Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Digimon, but I do own Stellath, Nicole, and most of the ideas for this story.
A/N: Lots of changes to the original. In the original, only Matt showed any signs of strange powers, and the chapter ended with a major cliffhanger (a spoiler for the next chapter!), and Nicole did not wander about giving people energy. And Haunter has more action. And no one has any idea about the prophecy stuff and who the people are, etc. Also, there is rivalry tension...
Actually, I think I like this rewrite much better than the original (but then again, I was in sixth grade when I wrote the original on notebook paper, and at the time of writing this, I'm about to be a senior...). Anyhow, please read, enjoy, review or email me if you want to ask a question, and I will be happy to answer it.
Chapter 4
Abilities and a Purpose Revealed
TK hadn't seen his brother so agitated in years. The younger boy watched in concern as Matt nervously paced around, looking around with alert eyes and jumping slightly at any movement not caused by the actions of the others. TK didn't know why Matt was suddenly acting in this manner, but he knew it had started just about when the fish had exploded. Inwardly, TK shrugged. He supposed that anyone could feel disturbed by spontaneously exploding fish, and maybe Matt was just being slightly more paranoid about it...?
He blinked as he watched a small rock jump up into the air and whack a snoozing Charizard in the head. The pokémon cocked one eye open, yawning widely as he glanced at the object. "Who was that?" he asked, not moving from his spot where he was lounging in the sand.
Everyone else around him shrugged. TK noticed Matt bang his head into Blastoise's shell. Blastoise glanced at him with a suspicious glare, and then made a rumbling "Hmph" noise as she moved away.
TK sighed, and walked over to his brother. "Are you all right Matt?" he asked cautiously.
"I'm perfectly fine!" Matt answered very quickly, his voice a little higher than usual.
TK raised his eyebrow. "Uh huh..." he said, not really believing Matt's comment.
Something was definitely going on.
His thoughts concerning his older brother were suddenly paused by a loud grumble from Agumon's direction. In unison, everyone turned towards the digimon, who grinned sheepishly. "Well, I'm hungry!" he exclaimed.
Tai grinned wryly and tossed Agumon a fish. "Here you go, we've got plenty!"
If there was one thing he never forgot, it was the appetite that Agumon harbored.
As Agumon happily consumed his fish, TK watched blankly at everyone continued to dry out the huge amounts of fish (Charizard and Agumon had helped a lot earlier, and now Charizard was on break). Now that most of the job was done, people were slowly beginning to back off the task, lounging in the sand or playing in the water. Gomamon was having a lot of fun splashing people, which had started a minor water fight amongst him, Kari, Sora, and Raichu.
Sighing, TK also took a fish (a roasted one), biting into it. He vaguely wondered if this new world meant that another huge adventure was starting. He could remember his dream from earlier relatively well, and wondered if it meant that the group would travel again just like they had two years earlier... of course, with the addition of another person, and seven more monsters.
He sat himself in the sand, with his back to the forest, staring out into the ocean. He vaguely felt Patamon land in his customary place atop his hat, and TK grinned, looking up. "Enjoying the view?"
"Yep!" came Patamon's peppy answer. Then there was a pause, before Patamon continued with a comment. "Hey TK, you've grown up."
"Huh?"
"You sound older. And more experienced."
TK chuckled. "Well, I am ten now, it's definitely older than eight."
Patamon laughed back, and the two of them watched as others around them fell back to other various activities, such as drawing in the sand, stringing up fish, or in the case of Joe, 'trying to find a source of non-salt water'. Blastoise had complained that she could easily provide everyone with the fresh water they needed, but Joe had insisted. TK could actually concur; he didn't feel comfortable drinking water that had just come from a living creature.
Quietly, TK began looking up at the sky, where the bright afternoon sun shone down. He enjoyed the feeling of warmth coming down onto his face, coupled with the slight shade made by Patamon's wings. A breeze blew past, ruffling his blond hair, and he smiled, only vaguely taking in Kari asking Tai for his shirt. Ignoring Tai's puzzled remark, he began to let his mind wander.
In all honesty, he wondered exactly why they were here, in this strange world that he remembered being called the Middle World. TK could only speculate as to what would happen, and what sort of task they were expected to complete. So far though, all he had seen in terms of life were multitudes of fish and a few flying birds. He sighed, wondering if other digimon were in the world itself, and if they would come into play during whatever adventure was about to happen.
"Hey Patamon! Come up here, we wanna' chat!" Biyomon called from up high, who was floating in the air along with Stellath. With a shrug, Patamon left the comfort of TK's hat to converse with some of the other digimon up higher.
TK serenely watched Patamon go, before taking off his hat and closing his eyes, smiling as he enjoyed the light wind brushing past his face. He had it in his mind to only sit and relish the sunlight, peacefully thinking about nothing save for the feelings of unity with the entire group.
A moment later, he heard the light patter of feet close to him.
He opened his eyes, blinking at the suddenness of Kari standing right in front of him. "Kari? Wha - "
Sploosh.
TK let his mouth drop as water poured down over his head. "Hey!" he yelled in indignation, standing up suddenly and staring at Kari in shock. She only smiled innocently, holding Tai's soaked shirt in one hand, though it had been squeezed over TK's head.
TK blinked, then gained his own devilish grin, before chasing Kari all the way down the beach towards the ocean, where the other water fight participants were waiting, leaving his hat where he had been sitting.
Tai stared at the two youngest members of the group. "So that's what she wanted my shirt for..." he mumbled, crossing his arms with a wry grin.
Inwardly, he was wondering where Nicole had wandered off to. He knew she couldn't be tracked because she was not a Digidestined (and therefore had no digivice), and it had been a little while since she had left. He didn't even know very much about her, except that she was from America and ran around with seven monsters all the time. Izzy had told him about other people in the world becoming Digidestined after having seen what had happened in the sky two years earlier, plus the internet battle, since he had lately been in contact with them through email. Maybe Nicole would become one of these people?
He heard someone trudging up to him, and turned to the side, where he saw Joe despondently approaching. "No luck, I couldn't find a freshwater inlet," he reported, before taking notice of Tai. "Tai, why are you not wearing a shirt?"
Tai pointed directly at the water front, where the water fight had become a heated battle. Kari was using Tai's shirt as something to help splash unsuspecting victims with the sea spray.
Joe stared. "Since when has Kari become so devilish?"
Tai shrugged. "I'm not sure. She's friends with this kid called Davis at school, and he can be something of a troublemaker, so I think she's been influenced a bit."
"That makes sense," Joe nodded, with a suddenly enlightened look on his face.
Tai stood for a moment, watching his younger sister splashing around with the others in the water fight. Haunter had joined as well, and was happily catching others with water while not being affected very well himself. Tai thought that maybe it was part of his ghost-ness. Tai had also noticed that Gatomon was wisely staying far away from the water.
"Hey Joe, did you see Nicole anywhere?" he suddenly said out of nowhere.
Joe blinked in surprise for a moment, before shaking his head.
Tai shrugged. "Okay. Why don't you go talk to Mimi or something?"
"Wha?" Joe jumped slightly and stared at Tai. "Where did that come from?" he asked in surprise. Tai gave Joe a pointed look, and Joe groaned, glaring at Tai in return. "Tai, stop playing matchmaker. Besides, she's talking to Scyther."
Mimi was indeed having an interesting conversation with the bug pokémon, along with Palmon who had joined her partner. "You're so graceful when you move, Scyther!" Mimi exclaimed with delight, "It's beautiful!"
Scyther bowed slightly. "Thank you. It comes from martial training actually."
"Really?" Palmon asked curiously.
"Yes. I consider it something of an art form, actually, like a dance. It happens to also come in handy when battling."
"Are all Scythers as graceful as you are?" Mimi inquired. She had taken a liking to Scyther, being able to look beneath a somewhat formidable exterior to see a gentle, kind female soul underneath (albeit a fighting one). And despite a fear of bugs at times, Mimi didn't feel any apprehension about being by Scyther.
Scyther blinked at the question. "Probably, after all, I'm only one Scyther out of dozens of swarms."
Back over by Tai and Joe, Joe was sighing as he stared at Mimi's back. Tai sniggered slightly at his friend, before regaining his composure and shrugging. "Okay then, you can stay here with me. Or go talk to Izzy. "
"He's with Venusaur."
Indeed, Izzy was speaking with Venusaur, trying to learn all about the Pokémon world. His curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he wanted to know all about this strange world that the pokémon came from. With him was Tentomon, equally curious.
"Are you serious? One hundred fifty different types?" Izzy asked, astonished that trainers had to know about all the different types, their attacks, elemental alignments, and such.
Venusaur nodded his huge head, grunting somewhat. "Yeah, at least in Kanto. There are tons of other different ones on other continents."
"Sounds fascinating! And then certain types are strong and weak against different types – fighting in this seems so much more strategic than in the Digiworld," Tentomon commented.
Venusaur cocked his head to one side, ruffling the leaves of the flower on his back. "But you have many different stages of evolution, and you can go different ways, right? All those combinations in themselves are very interesting. Plus, there is the fact that you digimon don't stay permanently in your evolved forms."
While the three of them continued to talk about such things as evolution, differences in worlds, and other intellectual subjects, Tai sighed in resignation. He had never been a particularly bright and curious child, so he left that trio to their musings.
Joe had taken to standing next to Tai, watching as Agumon also joined the water fight. He glanced over to Matt, wondering what had become of his poor friend's sanity. The blond boy was pacing around nervously, muttering to himself and jumping at small movements, while his partner raced after him in any direction he went, obviously concerned. Matt didn't even notice when he nearly tripped over Charizard's tail.
Charizard opened an eye and flicked the said tail. "At least you didn't step on it," he muttered irritably. Then he saw Matt's pale face, and realizing that the young teen had become something of a nervous wreck, the fire dragon pokémon answered, "Dude, chill out."
"I can't! I've tried! I can't!" Matt screeched in a slightly high voice.
Blastoise, who was about ten feet away lying on her belly in the sand, letting her shell absorb the warmth of the sun, covered her ears, glaring at the young teen. "Go off and meditate or something, it always helped Nicole. And stop pacing, you're making me nervous."
In all aspects, something was not quite right with Matt. Tai began to feel concern for his best friend, wondering if he should go over and ask what the problem was, while Joe sighed, deciding he should leave the poor anxious boy alone for a little bit and talk to Blastoise about water problems.
While Joe began trekking down to Blastoise, Tai glanced around to make sure everyone was accounted for. He still sighed when he noticed that Nicole was nowhere to be seen, slightly annoyed that he could not track her with his digivice. Then he slowly walked over to Matt's position, where he had begun pacing again.
About five feet away from Matt, his blond friend suddenly said, "It's okay Tai, I haven't gone insane. I'm just... kind of in shock right now."
Tai blinked, mostly because Matt had his back to him, and had not even seen him coming. "You sure you're okay?"
"No."
At this Gabumon, who had been trailing behind Matt, quietly turned around to face Tai. "Can you please talk some sense into him? He's been doing this ever since the fish incident."
Tai nodded. "I noticed. For that matter, Nicole hasn't come back since the fish incident either. Was my idea of zombie fish too weird?"
Matt groaned and turned to face Tai again. "No, it has nothing to do with the idea of the zombie fish, it's what started happening to the fish!" At Tai's puzzled glance, he glared. "You know, the hopping around and blowing up and whacking people thing?"
"Oh yeah. That."
Inwardly, Tai thought of what could have caused some of those things to happen. It wasn't as though there was little bits of explosives in the fish, although the idea of it was interesting. He shrugged, thinking in the back of his head how amusing it would be if one of the fish spontaneously caught on fire.
Suddenly, behind them came Palmon's voice, yelping in surprise. "Hey guys, one of the fish just caught on fire!"
Tai froze in shock, before spinning around and staring over to where the group had lain out the fish so that they would be dried out and well preserved by the time they started on any journeys. To his surprise, one of the fish was on fire.
No no no... that's just coincidence right?
"Tai... try looking at the fire and pretending that it's either gets bigger or smaller or going out," Matt suddenly said from behind Tai.
Unsure of whatever was going on, Tai did as Matt said, wanting the flame to get bigger... to which it did. Then he tried making it wave from side to side, get smaller, and then go out completely.
To his shock, the flame did exactly that.
Slowly, he turned around to face Matt, eyes wide and face white. He stayed slackjawed, unable to comprehend what was happening. Matt only stared at his friend, a sense of both horror and shock coming over him.
"You – you – you saw that?" Tai asked weakly.
Matt nodded, growing paler than he had before. "Yeah. The same thing's been happening to me."
Tai suddenly remembered how Matt had been uneasy during the fish incident, up until he had left. "Wait – the fish? Was that you?" At Matt's slow nod of confirmation Tai felt like something had hit his stomach. "You blew up the fish!"
"I didn't mean to!"
Still unable to believe the sudden show of strange powers, Tai turned to the side and saw a small bunch of seaweed that had washed up on shore. He glared at it, and imagined the entire thing going up in flames.
A moment later, the piece of seaweed became a mini bonfire, before turning into small bits of ash.
Tai gaped. Then he turned to Matt, who was also gaping. Together, they did the only thing they could think of.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Just about everyone in the area turned to stare at the two hysterical boys, from those involved in the water fight to those conversing with others. Gabumon gazed helplessly, unable to think of anything he could do to help aside from biting them (it worked once on Matt, it could work again).
Sora, completely soaked, sighed at both of them. "Great, now our supposedly infallible leader and his best friend are both insane. I'm probably next."
The next comment she was about to make died in her throat as a large shadow suddenly loomed over the entire beachside. Everyone on the beach looked up into the late afternoon sky to see the creature who had cast it, Biyomon, Patamon, and Stellath all landing immediately from shock the moment it came into view.
The humans and digimon stared in wonder at the great white beast with its draconic head and birdlike wings, while the pokémon and Stellath gaped for a brief moment before bowing their heads in reverence. It glanced at the group with curiosity twinkling in its eyes, and it nodded towards them, acknowledging their presence. It circled above them for a moment before resting in the air with its back to the sea, cocking its head to the side as it gazed over each member, making eye contact with every soul. It also looked up over the group towards the flat rock covering the high part of the bank, blinking and nodding, with what seemed like a slight smile on its face.
Slowly, it opened its jaws, and a mournful song rang across the beach, over the crashes of waves against the shore and the flow of water. It echoed down the bones of people, creating surges of emotion that cascading through them.
The song ended quickly, but the melody still lingered in everyone's minds, as they watched the figure before them.
"Good luck, Chosen fighters for this world. When the time comes, the powers will unite. Call us."
The voice continued to echo, as the creature closed its eyes, the water surging up behind it. For a moment, it stayed floating in the air, as a faint glow surrounded it and caused the water to roar, before it propelled itself backwards, twisting in midair to face the sea. Its wings open for flight once again, it flapped them once, letting out one last cry before shooting out into the sky, quickly becoming nothing more than a distant figure over the ocean. Then it snapped its wings to its side, diving into the water.
Still in awe, mostly everyone continued to stare out to where the sea foam circled the place where the creature had disappeared beneath the depths. The pokémon and Stellath continued their bow of reverence, until finally, Charizard lifted up his head and signaled to the others. One by one, they looked up again, still gazing out across the water.
Matt felt a presence behind him, up higher on the bank, and recalling that the creature had glanced up there, he turned. Standing there in the sea wind was Nicole, smiling with a gaze of understanding, as she gently clasped something around her neck with her right hand.
Then, with a triumphant grin, she ran down the bank, towards the ocean and down to the sand, where the pokémon and Stellath immediately jumped up, happy that she had returned, waving and saluting from their various locations before settling down again. Matt nudged Tai, who still seemed to be in shock. "Come on, you've been wondering where she was right? She's back."
Tai didn't answer. He just stared into space.
Matt groaned. "Tai!"
When Tai still didn't respond, Matt finally gave up and punched Tai in the face – hard enough to wake him up, but not so hard that Tai gained a new bruise.
POW!
"Ow! Okay, I'm okay!" Tai yelped in indignation, bringing a hand to cheek and rubbing it, glaring slightly at Matt. "Why are you not in shock any more!"
"Because Nicole can probably explain what's going on," Matt answered, grabbing Tai's wrist and dragging him forward, Tai rambling in protest about how cruel his best friend could be. Behind them, Gabumon followed, still worried about his partner.
To Matt, Nicole was the only answer. He knew she was psychic, and thus the best source to ask if both he and Tai were starting to have strange things occur around them.
He and Tai reached her just as others on the beach noticed her presence. He waved his arm in the air to attract her attention, and she turned, her serene expression changing to one of concern when she saw the pale faces of both Matt and Tai, as well as state of Gabumon behind them, which showed only confusion. "Did something happen to the two of you?" she asked.
"YES!" both boys cried out. All those surrounding them turned to stare once more, before returning to what they had been doing.
Nicole glanced at them, sighing. "I take that it was you guys screaming earlier. Should I ask?"
The two looked at each other for a moment, before Tai finally blurted out, "I'm lighting stuff on fire. By thinking about it!"
"And I was responsible for the fish incident earlier," Matt also confessed, flushing slightly. "Do you have any comments to help out?"
Nicole stared over both of them, first Tai, then Matt, whom she held her gaze on the longest. Then she nodded, before giving her attention to Gabumon. "Gabumon, can you go round up everyone here into a group? I need to talk to everyone together, it's really important."
Gabumon took a glance at Tai and Matt, still white from the events that had occurred earlier, before nodding a slightly confused confirmation at Nicole and running off.
Tai stared in disbelief. "You're not going to tell everyone, are you!"
"Well, no... but what I'm going to say is something that will probably explain your sudden abilities..."
"Well, out with it! I wanna' know how this is all happening before I lose my mind!" Tai shouted at the top of his lungs, jumping in the air with clenched fists and a crazed look to his eyes.
Matt and Nicole both gaped at him. "Tai, chill out! You're freaking out more than I did!" Matt replied, calmly holding in his urge to punch Tai again. "You're already losing your mind!"
"I can't chill out! This is not normal!" Then he turned to Matt and Nicole with a strange look to his face. "I'm not digivolving, am I? Or turning into a digimon?"
"Tai, stop it."
"GAAAHHH!"
Nicole raised her eyebrows. "He's taking it better than I did at least."
Matt just stared at Nicole. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Nope. I went crazy and my entire team had to sit on me."
Tai was still storming around and holding his head, trying to make sense of things, as other members of the group slowly trickled in towards Nicole's position. Each human and digimon paused and took a moment to gape in Tai's direction as they did so, glancing at Nicole with apologetic looks.
Agumon ran up to his partner, examining the still frantic boy, before sighing and jumping forward, tackling Tai to the sand. Izzy, who was walking past, shrugged at the misfortune that had become of his friend, before giving Nicole a determined look. "Okay, Gabumon said you had something to say that was important. What is it?"
"Yeah, anything that'll bring Tai's mind back," Sora added on as she sat down in the sand.
"And mine," Matt also mumbled.
Nicole gazed around to make sure everyone was accounted for, and smiled. "What I have to say is really important because... it explains what this world is, and why we're here. This is all stuff that Lugia told me, that big pokémon that just flew overhead... and it's by no means very easy to tell, so sit down and just listen..."
Twenty minutes and many comments and questions later, everyone was thoroughly bewildered by the sudden turn of events, though the Digidestined and digimon seemed the most accepting and least surprised of the fact that they had to, in basic terms, save the world.
"I can't believe it. We have to do it AGAIN!" Joe whined, putting his head in his hands. "This just happens too often, so much pressure..."
Nicole, Stellath, and the pokémon just gazed at each other uneasily, whereupon Nicole gave a weak laugh. "Ha... ha..."
"Well, think about it the bright way, we've been chosen to save the world!" Raichu suddenly piped up, bouncing in the air and practically singing.
Blastoise glared in Raichu's general direction. "Yeah, you have to be so chipper about it, don't you?"
"Don't be such a cynic," Scyther sighed, smiling slightly while also feeling pressured. "Understandably, as a team, we've done a lot of things, but saving worlds is something we've definitely never had to face before..."
"Ah, don't worry. You'll be inducted into the club of heroes who hath done so quickly enough!" Gomamon cheerfully exclaimed.
Then there was the entire problem concerning Lugia's note about how the power of inner abilities was multiplied by several hundred. Tai and Matt found some solace in that what had happened was not anything to be worried about, and they quickly told the others of what had occurred.
Everyone (minus Nicole, Tai, Matt, and Gabumon, who had heard everything earlier) stared in a mixture of shock and curiosity. "You – you – you... you can do that? Can you show us?" Izzy immediately asked, ecstatic to hear about something he had never heard of before.
"Yeah, it would be useful to show us," Gatomon added, some thoughts concerning fighting strategies coming to her mind.
With a deep breath, Tai turned around and focused on some dried wood that had washed up on shore some time earlier, thinking of it burning to cinders. Within moments, it had burst into flame, creating a bright glow that created vivid shadows on the beachside.
Awed silence. Then it was ruined slightly by a sigh from Matt, who promptly focused on a large rock to the side. Using his newfound abilities, he picked up the rock and dropped it on top of the flame, successfully snuffing it out.
While the others continued to gawp in more awe, Tai blinked and glared at Matt. "Hey!" With that, he focused again, and fire spouted from beneath the rock, coming from its original source of the wood. Matt responded by psychically picking up more rocks and completely burying the fire in it.
Then Tai rebelliously restarted the fire, which prompted more rocks from Matt. By this time, everyone else had finally let it sink in that whatever inner abilities they had would be strengthened and thus much more powerful. In the case of the humans, they were all suddenly aware that they might start exhibiting powers as well.
Soon, the one stone had become a large pile and whatever fire Tai was making resulted in a huge bonfire to overcome the many rocks. With an extremely uneasy sigh, Nicole decided that since everything was happening, she might as well reveal her own abilities. She focused on the entire pile, soon making all the rocks float in the air, and with a slight touch of humor, she made the rocks press against themselves, in a certain formation, until –
"A dancing rock man?" Joe stared, feeling slightly disturbed, speaking the thoughts of just about everyone else. He turned to Matt. "I know the lifting rocks was you now, but how about this?"
Matt shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. Unless..."
He turned to Nicole with a suspicious look, who blinked and grinned apologetically. Almost immediately, the rock man fell apart into a heap again.
She successfully earned the stares of all the Digidestined and digimon. Inwardly, she wanted to hit herself. And the extra energy boost just made it easier for me to make myself look even more like a freak...
"You have abilities too?" Biyomon asked, her eyes suddenly shining. "Wow, we're going to be a really cool group!"
Nicole blinked in surprise at the sudden cheerful comment.
Then Kari spoke up, her voice shaking slightly. "Um, so these powers are going to flare up to a point where we can control them in this world, right?"
TK, Patamon Sora, Biyomon, and Gatomon all looked at each other. They remembered well how two years earlier, Kari's abilities concerning Light had appeared in the sewers, re-energizing them and guiding them towards the rest of the group.
Nicole nodded. "I guess so, it's certainly been true for Tai, Matt, and me at least."
Without warning, Mimi shot up, standing straight with a disbelieving look. "So you mean that the rest of us may be having these like, weird things happen to us like Tai and Matt?" she practically demanded.
"Yeah..."
"This is crazy, it's like me saying, 'I want this beach to be covered with flowers' and it actually happening!" Mimi cried out, with a slight whine of hysteria.
Then without warning, a tulip bud popped out of the sand by her feet, growing and blooming into a full, yellow tulip flower.
Everyone gaped.
Mimi looked down at the flower, and after a pregnant pause, she stepped over the flower and sat back down in front of it. "I guess I'll be quiet now..." she said with a nervous laugh. "It's interesting how I was thinking about the tulip in the first place..."
Obviously, now the other Digidestined were somewhat determined to figure out what kind of abilities they had, and what sort of things they would be able to do.
Of course, Nicole's comments about the Legendaries and Dark Lords, as well as the prophecy put everyone on edge. She was surprised to hear that the Digidestined and digimon had heard their share of prophecies before, and were therefore interested in this new one.
"This prophecy... the bit about the Dark Lords reminds me of the four Dark Masters," TK commented.
Nicole, Stellath, and the pokémon looked at each other. "Um, who were they?" Venusaur asked, his large flower ruffling a bit.
Everyone else shuddered in memory. "Four very evil mega level digimon who conquered the Digiworld," Gatomon replied simply.
"We got to fight and defeat them," Sora added on. "It was fortunate that we had two megas of our own to combat them."
At this, Agumon and Gabumon, who were sitting next to each other, grinned and gave each other hi-fives. Tai and Matt also sat up a little straighter, obviously quite proud of having been able to help their partners digivolve up to the mega level in the first place.
Then Kari sat up and pointed out, "But we wouldn't have been able to defeat Piedmon without TK and Patamon."
"Yeah, that's true," Biyomon nodded.
"Otherwise, we'd all still be keychains!" Tentomon exclaimed making expansive gestures with his short pincers.
All the Digidestined and digimon laughed ruefully, remembering that incident. The others just glanced at each other and shrugged, guessing that again, this event must have happened in the past. Then those laughing sobered down, trying to think more along the lines of the prophecy.
"Hey, there was that line about those four who would combat directly..." Izzy mused, drawing some lines idly in the sand. He found himself making a picture of his crest, at which he smiled in a nostalgic manner before seeming to come to a conclusion about something. "It mentioned, Friendship, Victory, Loyalty, and Queen. So Matt's one of them..."
Matt bolted upright, staring at Izzy. "Wait, what do you mean, I'm one of them?"
Izzy pointed at the crest he had drawn in the sand. "You have the Crest of Friendship, right? So, if the four who are going to combat directly are all identified by one of those four words, you're obviously the one who fits with 'Friendship'. Gabumon is probably another one just because he's your partner and he's so loyal to you anyway."
Everyone stared in awe at Izzy for a brief moment, before giving out shouts of congratulations. "Izzy, you're a genius, you know that?" Tai grinned, applauding.
"You always say that," Izzy answered, trying to hide a smile of pleasure at being complimented.
The only people somewhat in shock were Matt and Gabumon. They glanced at each other, feeling the weight of Izzy's words slowly settle down onto them. "Somehow, we always get pulled into these things, huh?" Matt commented, feeling somewhat like a ball of lead at the moment.
"It seems so," came Gabumon's slightly shocked reply.
At that moment, Raichu raised her paw. "Question! What do you mean by crests? Is it something to do with the Digiworld?"
The Digidestined and digimon looked around at each other, unsure of how to put their answer. The idea of the crests was something that they had accepted, but explaining they always found it somewhat hard to explain it.
Then Tai pointed at Izzy. "You do the explaining, Knowledge boy."
Izzy sighed, wondering yet somehow knowing just how Tai had come up with that nickname. "Well, our crests are like the physical embodiments of a particular personality trait that really defines each of the eight of us Digidestined. While our digimon can naturally digivolve up to Champion level with the help of a digivice, we didn't have enough energy to help them past that to the Ultimate and Mega levels. So, with the crests, whenever we exhibit that personality trait or when we have come to terms with it enough, we can channel that energy through the crest to help our digimon digivolve." Then he looked down with a slight gaze of resignment. "Well, actually the crests were destroyed in the final battle two years ago, so we don't have them anymore. Fortunately, by that time, the power of the crests were within us and we didn't need them physically. And about nine months later, we even gave up that power to ensure that the Digiworld had protection. But we still remember what our crests were, and it affects us to this day."
Scyther nodded in understanding. "I see. So what are your crests, then?"
Izzy shrugged. "Well, Tai just mentioned mine. I have the crest of Knowledge."
"And I have Friendship," Matt interjected slightly, aware that the pokémon, Stellath, and Nicole probably knew this by now.
Tai grinned when the non digi-related group looked at him. "I've got the crest of Courage."
"It means that he's stubborn and reckless," Joe answered offhandedly, resulting in a shout of indignation from Tai, which caused everyone else to laugh. "Anyway, I have Reliability."
"Mine's Love," Sora added on, smiling.
"And I have Sincerity," Mimi also said, smiling as she idly played with the tulip behind her. She was still somewhat in shock, surprised by the fact that she had made it grow in the first place.
"Yeah, and she's always sincere!" TK commented with a bright grin. "Mine is the crest of Hope."
"And then there's me, with the crest of Light," Kari finished.
All the pokémon plus Nicole nodded in understanding, with Stellath thinking to herself. Then the dragon sighed and curled up her wings into a little ball around herself, from where she sat perched on Charizard's head.
From there, everyone sat for a moment, trying to think about what else could identify people for the last two words from the prophecy. The entire thing made it seem something like a riddle that had to be solved.
After the silence, Joe sat up, rubbing the back of his head, unsure of what he was about to ask. "Uh, so... do any of you guys have certain things that describe you?"
"Yup," Charizard immediately answered, waving a claw casually while twitching his tail, "See, there's Nicole, who's scary, Stellath is practical, Haunter is funny, Raichu is hyper, Venusaur is knowledgeable, Blastoise is sarcastic and at times really annoying, Scyther is really nice, and I'm the cool one."
Blastoise got up and glaring hard at the fire pokémon, pointed her water cannons at him pertaining to the comment about herself, while everyone else stared in disbelief.
Charizard raised both claws up in the air defensively. "Hey, I'm kidding! Although a lot of it can be true."
Stellath made a strange growl in her throat and whapped Charizard's head with her tail. While Charizard looked indignant, Stellath sighed, turning to Kari.
"I noticed something when you were all saying your names and crests," the golden dragon commented. "Kari, can you say your name and crest? Full name?"
Kari blinked. "They're the same thing," she answered, not quite understanding what Stellath was trying to make clear.
All the pokémon and Nicole looked confused. "Um, how does that work?" Scyther asked, speaking aloud the thoughts of that group.
Kari sighed. "Well, my name's Hikari. And so..."
Before she could continue, Venusaur suddenly stomped, a gaze of understanding on his face. "I get it! Because this world translates practically everything depending on how you listen to it, if we listen closely, we can find what names mean! And in Kari's case, Hikari is her full name, but if you think about it translated, that's what all the Japanese people are saying when they say the word 'light'! Hikari is light!"
The Digidestined and digimon all glanced at each other and nodded with understanding, although to them, what Venusaur had pointed out had been known to them, since they were native speakers of Japanese. Matt sighed. "All right then, so if we say Hikari - "
The others listened closely. Sure enough, it translated to the word light in their ears.
Everyone looked at each other, before Raichu jumped up into the air, cheering. "Whoo! We're right!" she shouted picking up one of Venusaur's front legs and dancing with it.
Charizard grinned. "See what I mean?" he snickered, pointing at Raichu.
Raichu stopped dancing and turned to Charizard with a devilish look to her face. She put her front paws on her hips, flicking her long whip-tail dangerously while letting her cheeks spark.
Again, Charizard held up both claws defensively. "Okay, okay!"
Raichu stopped her threatening gaze and returned to doing a little dance on the sand by Venusaur's foot.
The Digidestined and digimon all glanced at each other at the behavior of the pokémon, but said nothing. A couple took quick looks at Nicole, who seemed perfectly used to the jabbering of her non-human friends.
Playfully, Sora turned to Tai. "Hey Tai, say your full name slowly," she requested innocently.
Tai saw no reason why not to. "Okay. Ta-i-chi. Taichi."
Although all the Japanese speakers already knew the correlation, the others could only listen and blink when they realized what his name meant.
Nicole blinked and raised an eyebrow. "Thick one?"
Sora grinned as she glanced back over to Tai, who was giving everyone a confused look as to why they were turning red with held in laughter. "Suits you, Tai."
Tai blushed when it hit him. "Sora! That's not funny!"
Charizard listened carefully to when Tai said Sora's name. Then he stared in revelation. "Hey Sora! You name means sky!"
Sora nodded, smiling. "Yup."
"Guys," Joe said with a serious tone, trying to bring some order back to the general atmosphere. "As amusing as this all is, we're still no closer to figuring out who else those 'Chosen Ones' are."
"But Joe, you never know! This could be useful!" Gomamon protested, tugging on Joe's pant leg.
The entire group sat for a few moments, unsure of whether to continue on the train of thought, or think of other such things.
The silence was interrupted by a very loud yawn coming from Charizard, who had widened his jaws considerably as he inhaled, before letting out a lot of smoke through his mouth. He settled back into his resting position, glancing around with half-open eyes.
Nicole narrowed her eyes as she took a look at Charizard, before taking a few moments to check on the well being of the other pokémon. Venusaur had set himself down in the sand, and was alternating opening one eye at a time while allowing the other to rest; Scyther was rubbing her eyes carefully with the back of one of her blades; Blastoise just looked drowsy; Raichu's ears were drooping even though she was still slightly hyper; and Haunter never needed to sleep so he looked fine. Even a glance at Stellath told her that the group was sleepy; the dragon was furling and unfurling her wings, stretching and blinking a lot, as though she didn't want to relax and let herself rest.
Nicole sighed, looking up at the late afternoon sun. She remembered it being early evening when she had gone down to the park, which of course had been hours ago because of the fact they had popped up in Japan and ended up in this strange world...
Then it hit her.
She immediately took a watch out of her pocket (because she had been too lazy earlier to put it on) and checked the time. Her jaw dropped. Why am I not tired? Oh dear Mew...
She placed it back into her pocket, not really feeling a need to put it on at the moment. Then she stood up and turned to face the pokémon and Stellath. "Really sorry to break this up, but..." she began, before taking a deep breath. "Evidently, this world has the same time difference as America from Japan. So, Team! If you need to sleep, go ahead. It's past one in the morning U.S. time."
Five pokémon and one dragon let their eyes widen, and stared at each other in shock. Then in unison, they all stood and left the circle to find a nice warm place to sleep in the sand.
Haunter gave out a hearty guffaw. "I feel so lucky," he grinned, being the only pokémon left in the circle. Being a ghost type, he had no need of sleep.
Unsurprisingly, it was Izzy among the Digidestined who realized this. This enlightenment only served to increase his interest in the pokémon, due to his strong curiosity and want for knowledge.
Then, with a shrug, Tai stood up. "I guess that since six of our group has left to sleep, we should break the meeting and go get dinner. We'll leave tomorrow to go search in the forest for this Legendary..." he broke off and looked at Nicole, unsure of the names.
Nicole sighed, feeling slightly uncomfortable at what she could tell was the unwritten consent of everyone else of Tai's leadership. He was the leader of the Digi group after all, so it made sense, but she had her own team to worry about as well. Quietly, she answered, "Moltres, the Legendary fire bird pokémon, who is said to be found in a forest... fire..." she suddenly faltered at the words 'forest fire'.
Everyone else also slowly let their faces pale at those words. Slowly, the meaning of what had been said sunk into everyone, as they realized what sort of danger this resulted in.
Wordlessly, Matt picked up a small branch and handed it to Tai, giving him a pointed look. Tai lit it on fire, and blinked, unsure of what else Matt had wanted him to do.
Matt groaned. "Put it out, of course!"
"Oh yeah, right," Tai mumbled, before focusing on the piece of wood. The flame immediately snuffed out.
There was a collective sigh from around the group, as though a bated breath of tension had been released into relief. Tai blinked and stared at everyone. "What was that for?" he asked, confused.
"You can control the fire," Matt muttered irritably. "Think for once."
It took a moment for the answer to hit Tai. He realized that by his ability to control the fire, he could possibly stop any threat that the forest fire would cause (if that was really how they had to find Moltres). He suddenly felt very stupid. "Oh," he said helplessly.
"But let's please search for potential fiery birds without the forest fire," Joe suddenly interjected, voicing his own concern.
"Or Tai could light the entire forest on fire, because that would be a forest fire, and we can look in there!" Gomamon shouted his idea before Joe could go on any further.
Joe glared at his partner. "Didn't I just say 'without the forest fire'?" he snapped back, unable to believe what his partner was saying.
"But if you can only find Moltres in a forest fire, then you have to have one!" Gomamon retorted.
"Stop!"
Everyone turned to TK, who was sighing and rubbing his temples. "How about we follow Joe's idea first, then switch to Gomamon's if Joe's doesn't work?" he suggested.
There was a moment of awed silence.
Then Patamon, who had returned to his spot on TK's head (though minus the hat) grinned. "See, I told you that you've grown up!"
Tai then nodded, resuming his usual leader role. "All right then. We're spending the night on the beach, and tomorrow morning we head into the forest. So, let's get dinner and start camping out, guys!"
With a whoop of acknowledgment, everyone broke from their clustered group to go start on dinner things and such, leaving a slightly bewildered Haunter and uncomfortable Nicole sitting together.
Nicole was uncomfortable because of the entire leader problem. But I'm a leader too! What am I now, a messenger Pidgey? She thought irritably. Oh, I can't wait for our first battle, then I can get back to commanding my team...
The thought of competition and battling again made Nicole smile, remembering the rush of giving commands, and adrenaline pumping through her blood, giving her the strength to win. The feelings of camaraderie with the team, the times spent fighting together, the knowledge used in supporting each other, and the complete emotion of victory flashing around them, the glory, the success, the accomplishment...
Victory was always a wonderful feeling, something that helped Nicole move out of her slight angry state. She finally stood straight, shaking her head free of the frustration that had been plaguing her the past few minutes.
"Hey Nicole, I'm going to go use Hypnosis on the team. Scyther's groaning about some sleep-deprivation induced headache – no joke, those are her exact words – and Blastoise is complaining about Charizard's snores," Haunter suddenly said, glancing over to where the pokémon had made their resting place. Nicole knew that Haunter could sense and hear better than she could, and she couldn't sense anything wrong with Haunter's intentions (him and his penchant for pranks), so she nodded in approval.
With that, Haunter left to his self-proclaimed duty, while Nicole stood by herself for a moment, pondering what to do.
Hours later, when night had fallen and stars sprinkled the sky, after a day of strange events (The fire of Tai, Matt's psychic powers, and Mimi's ability to control plants, it seemed), everyone lay peacefully slumbering about the beach, with Joe and Gomamon on watch. The two of them bickered while sitting at the campfire (courtesy of Tai), glancing around every so often to make sure no evil monster was coming to destroy the group.
They failed to notice a shadow behind them, growing larger and slowly encompassing them.
In a whisper, a word was spoken, and the two of them instantly fell asleep.
"All right, it's done," Haunter announced, turning towards the person who had commanded him to do the deed.
Nicole sighed as she quietly got up from where she had been feigning sleep against Charizard, brushing off sand and a few bits of ash. Then she quietly began sneaking around the camp, to each and every being there.
Matt was the closest, curled up with Gabumon as a pillow while keeping one hand on TK, so she began with him. Carefully, Nicole placed a hand on his forehead, concentrating on releasing her own energy. Slowly, she felt the energy circle within her, releasing in bursts of blue light that made her body flicker. Ignoring this, she focused on placing some into the boy she was touching.
She felt slightly tired and a bit weaker once she was done, but nonetheless, she was content with her action. Matt was now somewhat stronger in his gift.
Silently, she did the same with each and every member of the group, from all the humans, to the digimon, Stellath, and even the pokémon. By the end, she felt very tired and ready to sleep as she approached Haunter.
Haunter gave her a pointed look of concern. "You're weakening yourself, you know."
Nicole shook her head. "I would rather train myself into becoming powerful than cheat and suddenly be powerful, like has suddenly happened in this world. Besides," she winked at her ghost friend, "This means that the energy has been spread out, everyone is stronger, and so if we end up getting attacked, we're more likely to win."
Haunter groaned as Nicole approached him. "Is that all you think about, battling? What about games and fun stuff?"
"That too," Nicole replied nonchalantly, reaching forward to touch Haunter. To her slight surprise, she found that her hand went right through the pokémon. She frowned as she dropped her hand. "Haunter, please make yourself temporarily solid."
Haunter did so, with a look of incredulity. He stared at her dropped hand. "You foresaw my trick!"
Nicole laughed as she touched her pokémon, focusing. "I've lived with you for about six years now, you'd think I'd be wary about getting my hand stuck inside of you!"
It was true. Haunter had a tendency to like to become solid right as someone was partially through him, causing the unfortunate being to become stuck in Haunter.
With a weak flicker, Nicole felt some energy flow into Haunter. She felt fatigued and exhausted, as though she had not slept for days on end. Slowly, she felt herself flop on the ground, too tired to move further.
Haunter sighed as he picked up his trainer, moving her back to where she had been pretending to sleep earlier. "You overexerted yourself," he admonished. "Plus, with you and your insomniac tendencies and the fact that you already have your sleep schedule messed up - "
"All the sleep thing means," Nicole stated, "Is that I will not have nearly as much trouble adjusting to this new time zone as the rest of the team will. I actually have to thank the fact that I stayed up all night earlier."
Haunter glared, something he only did when he was concerned about someone (usually Nicole). "Okay fine. Anyway, I'll watch like I usually do, you sleep."
"And I'll let you know if I have any dreams I want you to eat tomorrow."
"Like usual."
It was something of routine that if she had a specific, rather stupid dream that she really didn't want to remember, she would let Haunter put her to sleep and eat it. In some ways, the ghost pokémon was the reason she could keep sane at times, despite he being a rather insane pokémon at times. Plus, Haunter had always done night-watch for Nicole and the team during the days of the pokémon journey, which was why the idea of the Digidestined taking shifts during the night seemed somewhat surprising, yet understandable. She hadn't been able to convince Tai out of it, and the boy had just assigned Joe to it and asked the glasses wearing boy to wake him up later.
Nicole set her teeth slightly. Despite the fact that he must have known what he was doing, Tai just plain annoyed her...
The thankful word of Hypnosis from Haunter released her from her thoughts and worries, letting her go on into peaceful slumber.
This Chapter's NG:
Lots of Fire and Tai Loses It
Still unable to believe the sudden show of strange powers, Tai turned to the side and saw a small bunch of seaweed that had washed up on shore. He glared at it, and imagined the entire thing going up in flames.
A moment later, the piece of seaweed became a mini bonfire, before turning into small bits of ash.
Tai gaped. Then he turned to Matt, who was also gaping.
Then, Tai suddenly grinned with an insane look on his face. Matt broke off his gaping stare, suddenly confused as to why Tai had gained a sense of, as he could only put it, freakiness.
"Fire... fire... ahahahahaha... pretty flames..." Tai was mumbling, making cackling sounds and rubbing his hands together.
"Tai, stop it. You're insane," Matt tried desperately to calm his best friend down and stop him from doing anything stupid.
At that, Tai burst out into horribly loud, devilish laughter that attracted the attention of just about everyone on the beach. He began running around screaming "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" at the top of his lungs, crashing into various people ("Hey, watch the shirt! It's dry-clean only!" yelled Mimi) and setting random objects alight ("AAAHH! MY LAPTOP CASE!" screeched Izzy). Matt turned to Gabumon, and together they began chasing after the insane boy who had become a danger to himself.
Then, a large shadow appeared over the beach. The draconic creature looked down, saw the source of the commotion, and promptly sat atop Tai, successfully squashing the boy and stopping him from causing any further damage.
Lugia sweatdropped. "I hope someone with this unstable a mind is not in charge of this group..."
Everyone shifted uncomfortably. Lugia just sweatdropped again.