Chapter 3 - "What was lost: Part 1 -
Everytime I look for you..."
The following day passed without incident, the weather was as nice as it had been all week. T.K and Kari decided to have a lazy day at the beach and were joined by Tai and Sora in the afternoon. Matt was practising with his band all day. Davis decided to show Erin round Odaiba. Although she had lived there for several months, he decided that the grand tour, digi-destined style, was in order. He took her to all the places that had been affected in some way by Digimon. Cody, Yolei and Ken went to see a movie, they all wanted to see something different so they saw all three instead. Cody spent most of his time with Yolei because she was his oldest friend, and although he sometimes felt like a spare wheel when Ken was with them he never felt uncomfortable. Neither did Ken or Yolei so this meant that Cody was usually always found with the pair. Joe spent the day studying and Izzy spent the day upgrading his computer.
On their way back from the beach, T.K and Kari ran into Erin and Davis sitting outside a small café. Davis invited the couple to join them, which they did and T.K went to buy a round of drinks inside.
"What have you two been doing all day?" Davis asked Kari.
"We've been at the beach," Kari answered, "What have you two been doing?" She asked in return.
"Davis has shown me all the places that have been involved with the Digimon or your group of digi-destined in some way." Erin answered.
"Yeah, we went all the way up to Highton View Terrace then to the TV station, all round those places." Davis added.
"Sounds like you had a fun day then." Kari said.
"It's the most fun I've had for a long time, plus I got to find out a lot more about you lot." Erin said
"Nothing bad, I hope." T.K had returned with a tray of drinks. He said this with a sly grin at Davis.
"What are you implying?" Davis asked T.K with the same sly grin.
"Nothing." T.K answered innocently.
"No need to worry," Erin said, missing the joke, "Davis has said nothing bad about any of you"
"Well that's good to know." Kari said. There was than a short pause before Erin changed the subject.
"So how long have you two been going out?" She asked T.K and Kari.
"Since Friday." Kari answered.
"Wow, Davis said you guys were new, but not that new. You two look so comfortable with each other it looks as if you have been together for years." Erin said surprised.
"Well they say they've been going out since Friday, but that's only officially." Davis said
"Oh," said Erin, "I'm intrigued." She said inquisitively, looking in Kari and T.K's direction, but T.K had now become very interested in stirring his drink, even though he was drinking water, and Kari was now tying her shoelaces. Erin glanced at Davis with one eyebrow raised.
"They're a bit shy about the whole thing." He said reading Erin's expression. There was a slight gap in the conversation before Erin said,
"That doesn't make me less intrigued"
"Oh, you want me to explain," Davis said, "Well, they have known each other most of their lives and been best friends the whole time. They were the youngest members of the original eight digi-destined to go the Digital World, and in this last year they have spent so much time together, they just got closer." He left a pause before adding in a lowered tone, but still loud enough for T.K and Kari to hear, "But if you ask me they have wanted to be more than just friends for a lot longer." He winked very obviously at Erin.
"Oh, that explains it." Erin said, winking back at Davis. She then said "But why did it take you so long to go out if that was the case?" She directed the question at Kari and T.K but expected Davis to answer again. However before anyone got a chance to answer, Erin's pager went off. She read the message with a growing look of anger on her face.
"Everything alright?" Davis asked reading her expression.
"Yeah," she replied distractedly standing up, "I have to go now so I guess I catch up with you tomorrow." She said looking at the three people still sitting at the table.
"Okay then, see you tomorrow. Don't forget about Mimi's party." Davis said. Kari and T.K each said "bye" and Erin headed off in the direction of the park.
"Well I guess I had better be getting off home as well." Davis said to the other two.
"Okay then." Kari said, and with that Davis left to.
"Want another drink?" T.K asked Kari.
"No I have to go look up some recipes for tomorrow." Kari replied.
"Good point, I've got to check out some new drink recipes and try and get Matt to taste them." T.K said laughing. "I'll walk you home." He said taking Kari's hand, and with that they to left.
When they had heard the news that Mimi was coming back to Odaiba the group decided that a party was in order, and although it was short notice they needed to make preparations. Izzy had told them that Mimi was moving into Sora's apartment block, so the group decided to have the party at Sora's place, the bonus being Sora had the biggest apartment. Several phone conversations later and it was decided that Sora, Kari Matt and Cody would get the food ready, as it was decided by the group that they were the best cooks, and T.K was in charge of the drinks as it was decided that he mixed the best drinks. The others were set the task of getting the apartment ready, getting decorations and that sort thing. They had less than a day to get everything ready, as they had all taken the previous day off. They were to meet early at Sora's apartment to make plans for the arrangement of furniture, where the decorations would go, and what food they would cook. However Davis, as usual, was late, although today he had the excuse of having to pick Erin up on the way. The truth was that Erin was ready half an hour before Davis had picked her up and he actually overslept. Once everyone had arrived and the arrangements were made, everybody was set to work. Yolei had volunteered to get all the food and drink supplies from her parent's shop, so she left with Cody and Matt. The others, who were not to be in the kitchen all day, started to move the furniture in the room. Although the lounge was large, it wasn't large enough for thirteen people plus Sora and Mimi's parents to fit in comfortably, so space had to be made. They moved all the large furniture to the edge of the room, but left some small chairs for people to sit on. They then started on the decorations. By this time Yolei had returned with Cody and Matt, each carrying two rather full looking bags. They went to join Kari, Sora and T.K in the kitchen. Yolei put her bags down, was thanked by the five remaining people in the kitchen, and went into the lounge to help with the decorations. Two of the bags contained various bottles, which T.K took to one corner of the kitchen while the contents of the other four were divided between Cody, Sora, Kari and Matt.
Throughout the day various smells came through from the kitchen, as well as some raised voices saying things along the lines of
"Who is using the microwave, I had it booked next." And,
"Who used all the salt?" And more often than anything else,
"Matt, you're in my way!" As well as some more unsavoury phrases. In fact the only person who wasn't shouting was T.K. He was busy concocting various drinks from a large book he had. In the lounge things were going much better. The others had laid a table ready for putting the food on, had put up countless balloons and streamers and had hung a large banner saying 'Welcome Home Mimi.' They were almost finished putting the decorations up when the first batch of food arrived from the kitchen. Almost as one, the people in the lounge surrounded the table where the food was being placed, and started to take things off the plates.
"Hey, that's for later." Matt said angrily, scowling at the others. They all muttered sorry and went back to putting the decorations up.
By now it was getting quite late and Mimi was almost due to arrive. Sora had gone with her parents to pick Mimi's family up from the airport, so the others had very little time to finish preparing the apartment. The food was all done now and the table was full of plates with various items on them. There was also a large bowl of punch and several unmarked bottles of drinks that T.K had made. Once everything was finished they put some paper plates and plastic cups for the food and drink on the table. This was Davis's idea, as he didn't fancy having to wash all the dishes. So Yolei was sent, once again, to her parents shop to fetch the plates and cups as well as several rubbish bags for everything to go in at the end on the night. Now everything was ready, all they had to do was wait for Mimi and her family to arrive, which they did shortly afterwards.
They went first to their own apartment to drop their things off, then Sora's mother said,
"Why don't you two go down to our apartment? We'll be through in a while. A few of your friends are there to welcome you back." She directed the last sentence at Mimi.
"Okay." Sora said and they left. They had been careful not to mention anything about the party so it would be a surprise for Mimi. Sora and Mimi didn't say much in the lift on the way down but Sora did say.
"I have something of the greatest importance to tell you later." She said this very excitedly, but Mimi didn't push for an explanation now as she was excited about meeting all her friends for the first time in what seemed like years, but was actually just under a year. She came to visit just after the defeat of Malomyotismon. When they got to Sora's apartment, Sora opened the door and a loud cheer came from inside. Mimi almost burst out crying and charged inside to the lounge where she was practically mobbed by everyone inside. She spent a good ten minuets hugging and kissing everyone in the room, even Davis to his surprise. She was then introduced to Erin by Davis, who was still blushing from his greeting. In all the commotion she hadn't noticed all of the decorations that had been put up of the table of food, it was only after she had greeted everyone that she noticed the apartment.
"Oh wow, look at this place. This must have taken you days to prepare. And look at all the food." She said taking in everything in the room.
"Actually, all this only took us a few hours to do." Tai said smugly
"Well how ever long it took, I love it. Thanks you guys." Mimi said before starting another round of hugs.
A short while later, after Mimi had got over the initial shock of seeing all her friends and the party, Sora come over to her. She cornered Mimi while she was getting a drink so she wouldn't disturb a conversation she was having with Erin.
"Mimi," Sora said excitedly, "About this important thing I have to tell you." She now had Mimi's undivided attention, although she did have a look of slight concern on her face.
"It's about T.K and Kari." Sora blurted out at once. When Mimi heard this, all looks of concern disappeared from her face and were replaced with looks of intense happiness.
"When did it happen?" Mimi obviously didn't need any further explanation.
"Friday." Was Sora's response. Mimi started giggling heavily, and totally forgetting her conversation with Erin, went to find Kari and T.K. When she did find them she went straight over to Kari and gave her a very big bear-hug and practically shouted,
"Congratulations!" In her ear. When she had finished hugging Kari she turned to T.K. He started to back away, but Mimi was too quick for him, and caught him in an equally big bear-hug.
"You heard then." T.K said sarcastically, gasping for breath under the pressure of Mimi's hug.
"I'm so happy for you two." Mimi said ecstatically.
"We gathered." Kari said massaging her neck, but with a growing smile on her face. Mimi then completely changer her tone of voice and almost shouted,
"What took you so long"
"Long story." Kari and T.K said together, looking at each other. Mimi looked interested but then noticed Erin and said,
"You will have to tell me another time, I just forgot I was talking to Erin." And with a last, very happy, look at the pair, Mimi went back to talk to Erin.
As the evening wore on, the party wound down. The music got quieter and the food and drink levels had decreased dramatically. Everyone had complimented the cooks on what a good job they had done, and they especially complimented T.K on his drink mixing ability. By the time Izzy and Joe were leaving, Cody was asleep on the couch, Yolei and Ken were on the balcony, Davis and Erin were having an animated conversation in one corner of the room with Matt, and Kari, T.K, Sora, Tai and Mimi were all talking in another corner of the room.
"Well, I'll see you all in the park tomorrow." Joe said. They had arranged to meet in the park tomorrow to discuss going to the Digital World.
"Okay then, see you tomorrow, and thanks for this it was really wonderful." Mimi said, hugging Izzy and Joe as they left.
"I guess we should make a move as well, it is getting a bit late." Davis said. He then looked over at the couch and saw Cody. "It doesn't look like Cody will be going anywhere soon though." He added. No one had noticed Cody before now and were quite shocked to see him asleep on the sofa.
"Somebody's going to have to wake him up and I'm glad it's not going to have to be me. Goodnight." Davis said grinning as he and Erin headed for the door.
"He's right," Sora said, "Somebody does need to wake him up"
"Lets get Yolei to do it, she's known him longest." Tai said quickly. T.K then glanced over to the balcony where Yolei and Ken were.
"I think she's a little busy at the moment." He said.
"Well, we'll have to wait 'til she's finished then." Mimi said grinning. She then changed the subject quite abruptly.
"So Davis and Erin, is there anything going on between them?" She asked the others.
"Not as far as we know, but I wouldn't hold your breath for it to stay that way," Kari said, and then added in an undertone, "And they all thought T.K and me were obvious." Everyone heard this and started laughing. Several minuets passed before Yolei and Ken finally came in from the balcony. Tai went over to her to tell her to wake Cody up. It took a further ten minuets for her to work up the courage to wake him, like most of the members of the group Cody didn't take kindly to being woken up. She finally woke him up and he was soon joining in the conversation with the rest of the group, although everyone kept at a safe but polite distance. It was getting really late now so everyone decided that it would be a good idea to go home before people started worrying. So after a final hug and thank you from Mimi, T.K and Kari got an extra big hug, they all left leaving Mimi with Sora.
On the way back to their various apartment blocks, they chatted happily about Mimi coming back to Odaiba. Yolei then asked Ken how he was getting back to his apartment as he lived in an entirely different part of the district. He said he would probably have to get the bus, but then Matt suggested the he stay at their place as Matt and T.K's father was working tonight. Ken agreed to this and went with Matt, T.K, Cody and Yolei to their apartment block. When the three boys reached Matt and T.K's apartment, Ken made a quick phone call to his parents to let them know he was staying with T.K and Matt. When this was done, Ken and Matt went into the lounge to watch the TV while T.K went to get everyone a drink. When T.K came in with the drinks he found the others watching an old black and white horror film, which soon had them all in hysterics, as it was so bad. Not long after that all three were asleep on their respective seats, and in T.K's case the couch. They stayed there all night leaving the TV to play to itself.
T.K was the first to wake up the following morning. When he saw the other two sleeping on the chairs in the lounge he thought it would be a good idea to wake them up or they would be in serious agony when they did wake up. It was quite late when they were all finally awake; T.K noticed a message had been left on the answer machine. It was from Tai telling them to meet in the park at 11:30. The time was already 11:00 so they all had to have hurried showers and dash out quickly, Matt and Ken still massaging the knots out of their necks. They arrived in the park just on time; the only people missing were Davis and Joe.
"What time do you call this?" Erin called out sarcastically. She had obviously gotten tired of waiting for Davis and headed down to the park on her own. "I bet it was you holding them up, wasn't it Newbie?" In the few days that she had known the digi-destined she had got to know them quite well. Her and Ken had taken to calling each other Newbie, while Davis was the only one who called her Carter as she had said during their first meeting. The others just called her Erin, which she didn't mind but she preferred to be called by her surname.
"We over slept and missed the message." Matt said breathlessly as they neared the group. They had been running in order to get to the park on time.
"I see we weren't the only ones who over slept." T.K said noticing the other missing digi-destined, he on the other hand wasn't out of breath and neither was Ken. This was because they played sports and were more used to running than Matt was. "Where's Joe, this is becoming quite a bad habit of his. Has he been spending too much time with Davis?" T.K continued. Almost at that exact moment Joe came running up to the group.
"No, the battery in my alarm clock ran out." He answered T.K's question just as breathlessly as Matt. The whole group laughed as the four stragglers joined them. T.K was greeted warmly by Kari, as was Ken by Yolei. This quite shocked Tai, as he hadn't seen any of Kari and T.K's closer moments, he didn't say anything though and was actually quite happy for them. Davis, on the other hand, did say something.
"Are you two doing that again?" He asked rhetorically as he joined the group. "I've told you before, not before midday." He added jokingly. The whole group laughed at this comment, which made Kari and T.K blush quite badly, but they laughed with the rest of the group. His joke had the required effect of taking the attention off him being late. Davis sat down with the rest of the group.
"Now that we are all here," Tai said getting the groups attention. He looked in Davis' direction as he said this; he obviously noticed Davis' usual lateness. "We can decide when we are going to go into the Digital World to see Gennai"
"Well as this is the holiday, we can go anytime we like." Mimi said getting straight back into the swing of things after her absence in America.
"This is true, but I suggest we go sooner rather than later as he did make it sound quite important." Izzy said.
"Okay so how about before the end of the week." Yolei added to the discussion.
"That would make sense." Izzy replied.
"Well how about tomorrow." Erin offered, slightly more eagerly than she had anticipated. Noticing this she covered by adding, "I'm just a bit eager about finding my Digimon." She let out a big sigh of relief hoping that nobody would notice. Davis, however, did notice it. He didn't say anything; he just made a mental note abut it.
"That would seem like a good idea." Izzy said approving Erin's suggestion.
"Okay," Tai said, "Is that okay for everyone? Can you all make it tomorrow?" He asked the group. There was a mutual nod from the group indicating that tomorrow was acceptable.
"Right, my parents are out tomorrow so we can use the computer at my apartment." Tai said. "So shall we say meet at my place at ten 'o clock. That's not to early for anyone?" He added looking again in Davis' direction. Davis chose to ignore this, but nodded along with the rest of the group in agreement with Tai's suggestion. "Okay, so that's settled. Ten 'o clock, my place." He said finishing the discussion. He then added, "That's ten in the morning." Looking once again in Davis' direction. Davis chose to ignore this as well, and made it look to Tai that he was having a conversation with Ken.
The day passed in much the same way as the last day they spent in the park. It also gave Erin a chance to catch up with people she hadn't really spoken to yet like Sora, Izzy and Joe. It also gave Mimi the chance to reacquaint herself with her friends, as the party the previous night was too loud and excited for her to do this then. During the afternoon, Kari and T.K left the group to go for a walk around the park. After they had left and were a safe distance, Tai asked,
"Where are those too sneaking off to?" Yolei was the first to answer.
"They said they were just going for a walk. I think they just want some time alone, they haven't really had chance since Friday." She said.
"Not too alone." Tai said jokingly, and was promptly elbowed in the ribs by Sora. They were gone about an hour and when they came back, nobody made a point of mentioning it, which they were quite glad of, as T.K was once again rearranging his hat. As the afternoon went on, the group started a conversation that soon the whole group were involved in. They started off by talking about nothing in particular, with subjects ranging from the interesting cloud formations to last nights cheesy horror movie. The conversation then moved on to what Gennai wanted to show them and why it sounded so important. This went on for quite some time, and it was starting to get dark by the time they changed the subject. At this point members of the group started leaving. Ken was the first to go, as he had to get the bus back to his apartment. Cody and Yolei left soon after him. Erin was called away again by her pager, when she left this time she had an even angrier look on her face than the last time she was called away. The rest of the group then left to go back to their homes.
The following morning Matt and T.K were the first to arrive at Tai and Kari's. They got there half an hour before they were due to. As they had time to spare Kari and T.K retreated into Kari's room. Tai then thought it was a good idea to try and listen to what they were doing. Matt, however, stopped him from doing this by telling him that they were just enjoying each other's company, and then reminded him of himself and Sora when they first started going out. The fact that Matt had stopped Tai from listening was a good thing, because Sora turned up not long afterwards. She was joined by Mimi and they joined Matt and Tai in the lounge. Ken was the next to turn up and was soon followed by Cody and Yolei. Izzy arrived at the same time as Erin, but this was more by luck than judgement. They joined the growing amount of people in the lounge and had to sit on the floor as all the chairs were taken up. T.K and Kari then emerged from Kari's room with T.K re-arranging his hat, no one mentioned this though as it was becoming quite a usual occurrence, Tai however did look slightly annoyed, but was elbowed by Sora again and he paid no further attention. Joe was next to turn up with five minuets to spare. He said the previous day in the park that the reason for his being late recently was due to his all night study sessions that was making him oversleep. The group were then just waiting for Davis. At exactly 10:00 Davis turned up, much to the annoyance of Tai, as he was trying to hint to Davis to be early in the park. Once the group were all together, they all proceeded into Tai's room where the computer was already set up to allow travel to the Digital World.
"Who wants the duty?" Tai asked the members of the group with D-3 type digivices. Davis stepped forward with his digivice ready, but before he opened the digi port, he was distracted by Erin's clothes.
"Hey Carter, what's with a all the leather?" He asked her. She was wearing her leather trousers with a green long sleeve zip up shirt. Over which was a leather armless vest, and on top of all that was an ankle length black and brown leather coat. Her hair was tied back into a long plated ponytail, which was unusual for her as she usually wore it down.
"It keeps me warm," she answered, "And makes me look menacing." She added with a grin at Davis.
"Err, Davis we'd like to go to the Digital World some time before tomorrow." Tai said scowling at Davis.
"What, oh right." Davis replied coming back to his senses. He stepped up to the computer and said,
"Okay digivices at the ready." He waited for everyone to get their digivices held up to the computer before he shouted,
"DIGI-PORT OPEN!"
There was a blinding flash of light as everyone in the room was pulled into the computer. The journey through the gate wasn't as any of the digi-destined remembered. This trip was a lot rougher than any they could recall; it also seemed to take a bit longer. When it was over, the group were deposited, as usual, in an untidy heap at the foot of a small television in the middle of a forest. When they had all stood up and brushed them selves off, Tai was the first to speak.
"This isn't right. I programmed the port to take us to Gennai's house not here." He said looking around at the forest. Izzy pulled out his D-Terminal and started pressing buttons furiously. After several seconds he spoke.
"We landed two sectors across from Gennai's house, were about two miles away in the forest surrounding his house." He said, not looking up from his D-Terminal.
"How do you know that?" Cody asked him.
"I uploaded the map of the Digital World from my laptop into this D-Terminal and set it to read our digivice signals so I can pinpoint where anyone is in the Digital World." He answered.
"That's cleaver Izzy," Tai said glossing over the mater, "But why are we here and not at Gennai's place?" He asked.
"I'm not sure, maybe Gennai can answer that. I suggest we make our way there as soon as possible." Izzy said.
"Okay, everyone up for a walk? Lead the was Izzy." Tai said, and the group moved off in the direction of Gennai's house. The only thing that was said while they walked was a comment about the weather by Davis. He mentioned that there were rather black looking clouds in the sky, this struck him as add as he had only seen nice weather in the Digital World, except in places where there wasn't supposed to be nice weather. The rest of the group paid little attention to this and carried on walking.
They had walked for about fifteen minuets when a number of Digimon appeared around them out of thin air. This took the group by surprise, as it wasn't a normal characteristic of Digimon to suddenly appear like that. When they saw who the Digimon were, however, all surprise left and was replaced by a scene similar to that of Mimi arriving at her party two nights ago. They recognised the Digimon as their partners, and each digi-destined greeted their friend warmly. After a few minuets, the group noticed that an unfamiliar Digimon was among those that had appeared. He was a small cream and green Digimon, about the size of Agumon. He had very long ears and a horn on his forehead. While the others didn't recognise him, Erin on the other hand, did. She walked up to him and crouched down so she was the same height as him.
"Who are you?" She asked the Digimon.
"My name's Terriormon," he replied, "Who are you?" He asked in return.
"I'm Erin." She answered.
"Then I must be your partner. Gennai said that my partner was called Erin Carter." Terriormon said to Erin.
"That's me." Erin said. There was than a pause, everyone was watching the pair intently. During this time a very vivid memory flashed through Erin's mind, she remembered the very brief meeting she had with Terriormon before and she had a very strong feeling that this was the same Terriormon and her digivice was beeping madly. Then, with tears in her eyes, she picked Terriormon up and hugged him very tightly.
"It's good to finally know your name." She told him.
While Erin and Terriormon were getting to know each other, Davis asked the Digimon,
"So how did you guys get here? Last time I checked none of you could teleport yourselves"
"It's a new gadget Gennai made," Veemon answered, "He saw that you came out of the wrong port and transported us to you." He continued.
"Great, then he can transport us back." Tai said grinning broadly.
"I'm afraid not, it only works one way." Agumon said.
"Awe man, you mean we've still got to walk all that way." Davis said
"I see you haven't changed much." Gatomon said to Davis.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked in return. But before Gatomon had a chance to answer Erin, who now had Terriormon resting on her head, said,
"Guys, we had better start moving, the weather is turning nasty."
As she said this, a strong wind started blowing through the forest. The group picked their Digimon, Erin took Terriormon off her head, and started running in the direction they were headed in before the Digimon appeared. After a while the came across a clearing in the forest where they stopped to catch their breath.
"Whoa, you actually wear those." Erin said to Davis noticing he had pulled his goggles over his eyes.
"Well. Their not called wind goggles for nothing." He replied. The wind was now so strong that they had to shout to be heard over it and everyone, except Davis, was shielding their eyes against the dust and debris that was being blown around by the wind.
"I really think we should carry on moving." Mimi shouted indicating a rather large tornado forming about half a mile from where they were standing.
"We'll never out run that." Erin shouted back.
"What do you suggest we do then?" Davis shouted at Erin.
"We have to find somewhere to hide and wait for it to pass." Erin replied.
"Okay where?" Sora shouted, joining in.
"How about that cave?" Tai suggested. They had been following a rocky mountain range round from the port and there was a cave in the side of the rock a little way from the clearing.
"That should be okay, providing we get far enough away from the entrance." Erin shouted back. With no further discussion the group headed towards the cave at a run. The tornado was following them at high speed.
As they reached the cave, they carried on running until they rounded a corner and the entrance was no longer in sight.
"This should be fine." Erin said panting. The rest of the group stopped and braced themselves for what was about to happen, holding onto their Digimon and each other. The wind in the tunnel suddenly picked up. It was very strong and the noise was defining. Suddenly a large crash was heard over the noise of the wind and the wind dropped to almost nothing. The group disengaged from each other.
"What happened?" Cody asked a little concerned.
"I'll go check." Tai said, and left to check the entrance. It wasn't long before he came back looking very worried.
"The entrance is blocked," he said, "That tornado must have dislodged some rocks further from up that mountain and they've covered the entrance." He left a pause before adding. "We're trapped."
To Be Continued...