Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.
Chapter 2:
Lost in a desert. Figures they would have this luck. Come to think of it, he didn't even remember when they first entered this hot, barren land of sand, it's been so long. He had cottonmouth and a light headache, both probably caused by dehydration. They probably wouldn't make it out of this desert.
"Earth to Palmon! Come in!" Matt said.
Palmon was busy daydreaming about finding some large cactus so they all could sit in the shade. It was pointless to daydream like that. Why wish for something to happen when you know it never will.
"Palmon!" Mimi exclaimed, "Look!"
This drew the group's attention as Mimi pointed in front of them. A large cactus, about the same height as his old home, Highton View Terrace, appeared in front of them.
Gasps of excitement surrounded the group as they all ran off in the direction of the cactus; well, everyone except him. Matt quickly noticed TK wasn't with the group and stopped instantly.
"TK, come on!" Matt urged, trying to get TK to catch up with the others.
TK shook his head and continued to walk, refusing to run. What was the point? They hadn't noticed the cactus there before, and they definitely would have saw something that big sooner. It had to be some type of mirage.
Matt grabbed his hand, refusing to maintain TK's slow pace and started running to catch up with the others. The others had stopped in front of the cactus, but when they caught up they realized there was no shade. The cactus then disappeared.
"It's a mirage; we've been tricked!" Yamato exclaimed.
Everyone fell to the ground in disappointment.
Suddenly a metal circle appeared and a rainbow light shot out from it. Then an old man appeared, in holograph form. He recognized the old man; it was Gennai. The last time they saw Gennai was when...
TK reached up to his head to pet Tokomon to make sure his partner digimon was still there. He was struck by a pang of guilt remembering the time his partner had sacrificed himself to save everyone else, and then died because TK wasn't strong enough to help his partner.
While he was regaining his focus, the others talked to Gennai about the tags and crests. Mimi complained that they were more troublesome then beneficial, but he knew that was only because of Tai's incompetency in helping his partner.
Gennai then went off in an explanation of how the crests were really important and powerful and that they should trust him because he was the floating glowing guy. TK was unamused.
Then Gennai continued, "As for Koromon, he wouldn't be so helpless if you had known how to care for him in the proper way."
Tai gasped, "But I did the best I could!"
"Patience is what you need to learn my friends..." Gennai started, but TK lost interest in the conversation. He was drawn to Gennai's previous statement about not being able to care for the digimon in the proper way. Is that why Angemon had to die? Because he wasn't capable of caring for his partner in the proper way?
He then noticed Gennai was, for lack of better word, glitching. Matt tried to get Gennai to stay to talk about TK, but Gennai was gone. TK was pleased; he didn't want Gennai to know about what had happened to him.
Ever since he passed out at the coliseum, the others had treated him like he was a fragile little boy. Well, they always treated him like that, but now it was, like, multiplied by ten, especially by his brother. He didn't need Gennai to say something confusing about what had happened that made the others worry even more than they were.
"Are we being cared for properly?" Biyomon asked.
That question sparked a pretty negative conversation among the group. He dropped his head and looked at the sand. Tokomon nudged him and he picked his partner up into his arms. Tokomon looked at him with a smile and said, "Don't worry TK; I think you're taking care of me!"
He didn't believe his partner one bit. He knew he wasn't taking good care of Tokomon, and Tokomon probably would be better off without him. He wondered if Tokomon felt the same way deep down but just wouldn't say it to his face. That probably was the case.
He jerked his head up when he heard what sounded like a boat horn. They all looked up to see a cruise ship sailing towards them at a high speed. He wondered if it could be another mirage, but he saw the sand the boat was kicking up. As the boat started to pass them, it slowed down and came to a stop. A Numemon popped its two eyes out to look at them before saying, "Ahoy!"
Tai asked for the digimon to let them on the boat, but Mimi interrupted and attempted to charm the smelly digimon. "Well, hey there big boy! Your ship looks so, so inviting. How about letting us on board so we can check it out. Oh, pleeease!"
It must have worked because the Numemon let down a ramp that led right up to the cruise ship.
"Is it safe?" Joe asked, but no one paid him any attention as they ran up the ramp.
TK slowly followed from behind as they entered the inside of the cruise ship only to see that it was empty. They then ran off into separate directions to explore the ship.
He, Izzy, and Matt found a room that was full of various foods and drinks. Izzy tried to reason whether or not the food was safe, but he didn't matter. He got a plate and filled it up with a little bit of meat and potatoes and then got a glass of water. Upon seeing him start eating the food, Izzy, Matt, their partners, and Tokomon all attacked the buffet like wild animals. TK looked and saw Tokomon was happy and the others were too busy eating for them to notice him, so he snuck away from the buffet room.
He left the inside of the cabin to return to the upper deck. Tai and Joe were lying in pool rafts they had found and Gomamon was floating nearby. Koromon was asleep underneath an umbrella guarding Tai and Joe's tags and crests. TK saw a lounge chair next to Koromon in the shade and made his way over towards it.
Once he was plopped down in the chair he let out a deep breath that he had been holding in since he had woken up from the whole SkullGreymon incident. Besides Tai and Joe, who were too wrapped up in a conversation to pay any attention to him, and the floating Gomamon and sleeping Koromon, this had been the first time he had been alone to think about what all was going on.
Since he had regained consciousness, he felt like a new person, but not in a good way. He felt sad all the time, and constantly felt like an outsider to the others. His old life before the SkullGreymon incident seemed like a dream to him. He almost felt like he was starting a new life, but this one was filled with negativity, doubts, frustrations, and... darkness.
The only thing that he felt had stayed the same was his care for Tokomon. For some reason his life felt so uncertain, but Tokomon was his anchor. That being said, his feelings of not being able to be enough to protect Tokomon and take care of him was intensified. He wanted to leave Tokomon and the others because they probably would be better off without him. No, they would be better off without him. Besides, if he left he wouldn't have to worry about his brother and the others constantly breathing down his neck, which was getting really frustrating, and he had to refrain himself from yelling at them to back off.
As he sat in the shade, he debated on running off right then, but then a shiver went down his spine. He realized he had felt this feeling before; when Etemon attacked them with his Dark Network and when Greymon digivolved to SkullGreymon. But this time was a little different. He felt as if something was calling for him, drawing him nearer. He instantly stood up and maneuvered his way to the ramp, careful not to bring attention to himself. He went down the ramp and walked around to the backside of the boat. The feeling got stronger as he continued walking. Then he saw something in the sand, a black cable that looked strangely familiar, it was Etemon's dark network.
The black cable was connected to the ship and went off through the desert for many miles. He walked up to the cable and picked it up. He could feel energy rush through him, but not in a painful way. The feeling was almost... empowering. That's when he noticed that he was emanating this dark aura and his digivice was responding. He removed the vibrating device from his pocket and was shocked to see that it had turned a light gray color, which contrasted his memory of the device being silver. The buttons had also changed to a grayish-blue color. When he dropped the cable, his digivice stopped shaking and the energy rush he had felt stopped. He picked up the cable again to make sure he wasn't daydreaming, but the same thing happened.
He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't have time to think about it right now. The black cable meant that Etemon had something to do with this cruise ship appearing. As much as he was annoyed with his friends, he still wanted to protect them, especially Tokomon. He quickly ran back to the ship only to hear a battle going on top of the upper deck.
"Marching Fishes!"
"Pepper Breath!"
"Petra Fire!"
He ran up the ramp and crouched down when he got to the top. He saw Tai and Gomamon were caught in some net thanks to the Numemon, and some bird digimon picked up Tai and Joe's crests and ran off into the ship. He also noticed Agumon and Gomamon, but they had been turned to stone.
The Numemon proceeded to reeling Tai and Joe in. This was his time to sneak back onto the ship.
He quickly ran towards the lounge chairs he had been relaxing on and ducked down behind it. He saw a Numemon look around confused, but then resume reeling in his digidestined catch. He then ran into the ship and saw a bunch of Numemon in the room Mimi and Sora had run into to take a shower earlier on. There also were sounds of another battle going on which we were coming from the buffet room. Tokomon!
"Petra Fire!"
No, he was too late. Before he had time to think, he had to duck underneath a table as the bird digimon, Kokatorimon he thought he heard Gomamon say before he became a sculpture. Kokatorimon went off into the room with all the Numemon in, while more Numemon went into the buffet room and came out with Matt and Izzy tied up in ropes. Once the Numemon were gone, he ran into the buffet room to find Gabumon, Tentomon, and Tokomon all turned into stone as well.
"Tokomon!" he exclaimed. He ran to his partner and attempted to pick him up, but his partner was much too heavy for him to lift. He cursed underneath his breath and turned towards the room Kokatorimon had run into. The digimon then came running out of the room. Fury ran through him and he started to shake in anger. He was not going to let Kokatorimon get away with this.
He sped off into the direction the digimon ran off only to hear another battle going on.
"Spiral Twister!"
"Poison Ivy!"
"Petra Fire!"
He turned the corner expecting to see another pair of digimon statues, but instead he saw Sora, Mimi, Biyomon, and Palmon escape, but with Kokatorimon not far behind. TK quickly followed as they made their way to the back of the ship on the top deck. As he exited the inside of the cruise ship, he saw Sora and Mimi cornered by Kokatorimon.
Kokatorimon was laughing, thinking that he was going to be victorious. Sora and Mimi had frightened looks on their faces, Biyomon and Palmon were in a fighting stance, but the digimon knew they had no chance against Kokatorimon.
"Time to walk the plank!"
He ran as fast as he could towards Kokatorimon and leaped into the air clutching onto Kokatorimon by the digimon's throat.
The digimon gasped in surprise and Sora and Mimi also uttered surprised remarks, but he couldn't hear them as he was holding on for his life as Kokatorimon spun around trying to throw TK off of his back.
"Digivolve!" he shouted, hoping Sora and Mimi would understand. Kokatorimon was finally successful in flipping him off and he skidded against the deck of the boat and hit the wall pretty hard.
"I missed a child!" Kokatorimon exclaimed, but then started laughing. "I've never tried turning a human into stone, but you have sparked my interest! Petra..."
"Meteor Wing!"
"Needle Spray!"
Kokatorimon yelped in pain as he was struck by Birdramon's and Togemon's attacks. TK was thankful the others understood his message and helped just in time. Togemon then threw two strong punches at Kokatorimon who flew into the funnel of the ship and then the funnel exploded like a canon.
"Fried Chicken!" Mimi yelled happily, as Birdramon and Togemon dedigivolved to their rookie forms. The girls and their partners ran over to him and Sora spoke up, "TK, are you ok?"
He was already on his knees, recuperating from the blow he took. He looked up to Sora and nodded.
"What were you thinking?" she asked.
He instantly felt anger boil inside of him and was about to yell at Sora before he took a deep breath and said, "It doesn't matter. Let's just go make sure the others are alright."
"That's a good idea," Mimi said nodding.
Sora still looked at him worriedly, but he didn't pay her any attention. Instead, he ran back into the ship towards the buffet room. He saw Gabumon, Tentomon, and Tokomon walk out of the room with confused looks on their faces.
"Tokomon!" he yelled out. He ran to his partner, dropped to his knees, and gave his partner a tight hug.
"TK! Where were you? We were all eating but then Kokatorimon attacked us and that was when I noticed you were gone."
"It's ok Tokomon," he said, "I'm here now."
After their reunion, TK, Tokomon, Gabumon, and Tentomon joined Biyomon, Palmon, Sora, and Mimi in helping untie the others. Once Matt was free, he ran over to TK asking if he was all right. TK rolled his eyes and grew annoyed by Matt's worries, but once they were free they decided to leave the ship as quickly as possible.
Before they knew it, they were back wandering through the desert as if the past hour on the cruise ship didn't happen. Sora and Mimi had explained to the group that TK had tried to fight Kokatorimon, which Matt scolded him for doing so. They were about to go into detail about his little stunt, but the ship horn was heard from close by.
They all turned around to see the cruise ship charging towards them at a fast pace. They started running only to see another giant cactus in front of them. This cactus, though, actually cast a shadow, so they quickly ran to the other side. The cruise ship ran into the cactus, which bent due to the weight of the ship. But the cactus served as a loaded spring as it flung the ship back in the opposite direction. That was the last of Kokatorimon and that cruise ship.
Now that the threat was gone, they were able to marvel at the cactus and enjoy its shade. Mimi said that it was taller than a skyscraper, voicing TK's previous opinion. Palmon asked what a skyscraper was, but all of their attention was drawn to a bright light at the top of the cactus. A pink flower sprouted out revealing a stone with a symbol etched on it that looked like a raindrop. Mimi's tag then started to glow as the rock flew down towards them and started to glow and shrink. Finally, the crest was locked into Mimi's tag, revealing a green crest with the same symbol on it; the crest of Sincerity.
"I don't deserve it, but if it will help me take better care of Palmon..."
The idea of a crest didn't appeal to TK. Whatever crest he got, he probably wouldn't be able to activate it and it probably would just be useless. But then the thought of having the crest just to be able to protect Tokomon better, as Mimi said, appealed to him. He was happy for Mimi and even looked forward to getting his own crest, but these positive feelings seemed to drain him. This draining feeling on top of his little fight with Kokatorimon made him feel exhausted.
"Let's make camp here and stay for the night," Tai ordered. Everyone agreed, to which he was grateful. He dropped to his butt and took his backpack off. He lie down and used his backpack as a pillow. Tokomon cuddled up next to him and instantly went off to sleep. He petted his digimon partner's head, while Matt also crashed down next to him, looking like he wanted to ask him a bunch of questions. Luckily Matt stayed silent, leaving TK to enjoy the quiet, shade, and proximity with his partner. TK closed his eyes and before he knew it he had fallen asleep.