Chapter 10 – "Out the door, just in time..."
Two Weeks Later…
Davis was rushing about his apartment getting himself ready for meeting the other digi-destined in the Digital World. The group hadn't been together as a whole since the battle two weeks previously. This was because they had decided to take it in shifts to repair the damage done to the Digital World, and so didn't have time to get together as a group. Today was going to be the first meeting since. They were going to meet in the Digital World for a picnic and a re-introduction meeting as Davis suggested. He was currently rushing around his bedroom trying to find some clean clothes; he had over slept once again and was now in a hurry to get ready. He was supposed to meet at Erin's place and travel to the Digital World from there, although he now only had ten minutes to get there. Once he had got dressed, he grabbed his D-3 and D-Terminal from the table near his bed, picked up Demiveemon and rushed to the front door where he picked up he keys and hurried out. Once outside he looked at his watch, five minutes to spare.
'Out the door, just in time' he thought to himself as he started running towards Erin's apartment.
Elsewhere, Kari and T.K were doing the same thing. They too had overslept and were now in a hurry to get to Sora's apartment where they were going to meet Sora and Tai. They hurried along a crowded street trying their hardest not to run into too many people, and apologising quickly to the ones they ran into. They turned into a less crowded street.
"You okay in there?" T.K asked his bag. From inside they heard a muffled yelp. T.K quickly pulled his bag round and looked inside it. From inside they saw Patamon massaging his head
"I hate travelling like this." Patamon exclaimed.
"Don't worry, we're nearly there." T.K told his Digimon friend.
"Come on, or we're going to be late." Kari said to T.K.
"Sorry buddy, got to go." T.K said closing his bag once more. T.K then started running to catch up with Kari.
"Hey babe. How you doing?" Davis said breathlessly in Erin's doorway.
"Where have you been?" Erin asked. Davis stood, panting, on her doorstep. She invited him in.
"It's busy out there." Davis said between breaths.
"You overslept again." Erin remarked.
"Would you expect anything less?" Davis asked, regaining his composure. Erin grinned.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." She said before leaning forward and kissing him. They remained like this for some time, and were only disturbed by the sound of Demiveemon falling out of Davis' bag, which he had discarded by the door.
"Sorry pal, I forgot about you." Davis apologised quickly. Demiveemon dusted himself off, and then noticed Terriormon walking towards the small group.
"Were they doing it again?" Terriormon asked.
"Yep, I don't get it myself." Demiveemon answered.
"Must be a human thing." Terriormon remarked, and the pair of Digimon walked off in search of food.
"Do you think we should tell them?" Davis asked Erin.
"Maybe later, are you ready to go?" Erin asked in return.
"Sure, I think we should get the Digimon something to eat first though. We had to miss breakfast." Davis said. Erin laughed at his comment then led them into the kitchen.
"What happened to you two?" Tai asked, accusingly. T.K and Kari had just arrived at Sora's apartment.
"We, err, got held up." T.K said, going slightly red. Tai noticed this.
"How?" He asked even more accusingly.
"We kind of, err, overslept. Are we ready to go yet?" Kari asked trying to change the subject.
"Yeah, Matt and the other are already in the Digital World waiting for us and Erin and Davis." Sora answered.
"Well what are we waiting for?" Kari asked moving in the direction of Sora's room, Sora followed. T.K tried to follow, but Tai put a hand on his shoulder preventing him from moving.
"Overslept, huh." Tai said.
"Yeah." T.K replied, unsure of what Tai wanted.
"You weren't doing anything stupid were you?" Tai asked, once again accusingly. T.K realised at once what Tai wanted.
"No we weren't. We overslept, in separate apartments. Come on Tai, what do you take me for?" T.K asked.
"A guy." Tai answered bluntly, "A teenage guy. Remember I was your age once, I know what it's like to have all those hormones running through your body"
"Come on Tai, you know me better than that." T.K replied. Tai considered this for a moment.
"Yeah I know, it's just my job to be overprotective." Tai said. T.K grinned.
"Now that I know. Come on they're waiting for us." He said. The pair moved off towards Sora's bedroom to join the girls.
The four people and their Digimon partners emerged at the foot of a small television near a large stretch of beach.
"Well the ports are working again." Sora remarked as she stood up. The group noticed the other digi-destined, minus Davis and Erin, waving at them from a little way down the beach
"No Davis?" Mimi shouted at them at them as they neared the others.
"We thought they were with you." T.K shouted back.
"When have you even known Davis to be on time for anything?" Matt asked. The four new arrivals sat them selves with their friends on a large picnic blanket. There was a large picnic basket in the centre and a drink cooler next to it.
"This place is back to normal." Kari observed.
"Actually this was one of the only places not to get damaged." Joe informed them.
"Really? Well we've hardly been out of primary village for the last week, so we've not had a chance to explore." Kari said indicating T.K.
"Yeah, that place was a real mess. Luckily we didn't loose anybody." T.K said.
"What a stroke of luck." Cody said adding to the conversation.
It was about that time that Davis and Erin also fell through the port, closely followed by Terriormon and Veemon. Tai glanced at his watch, then at the pair of digi-destined that had just joined then and then back at his watch.
"On time as usual." He joked.
"Yeah, sorry about that. We got delayed." Davis told the group.
"You weren't the only ones." Sora told them, looking in Kari and T.K's direction. They were now very interested in anything other than the current conversation.
"We don't really need to ask why Davis is late." Matt joked.
"Hey, what are you implying? I don't always oversleep. I sometimes have very good reasons for being late." Davis defended.
"Okay so what's your very good excuse today?" Yolei asked.
"He overslept." Erin interjected.
"Thanks a lot." Davis grunted in her ear. They sat down with the rest of the group in a space between Mimi and Yolei.
"Okay so now that we're all here, how about you let us know how you all doing in your areas." Tai said to the group.
"Primary village is almost back to normal. In fact everyone moved back in yesterday." Kari said.
"The area Joe, Cody and I were working on wasn't hit all that bad, so is also nearly back to normal." Mimi told the group.
"Me and Tai haven't done all that bad either. Our section was finished yesterday." Sora said smugly.
"Matt and my area was damaged really quite badly, we're going to need about another week before it's back to normal." Izzy told them.
"We can help now." Tai suggested.
"That would be great." Izzy said happily.
"Davis and I have gone through three of the least affect areas already. Our last one should be finished by Friday." Erin told the group.
"And Ken and I also finished with our area last night." Yolei said, finishing the progress report.
"That's really good, well done everyone," Tai said, "the Digital World should be back to it's old self before the end of the week." He added. The group cheered at hearing this.
"You ask them." Terriormon said, nudging Veemon forward a little.
"No you ask them, it's always me who asks them." Veemon said, returning the nudge.
"Then they'll be expecting it from you." Terriormon replied, now pushing Veemon. Terriormon and Veemon had moved to a quiet area of the picnic spot and were conversing in hushed tones.
"They have more chance in saying yes if you ask." Veemon said, pushing his friend a little harder than he intended to, sending him in Erin.
"What are you two up to?" She asked.
"Nothing." They both replied a little too quickly.
"It doesn't look like nothing." She said to them. They now had the whole groups attention.
"We were just deciding…" Veemon started to say, but before he could finish the sentence a large rumble emitted from vicinity of Terriormon's stomach.
"Is it lunch time yet, only we missed breakfast?" Terriormon said, after the growling had stopped.
"If you're making sounds like that, the I guess it had better be." Mimi said with a large grin on her face. Sora moved to open the picnic basket but before she had taken two steps, all thirteen Digimon had surrounded the basket.
"I guess they all missed breakfast." Erin observed.
"No, the Digimon like eating as much as Davis likes sleeping." Yolei told her. Erin chuckled at this remark, much to the displeasure of Davis. Once she had made her way through the Digimon, Sora started handing out food from the basket, while Matt started on the cooler. The group sat around for a while devouring the contents of the basket, the Digimon having the larger share.
The mood of the group was a good one, everyone was smiling. The sun was once again shining in the Digital World, this pleased Gatomon no end. The digi-destined talked about a variety of topics while they ate lunch, centring mainly on what they had done since they had seen each other last. This brought about the subject of Davis and Erin's date.
"So, how are things between you two?" Mimi asked the pair excitedly.
"Things are fine." Davis answered, not entirely understanding the question. By this time all of the remaining girls in the group had joined Mimi and were all staring at the pair.
"Oh, you mean those things." Davis said after seeing the girl's reactions to the question. "Things are better than fine, in that case." He answered. The girls turned, as one, to face Erin. She had a large grin on her face.
"Well we needn't bother asking her if she agrees." Sora noted, reading Erin's expression.
"Well what happened?" Yolei asked
"Yeah come on, what did you do?" Kari added.
"Well," Erin said looking at Davis, who grinned. "Davis picked me up from my place, on time," she explained after reading the look on Sora's face, "then he took me for a meal at the new restaurant by the beach." She continued.
"I've seen that place, it's really expensive." Mimi said. "Was it good?" She asked.
"Better than good." Erin answered.
"Well, what happened after that?" Sora asked anxiously.
"Well then we went for a moonlight stroll around the bay ending up in the park"
"Sounds nice, I didn't know you had it in you Davis." Yolei joked. The group laughed, including the boys who were listening to Erin's description of the night's events. Davis merely looked smug.
"So was that it, nothing else happened?" Mimi asked trying to get every last big of information from the pair.
"Oh, yeah," Davis said, "Erin got paged by Johns"
"You're joking." Sora shouted.
"Nope." Davis replied.
"What did you do?" Kari asked.
"I threw my pager in the water, we were walking by the beach at the time and the tide was in." Erin answered with a big grin on her face. The group laughed once more. The Digimon were all playing together to one side of the beach, so the group continued with their conversations.
"Hey Davis, that's what I meant to ask you." Yolei said, after a while.
"What was that?" Davis asked.
"Since when were you claustrophobic? You never showed any sign of it when we were in the Digital World last year, and we got stuck in that oil platform." She asked. Davis shuddered at the though of being stuck in the airtight compartment of the offshore platform.
"It happened early this year. I was eating and I got two really big lumps of food caught in my throat. I couldn't breathe, I just panicked. It took my mum nearly five minuets to get both pieces free, although I could breathe a little after the first bit came up. You know, I think I still have the bruises on my back where my mum was slapping me so hard." Davis joked as he finished talking.
"And it's because of that, that you're claustrophobic?" Yolei asked.
"Yeah, I just kind of freak whenever I'm in situations like the cave now. I don't even like going in elevators." He told them. The group looked shocked.
"So you nearly died?" Yolei asked quietly.
"Yeah, but I didn't, that's the main thing"
"Yes it is." Erin said, gripping on to Davis's arm a little harder than she had intended.
"How come you never told us before?" Kari asked.
"Well, it's not like I was trying to keep it secret, but like you said once, sometimes it's hard to admit you have a weakness." Davis told her.
The group sat in silence for a moment.
"Hey, does anyone else have any near death experiences they would like to share?" Davis joked. "Not counting anything in the Digital World." He added. The group remained silent until T.K spoke.
"Yeah, sort of." The group gasped. They didn't expect anyone else to speak, least of all T.K. He usually kept things like this firmly to himself.
"What happen?" Kari asked, more shocked than anyone else.
"While I was at my other school, after I moved away, we were in a science class doing an experiment using the burners you use to boil stuff with. Anyway somebody behind me called me, so I turned around to see what they wanted. While my back was turned my lab partner tripped up and knocked the burner on me." The entire group cringed at hearing this "Worst of all, it wasn't the control flame either, it was on full power." The group winced again. "Well long story short, I got second and third degree burns on my left shoulder and upper arm, and was in hospital for a week getting skin grafts and stuff. Not that it helped much." He said lifting the arm of his t-shirt up over shoulder revealing the scars that would have normally been covered.
"Whoa that's nasty." Davis exclaimed, T.K laughed at his outburst.
"You should have seen it fresh." He joked. He then turned to Kari, "That's why I said me and candles don't have a good history." Kari nodded in understanding. The rest of the group were silent. "But hey, you look back on things like that and laugh." T.K said lightening the mood of the group.
A short while later the digi-destined were once again laughing, the food had long since been eaten, and the group were just talking now. The Digimon had also joined the group's conversations. After a short time, the group fell silent for a moment.
"Hey guys, can I say something?" Erin asked in the silence.
"Sure, what do you want to say?" Davis asked in return.
"Well for a start I want to thank you all. Not only accepting me so quickly but forgiving me as well." She said.
"You don't need to thank us. You're one of us, so that's our duty." Davis said reassuringly.
"Yeah, but after everything I've put you all through, all the lies and everything. If I were in your positions, I don't think I could have done I so easily." She told them.
"Newbie, listen." It was Ken who spoke, "A little over a year ago these guys were called into the Digital World because some idiot calling himself the Digimon emperor was trying to take over the world." He told her.
"I know that, you all told me, what's the point?" Erin asked.
"That idiot was me. I was under the control of something called a dark spore, which made me a genius but at the same time also made me a maniac intent on taking over the Digital World. The things I did to the world and the Digimon were unforgivable, but these guys did and now I'm here." He finished. Although Erin had been told of the Digimon emperor, nobody had told her whom it was, so the confession came as a large shock to her.
"Ken, I had no idea." She said quietly, "Well thank you all anyway, it really means a lot to me." She added, just a quietly.
By this time it was getting quite late and the sun was starting to set.
"Hey, what say we take this back to our world, it's getting late." Tai pointed out.
"Good idea. Why don't you all come round to my place my parents are going away for the weekend so I have the place to myself. And since the new school year starts soon, this might be the last chance we get to spend with each other." Erin suggested, "I have quite a large apartment so there will be plenty of room for everyone." She added.
"That's not a bad idea, what do you all say?" Tai asked the group. They all nodded in agreement.
"Yeah," Sora said, "But can we stay and watch the sunset first, it's been ages since we've seen one in the digital world and it's so nice here?" She asked. The group agreed and all turned towards the horizon. From their place on the beach they had a perfect view of the sunset. The digi-destined, old and new, and their Digimon all sat in silence as they watched the sun sink slowly down behind the horizon of the perfectly still ocean. It was, to say the least, one of the most beautiful sights the digital world had to offer.
The End.