Chapter 8: Defective Arrows of Hope and Light

"Izzy? What are you looking at?" I asked, looking over from my schoolwork at his computer.

"Mimi was able to find Michael for us, and we're going to talk to him about Will. Surely he knows something about why Will was acting so strangely." Izzy explained.

"Hi everyone!" Yolei yelled as she walked in.

"There's only two of us here Yolei, there's no need to yell," I said, holding my ears.

"I'm sorry Cody, I'm just really excited. My mom said that she might give me a promotion! So, what are you two up to?" Yolei asked.

"We're about to talk to Michael about Will. Is someone running out there?" Izzy said. I heard it too, and seconds after we turned Kari rushed in the door.

"Hey Kari! Matt and Tai are going to talk to Mimi in a few minutes," Izzy said as Kari ran into the lab.

"Hi Kari," Yolei said. "I heard about yesterday. Have you talked to Will?"

"Yes," Kari said quickly. "Izzy I need to borrow your laptop."

"Go ahead Kari, but can I ask why?" Izzy said.

"Just gotta do something with it," she replied as she ran out of the room.

"Kari wait a sec, what's going on?" Izzy called after her. He got up to chase her "That's a computer, not a toy, don't run with it!" He said as he chased her out of the room. Yolei and I quickly followed.

We chased her down the hall to the stairwell, where she rushed up toward the roof. Izzy barely managed to catch the door as it tried to close behind her. We followed her up to the roof, but as we opened the door we only had time to see Will and Kari get dragged into the computer screen.

Izzy walked over to the laptop, which now simply sat on the ground running the digiport program.

"What on earth was she thinking? If they wanted to go to the digital world, they should have just come to the computer lab." Izzy said, staring at the screen as the port clicked shut.

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?" I remarked.

"Certainly not," Izzy replied. "I wanted to talk with Michael, but now I think it's imperative that we follow them."

"I'll go back to the lab and grab our digimon," I offered. Since Will had found out, there was no point in leaving them in the digital world for his sake. I ran back to the computer room and snatched up Yolei's and my bag. When I got back, they were ready to go.

"Alright, let's hurry already!" Yolei said as I let both our digimon out of the back packs. But then I heard a squeak that didn't come from them. Looking back over to the stairwell, I saw Will's bag. I ran over and opened it, and found Dremon inside. I hadn't seen him yet, and he hadn't seen me, so he immediately went slack and pretended to be a doll, but I picked him up anyways.

"C'mon, we're going to the digital world to find Will and Kari." I said. He immediately stopped acting.

"Are you Cody then?" He asked in a squeaky voice.

"Yes."

"Hurry up, let's go, the port is open," Izzy said. We all jumped through.

We found ourselves once again deep in a forest, and I was no longer holding Dremon. He had digivolved while going through the digiport, as our digimon had. He was now about six feet long, and ark blue. His head had become more defined from his body, and two long fangs stuck out of his mouth, making him appear like a snake.

"Where do you think they went?" Yolei asked.

"I don't know, Yolei. We'll just have to start looking," Izzy replied, and we set off in a random direction.

"You were Dremon before, right?" I asked Will's digimon.

"I was, but now I'm Drakemon," he said in a more normal voice as he slithered next to me.

"Shh, I think I hear something," Izzy said. We were all still. There were two voices talking nearby, and getting louder as they approached.

"Kari! Will!" Izzy called out in the direction of the voice.

"Izzy! Is that you?" A very raspy voice called back.

"Yes, we're over here," Izzy yelled, and we could here someone running towards us, but instead of Kari and Will, TK and Patamon emerged from the bushes.

"Hi guys, what's up?" TK said in a very raspy voice.

"I thought you were sick," Yolei said.

"I am," TK replied hoarsely. "Can't you tell?"

"Then why are you here?" I asked.

"Because of that," TK said as he pointed to the sky. Floating in the sky high above the trees and probably a quarter mile away was a large black egg, which seemed to be pulsing. "Ken said he saw something weird in the sky of the digital world in an email. I came with Patamon to have a look. Ken said that it was roaming randomly earlier today, but right now I think it's following something. I was headed towards it just now." Yolei and I quickly checked our D-terminals. We both had received emails from Ken as well, but hadn't checked them.

"Is Ken here?" I asked.

"I don't think so, but he could be," TK said.

"Guys, I think we should start out after that egg. We can search for Will and Kari later, but this thing could be trouble," Izzy said.

"I've never seen anything like it," Patamon said.

"Don't worry everybody, I'm sure we can handle it," Armadillamon said.

"Alright, let's go then," Yolei said. We all started off quickly after the egg.

"TK, are you sure you're feeling good enough for this. If you want, you can stay here and rest," I offered, noticing that he still wasn't feeling good as we walked.

"Don't worry Cody, I'll be fine. It's not much further," TK replied.

"Everyone look! It's Kari!" Izzy said as we approached the spot over which the egg was hovering. "And Will too!"

Kari and Will were standing on opposite sides of a small grove, apparently talking, but as we got closer Will appeared very upset. The egg seemed to be hovering high above him.

"You have no idea what's going on! Couldn't you have just left well enough alone?" Will screamed across the clearing.

"Will I told you already I . . ." Kari tried to say kindly as she took a step toward him.

"Stop! Don't get any closer Kari. This is really serious. It's not about friendship any more, if we don't get out of here this could be disastrous," Will screamed. He was red in the face and breathing heavily.

"What's going on here?" Izzy asked as he stepped into the clearing.

"Izzy, this is Will," Kari said. "He's really upset; can you try to talk some sense into him?"

Izzy looked over at Will, and then walked over to him as the rest of us stepped out of the bushes.

"Hi Will, I'm Izzy," He began.

"Great, but can we talk later. Right now we've got to get out of . . . Oh no, he's here too?" Will said, and then let out what I later found out was a curse word in English. In retrospect, I realize that he was talking about TK and not me.

"Calm down Will, there's no reason to be so upset. Just try to . . ." Izzy was cut off again by Will.

"Look, I'll explain everything later, I promise, but right now we've got to get out of the digital world," Will said again.

"Will, c'mon, you can tell us," TK said as he started to walk over.

"Stop! Don't come over here. If you do, bad things will happen," Will said.

"Bad things? Like what?" TK asked.

"I don't know exactly, that depends on a few factors, but if we can just go back to the real world, I'll explain it, really, I will,"

"Alright, that seems reasonable," Izzy said, and he offered Will his hand. "Let's go. We'll get back to the real world and then we'll talk about this."

"Thanks," Will said, taking the hand. "But we need to hurry." He seemed much calmer now that we were set on returning to the real world.

"Am I allowed to move now?" Kari asked.

"Just stay away for now, at least until we get back," Will said.

"What exactly happened anyways Kari?" I asked. "Why did you need Izzy's computer?

"I wanted to take Will to the digital world to talk, because he kept avoiding me in the real world. As soon as we got here he started running away from me and telling me that we had to go back to the real world," Kari explained. "He's acting really weird. Who's that?"

"Oh, that's Drakemon. He's the rookie form of Dremon," I explained. Couldn't you have at least told us why you ran off so fast?"

"I didn't want Will to leave again. Normally I would've told you, but I, huh?" Kari stopped in mid-sentence.

"What is it Kari?" Yolei asked.

"I don't know, I feel really weird," she said.

"Me too," said TK. Will used that curse word again.

"What's going on?" Izzy asked.

"It's too late," Will said slowly. "Why does this have to happen again?"

"What's happening Will!" Izzy demanded. Suddenly, something began to glow inside Will's shirt, but not a normal glow. It was a strange, black glow darker even than the black shirt that he wore. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a pendant which must have been his crest and tag.

"I don't know what's happening. That's up to the dark crest now," Will said.

"Dark crest?" Izzy questioned.

"My crest is the crest of darkness," Will said. We all stared at him, except for Kari, who apparently knew already. But our surprise was only amplified when both Kari and TK began to glow, Kari a shining pinkish light and TK a bright white light. The blazing brilliance surrounded them and suddenly the egg above us began to spin rapidly. The glow grew brighter and brighter until it shot out of both of them up at the egg. In the shapes of two arrows, the beams of light collided with the egg, and flew into it. The dark crest glowed fiercely now, black as a starless night. We were all transfixed on the egg, wondering what would come out of it. It spun faster and faster until it finally froze in mid-air. Then a beam of black light shot out of it, creating a crack, and then another, and another. Slowly, the giant egg began to hatch above our heads.

Will was the only one not in awe of the egg. He simply stared at the ground, asking nobody in particular, "Why?" over and over again.