Chapter 12: A Plan of Action
I couldn't sleep at all that night. I don't know if it was because I was scared, or surprised, or because I just wasn't that tired. Nothing really seemed to allow me to sleep. TK didn't seem to sleep well either. Every time I looked over at him he was tossing and turning. I knew he was really worried. I had a hard time imagining how we could win this time. We had given up the power of our crests, and without them we couldn't even digivolve to match Myotismon. We would have to rely on DNA digivolving to even compete with him. It wasn't going to be easy, that's for sure. I stared out the window for a long time, wondering what trials were in store for us.
TK was really quiet as we walked to the park. Not that we could have talked with me stuffed into his back pack, but I could sense that he wouldn't have wanted to talk anyways. TK had changed a lot since I first met him. I guess growing up can do that to people.
When we finally reached the park, TK let me out of the bag. Ken and Wormmon had already arrived, as had Cody, Joe, Izzy, and their digimon. Biyomon was also there, waiting for Sora, as was Palmon, even though Mimi wasn't going to show up. Will was there too, but he was leaning against a tree separate from the group.
Kari and Tai showed up a few minutes later, followed by Matt, then Sora, and Davis and Yolei showed up last. With everyone accounted for, we all sat down in a big circle, including Will.
"Alright, by now everyone is updated on the situation," Tai began, "So the next step is, what do we do. Any ideas?"
"Our primary focus should be how we are going to defend ourselves," Izzy said. "I figure that Myotismon was not at full power yesterday. We may not be able to fend him off in the future so easily."
"Good point Izzy," Matt said. "There's safety in numbers. We can't separate in the digital world, no matter what."
"But what if he comes into this world?" Cody asked.
"Can he?" Davis asked again.
"He's done it before, but he'd need a gate. It's impossible for him to know where the gates open, but he did build one of his own once. It's certainly a possibility we should consider." Izzy said.
"Then we should make small groups in this world that stick together. We need an ultimate for each group, so that we can at least match Myotismon's level," Ken began. "That means three groups, with the DNA digivolving partners split among them."
Tai thought for a minute, and then said, "These parties should probably not separate if possible, not even to sleep. That means that Kari and Yolei will only have Sora in their group. Actually, Palmon will stay with them in the absence of Mimi. Cody and TK will take Matt and Joe. Izzy and me will stay with Ken and Davis. Everybody okay with that?"
"You forgot Will," Kari said.
"Oh, right. Will can stay in our group," Tai said.
"No, I mean he could have a group too," Kari said. "he still has a crest, Drakamon can digivolve to ultimate."
There was a prolonged silence, followed by Tai's asking to talk to Kari alone for a few minutes. Nobody said anything until they returned. Kari looked a little bit hurt by whatever Tai had said, but didn't say anything.
"Alright, now we need a plan of attack," Matt said.
"We can just smash him," Davis said. "Imperialdramon is a mega, so he should have no trouble at all."
"While that's a great theory, we have to assume that Myotismon knows that we'll try that. He will almost certainly come up with a way to neutralize that advantage," Izzy explained.
"Well maybe we should talk to Jennai," Sora suggested.
"He does always seem to be helpful," Joe commented. "He'll at least be able to give us another point of view."
"I think he's one step ahead of us," Izzy said. "I just got an email from him; he wants us to go talk to him at his house."
"Well than what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" Gomamon said.
The tension lifted a little as we walked to Izzy's house. A plan, even an incomplete one, seemed to raise everyone's spirits. Kari was surprisingly the only one who didn't talk, other than Will. She didn't look angry any more, just kind of contemplative.
"Are you okay Kari?" Yolei asked.
"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Kari replied.
"You sure? What did Tai say?" Yolei asked.
"Nothing, Yolei. Don't worry about it," Kari said.
"Gatomon," I whispered to her.
"What, Patamon?" Gatomon asked.
"Did anything weird happen after me and TK left?"
"Yeah, Will, er," Gatomon seemed to suddenly remember something.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Kari made me promise not to talk about it," she said.
"Is it bad?" I asked.
"Yeah, well, no. Well, I guess not, but it could be. I really can't say anything Patamon, I promised Kari," she said sadly.
"Okay then," I said. We had arrived at Izzy's house anyways.
Somehow, all twelve humans and thirteen digimon managed to fit into Izzy's room. We waited as the computer booted up and Izzy started the digiport program.
Will was still standing separate from the group, though not very much because we barely fit into the room. He was near the computer, and watching Izzy with a half-sad, half-scared look on his face.
I think Sora almost felt bad for him. She walked over to him, and tried to smile.
"Hi, I'm Sora. We weren't introduced before," she said, trying to sound friendly.
"Hi," Will said quietly.
"So, uh, what's America like?" She asked, trying to find a subject that wouldn't be problematic.
"I'd rather not talk, sorry," Will said quietly, and he turned toward the computer.
Sora seemed unsure of what to say. She must have thought that Will was a strange kid right then. But Will didn't really seem interested in anything that anybody else was doing. He reached into his shirt and pulled out the dark crest and stared at it.
"Alright, the portal's open," Davis announced as he pulled his D3 away. "Let's go."
Everyone started to step toward the computer, but the portal suddenly clicked shut.
"What happened?" TK asked.
"It's probably just a glitch. Open it again," Izzy said. Davis obliged, but as soon as he opened it, the portal snapped shut again.
"Could Myotismon be blocking us from entering the digital world?" Matt asked.
"I don't know how that could be possible," Izzy said. "Try one more time." Davis again opened the port. After a minute, it was still open.
"Well, that was weird," Izzy said. "Alright, let's go through."
"Wait," Will said suddenly. He pulled the crest back out from under his shirt. He had apparently tucked it away earlier. The portal clicked shut.
Everyone stared at him for a minute, and then Izzy said, "We're trying this again." After several test runs, Izzy came to his conclusion.
"Prodigious. It seems that the presence of the dark crest can actually close the gates!"
"But Will's been able to go through the gates," Ken observed. "Why did it just happen this time?"
"Because he exposed the crest directly to the computer. Every other time it was hidden," Izzy explained. "Also, these readings on the program seem to indicate that the gate only closed from this side. The other side of this one is still useable. The crest only blocks the gate from the side that it's on."
"Well, that's a nifty little trick, but we've got more important problems right now," Tai said.
"Good point, we need to find Jennai," Matt agreed. Everyone concurred, and we all entered the digiport.
Izzy's laptop showed us the location of Jennai's house. It was still under a lake, but as before the water parted to let us walk down the steps to Jennai's house.
"Well hello everyone. It's been a while," Jennai greeted us as we entered. "I wish you'd visit sometimes when you didn't have a serious problem."
"Speaking of that," Tai said, "Do you have any advice? Imperialdramon can beat him, but we're afraid he'll think of a way to prevent that."
"Indeed, he has. He has managed to find a digimon called Jikanumon which he can use to dangerous effect. Jikanumon is an in-training digimon which Myotismon has begun traveling with. But Jikanumon has an incredible power; anything that attacks it is reduced to its rookie form. Myotismon is holding the poor creature against its will to use as a shield against Imperialdramon."
"That's awful," Sora said.
"But that's not the only thing you should be worried about," Jennai said. "Myotismon is amassing an army of digimon loyal to him. He's not controlling their minds, but promising them positions of power when he rules the world in darkness. At first I thought that no digimon would aid him, but it seems that I underestimated the honor of many digimon. He has quite a force, and he plans to bring it against the real world first. He believes the real world to be weaker."
"But if he can block all of our attacks with Jikanumon, how can we possibly win?" Joe asked.
"Simple. Jikanumon is only an in-training digimon. If he gets deleted Myotismon can't use him any more. But that's not the only problem. There are some mega digimon that have joined his side." Jennai explained.
"What?!" Almost everyone asked at once. The idea of destroying Jikanumon was bad enough, but the idea that Myotismon had convinced megas to follow his orders was beyond comprehension.
"Why would any megas follow him? They're stronger than he is!" Tai yelled.
"Calm down my friend. I cannot explain why they would follow him, except that he is the organizer of the army," Jennai said. "That and he has a gate to the real world."
"What?!" Again, everyone was stunned.
"Yes, he rebuilt his old castle, gate and all. He's still gathering his forces, but there is very little time before he passes through the gate, maybe only days. You must find a way to destroy the gate and steal the cards that are used to open gates," Jennai explained.
"How do we pull that off?" Davis questioned.
"Beats me, you're the digidestined, you need to figure it out," Jennai said. Everyone groaned.
"Well, it seems we have only one course of action. We cannot allow Myotismon back into the real world," Izzy said. "Thus, I conclude that we must immediately head for his castle. We'll sneak in, steal the cards, destroy the gate, and sneak out."
"Great idea, except for the part where we blow the gate up and every guard in the castle hears us," Biyomon said.
"Don't worry, I thought of that. We just learned that Will's crest can close gates. We'll use it to shut the gate silently and sneak out unnoticed. We will of course have to be quick and sneaky about taking out guard, but Gatomon knows the entire layout of the castle." Izzy continued.
"That's right," Gatomon said, happy to be of assistance.
"With her knowledge we can move quickly and precisely. If we are quick enough, we might be able to get in and out in less than a half hour." Izzy concluded.
"Great plan Izzy, but what if we get caught?" Sora asked.
"In that event, everyone digivolves and we all run as quickly as we can. Even if Imperialdramon can't attack Myotismon, he can play defense for us while we escape, and he is fast enough to escape after everyone else is safe. Hopefully it doesn't come to that," Izzy said.
"Well, it sounds pretty risky, but it's our only option right now. Gatomon, are you sure you can lead us through the castle?" Tai asked.
"As long as he built it the same way it was, absolutely," Gatomon replied.
"In that case, it's settled. We set out for the castle!" Tai declared.