I haven't forgotten about this story, don't worry. I've had to take a step back from it for a little while. I am working on multiple stories and if you follow any of them, you know the one is for mature audiences and is written in a different style than this is. It is very difficult for me to write both at the same time. I have to set aside time for one and then time for the other on different days so they don't bleed into each other.
I have a poll set up on my profile page right now. I want to hear from you as to what you want to see from me in 2021. I have ideas for a few stories in mind. So when you're done here, go on over to my profile and take a few moments for the poll. It's going to be up through March and then I'll go from there.
There was a knock on Yume's bedroom door in the morning.
"Yume," Seiji called from the other side. "Wake up. We're going to soccer practice. Do you want to come?"
He opened the door and stuck his head in. Yume was curled up on her bed holding her sketchbook. She was sniffling.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Seiji asked, coming in.
Yume dashed her hands against her face. "Bad dreams."
"Bad dreams?" Seiji sat down with her. "Wanna talk about it?"
Yume shook her head.
"You sure?" Seiji asked.
Yume nodded.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Seiji asked. "I won't tell Mom or Dad. Or Ichiro or Fuyu."
Yume sniffled again, but didn't say anything.
"Okay," said Seiji. He stood up. "Do you want to go back to sleep until we get back from practice?"
"No," Yume whined a little. "I don't think I could sleep."
"Then how about you come along with us? We can go on an adventure." Seiji got up. "Come on. It'll be fun." He left the room.
Yume got up and got dressed. She walked out to see her brothers still getting ready.
Ichiro was getting water out of the refrigerator when he noticed her. "Yume, can you go see if Tai is ready? He's usually over here by now."
"Let him oversleep," said Fuyu. "Maybe we can actually win against his team for once."
"Don't you want to win fair and square, Fuyu?" asked Ichiro.
"You and playing fair," muttered Fuyu. "I want to win for once."
"Then try harder," said Ichiro.
Yume saw this as a good opportunity to find out if Wizardmon and Gatomon came back last night. She got her backpack and her shoes and went next door.
"Good morning, Yume," said Mrs. Kamiya when she answered the door.
"Hi, Mrs. Kamiya. My brothers sent me over to see if Tai's ready for practice."
"Let's go see," said Mrs. Kamiya, letting her in.
Tai was on the phone, Kari next to him. Yume ran over to them.
"No running in the house," Mrs. Kamiya scolded automatically.
"Sorry!" Yume called over her shoulder. She focused on the siblings. "Did they come back last night? Where are they?"
Kari shook her head.
Yume began to tear up. "No."
The doorbell rang.
"I wonder who would be dropping by unannounced," said Mrs. Kamiya. "Your brothers know you're over here, right, Yume?"
Yume nodded.
Mrs. Kamiya went to answer the door. "Coming! Hello?" She let out a scream of terror.
The kids gasped and saw three ghosts with their mouths open flying towards them.
The bedroom door opened. "Pepper breath!" A large fireball hit the three ghosts.
"Agumon!" they cried happily.
"Tai! Kari!" Mrs. Kamiya was dragged into the hallway and more ghosts floated in.
"Bakemon!" Tai turned to his Digimon. "Agumon!"
Agumon attacked again.
"Come on!" Tai pulled Kari and Yume back into the bedroom. Agumon followed. Tai locked the door and pushed his weight against it. The door rattled as the ghosts, Bakemon, tried to get in. "We need to get our mom and get out of here."
"I can digivolve," Agumon suggested.
"Not in here, you can't," said Tai. "It's too dangerous. You could hurt someone in another part of the building."
Yume ran over to the window.
"Yume! Come back!" Tai ordered.
Yume didn't listen. She opened the door and slipped out onto the balcony. She looked over the railing and saw more Bakemon and all the residents of the apartment building and the surrounding buildings being forced out onto the street by the Digimon. She ran back inside.
"They're taking everyone away!" she cried.
"What?" Tai asked.
"Oh, no!" cried Kari.
"Wait, if they're taking everyone away. . ." Tai had an idea. "Agumon, get ready to digivolve!"
"Okay," Agumon said with a nod.
"Kari, Yume, you're gonna need to be quick and jump when I tell you to," Tai told them.
The girls nodded, not sure what was going to happen, but they were trusting Tai.
"Agumon digivolve to . . ." Agumon stated to glow and change size and shape.
"Jump now!" Tai ordered, already jumping for his Digimon's shoulder.
The girls followed.
"Greymon!" The huge Digimon burst through the floors and the walls. He let out a roar.
Yume found she was sitting on the shoulder of a giant orange dinosaur with a brown head and blue stripes. Greymon had horns on his nose and one sticking out on each side of his head. Yume remembered what Kari said about Agumon getting really big and fighting a giant bird. Yume had drawn Greymon in her sleep! She remembered seeing Greymon when she was younger!
Outside, the people screamed at his sudden appearance.
"Oh, no! Another monster!" they heard Mrs. Kamiya screamed.
"Don't worry!" Tai shouted back. "This monster's on our side! Get my mom, Greymon!"
Greymon started forward.
"Shadow scythe!"
A black shadow hit Greymon in the arm just below where the kids were sitting on his shoulder. Greymon roared and pulled back and went down on all fours.
"Well, Greymon, it seems like your time is up." The comment came from a small gray robed figure with no distinguishing features in a red hood and cape. There was a small gray skull surrounded by a fragmented circle on the hood and the inside of the cape was gray with symbols. He wore an eye pendant and he was carrying a scythe and chain. His face couldn't be seen, just two narrow blue eyes. "Get the rest of the crowd!"
The Bakemon started moving the crowd again.
"No!" screamed Mrs. Kamiya. She was forcing her way against the crowd. "Tai! Kari!"
Greymon turned his head. "Nova blast!" A massive fireball was launched at the hooded Digimon, but he disappeared. The attack took out the corner of a building instead. "Sorry, Tai, I'm losing it. We'll get your mom later. Right now we've got to get out of here." He got up and ran away from the evil Digimon.
"Mommy!" screamed Kari.
"Mom, we'll be back!" Tai promised.
Greymon cleared several blocks in a matter of steps because of his large size. He then began to glow and shrink. The kids slid off when they were close enough to the ground.
Agumon knelt down.
"You okay?" Tai asked.
"His attack packed a wallop," said Agumon. "Phantomon isn't one you mess with."
Tai knelt down. "Come on, buddy. We can't stay here."
Agumon got on Tai's back.
"We need to find a safe place to hide," said Tai. He started running with the two girls following.
It felt like they were running forever. The streets were deserted. The evil Digimon had already been through this part of the city. But they kept going. They wanted to be sure that they weren't being followed.
"You okay, Agumon?" Tai asked.
"I've felt better," Agumon answered wearily.
"Tai!"
"Huh?"
They turned around.
"Up here!"
From the second floor window of a building under construction was a spikey blond haired boy in a green shirt.
"Matt, is that you?" Tai called up. "Hey, we gotta talk!"
"The door's unlocked on the side," the boy, Matt, told them.
They ran around to the side of the building and went in. There was a stairway leading up to where Matt was. They went up and found Matt and a Digimon. The boys went over to talk by another set of stairs while the girls tended to Agumon. The other Digimon joined them.
"Hey, Gabumon," Agumon greeted. "Kari, Yume, this is Gabumon. He's Matt's Digimon partner."
Matt's Digimon was yellow with reptilian features, but was wearing blue striped fur pelt. He had a horn coming out of his head and a blue and pink design on his belly.
"This is Kari, Tai's sister, and Yume," Agumon introduced.
"Nice to meet you," the girls said.
Kari rubbed at Agumon's injured arm. "You feel any better?" she asked.
"A lot better," said Agumon. "Thanks, Kari."
Yume went through her backpack and found some bandages. "Here. This could help."
"What?" Matt yelled. "You're kidding me!"
His outburst caught the attention of the others.
"No, it's true," said Tai. "Kari's the eighth child. And Yume is the ninth!"
"The ninth?"
"There's another?" Gabumon asked. He looked at Yume.
Yume nodded. "Tai has my Digivice and crest."
"But who are your Digimon?"
"Gatomon is Kari's and we think Wizardmon is Yume's," Agumon answered.
"Wow, didn't see that coming," said Gabumon.
Kari wrapped a bandage around Agumon's arm. "Poor Agumon, you're always getting beat up." She tied it off. "There. How does that feel?"
"You're getting good at this," said Agumon.
"No way!" Tai shouted, getting their attention.
"Way!" Matt countered. "I saw the whole thing."
"That creepazoid! He's cut off the whole entire district!" Tai yelled.
"Mm-hmm. It's that crazy fog bank of his," said Matt.
"This is insane!" Tai continued to shout. "Holding thousands of people prisoner, just so he can find the eighth child."
"And there's no telling what he'll do if he doesn't find her," said Matt. "And if he finds out there's a ninth."
Tai kicked an empty soda can in anger. He sat down.
The soda can bounced over to Kari's feet.
"This is all my fault, isn't it?" Kari asked her brother.
Yume walked up behind her.
"Huh?"
"It's all happening because he's looking for me, right?" asked Kari. "That's why Mom and Dad and everybody -."
"Now don't say that. It's not your fault," said Tai, getting up and going to his sister. He put his hands on her shoulders. "It's just the way things are. It's called destiny. Don't you worry. I'm gonna bring Mom and Dad home safe and sound and your little buddy, Gatomon, too." He gave her a smile.
"And Wizardmon, too?" Yume asked hopefully.
Tai looked at her, his happy expression slipping. "We honestly don't know where Wizardmon is."
Yume hung her head and sniffed. "I knew it. I knew something was wrong."
"Hey, don't cry," said Tai. "I'll get our families back and then we'll look for him. There's a good chance that he managed to get away. Okay?"
Yume dashed her hand over her eyes. "Okay," she said quietly.
Tai straightened up and looked over his shoulder. "Hay, Matt! Do me a favor and look after them until I get back."
"Uh, sure," Matt agreed uncertainly. "No problem."
Tai turned back to the girls. "Kari, Yume, I need you to be big strong girls for me while I'm away."
"Okay," Kari said reluctantly. "Please be careful."
Tai smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Hey! Aren't I always!" He checked his Digivice. "Okay, it's 7:30 am. Give me two hours. If we don't make it back by then, you guys get out of here. Let's go, Agumon!"
"Okay!"
They started running.
"Be careful, man!" Matt called after him.
"See you soon! Everything is going to be all right!" Tai and Agumon tripped down the stairs.
"I hope so," said Kari, holding her whistle.
Matt sighed.
Yume looked up at Matt. "So what do we do now?" she asked.
"We wait," said Matt.
"Okay," she said quietly. "Can I draw?"
"Uh, sure. Don't see why not," Matt said awkwardly.
Yume turned to Kari. "You wanna draw?"
"Not really," replied Kari.
Yume unpacked her backpack for the sketchbook and the crayons. She found a place to sit on the floor and started drawing.
Gabumon looked over the girl's shoulder to see what she was drawing.
Yume noticed. "Do you wanna draw, too?" she asked.
"No, thanks," said Gabumon. "I don't think my hands could hold those crayons very well."
Yume looked at the nub of pink in her hand. Her crayons got used a lot. "Okay. Do you wanna look? I got lots of other drawings."
"You sure?" asked Gabumon.
Yume nodded. "I show my brothers when they want to look."
Mentioning brothers got Matt's attention. "You have brothers?"
"Yep!" Yume chirped. "Three older brothers. Mommy says I'm her dream come true! She always wanted a girl." She handed them the sketchbook. "Here. I know they're not all that good, but I tried really, really hard."
"Yume's the best drawer in our class," said Kari.
Matt and Gabumon started flipping through the pages.
"Hey, Matt, doesn't this one look like Kuwagamon?" Gabumon asked.
Matt looked at the giant red beetle drawing. "Yeah, it does." He flipped to the next page. "And this one looks like Monzaemon!"
The picture was of a giant yellow and white teddy bear. The next was a lion man.
"And that's Leomon!" Matt exclaimed.
"I dream them," said Yume.
Matt and Gabumon stared at her in disbelief.
"You dream them?" asked Gabumon.
Yume nodded. "Sometimes I draw them in my sleep."
"That explains some of these," Matt muttered, having noticed the colorful scribbles on previous pages. He turned another page and gasped.
"What's wrong, Matt?" asked Gabumon.
"This one looks like . . ." Matt started to say.
Gabumon looked at the drawing. He gasped, too. "That looks like Myotismon!"
They were looking at the black shadow drawing. There weren't any defining features, but it had a distinct shape of a person with large shoulders, high collar, and cape.
"He laughs in my dreams," Yume said quietly. "It scares me."
Kari went to sit with Yume. "It's okay. Hey, Matt, what are you and Gabumon doing here?"
"Oh, my dad told us to hide here," said Matt. "He went to the TV station. He's going to try to make contact with people outside of the city."
"I didn't know we were so close to it," said Yume. She turned around to look out where the windows would eventually be installed. Outside and across the road was the large TV station building. On either end it look like a normal building, but the middle of the building was towers connected by pedestrian bridges on different levels. Off-centered was the unique spherical observation platform at the top floor.
They lapsed into awkward silence again. Yume kept herself busy by drawing pink flowers and purple stars.
"So, uh, how did you find out about being the eighth child?" asked Matt.
"Well, Yume and I were playing at my house and we decided to go outside on the balcony," said Kari. "That's when Wizardmon appeared with my Digivice."
"Wizardmon, huh?" said Matt. "Is that your Digimon's name?"
"No, no," Kari quickly corrected. "Mine is Gatomon. Wizardmon is like her best friend. He's Yume's Digimon. But he's gone now. He got captured by the bad Digimon. It must be awful losing your best friend. My mommy got captured by them, too." She gasped and brightened. "But not my daddy! Do you think maybe my daddy got away?"
Matt was surprised by the question and didn't know how to answer.
"He's all right, don't you think?" asked Kari, getting to her feet. "And Mommy will be, too, 'cause Tai's gonna rescue her, right?"
"Uh, sure he will, Kari," said Matt, turning away. "But let's remember Tai's just one kid and he's fighting hundreds."
That caused Kari to burst into tears. "I want Mommy to come back!" She dropped back down with her face in her hands.
Gabumon turned to Matt. "Nice work. Have some compassion! Can't you see she's worried about her family? You're worried about yours, aren't you?"
Yume rubbed Kari's back. "Don't worry, Kari. Heroes always face impossible things. And they always win." She looked up at Matt and glared at him for making Kari cry. "It's gonna be okay."
Everyone lapsed into silence. Kari would sniffle now and then, but no one said anything. After a while, Matt took out his Digivice to check the time. It beeped in his hand.
"Huh. Your brother should have been back by now. Where is he?" Matt started to pace.
"Hey! Is anybody there?" a girl called from outside.
Matt and Gabumon ran outside. Kari and Yume followed after them, but stayed back in the building.
"Sora, what's up?" Matt called.
"Matt! Thank goodness!" the girl, Sora, cried.
Yume looked briefly at the girl with the reddish short hair, blue hat, yellow shirt, teal pants, and pink gloves. She then stared in wonder at the giant orange bird behind her. It had more of a snout than a beak and had teeth sticking out the top. There were ribbon like feathers above its blue eyes that looked like long flames. By one foot was a gray fairy.
"Myotismon's rounded up the whole district," Sora told them. "He's holding everybody at the convention center."
The girls walked closer.
"So what do we do now?" asked Matt.
"I have a suggestion," said a voice from above them. Phantomon was floating above them. "You see I never understood why the master is wasting all this time searching for the eighth child when it would be so much easier just to destroy you all!"
The ground erupted and a giant green dinosaur crawled out of the ground. It had a white horn between its eyes and several more going down its back. It had large black and red striped horns coming out of its shoulders and more red stripes going down its back.
"Say hello to Tuskmon and watch out, avoiding his razor sharp horns is no easy tusk. Heh, heh, sorry," Phantomon said at his poor joke. He raised his scythe. "And here's the second member of our tag team."
A swirling green vortex appeared in the sky and a giant green praying mantis with metal blades for arms and red antenna and markings on its eyeless face came flying out with a high-pitched wail.
"Snimon, a deadly praying mantis Digimon, which is so appropriate because you are all about to become his prey," said Phantomon.
"Watch out!" Sora yelled.
Matt turned to his Digimon. "Gabumon!"
"Gabumon digivolve to . . ."
Gabumon's form shifted and became larger.
"Garurumon!"
A large white and blue wolf Digimon took Gabumon's place. He had a white belly and light blue fur everywhere else with dark blue tiger stripes all over. He also had blade-like spines that stuck up from his shoulders and hips that were tipped in dark blue and more of them around his head. He also had magenta nails and a very long curling tail.
Garurumon pounced on Tuskmon.
"Don't worry, we can take these guys," said the bird Digimon, taking off after Snimon.
The children could only watch as the Digimon fought.
"Twin sickles!" Two pink arcs of light came off of Snimon's blades and the bird Digimon had to dodge.
Tuskmon punched Garurumon up and over the building.
"Hey, you're going the wrong way!" Matt shouted to him.
Phantomon threw the chain of his scythe and it wrapped around Matt's neck. He flew down and tried to hit Matt with his scythe. Matt managed to duck out of the way.
"Get back!" Sora had a found a stick and tried to hit Phantomon with it.
Phantomon turned around and sliced the stick in half and knocked Sora back.
The bird Digimon began to glow.
"Birdramon digivolve to . . ."
"Garudamon!"
She had turned into a gigantic red humanoid bird with giant talons for hands and feet. Her wings were red and yellow, red stripes going across the lower yellow feathers. She also had yellow hair that was tied with red fabric, a red mask with blue markings that covered her face and upper hooked beak and single white feather tipped in blue stuck up from the top of her head. A splotch of white feathers went from her neck and down her chest.
Snimon hit Garudamon with a twin sickles attack again and knocked her into the building.
Kari let out a scream and looked around.
"Kind of chokes you up, doesn't it?" Phantomon asked casually. The Digimon was pulling on the chain wrapped around Matt's neck, choking him.
Off to the side, Sora was on the ground next to the gray fairy. Both were looking at Matt in horror.
"Stop it now!" Kari screamed at the evil Digimon. She screwed up her face and screamed louder. "That's enough!"
The fighting paused.
Kari started to walk forward.
"Kari, no!" Yume grabbed her arm. She shook her head at her friend. "No, don't."
Kari gently pushed Yume's hand off. She stepped forward. "It's me you want," she told Phantomon. "I'm the eighth child. If you just stop hurting my friends I'll come with you quietly, wherever you want."
"What refreshingly helpful attitude," said Phantomon. "It's a deal." He gestured with his scythe.
Snimon flew away and Tuskmon burrowed underground again. The chain around Matt's neck unraveled and he dropped to his knees gasping. Garurumon rejoined them and stood protectively over Matt.
"I'm ready," Kari said resignedly.
A black bubble formed around Kari.
"Hurry, Matt, stop her!" screamed Sora.
Matt scrambled forward, but Kari was already floating away. "No, Kari! You don't know what you're doing! Kari! You can't give yourself up to Myotismon! He'll destroy you and gain control over both worlds! Kari!"
She didn't look back at them.
"Oh, no, Matt, what are we going to do?" Sora asked.
"I don't know," said Matt. "Tai is going to be so mad at me."
Kari and Phantomon flew up to the sphere of the TV station and disappeared the observation platform.
And that's the end of chapter 6. Let me know what you think about it. And don't forget to go check out the poll.
