Tai followed Sora and Mei. Gennai's or whomever that was, appearance had shaken him up a bit. He looked behind him at Matt who was staring at the trees. Tai wanted to ask Matt about the trees but Sora interrupted his thoughts.
"Look there." She said and Tai moved to stand next to her. He was surprised, "Puppetmon?!" Tai asked as he stared at the mansion in the clearing.
"Wait what?" TK moved next to Tai and Tai saw his jaw drop.
"no way." He whispered and Tai turned to the group.
"I have a hunch." Tai started and TK jumped in.
"Our digimon?" He asked and Tai nodded.
"What are you guys talking about?" Mei asked quietly and Joe stepped forward.
"Puppetmon was a dark master digimon we fought our first time here. He's a trickster so even with the reboot he probably had something to do with the disappearances of our digimon." TK nodded and added,
"That's his house there." Tai watched Mei look at the house and she looked down.
"I'm guessing meicoomon isn't there." She said with a sigh. Izzy moved to stand next to Tai.
"No but if we can get our digimon back we have a better chance at finding Meicoomon and turning him good again." Tai pulled a face. He wanted that for Mei but he also didn't want to give the girl false hope. Tai inhaled and stepped through the bushes,
"alright I'm gonna see if anyone's home. You guys hang tight." TK then jumped after Tai,
"Tai wait! Don't forget who knows that house! I'm coming too." Tai sighed and rolled his eyes fine,
"let's go TK." Matt then called to the boys
"wait!" Tai and TK stopped and Matt pointed,
"Joe, TK's bleeding." Tai's gaze lowered to TK's arm and he saw the younger teens white sleeve caked in blood. TK turned and shrugged it off
"not my blood. Let's go Tai." Tai was still a moment,
"wait who's blood is it?" He asked but TK shushed him.
"I think I see movement up there!" TK pointed to the second story window and Tai focused. He cupped his hands around his mouth.
"PUPPETMON!" He yelled. Him and Tk didn't wait long before Puppetmon stuck his wooden head out of the window.
"Hello there Digidestined!" Tai smirked,
"you're out numbered puppetmon!" He yelled and Puppetmon craned his neck. Tai could see he was counting all the others who were just in view from behind the bushes. The digimon smirked.
"You think the nine of you are so tough?! Without your partners you're useless!" He cried and Tai and TK shared a look.
He does have them
Tai thought. Puppetmon looked everyone over again and Tai opened his mouth to speak. Puppetmon spoke first,
"Hey wait a minute! There are only eight! One of you is missing." Tai's mouth was still opened and he watched the digimon turn and look back into the house.
"Hey!" He yelled and Tai's eyes went wide,
"Kari!" Tai called. Puppetmon disappeared from view and Tai ran to the house. He got to the door and was surprised TK had beaten him,
"Tai! Go around back!" The blond instructed and Tai didn't have time to negotiate since TK opened the door and slipped inside. Tai moved but then stopped when he saw something coming towards them from the sky.
"MATT!" He yelled and Matt jumped out from the bushes. Tai then pointed,
"MEICOOMON!" He yelled as the digimon howled and lunged at the ground. There was an explosion and Tai shielded his face from the dust.
"PUPPET PUMMEL!" Tai heard Puppetmon cry and Tai was torn between going inside and staying with the rest of the group. A window smashed and Tai saw Biyomon and Tentomon flying from the second floor into view.
"BIYOMON!" Sora yelled and she ran into the open.
"DIGIVOLVE!" Sora cried and Biyomon was engulfed in light. Garudamon appeared and flew towards Meicoomon. Tai then yelled to the house
"AGUMON!" He called and soon his partner came jumping through the window down towards him. Another explosion went off inside the house and Tai covered his face.
"KARI!" He yelled. Gomamon and Gabumon quickly digivolved as Matt and Joe yelled to their partners. Zudomon landed with a loud thump on the ground and started attacking Puppetmon who was now in the open. Weregarurumon jumped into the air to help Garudamon. Tai moved out of the way and then saw TK hauling Kari from the house.
"You can't win digidestined!" Gennai appeared and Tai looked to Agumon,
"let's do this Agumon!" He saw Mimi run to Palmon and stopped to yell to his friend.
"MIMI, GET BACK!" Gatomon then jumped in the way and protected palmon and Mimi. Tai then focused on his partner but Gennai interrupted.
"Knowledge you've failed!" Meicoomon directed an attack at Izzy and Tai watched helplessly as his friend was attacked. Tentomon jumped in front and quickly evolved to megakabuterimon.
"MEICOOMON STOP!" Mei cried and Tai watched Sora hold the girl back. Tai gripped his digivice,
"GO AGUMON!" Agumon warped digivolved to wargreymon and flew at Gennai. Tai watched Gennai disappear and Tai swore.
"Wargreymon! Get Puppetmon!" Wargreymon quickly turned and advanced onto Puppetmon. Tai ran from the clearing towards the bushes and hauled Mimi to her feet. He stood in front of the girl and addressed her,
"Keep Palmon in reserve incase Gennai shows up again." Mimi nodded and Tai focused on the two battles. He could see Sora struggling to keep a hold on Mei and Tai quickly ran to help. He came up behind Mei and wrapped both arms around her and swung her to face the other way. Mei screamed but Tai ignored it. He let go and she fell face first to the ground. He felt bad he had to be rough but he pinned her down and spoke sternly to her.
"He can't hear you!" He yelled and he watched tears pour down her face.
"You'll put the others in danger if you run out there. You need to stay calm!" He commanded. Mei cried but nodded. Tai eased himself off of the girl and made a mental note to apologize to her once the fight was over. He stood and looked to Matt and Joe. They were standing behind their digimon watching the fight with Puppetmon. Tai then looked for Izzy, TK and his sister. He found Izzy making his way over to Mimi. He then located his sister. She was huddled with TK on the ground. Tai saw the two were too close to the battle and started to make his way to them. An explosion erupted and Tai was knocked off his feet. He heard a high pitch screech in his ears and saw Puppetmon explode into dust. Tai turned to look up at Meicoomon. He saw a tear in the sky and was prepared to be sucked into it. Suddenly Meicoomon was absorbed and everything else went quiet.
"MEICOOMON!" Mei yelled and Tai rolled over onto his knees.
"Why weren't we taken?" Izzy asked and Tai stood brushing the dirt off of his pants.
"I don't know. Is everyone okay?" He called and he saw everyone slowly nod. The digimon de digivolved and Tao was quick to catch Koromon.
"Hey buddy." Tai greeted and the pink digimon sighed
"got any food Tai?" Tai chuckled.
"Well get you something." He walked over to Matt and Joe who were holding Gomamon and Gabumon.
"You guys okay?" Tai asked and Matt nodded.
"We should move. We need to rest and get a fire going." Tai nodded and the group started walking. Tai hung back and went to his sister who was holding Gatomon and walking next to TK.
"Erm TK? Why don't you walk ahead." Tai suggested. TK stared at Kari who nodded. Tai frowned, he didn't like the look the two shared. It was like they were keeping something from him. TK then jogged to walk with Matt and Tai walked in step with his sister.
"You okay?" He asked and Kari nodded.
"We're fine. Glad you guys showed up when you did." She said flatly and Tai purses his lips.
"Why were you in puppetmons mansion? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" Tai said unimpressed with his sisters choice of actions. Kari looked to her feet.
"I didn't mean to make you worry. Patamon and I just felt like there was something in there. We were right, we found the digimon locked in a chest." Tai shook his head
"you didn't need to be so reckless. You could have waited for us." Kari but her lip. "I didn't know where you were." Tai growled,
"well maybe that was the problem, you shoudld have tried to find me instead of trying to be a hero." Kari's voice went quiet.
"I'm sorry I let you down Tai." Tai shook his head irritated,
"yeah you should be." He spat and he moved to walk a head of Kari. Mimi elbowed him as he passed and Tai growled,
"what?" He snapped and Mimi crossed her arms,
"don't pick on your sister. She didn't do anything wrong." Tai rolled his eyes,
"You don't know what you're talking about Mimi so stay out of it." Izzy then spoke up.
"Tai! Don't take your anger out on her." Tai glared at Izzy but decided to keep his cool. He didn't need Sora or Matt hearing his tiff, he would be in a full fledged brawl if they did.
"Whatever." Tai mumbled and he walked ahead of Izzy and Mimi. Koromon moved in his arms and Tai looked down at his partner,
"you okay Tai? You seem angry?" Tai looked ahead,
"I'm fine Koromon. You should rest." Koromon didn't say anymore and neither did any of the others while they continued to walk through the woods.