Finally I finished this chapter. I have to admit it really took my nerves; this one is longer than the others because I really took my time to write this one. Thanks for review! I'm glad that some of you like the story. A few asked me when I upload more. My school started again so I don't have plenty of time but I'll try to upload new chapters a week after I uploaded one. So here's the next one. Have fun!
Solutions.
Sora:
I wake up in a dark room and wonder where I am. There's an arm over me. It belongs to a boy that has darker skin than me and wears a few braces at his wrists. Then it hit me. I can't help but feel incredibly happy. I look over to Tai and smile when I see how peaceful he's looking. He softly breaths softly in my hair. He looks so cute with his messy hair all over his face.
Deciding to wake him I lean over to him and kiss him softly on his lips he simply returns the kiss and pulls me back to my side of the bed. His eyes shot open and he begins to yawn and smiles at me when he realizes that I was the one who he just pulled away. We both just look at each other, wondering who should speak first.
"Tell me last night was real" Tai finally says.
"It must have been because we both don't wear any clothes." I simply return.
"Mm good" Tai says and closes his eyes.
"Oh no you don't! You'll just go back to sleep. Well, not while I'm in your bed buddy"
"I like it when you're in my bed" Tai says, his eyes still closed but a sheepishly smile on his lips.
"Do you want me so sleep with you again?" At this his eyes shots open and he looks hopefully at me.
"Is there any chance?" He asks.
"Of course. But not now. We're stuck in a war. Did you forget that?"
"Oh, right. I think we should get up huh?" He says, gets up and begins to grab his clothes from the ground. I can't help but stare at his perfect body. Unfortunately he notices my glance.
"Like what you see?" He grins goofily at me and I blush again like so many times before.
"Just.. Shut up okay?" I reply and start to grab my own clothes.
Matt:
I slowly stretched out the kinks in my body as I got out of the sleeping bag I'd spent the last night in. That's probably the worst thing for my group now, having to sleep out on the ground with nothing but a sleeping bag between you and the ground. Now I can handle that fine, after all we'd survived for months before with less, but that doesn't mean that it's a great thing, or something I look forward to. We'd officially spent our first night as a separate group last night, and even though we weren't really any farther from the others, it still feels like we'd put an few extra miles between us during the night. I'd insisted on a rather fast pace yesterday to get away from Gennai's house, for a number of reasons.
The first one is do stop Tai from doing something stupid, but the fact that Sora stayed there with Tai calms me down a little. Although they are the most stubborn, bull headed people I've ever met, they love each other more than I could possibly imagine. That's just obvious, Sora changed to a happier person since Tai is back. I even got a tiny bit jealous of them on occasion, I mean, I'd loved Sora in my own way and to see the way she and Tai just seem complete each other sometimes me want that for myself.
The other big reason is the fact that Tai would be launching into some new scheme as soon as he can, and I want our "safe" group to be as far away as possible when that happens, just on the off chance things don't go the way Tai plans. I can't help but feel uncompleted. In the past three years I'd spent the evenings on the phone with Tai, just to keep in touch and I noticed that I really missed my best friend and the fact that I have to leave him behind where he probably could get killed just kills me inside. I would never admit it but deeply I care about him almost the most of the group. Although he's like a brother to me.
I head over to where Joe is leaning against the wall near the entrance of the cave we were in, supposedly on watch still. Gomamon is certainly snoozing next to Joe, but the older boy is awake, watching all along the only path to the cave we'd stayed the night in.
"How are you holding up Joe?" I ask, thinking that it would be good to see how everyone is doing this morning.
To be honest I wasn't so sure how to do the entire leadership thing. I mean, I had some ideas that I wanted to try out that Tai had never tried because he stubbornly stuck to what he wants to do but that doesn't mean I was supremely confident of what I should do. I'd never had any practice at it.
"I'm fine Matt. T.K woke me up a few hours ago, and it's all been quiet since then." Joe replies looking back at me. I nod, not really knowing what else to say. I mean, what else was there to say at such a point?
I walk back to the cave where the others are mostly asleep. I can't help but wonder how the others can sleep so long in the outdoors. Kari is the next who wakes up, sitting up from where she'd been sleeping next to T.K. She looks fine to me, but then, she's much more of a morning person when most of the other digidestined. T.K would probably sleep right up until we leave, as he'd had the longest shift last night. This is one of those times I'm thankful that Tai isn't around. He probably would have flipped if he'd seen T.K sleep that close to his little sister. On my opinion he's a little too overprotective of Kari, but I kind of understand him. I mean she's a little girl and they have a connection between them that I probably will never understand. Mimi is the last person to wake up, as she'd been the deepest into the cave so the sunlight hit her last. She heads straight to me.
"Morning Matt, mind if I sit next to you?" Mimi asks.
"Not at all" I smile gently at her. Wow she's so beautiful.
"So Mimi how's America?" I ask, about as soon as it comes into my head.
"America?" She asks, looking a little surprised at my question.
"Yeah, how's, uh, life in America?" I ask and want to hit myself. Yea that was great, ask her about home when we're trapped here, good job genius.. Great now I'm talking to myself...it's officially, I'm going crazy...
"It's okay, Nothing on Japan though. I really miss it to be here." Mimi replies and my attention is suddenly completely on her. Her tone is much less happy than it usually is, almost like she didn't like it. "I mean, I miss everything that goes on back in Odaiba, and everything that happens with you guys. In all honesty, I just really miss each and every one of you."
"We miss you too Meems." I reply instantly. She smiles at me and I hear how my heart skips a beat. I can't help but feel the warmth which goes from her smile. I never really noticed but she had really grown up ibn the past few years.
So things for the rest of the day are relatively quiet, nothing happened, and we all stayed silent most of the time. I didn't know about the others but something about the forest we were traveling in wanted me to do my best to make sure we weren't noticed, by anyone. As the sky above us darkened we found a good place and laid out our camp. Each of us has a specific task to take care of as we set up the camp. We split things up pretty much the same way, four tasks for the seven of us. Yolei helped Mimi with the firewood, while Cody helps Joe out with the clearing. Kari takes over her brother's old job, with help from T.K, leaving me with the fire and cooking area . We don't have anywhere near the speed that we'd had my first time to the digital world, but it still made the camp set up move pretty quickly. After dinner we didn't really say much as everyone, except for me since I'm the first watch, drifted off to sleep. I'm almost drifting off a little myself but am fully awake when I notice somebody sitting next to me. I look over to see Mimi, which surprises me, for the second time today.
"Hi Matt." She says quietly.
"Hey Meems," I reply just as quietly. "Couldn't sleep?"
"No, it's just too quiet out here. I'm just afraid of what comes next. It never was so dangerous. Sure I mean we were a lot of the edge of the death but...I'm just frightened after I saw what Piedmon did to Tai." She says and I can't help but agree with her. Since that incident we all are frightened.
"I'm supposed to relieve you in a bit anyways, you mind if I just sit with you?" She asks, looking down at her feet, in a very un-Mimi like way.
"Nope, feel free to sit as much as you want." I reply, cringing on the inside at how lame that sounded, but smiling as Mimi smiles at me.
~NEXT MORNING~
I wake up by T.K shaking me.
"Matt wake up! We're getting attacked!" Immediately I'm fully awake and realize that T.K didn't joke, how I hoped it would be. Mimi who spent the night next to me is already on her feet and let Palmon digivolve to Lilymon. Without even thinking I run in the cave and help the others to put away our camp while Gabumon already digivolved to Metalgarurumon and fights with the enemy. I didn't have time so notice who actually is attacking us until I hear the very familiar sound of the annoying little Dark Master.
Kari:
"Come on digidestined. Let's play a new game, destroy you!"
We all head out just to face once again, after all these years; Puppetmon.
"I'm going to make all of you digidestined pay for ruining my games!" Puppetmon shouts at us, earning absolutely no response from us.
"You're going to make us pay?" Mass asks incredulously, and I have to agree with my brother's best friend. Puppetmon is the one Dark Master that I'd never had a little fear of. Sure he can control anyone's moves, but he's one of the most childish digimon we'd ever met. He's also probably the weakest of the Dark Masters, though still more than a match for a normal Ultimate. Luckily for us we have Matt and T.K with us.
"I think someone's been letting the termites eat his brains up a little too much." MetalGarurumon says, glaring at our enemy.
"I'll show you termites!" Puppetmon shouts angrily. He shots a great blast of energy straight to MetalGarurumon without even saying the name of his attack. The shot hits MetalGarurumon and sends him flying. I'm absolutely shocked. He's much stronger than I remember him. I turn to look at Matt who is already helping MetalGarurumon back to his feet.
"Double Stars!" A deep voice suddenly calls out and I look to see a pair or spinning blades reaching Puppetmon and scratch him straight into the chest.
"Alright Shurimon!" Yolei shouts as she jumps in the air. She's holding onto her digivice and D-Terminal, which still holds the digieggs that she'd acquired during our fight against Ken as the Digimon Emperor.
"Your turn Digmon!" Cody calls out as Puppetmon shouts in anger. He throws his hands out, and I can barely make out the strings that flow from them, heading right for Lilymon and MetalGarurumon. Before they could hit the two exhausted digimon the ground below them literally disappeared and the two drop into a hole obviously creates by one of the armor forms of Armadillomon, Digmon.
"Now's your chance!" Yolei shouts towards Matt and T.K who both nod, looking back towards Puppetmon, who's fuming while this is happening.
"Puppet Pummel!" Puppetmon brings his hammer out and around, and rain energy blasts down upon the foursome.
"Watch out!" I shout, despite the futility of yelling at that moment, it was too late. I just have to hope that MetalGarurumon and MagnaAngemon would be able to protect them. So far things didn't look so good though.
"Shurimon, stop that mad puppet!" Yolei shouts out, and I turn to tell her not to, Puppetmon might not have been the strongest Dark Master but he was still a Mega Level digimon, but I wasn't fast enough. Shurimon had already nodded and jumped into the air at Puppetmon. The armor digimon shouts hits attack out; its arms extending as the blades at the end of them start spinning. Puppetmon seems not to notice at first, then
"Flying Cross Cutter!" Puppetmon held onto his hammer, which is still firing, with one hand while the other took the wooden cross on his back and throws it right at Shurimon. Shurimon didn't have time to dodge, and fell to the ground, Hawkmon once more. Cody turns to look at Digmon, but I notice him before he can order Digmon into battle.
"Don't Cody, he's too powerful for Digmon to handle." I tell him, as much as I want someone, anyone, to do something to help Matt and T.K out. In that moment a giant energy blast blows Puppetmon out of the air. The explosion causes by whatever had hit him was massive enough to block out the entire battlefield from my view. I can hear a little of what's going on but not much. Suddenly something flies out of the smoke caused by the explosion. Puppetmon lands a few dozen feet away from the edge of the smoke and slowly gets back onto his feet. He seems to be struggling pretty mightly, but is ignoring us for now. All of this attention is focused on the smoke that he's just been thrown from.
"Who's that?" Yolei asks suddenly and I look to see what she's referring to. A tall, man like digimon is walking out of the smoke. As he gets closed I can make out more details about him. At first I thought it was our old friend Leomon, but this digimon is subtle different. He has a large black coat draped over is shoulders, some sort of hat and a short sword in his hands. His hair isn't the normal golden color that I associated with Leomon, but rather it's white, almost as if this is an older Leomon.
"I have no idea.." I reply. Gatomon laughs. "I do. This is BanchoLeomon. He's one of the Mega forms of Leomon."
I don't reply and just look at the digimon which is called BanchoLeomon. It walks slowly to Puppetmon until he reaches him and stops in front of him.
"I'm going to get you for interrupting my game of destroy the digidestined!" Puppetmon shouts towards the lion man, though he's barely standing with the support of his hammer.
"I will not allow you to harm the digidestined." Bancholeomon replies, holding his sword out in from of him. His voice sounds very familiar to me, as the way he's holding the sword.
"Hey Joe, doesn't he sound exactly like..." Gomamon starts to ask, but Mimi finishes for him.
"Leomon!" She exclaims from where she's holding onto the exhausted Palmon. "It's our Leomon!"
"He does sound the same..." Joe replies, and I see him looking at the digimon in question thoughtfully. Then there's a giant clang, and I turn back to see that Puppetmon has jumped into attacking BanchoLeomon, who throws him right off with a parry of his sword.
"Be gone puppet!" Bancholeomon shouts, swinging his sword around. "King Lion!" A wave of energy sweeps out from his sword as he swings it around, hitting Puppetmon and sending the digimon flying backwards. Puppetmon struggles back to his feet.
"Okay! I have enough of this game. I don't want to play with you anymore!" He says as he finally gets back to his feet.
"No one asked to play your games in the first place.." BanchoLeomon replies calmly, stepping towards the puppet digimon. "And now I'm going to make sure you never bother anyone again with your games." Puppetmon grins scornful. "Oh I don't think so! Machinedramon, your turn!" And with that, Puppetmon disappears in million digital particles. We turn around in shock, just to look at the one Dark Master who caused me nightmares till today. Machinedramon is standing in front of us and it doesn't look good for us. Our digimons are tired and I don't think that they can fight long, but Machinedramon doesn't look like he would stop fight with us without being sure that everybody on this battlefield is dead.
"I see you managed to destroy Puppetmon. I have to admit that I'm not surprised by that." Machinedramon says. He turns to look at BanchoLeomon. "It looks like I have an equal enemy ... Giga Canon!" The attack hits BanchoLeomon and causes an immense explosion. I can't see anything but can feel that T.K holds me tight to his body to protect me from the impact of the explosion. I don't think that BanchoLeomon survived this attack but a look at him is enough to make me sigh in relief. There he stands, almost unharmed. "Okay Machinedramon, but now's my turn. Flash Bancho Punch!" Machinedramon flies back in a few trees and I hear cracking sounds of his mechanical body. I thought for a moment that Machinedramon is already defeated but as soon as the thought comes to my mind Machinedramon pulls himself up and attacks BanchoLeomon and send him flying across the battlefield.
"Leomon!" Mimi cries and start to run across the battlefield to him but Matt pulls her in an embrace and holds her tightly. Sure, it would be really stupid when one of us would now run right between the two of them.
"MetalGarurumon can you help him?" Matt turns to his digimons which gained enough energy to return back in the battle. MetalGarurumon doesn't respond, he runs straight to Machinedramon. MagnaAngemon wants to do the same but is obviously too tired because he dedigivolves back to Patamon. T.K walks over to him and picks the sleepy Patamon up.
"Metal Wolf Claw!" MetalGarurumon's attack slices Machinedramons left metallic arm off. Machinedramon yells in pain and turns away from his enemies.
It's like we can feel the danger so we slowly walk back with our tired digimons in our hands and stay in a safe distance to the battle.
Machinedramon shots an energy blast to MetalGarurumon who's helping BanchoLeomon to his feet. The two run in different directions right at the time when the energy blast was going to hit them. MetalGarurumon turns to look at Bancholeomon and they understand each other without saying a word. Without hesitation BanchoLeomon takes place on MetalGarurumon's back whereupon MetalGarurumon jumps high into the sky just to turn immediately straight to Machinedramon who doesn't even have time to react.
"Ice Wolf Claw!" "King Lion!" BanchoLeomon and MetalGarurumon attack at the same time and their energy blasts form into one and hit Machinedramon straight in his chest. The explosion is immense. We're sending flying a few meters away and when I look up and the smoke clears I can see my friends all lying next to me, unharmed, and a Tsunomon and Leomon lying on the battlefield totally tired. I search the field for Machinedramon, but can't find anything. The Dark Master is gone.
Davis:
Its 12.30pm Ken, Izzy, me and the digimons are in the Kitchen and eat some food that we found in there. I searched Sora earlier in the morning but couldn't find her anywhere so I figured out that she probably spent the night by Tai. I can't help but grin stupidly when I think about them two in one bed. That can just cause one thing, and I'm sure everybody can figure that out by themselves. The morning went quietly and we don't have much to talk, because we got up just an hour ago and are still not fully awake, that changes when we hear an obviously angry voice come nearer from the hallway.
"...I can't believe that you argue about that stupid hairpin again Sor!" Tai says in a more than just annoyed voice to her when they enter the kitchen. Sora wears a Shirt from Tai, but I'm obviously not the only one that notices that. Izzy smiles sheepishly and turns his attention back to his computer.
"It's not my fault that you're an idiot Tai. Good morning Guys" With that Sora turns her attention to us and smiles gently at us what causes Tai to roll his eyes and sit down at the table, unfortunately for him Sora noticed that.
"Did you just roll your eyes?" She raises an eyebrow and I swear I can hear Tai mumble something like "I should have write a testament" But he keeps his cool façade although I'm sure that he's panicked right now.
"Yes, and what are you going to do now? Slap me?" he laughs deridingly.
"What was that?..." Sora says quietly. Too quiet. Tai you're screwed!
"Uh oh.." DemiVeemon and I say in unison as Sora turns towards Tai.
"Nothing" Tai response and leans back in his chair.
"Come on, why you don't tell me what it really is that's bothering you" Sora demands. Tai gets up and leans with his back to the fridge to face Sora.
"I wanted you to be somewhere safe Sor, and here you clearly aren't. I'm sure it doesn't stay as quiet as it is for now." Tai responses and Sora's expression softens a little.
"Well Tao, I want, no I need to be here with you." Sore replies and I notice the glance she throws at him. He notices it too and turns to look at the ground.
"I..Sor..." Tai doesn't seem to have a response to that, and luckily for him Ken speaks up at this moment.
"I don't think it really matters, the others are already a good distance away." Ken says, holding his D-Terminal, which is showing the locations of the other digidestined, a good distance away from where we are.
"Ha!" Sora shouts, looking at Tai, all seriousness that she'd had a second before disappearing. "I win, again!"
That of course just starts the immature portion of their argument, which, I may have, help a long a little bit...
"Come on Tai! Don't take that from her!" I shout to my friend as Sora seems to gain the upper hand in the argument. That earns me a glare from Sora, while Koromon and DemiVeemon cheer me on. I just can't help shouting. Tai and Sora's arguments, when they aren't about something serious are like a spectator sport. You can't help but take sides and cheer one of them on. Of course, it almost always ends badly for me when I did cheer one of them (Tai) on, because the other (Sora) would always extract some form of revenge, but I can't help myself. This one lasts an unusually long amount of time, so long in fact, the rest of us have time to finish lunch. Tai and Sora eventually join us, having become tired of arguing. After the lunch they resume their arguing, having regained energy from the meal that they ate, and the rest of us just sort of go around doing our own thing. I alternate between watch Tai and Sora go at it, and trying to figure out what Izzy and Ken are doing. They're trying to figure out the password to Gennai's locked files but it's obvious that Tai locked them with a really good password which isn't easy to crack.
"Davis!" Tai shouts, calling for me, and I jump up instantly. Hopefully that means that they finally stopped arguing. I enter the kitchen; the two of them turn to me. That doesn't look good.
"What's up? Finished with your fight?" I ask, grin nervously.
"Yes! Now that someone's done being immature!" Sora replies for everyone.
"Uh oh.." Izzy and Ken say this time as Tai turns around.
"You're done being immature?" He asks Sora, and things are really about to get out of control, I can tell. "Oh you're so funny Tai" Sora says in a dangerously voice. Tai doesn't bother to stop and continues. "It's not my fault that you're being immature. I mean you started this whole fight when you brought out the thing with the stupid hair pin"
Man...Now I need some popcorn.. Then, true to my nature I do the worst, and best, thing I can do.
"So, has anyone seen any popcorn around here?" I ask, looking at Izzy and Ken, but getting Sora and Tai's attention.
"I haven't seen any..." Izzy replies nervously, while Ken is frozen by the expressions on Tai and Sora's faces. Man, they really fit together.
"Davis, why do you want popcorn?" Sora asks quietly. That's when I finally notice the fact that she and Tai had stopped fighting and they're looking right at me. I also notice that Sora holds Tai's hand in hers.
"Uh..." I reply, realizing that Sora at least would find it amusing that I find their arguments amusing. "...I'm hungry?" That doesn't convince them. I'm screwed. It's bad enough to have one of them against you, but both at the same time, its worse than hell could ever be.
"Really Davis? I thought you only like popcorn when you have something good to watch." A small voice speaks up from behind me. The digimons have followed me into the kitchen, with DemiVeemon in the lead. "That's what you told Jun when she asked if you wanted some last week."
"Something good to watch?" Sora asks, turning to me and let go of Tai's hand. I'm absolutely certain that steam is blowing out of her ears as she looks at me. Tai strokes her waist gently and sits back on one chair.
"Uh oh..." I reply as Sora steps forward, and then I bolt, running to the far side of the room.
"Get back here Daisuke!" Sora shouts after me as I duck behind Izzy and Ken. Oh god she uses my full name, Tai said that when Sora does that you should hide for at least a week.
"Tai! Help me!" I shout out towards my mentor, who's leaning back in his chair, a grin on his face. "Sorry Davis, you're on your own this time. I have enough" He replies. "I know better than to piss Sora off that much."
"Really, what about that time with the hairclip?" Izzy asks ad I dove from behind him and Ken, since Sora is moving around them. I notice fall out of his chair as Izzy's question shocks him.
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO BRING THAT UP! I ALREADY HAT THIS CONVERSATION TODAY!" Tai shouts, as he gets out of his chair. At this point Sora finally catches up with me and gets me into a fairly good headlock and proceeds to give me the worst noogie of my life. I know finally where Tai learned to give noogies from, and I'm anything but pleased.
"But Izzy, the hairclip was obviously a nice present. Sora wears it all the time, I noticed that" Ken interrupts that causes Sora to drop me to the floor because she's obviously shocked that Ken in first place notices something like that and secondly that he said that in front of Tai. I turn to look at Tai who smiles gently and his expression changes from one second to another. From amusement to...what? Confusion? No, it's. I don't know. He looks quite shocked.
"That's it!" He shouts and gets up. We all turn to look at him and he grins brightly at us.
"What is it Tai?" Izzy asks.
"The password. I remember it!" We all look at him in shock. Nobody realizes what he just said until Sora recovers from her shock and jumps on his neck, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I knew you would remember!" She says happily and then turning to us. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go and unlock the files to find finally a solution for this mess!"
Izzy:
I really thought that when we can unlock the files we're able to find something that would help us but now, we're sitting in Gennai's office and I don't really know how long but I'm sure it's longer than just a few hours. I was really surprised when Tai remembered the password, I really didn't think that he would remember that but when Ken mentioned Sora's birthday it was like somebody turned the light on in his mind. So, hours later, some of us read the complete history about the digital world and the others are reading some of the old prophecies, like that one which helped Agumon and Gabumon to warp digivolve. Davis is placed on looking though the different bound books, since even he would have trouble destroying them. Sora and Tai are searching in some books too for an useful prophecy or something but judged by the looks of them there isn't anything interesting or useful. Ken and I both set up at the other research stations besides Gennai's desk and are looking though everything what's in these files.
"Prodigious, it's everything I've ever wanted to know about the digital world's history, and then some..." I say aloud after about five hours of looking over the material.
"Of course Izzy. How do you think I found out about the prophecies and hints I gave to you during your first trip to the digital world?" Gennai asks from his terminal.
"I honestly never thought about it" I reply truthfully. Gennai just nods at me and bent back down over his terminal, and I turn back to his own pulling up another file. If we keep going through these one at a time, it'll take us years to find something useful... What we need is a good search...
"Ah! Tai, get off!" Davis suddenly shouts, and we all turn to see Davis, in a headlock with Tai standing behind him holding him there while Sora watches. That's when I notice that Tai got a tattoo on his left arm. With a better look at it I recognize the "Hikari" on his arm bed. I can't help but grin, he truly loves his sister.
"I told you it's none of your business so quit annoying me or Sora" Tai replies as he brings his free arm around and proceeds to give Davis a noogie. I know from experience that those are not a pleasant experience. A few seconds later and Tai lets Davis free, laughing as the younger boy holds his head but grins at his mentor. Then Sora proceeds to punch Tai in the arm.
"Hey! What was that for?" Tai asks, rubbing his shoulder.
"You shouldn't be so mean to Davis." Sora says, shaking her head. Looking at the expression on their faces I can tell that something happened between them. Good, it's about time. I turn back to try to figure out a good search, and am still in the process of doing that when I feel someone behind me. Sora is looking over my shoulder as Tai is over working with Davis.
"What are you looking at Izzy?" she asks, and I turn around from the work station.
"I'm trying to figure out these prophecies but they are all written in French and I'm truly lost." I reply, and it's true. I am lost, how should I find something useful when I can't understand what's written there?
"Did you say French?" Sora asks, frowning a little. I turn to her and nod. She doesn't bother to reply my glance. She turns to Tai who immediately looks at her and comes over. Obviously they're able to understand each other without words. Tai comes over and stands behind me. "So, what is it?" Tai asks a little confused.
"Tai, Izzy thinks this prophecy could be really useful but it's French. Could you...?" Sora asks but Tai interrupts by turning his glance to the screen. I turn to Sora with a questioned expression on my face.
"What could Tai probably do?" I ask Sora, now really confused. She smiles at me and replies:" He can speak French fluently. Don't ask me why, he never bothered enough to tell me that." I nod and can't help but wonder that Tai can speak a European language. I mean, it's Tai we're talking about. After a few minutes Tai turns to look at me with a serious look. I return his glance.
"I think we found our solution."
~Next Day~
Sora:
I sit next to Tai on the couch in the living room; he's reading a book about the history from the digital world. I never thought that Tai probably would read a book, especially when it's about history. Davis sits on the ground and plays some card game with the digimons.
A few hours earlier, we found something that could let us beat Piedmon. It's called the Cristal of the Crests. According to what Tai told us, and yes, Tai actually understood what the prophecy says; it has the power to allow all of our digimons to reach their Mega level. That at least is what the legend says. Of course, to do something that awesome, it also had a huge downside. In the wrong hands, this Crystal could power evil digimons to a whole new level, something beyond mega apparently. I really hoped that Piedmon doesn't know about this thing, because we already can't come close to stopping that demented clown, if he got even stronger we'd be finished. But my hopes are already cracked because Piedmon tortured Tai because he wanted the password to the files so it could be possible that he already knows a lot more than us. I immediately tense because I'm thinking about Tai's torture again. I saw the scars on his body when we slept together that night and it broke my heart. I'm shocked that some digimons would do something like that to a much weaker human who can't even defend himself. Anyways Gennai has never told us about this thing because it didn't appear to really exist. No one had never found it or used it at any time during the digital world's recorded history and Gennai wasn't even sure where to start looking for it. Izzy however has a solution to that. He showed us all this nice diagram thing, and then I kinda drifted off. I'm sure whatever he had to say was important, but I just couldn't help it. Eventually Ken filled me in on Izzy's discovery of a tablet that could lead us to the Crystal. The tablet is held in Devimon's old hide-out on File Island.
Davis:
"Okay Sor, you know I don't want you to come with us, because it'll be dangerous, but I know you'll just follow if we leave you behind. " Sora mutters something under her breath that I can swear sounds like damn straight. Then Tai continues, "So you can come with us." Sora has a huge grin on her face as he said that, "But I want you to promise me to stay back, so you are safe." Sora looks at Tai for a moment, and then nods, which surprises me. I have expected her to argue at least a little bit, but she doesn't at all. Weird. After that we get ready to head out. That's another weird thing for me, and I'm pretty sure everyone else. My age group usually had just gone into the digital world, and helped out wherever we ended up through the digiport. We never spent days or even hours planning out what we did; we just wend and did it. The closest we'd ever been to something like this was when we went after Ken to finally stop him. For the older ones it has to be just as strange. They hadn't even had the luxury of deciding when they went into the digital world; they got sucked in by a giant sand storm or something like that. Then they'd had to travel across the whole world trying to find a way home. That couldn't have been easy at all. At least I got to sleep in my own bed pretty much every night, even if I was sore beyond any reasonable thought. Now we're doing all of this planning, and what not, and I can't help but wonder if maybe doing things the old way would turn out better. Of course, it can just as easily be worse, I don't think I really want to know how, but it always could be.
So anyways, getting back to everything, we all head out a little while later. I'm really curious about how this Devimon thing is. I heard the story about how the older kids defeated him and how Angemon sacrificed himself to defeat him so I don't really look forward to fight against him. I thought that the older ones would be pretty nervous but Izzy seems too busy with some things I don't know about on his laptop. Sora just stares anywhere on the ambiance and Tai is unusually quiet even Agumon stopped trying to have a talk with him. Tai is definitely not in the mood to talk and I can't help but wonder. So much I know between him and Sora is everything alright...I'll ask him later.
A while later we're all gathered in front of Infinity Mountain. Izzy said that Devimon's hide-out is on top of this mountain and I can tell he's true because the top is gathered in dark fog. Without any words we walk to the top of the top and find Devimon's hide-out without any problem. And to my relief, it seems like nobody's here. "Well, looks like this should be easy." I say, looking forward to where the structure of an entrance in a dark hole is visible.
"Evil Wing!" I look behind to see several energy blasts coming straight in our direction. I can't help but close my eyes because I really don't want to look at that thing that is going to kill me in any minute. But the bounce doesn't come so I allow myself to open my eyes just to see that Garudamon, Imperialdramon, Megakabuterimon and WarGreymon are standing in front of us and face the probably creepiest enemy that I ever met. This creature is beyond ugly. It looks like a fallen angel. With holes in his wings and long arms with dangerously claws on his hands. He's completely black except a red bat symbol on his chest and these terrific red eyes which cause me to tense. I can't do anything, can't even move, I just stare at him. Devimon is definitely back, and I swear I'm finally able to understand why T.K is so afraid of him. He's dreadful. I turn to look at my friends. Ken looks a little sick, Izzy looks at him with wide eyes, Sora looks like she would love to rip Devimon by herself, Tai has a familiar expression written in his face but I can clearly notice how pale he is and I'm sure he's as afraid as me but he just learned how to control his emotions. I snap out of my trance when I hear WarGreymon shout. "Terra Force!" A giant ball of energy finds his direction straight to Devimon. He just smiles evilly and blocks the attack. And then the chaos begins. Our digimons steps all forward in unison directly to Devimon.
"Sora, take the others and go find the tablet, we take care of him!" Garudamon shouts to her partner.
The next thing I realize is a strong arm around my waist and I'm pulled back, I turn to look at the person who pulls me forward the entrance of the hole and can't recognize him for a moment because I'm not able to think straight, but then I realize that that person is Tai. We enter the cave all together and run forward, we don't even know where, but I'm sure the others just want to go away from this monster as far as possible. Suddenly Tai turns me to himself and takes my face in his hands I can't bring myself to calm down and that's the moment when I realize that I'm shaking.
"Davis, look at me, come on, buddy calm down, everything's alright!" Tai says and I'm finally able to look him in the eye and immediately I feel better because I can't find any fear in his eyes. He smiles at me when he notices that I calmed a little. I turn to look at the others, but they aren't there. I turn back to Tai.
"Where did the others go?" I ask. Tai just smiles and pulls me forward again until we reach the others who are standing in front of a wall. At first glance this room seems similar to many of the temple like structures we'd come across in the digital world, it even is lighten up. Nice
Sora:
The room we're in seems to be some sort of large forayer for the structure. Along one of the walls I can barely make out shapes of something on the wall and that keeps my eyes as I look right at it. Almost unconsciously I start edging towards the wall.
"So, where to next?" Davis asks and I notice with relief that Tai managed to calm him down. Poor Guy, I can remember the first time I met Devimon. I didn't feel any better than him.
"Well, I suppose we should try and find the tablet here in the temple." Ken speaks up, as I step closer to the wall. It looks like some sort of mural is on the wall.
"Sora?" I hear my love's voice call behind me, and I sense his comfortable presence behind me. A quick look back confirmed that Tai's standing there, and I nod my head towards the wall.
"Look at this." I say and he steps next to me. He stares at the mural and his eyes widened I can't understand why but when I turn back to the mural it's like somebody just turned the light on in my head. It's a mural of sorts, but seems to show a story rather than just a collection of pictures. It was what the mural was about that was the biggest shock. At what I could figure was the start was what was obviously supposed to be a human and while that was a shock it wasn't the biggest. The human had large hair sticking out in all directions, a dark shirt with start on it, light pants and a pair of goggles in his head.
"Wow, why am I in a mural in the digital world?" Davis asks, looking at the same thing the rest of us is looking at.
"Davis, that's not supposed to be you, it's Tai" I say before anyone else can correct him. "That's even the very outfit he wore the first time we came to the digital world."
"Prodigious," Izzy says, stepping to get a closer look at Tai's representation on the mural. It's resemblance to Tai is uncanny."
"You can say that again." Tai says standing next to me. We all look over the whole mural. It shows the Tai figure meeting up with a dragon like digimons, then seeming to go on several adventures with it, including adding a Gabumon to their travelling group, battling several digimons that I recognize as Ultimate level digimons. Towards the middle of the wall the Tai look alike meets a second human. I gasp when I notice how familiar the second human looks to me. Tai takes my hand and squeezes it a little and immediately I feel better. Safer. The two continued on through some adventures, finally reaching a battle on a giant piece of floating land, against the same human, who used multiple digimons in the battle, including one with a giant eye that I didn't recognize. Tai seems to be losing when he's knocked off of a cliff and the dragon digimons jumping after him. It grew in size and gained a pair or wings to rescue Tai before defeating its opponent. That's where the mural ends.
"What the hell is this?" Davis asks after all of us have looked over it multiple times. I turn to look to Tai and he just stares blankly at the wall. I can't even read his expression. His hair is over his eyes, I noticed that he makes that often when he doesn't want anybody to know how he feels. I shrug along with ken, but Izzy looks thoughtfully at Tai who doesn't seem like talking at the moment.
"Tai, does this have any meaning to you?" He asks, focusing everyone's attention on him.
"Maybe..." Tai replies, earning double takes from most of us, including me. "I read a story in Gennai's books about a guy whose life is on this mural"
"What kind of story?"
"Well, his name was the same as mine. So in the story there was a big electronic game convention, this game was a digimon. Anyway I'm sure he's connected with me...this might have been influenced by our later trip to the digital world.." he says, a sheepish grin on his face. "Anyways, he won this tournament thing and then he was in a different world. He met the digimons he was raising, who was a giant blue dragon like digimons without wings and they had adventures together to stop some evil" Tai points at the mural. "It was just like that."
All of us are, needless to say, shocked at this. Davis, as usual is the first to break the silence.
"So what happened after that battle?" he asks, grabbing his mentor's arm. All of us look at Davis and I had to stifle a laugh. Of course Davis would want to know what happened next in the story, rather than being shocked at what Tai said.
"That's it Davis. The story ended there. "Davis looks somewhat down. Izzy however looks thoughtful. And I can't help but think that Tai lied about the end of the story...Suddenly the entire room seems to shake, as if an earthquake or something is hitting it, and all of us look around, wondering what's going on.
"It must be Devimon, he's trying to blast the cave!" Ken exclaims and everyone is suddenly looking a bit more panicked. I notice that Davis pales once again.
"Ok, no one panic, we just have less time than we thought we did." Tai says, his voice just barely showing any strain from that news. I look at him, along with the others and wait for what he's going to say.
"Okay, we just need to head deeper into this place. I'm sure our digimons can manage to keep him busy." Tai says and we all nod, heading forward. Izzy turns back and takes a photograph of the mural. Suddenly I can recognize voices and I almost jumped in the air of happiness when I saw our digimons in their in-training forms run to us.
"Tai!" Koromon shouts happily and jumps in Tai's arms. "We made it! We kicked his butt!" Koromon exclaims. Tai smiles brightly at him:" I knew you would do that buddy!" the other digimons all jumped in the arms of their partners and a few minutes after they fell asleep. We pass most of the next hour winding through a series of passageways as Tai and Izzy attempt to find a way through the seeming maze of tunnels. We keep ourselves occupied playing a little games like 20 questions. Finally we reach a room. It's easily the largest room I'd ever seen. Torches came to life all around the room as soon as we enter it, showing off the truly massive proportions of the place. This room is so large that it had another little temple in it.
"Wow, there's no way that we're still on Infinity Mountain" Tai says as we all stand shocked at the scope of the room around us.
"It has to be, we never entered another one." Ken replies.
"We're in the digital world, you forgot that here's everything possible." Izzy replies, looking around as well. Without any other words we head to the temple in the middle of this room. The door of this little temple doesn't even move a centimeter when we push against it.
"Well, this sucks...Maybe the digimons can open that?" Davis says, turning to Tai. Tai didn't even notice Davis he turns to Izzy instead.
"Hey Izzy, what's that?" Tai points to something next to the door, and I turn to look at it. It seems to be a number of dials, surrounded by pictures of some sort that I couldn't make out from where I'm standing.
"It's a puzzle of some sort!" Izzy exclaims, looking at Tai from where he is next to the dials on the wall.
"That's great Izzy. I'll be sure to thank the makers of the place for giving us entertainment, but open the door." Tai snaps towards Izzy. I turn to him and notice that he's not as calm as he was when we entered this temple. Tai notices that he was rude and apologizes quietly. Izzy just smiles at him and tells him it's alright. The others obviously don't notice that Tai doesn't feel very well. I look at him and try to ask him without any words but he just shrugs and tells me with a glance that everything's alright. I can't help but think that his behavior is because of this temple's atmosphere.
"Izzy hurry up please. I want to get Tai out of here as soon as possible" I whisper in his ear what causes him to take a good look at Tai and finally he understands what's bothering me. He quickly nods and turns back to open the door. The door suddenly opened with a quiet crack. "Come on." I say to Tai as I take ahold of his hand. The two of us enter into the structure which has a downward curving roof. In the middle of the small room is a low as a normal room's roof and Izzy and Ken stand already there. We head towards them, still holding hands.
"So this is it?" Tai asks, stepping forward to the object sitting in front of us all."
It's a diamond shaped tabled, floating between the ceiling and a pedestal which rose from the ground. I can make out some sort of script written on it but I'd never seen it before in my life. I find that I can't really stop staring at the tablet, but I do listen to Izzy and the others.
"Yeah, this is it." Izzy replies.
"So, why haven't you grabbed it so we can get out of here?" Tai replies.
"Don't you think we've already tried?" Izzy answers. "Apparently only a specific "Chosen one" can pick it up."
"Right here." Ken motions, pointing down to the pedestal. "It says that a Hero of the Digital world must come and claim this tablet. I think it's a safeguard to protect the Crystal against evil digimons"
Tai looks at Ken and nods. I however look at Tai. My mind can't help but go back to the mural and the resemblance of the person portrayed in it to Tai.
"Tai, why don't you try to take it?" I ask, getting everyone's attention.
"what? Tai asks, turning to look at me. Izzy and Ken however look thoughtful and Davis who just entered the cave (god know what took him so long) looks confused.
"Think about it. That mural in the first room depicted a Hero of the Digital World, and not only do you look just like him, you're called like him and do the same things like he did. Maybe you're the one talked about." I say, and Tai looks at me.
"Wh...What?" he asks, and I just shake my head and spin him around. He's facing the tabled now.
"Reach out an arm and grab it babe" I whisper in his ear so that just he can hear what I'm saying. He immediately reaches his hand and grabs the tablet without a single problem.
"Prodigious." Izzy exclaims behind us and I have to agree with him.
I smile at my love and he just stares at the table until he notices that I'm staring at him and he just replies the smile I can't help but finally be certain that my best friend is in love with me again if he isn't already.
We head back out of the cave and made our way back to Gennai's home. We finally seem to be turning things around.
to be continued...next chapter is going to be uploaded in a week! review please!