll live. So what's the plan?"

TK pointed out two markers on the map. One was labelled 'PCX-14' and the other was labelled 'MAB-21'.

"PCX-14 is us. MAB-21 is where they're taking Kari." TK said.

"How do you know where they're going?" Patrick asked.

"We're this base's flight marshals – I'm in charge of landings and TK's head of take-offs." Matt explained.

TK nodded, "There isn't a flight in this airspace that I don't know about."

"And nobody's allowed to land without my go ahead" Matt finished.

"So that's why you were able to give me clearance. Cool. Now how about that plan…"

"ETA, twenty-five minutes." The pilot announced on sleeping ears.
"Your forgetting one thing," Patrick said after the two flight marshals had finished their plan, "The portal was destroyed. How are we going to get home?"

"I don't know," Matt shrugged, "But I know someone who can help."

"Who?"

"You'll find out when you get there. As for now, to the armoury!"

A smile crept across Patrick's face, "Now your talkin'!"

Gatomon lifted herself up and shook her feline head, "What just happened?"

The digimon looked around. The last thing she remembered was being Salamon in Sora's rucksack while they looked for Kari, then she fell asleep. Next thing she knew, she was by this huge pile of rubble as Gatomon.

"I…digivolved…" she smiled, "That must mean they found Kari! But where are they now?"

Just then, her ears pricked up. Someone was coming!

Instinctively, Gatomon jumped behind a large slab of concrete as two riflemen walked by. They were talking.

"What the fuck!" the first one said, "I knew I heard an explosion, but what happened!"

"That was the portal room, wasn't it?" The second explained, "It probably overloaded when someone tried to use it again. That would be the one…two…third time this month!"

Gatomon gasped, 'It must have exploded when they tried to go home!'

"It's the first of May."

"Ok, smartass, last month then," the second set off down the corridor, then lowered his voice almost to the point that the digimon couldn't hear it, "Hey, I heard those two marshals are gonna start a revolt by attacking that desert air base. Wanna help?"

"Yeah that would be fun!" The first one nodded, "They're probably in the prep room now, lets go!"

The two riflemen started running down the corridor. Gatomon came out of hiding, "So…they're all dead," she muttered, "I don't believe it! I wasn't there to help"

Sighing, she set off down the corridor the riflemen went down, "Guess the only thing I'll be good for now is help with revolt. Maybe there were some survivers!"

She started running, making sure she was right behind the two riflemen.

"Here you go," Matt threw an M8 at Patrick, "We only have a few of them. The rest of the armoury is dedicated to M4's."

Patrick set the rifle back on the table, "Never used this before. Got anything German?"

TK grinned, "I thought you'd say that, here." He set a familiar weapon in front of him.

"That's better. German quality." Patrick picked up the G36C, a smaller, more compact version of the G36K.

"Gimme all the ammo you got for this baby." Patrick demanded.

"Which isn't much," Matt scanned through a box of loaded magazines, "About ten mags."

"Plenty. I'm about all accuracy."

"Right…is that why you love mowing people down with the M249?"

Patrick looked suspiciously, "How did you know that?"

"You were the one that wrecked the hanger-to-dock blast door, correct?"

"Oh yeah…forgot about that."

"We were watching you on CCTV."

"Right, well, to the hanger then." TK said as they all marched out the door.

Gatomon looked around the empty prep room.

"I'm too late," she sighed, "Looks like it's not my day today."

The two riflemen she had been tailing had been stopped by an offical looking man, and were sent to do something. Thankfully, they were close enough to the hanger for Gatomon to smell the jet fuel. It lead her straight to the prep room.

However, no one was here.

Just then, she heard chatter out in the hanger, which sounded a lot like…Patrick?

The digimon jumped onto the table and looked out the window into the hanger, and smiled.

Maybe it's not so bad after all…

Patrick threw Koromon into the Co-pilot's seat of the helicopter. He was about to climb in when he heard a voice behind him, "Can I Help?"

Patrick looked around and grinned, "Sure thing. Hop on in there"

Gatomon jumped into the Co-pilot seat and landed on top of Koromon.

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask the same thing. How are you going to help, you don't even have arms!"

"Easy now back there," Patrick said as he fastened his helmet on, "We're all in this together."

"Patrick, you have some explaining to do! Where are the others?"

"No time. I'll tell you on the way."

The teenager pilot flipped a switch and the rotors on the mighty AH-64 Apache Longbow Assault Chopper started to spin.

Kari was woken when the robed man came out of his room and sat back down, "I believe we are almost there"

Almost on cue, the pilot anounced, "Communication with air traffic control established. Now landing at Motomiya Air Base..."