Episode 5: Kusamon's Rescue

"I want an update. Where are the Digidestined headed now?" a sinister voice asked. The small blue and white Digimon cowered before the black figure. The room they were in was some sort of underground dungeon. The walls were all made of stone and a few torches lined the back wall.

"They left the Tsunomon village a short while ago. I think they were headed towards the desert." the blue and white Digimon said hastily.

"You think?" the voice replied angrily.

"They are headed for the desert. I got the report awhile ago." he stuttered even quicker than before.

"That means they're headed for the island." the voice said.

"What would you like me to do about it?" the blue and white Digimon asked. The voice gave a low laugh.

"Make sure they don't make it that far. Send the strongest recruit we have." the voice ordered. The blue and white Digimon bowed and turned to leave.

"As you wish."

Another laugh was heard before he exited the dark room.

"Aww man, another desert?" Finny said. The group had reached the edge of the forest only to find another sandy wasteland ahead of them.

"I really don't remember the game having this much desert areas." Becky mentioned.

"There was that one area towards the end that was a big desert." Theo pointed out. "It looked sort of like this."

"Oh, maybe I didn't get that far. I don't think I ever finished that game." Becky laughed.

"Oh well, we better get moving." Finny said as he took a few steps towards the desert. No one followed.

"Why don't we try another way first?" Lexi asked. "Somewhere cooler perhaps?"

"Yeah, I nearly died last time we walked through the desert." Mizumon added in.

"But even if we do go another way, there's no telling what we may find. It may be an even bigger desert." Mo put in.

"We can at least try." Jesse said.

"I don't wanna walk through another desert again!" Sandy whined while stamping her foot. "I'm staying here."

"You are not staying here alone." Jesse scolded. Dokumon mocked his gestures behind him but Jesse took no notice. "I'll have to at least stay with you."

"It's probably not a good idea to split up the team." Seb said. "Who knows if we'll ever find each other again in this place."

"Right, Seb. I'm getting lost just thinking about it." Bochamon added.

"You would be the first one." Seb told his Digimon. Bochamon just blushed.

"Well, we're not getting anywhere arguing here. We have to do something." Finny finally said.

"Yeah, we're sitting ducks out here!" Tyromon said over-dramatically. He jumped onto Finny's back from behind for emphasis. Finny nearly fell over.

"What do you think we should do, Mack?" Mo asked. Mack hadn't said a word the whole time while she was hanging towards the back with Torimon.

"I dunno." the girl shrugged her shoulders. She was still feeling down about what had happened last night, no matter how much Torimon said it wasn't her fault.

"This is stupid." Lexi finally said. "I'm going back."

"Wait!" Inagomon said suddenly. Everyone turned to stare at the green bug. She hovered in the air for a second, breathing deeply before she replied. "I smell Digieggs."

"Digieggs?" Finny asked. "Where?"

Inagomon pointed into the desert. "Through there."

"Well, then I guess were going to the desert." Finny said, once again making his way towards the vast wasteland.

"Hold it." Lexi said. "We are not hiking through some wasteland just because a fly smells a couple of eggs. Why should we bother?"

"But they could be important." Inagomon said in defense.

"How so?" Lexi shot back. "Why should we risk our lives to find a couple of Easter eggs?"

"Lexi!" Mizumon said, trying to get her partner to calm down.

Inagomon's antenna drooped as she got yelled at. She stepped closer to Becky. "I don't know. But I do think we should go and get them. I have a feeling they may be very important."

"I agree with Inagomon." Kusamon stepped in. "We have nothing better to do. I say we go look for them."

"And I just remembered something else." Becky said suddenly. "When we got here I remember Inagomon saying there were supposed to be twelve of us. There are only nine of us here so far, so maybe these Digieggs are for the remaining Digidestined."

"Could be," Inagomon said. "But I said I wasn't positive about that."

"Well I say it's reason enough to go." Finny said. He once again started for the desert. "Come if you want to."

The group all looked at each other and one by one they followed him out. Even Lexi followed, although she was somewhat reluctant to.

About 15 minutes later, they were still hiking through the desert. The scenery around them hadn't changed one bit.

"I knew this was a bad idea." Lexi grumbled under her breath. No one commented.

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction, Inagomon?" Kitsumon asked the bug who was currently up front and leading the way.

"Positive," she replied. "The scent is getting stronger."

"Yeah, I can smell it too." Kusamon said.

"Are you sure you're not just smelling food?" Theo teased his partner.

"Very funny, Theo." Kusamon said back. "It's definitely not food although that does sound good right about know. But come to think of it, the air is getting more salty smelling."

"You smell salt?" Theo asked.

"I smell it now too." Kitsumon said as she took a long breath. "Very salty."

"Why salt?" Mo asked.

"The ocean's nearby." Dokumon spoke in a monotone voice as if it were obvious. The group all turned and stared at him.

"An ocean in the middle of a desert?" Lexi asked him. "That's impossible. Quit fooling around."

"I'm not fooling around." Dokumon shot back. No one, not even his own partner believed him. The Digimon all knew what a prankster he could be and the humans were starting to find out by now. "Fine. Don't believe me if you don't want to."

"Whatever." Mo muttered. She fanned herself with her hand. The air was getting hotter and hotter as they continued on.

After a few more minutes, the rest of the group started to notice the salty smell too.

"Maybe there is an ocean around here." Finny said, rubbing his nose. He didn't really enjoy the smell of salt.

"Maybe Dokumon was right for once." Tyromon said. Dokumon glared at him but didn't say anything.

"Hey, wait." Sandy said suddenly. She pointed up ahead of them. "What's that over there?"

"The ocean!" Ashimon said, jumping up and down to get a better look. "There really is an ocean in the desert."

Inagomon and Torimon flew higher into the air and confirmed that there was indeed an ocean in the distance. As soon as they heard the news, the entire group took off at a run. Lexi and Sandy were in the lead.

"Yeah, finally a chance to cool off!" Lexi said. Mizumon smiled as she ran beside her.

"Let's go swimming!" Sandy cheered. Ashimon shuddered. She didn't like the water.

"It still doesn't make sense though." Seb said. "It's impossible for a body of water as big as an ocean to be in the middle of the desert."

"Maybe it's a saltwater pond. But I wouldn't think about it too hard." Bochamon said as he ran beside his partner. He stumbled a little but managed to catch himself before he landed on his face. Seb concealed a small laugh.

Not even a minute later, they arrived at a beach in front of the ocean. The weather was considerably cooler on the beach and the sand got much softer and whiter. There were even a few seashells buried in the sand.

"Wow, this is amazing!" Lexi said as she dipped her feet in the water. "I love the beach."

"Me too!" Sandy said as she followed Lexi to the water. "Come on over, Ashimon."

"No thanks, Sandy." Ashimon said. Sandy shrugged and went back to splashing in the water.

"Don't get too wet, Sandy." Jesse told her. Sandy secretly rolled her eyes.

"Hey, do you guys see something out there?" Lexi said as she gazed out at the horizon. The rest of the group looked over to where she was pointing and saw a small green lump in the distance.

"It looks like an island." Finny said, squinting to try and see clearer. "I wonder if we can get to it?"

"I hope so." Inagomon spoke up. "I think that's where the Digieggs are."

"She's right." Kusamon said. "I can smell them all the way over here."

"I don't see any boat or bridge though. How are we gonna get over there?" Mo asked.

"There's no way we can swim all the way." Kitsumon commented.

"We could try walking." Lexi said. They all looked at her like she was crazy. "I'm serious. The water is really shallow."

"She's right !" said Sandy. She took a few more steps further out to prove her point. "It doesn't get any deeper.

"Well, it's worth a shot." Finny said. They all took off towards the water and splashed their way through the shallow ocean. Ashimon rode on Sandy's back.

"This is weird." Becky said after a few minutes of wading through the ankle deep ocean. "I've been to the ocean hundreds of times and I've never seen something quite like this. It's more like a giant salty puddle than an ocean."

"You've been to the ocean hundreds of times?" Lexi asked skeptically. "Where on earth do you live?"

"Hawaii." Becky answered plainly as if it was nothing special. Lexi's eyes got huge.

"Hawaii!? You are so lucky!" she squealed. "I would give anything to even visit Hawaii. I'll bet it's a lot more interesting than Kansas."

"Yeah, it's nice." Becky said. "But it's not that special when you've lived there for most of your life."

"I envy you." was all Lexi said in reply.

"Well, here we are." Finny said as they arrived on the island's shore. "It's not very big, is it?"

The island only looked to be about a quarter mile around the edge of it. The entire middle was covered with thick tropical trees of all different colors and the sand on the beach around the island was pure white.

"This sure beats the desert. Let's stay here!" Lexi said happily.

"What's that over there?" Mizumon pointed out. Lexi and everyone else followed with their eyes and noticed a small cave. The entrance was half covered by bright green leaves and the entrance was only up to their knees. When they got in front of it, they saw that if didn't go very far back either. However, it did have a nice surprise waiting for them when they peeled back the leaves.

"The Digieggs!" they all exclaimed. On the ground of the cave were two white Digieggs nestled in the leaves. One of the eggs had large, yellow triangles on it while the other one had large, pink ovals decorating it. They were both warm to the touch.

"Should we take them?" Finny asked as he picked up the yellow patterned one.

"Drop the eggs." a voice said from behind them. It caused them all to jump in surprise. Upon turning around, they discovered that the voice belonged to a Kiwimon. Like a lot of the other evil Digimon they ran into, this one looked different. Its helmet was black and it had several black markings all over it's body. It laughed under it's breath as they all stared.

"Hand over the eggs, now." Kiwimon spoke again.

"No!" Finny said suddenly. He set the egg back in the cave and stepped in front of them. Then he whispered something to the group and they nodded in reply. Kiwimon glared.

"Step away from those eggs." he said again.

"Yeah right." Finny muttered. He took in a big breath and shouted at the top of his lungs. "RUN!!"

"The group all took off in different directions to try and throw Kiwimon off. When they all disappeared, Kiwimon noticed that the eggs had vanished too.

"You think I can be outsmarted that easily?" he asked. Pausing, he breathed in the air around him to pick up the strong scent of the eggs. When at last he tracked them down, he ran right to the place were Theo and Kusamon were hiding the eggs.

"Hand over the eggs." Kiwimon said.

"No!" Theo told him. He got up to run again but Kiwimon jumped in front.

"Not so fast. Pummel Peck!" he shouted as a swarm of what looked like mini Kiwimon were aimed straight at Theo.

"Dust Devil!" Kusamon countered. A cloud of dust whipped up and threw the attack off track for the most part. But as soon as the wind died down, the attack was back on track and aimed right for Theo again.

"Look out, Theo!" Kusamon shouted. He tried his attack again, but it was too late. Then, seconds before the attack hit, a bright orange light shot out of Theo's Digivice and surrounded Kusamon.

"Kusamon digivolve to . . . TERRAMON!"

As the light cleared, a new Digimon was standing were Kusamon had been moments ago. It resembled a green and brown dinosaur with red markings and a huge, green spine along it's back and tail. On top of his head were two leaf shaped ears and it's tail was covered with dark spikes.

"You think digivolving is going to stop me from taking those eggs?" Kiwimon asked.

"Yes." Terramon replied shortly. "TYPHOON STRIKE!" Terramon shouted as a strong whirl of wind whipped up out of nowhere and collected tons of dirt and debris. For the final touch, Terramon blasted a shot of muddy water through the eye off it and hit Kiwimon square in the face. He was blasted about twenty feet off the ground and Theo watched as his data broke apart in mid-air as he was deleted.

"Nice job, Terramon." Theo congratulated his newly digivolved Digimon.

"No problem." Terramon replied. "Do you have anything to eat?"

"Yup, still the same Kusamon." Theo laughed. He picked up the eggs and held them close. "Thanks to you these are still safe!"

"What's going on?" Finny asked as he and Tyromon crawled out of the bushes. He was followed by several other members of the group. "Whoa, did Kusamon digivolve?"

"Yeah, he made sure the eggs were well protected." Theo said proudly. Terramon smiled and de-digivolved back to Kusamon.

"Yes I did. But all that fighting and running made me starving." Kusamon said as he held his stomach. It gave a loud, low growl to prove his point. The rest of the group couldn't help but laugh.

Please R&R