Chapter 6: Alliance & Acquaintance
This was disastrous. Ken, using a squadron of plant Digimon, pollened out Kari, Charizard, Bulbasaur and Gatomon. He couldn't have planned an ambush any better. Just moments before, Bulbasaur told Kari that the disappearance of the townspeople of Pallet was by an assault by Ken storming into town during a solar eclipse. However, a girl in blue seemed to have saved the day with the help of a Lugia and Ho-oh thwarting Ken's capturing attempt. This time, Ken's successful. "I think this was a tad too easy," he sneered. "Of course, I had the element of surprise. They're like deer in headlights." That reference? He knelt over to Charizard, a hard interest to turn down. "Using my rings, I may use this lethal dragon to my disposal." That could not be good. Don't worry...
"That's what you think, Emperor," growled someone from the oncoming distance. Ken spun around, eying three giant figures. One was a green ogre-like creatures with wild white hair and tattered jean shorts. The second was a white snowy bear, no mouth included. Not much else. The last was...THE HUMAN TORCH? Not quite but its body was consumed by fire.
"I think you need to leave the kid and creatures in better digital hands," the burning one mouthed. Ken was not appreciating the conceiting remarks, unaware of Caterpie sneaking from Kari's shirt.
"Oh, of course, Meramon," Ken gulled sarcastically at the fireman. "It'll take more than you three to stop my observations." Ken, if you were a genius, you would've clammed up and escape.
"String Shot!" Caterpie bellowed before snotting Ken in a cocoon of the String shot. Who's the element of surprise, now? Ken jerked around, spotting the seemingly harmless insect. "And you thought Kari came honestly." Well, she did. You just made your move in the right time.
"Why, you wretched-" Ken, the bear!
"Sub-Zero Ice Punch!" the snow bear shouted, stopping Ken's words and having a fist in the air. Here's the swing...POW! Right in the kisser. Ken crumbled to the ground, out from the shot and ice forming around the cheek. The ogre was impressed with how the bear connected the swing.
"Sora taught you some boxing techniques, Fridgimon?" it awed. "I mean, she's a superb athlete and all." Fridgimon walked over, picking Gatomon and Bulbasaur up.
"Let's not debate this, Ogremon. We need to evacuate before the Emperor wants a rematch." Good point. Meramon got Charizard in a carrying rack as Ogremon put Kari over his shoulder. Caterpie stayed attached to Kari, not willing to break away.
"You should be glad I didn't bring my club." Still, with the Pokémon in tow, the three escaped, leaving the tied-up and cold Ken behind. Meanwhile, the rest of the Digidestined, along with Ash, Pikachu and Muk were in the same computer room that Davis and TK were in a couple of chapters ago. Pikachu was playing with the little creatures that were also from the couple chapters, even Patamon. Muk was mellowing out nearby the trash bin. Not very enthusiastic. Ash looked out through the window, seeing people. More people than Pallet Town.
"Odaiba's pretty lively," he murmured. He missed his neighbors. Cody and the yellow ball...guess where...approached Ash, wondering if his state of mind was focused.
"Is everything okay, Ash?" Cody asked. Ash shot a look at the youngster, deeply concerned.
"Yeah, I just...needed to get that feeling." Yeah, that feeling to know that there was someone to turn to if there was a problem.
"You shouldn't get yourself discouraged," the yellow ball tried to cheer Ash up. "Besides, from all we know, your townspeople are in a safe environment away from any dangerous action." If that round guy was right, Ash was getting worried over nothing. Ash bit some of what the ball mentioned, but still had doubts on trusting too much of his word.
"I realize that...but at the same time, how can I be sure without any evidence to support your claim?" This was a tough question from the little talking ball.
"Upamon's right, you know," Cody retorted. "If any harm was done to the town, you would've known that you were thrown into safety by chance." He may not be too aware but he's right. Ash understood where the two were pointing toward, but even they couldn't get this eerie feeling from Ash.
"There may be one way to know for sure." That's to find them and verify. Davis came up to Ash, still sou about him being close to Kari.
"You may as well listen, Ash," Davis grumbled. "You may be a guess here, but there are a few guidelines that you need to follow." Guidelines? Ash could care less about the offering guidelines. He wanted to get the disc to Izzy.
"Dave, all I need to do is see Izzy. That's it." Talk about straightforward... Davis seemed convinced about getting his regards. Still, he retained the floor.
"Well, that's settled." His attention was directed at Yolei, holding a pink ball that was covered in feathers. "Yolei, you and Poromon head back and make sure that Kari is all right." Yolei seemed to have had enough of the DigiWorld for today.
"I'd rather take Ash to see Izzy, thank you very much," she respectively denied. No go for the Yo go. Sorry... Could Ash's kiss have had an influence on Yolei? Ash wanted to make sure that Kari was more than safe with the addition of extra help.
"That's okay, Yolei," he tried to reason. "I'll have TK guide me to Izzy's place." Why would Ash want to side with Davis on this, other than the fact that any escort to Izzy was good for him?
"See?" Davis smirked. "This guy's no idiot. He's safe in our hands." While that was true, Ash had to find something mischievous to say and remembering before with the early conversations with the girls, he knew what to word out.
"And on the other hand, it'll at least keep Davis away from Kari." Oops. Davis was trying to act like a leader and this was shot up. You think Davis appreciated that?
"What was that you mangy cobbler?!" he screeched at Ash. No. Sorry Davis. You opened yourself to that insult. Ash snickered, knowing that he asked for that.
"Hey, you said it yourself. You'd rather have Yolei go after Kari over you." TK and Pikachu watched on, unsure if Ash put Davis in his place or that Ash found a way for Davis to pursue Kari.
"This is gonna get ugly, no pun or rhetorical jokes requiring insertion," TK mumbled.
("No kidding,") Pikachu agreed. Davis, fed up with that backtalk, got to the computer screen, ready to return to the DigiWorld. TK saw this and prompted himself to back Davis up.
"I'll show that gut-less, cowardly trainer what I can do!" he bellowed as he got the portal set. Then, he stuck his arm out which held a device with a blue rubber grip. "Digiport open!" The flash shot up, consuming the two. The two with their creatures were gone, back to the digital world.
"He, obviously, can't take a joke," Ash grumbled. You were...joking? Ash turned to Yolei, wondering why she decided against returning to finish her shift. "Why didn't you wanna go and be beside Kari?" Yolei squinted nervously. Was it something to do from back at Pallet?
"I'm starting to think it was the kiss you gave her," Upamon guessed. Cody pondered his Digimon's reply, understanding his point of view.
"Doesn't sound too far-fetched," he figured. Yolei shook her head, willing to deny the allegations.
"I feel like it, okay?" she finally answered. Must be her period. Ash and Cody shot a look at each other the back at the confused Yolei. She had no such answer to back up her feeling. Even Pikachu thought her reaction to the question put her in mental harm's way.
("She likes Ash, I just know it,") it gleed. Yolei took a breath of air before she was able to talk again.
"Look, I wanna help get Pallet Town back to normal so that you can proceed on with your celebration, alright?" she summed up. "Being in the Top Eight of that tournament is nothing to take lightly." Well, no. It meant you would need to work harder to get better.
"Right," Ash snapped a reply. He pulled out a red/white ball with a button on the center. He pointed the ball at Muk. Why? "Okay, Muk. Return." A red beam zipped out, hitting Muk. That was when Muk turned into a beam of red light which flew back into the ball. Then, he placed the ball back on his belt. Neither Yolei or Cody wanted to question what happened. "You ready?" Yolei nodded. Cody...not so much.
"I'll wait here for the rest to return," he chose. Since convincing Cody was going to be futile, Yolei and Ash, joined by Pikachu and Poromon, leave the school. They proceeded down the Japanese roadside streets, full of young people, some in green school uniforms and some in business suits. If Ash had remained in Pallet Town, he'd be really lonely, thinking about how he could pass the time. Did he know other people in the Kanto Region that he could hang out with? Maybe he could've gone to Prof. Elm or head to the Orange Islands. Who knows, maybe Caroline would love Ash as a substitute child.
"You know, Ash," Yolei tried to talk. "You should be pretty lucky that I'm the one who's taking you to see Izzy." Ash was lucky?
"Why is that?" he wondered.
"I don't really trust Davis, knowing what we did to you. Besides, you tend to have the charm to lure even Sora or Mimi or any of the girls in the high school. Jeez, if I knew better, I would hire you to get Tai into a love that he would like." Ash smugged a grin, thinking that it was funny to hear about it. That's when someone new came into the scene.
"Give me one solid reason you would want Tai to hook up, Yolei?" she disagreed. Ash and Yolei jerked to see an older teen redhead in the female school uniform. Her hair was a tad longer than Kari's but nowhere near Yolei's.
"Oh, hey Sora. What's up?" Sora seemed pretty worn. Sweat dripped from her forehead.
"Just got done with Track. By the way, who's the kid and mouse? That's no Digimon I recognize." Now how could Sora tell if Pikachu wasn't a Digimon?
"There's a long story but we need to get to Izzy's place, pronto." Sora didn't seem to mind it. Why? Was she heading in the same direction?
"You too?" She was. To hear of even more company, Ash didn't mind this hiccup. "Why don't you explain along the way?" Of course they would. They were ready to head off to see Izzy, hoping to uncover the truth of the missing townspeople.
"We'd love to," Ash gladly replied. "It may help the situation. I'm Ash Ketchum, and this is actually my Pokémon, Pikachu." Pikachu flashed the peace sign, showing that it would cooperate with her and anyone else.
"Sora Takenouchi, but just Sora will be fine." Both she and Ash shook on the terms of respect, as did Pikachu. When Ash shook Sora's hand, he felt muscles that were tensed, confirming her word on exercise.
"You workout often?"
"Mostly. Besides being a Digidestined, I was a soccer player along with friends." She's a Digidestined too? Who else is? Izzy? "So, what's your story?" Ash wasn't about to hesitate among friends.
"I'm a Pokémon trainer who came from the Hoenn region back home at Pallet, but my hometown has been abandoned for some odd reason." He pulled out the disc that had the video data of the moments when the disappearance of everyone occurred. "This disc has the moment in which by a professor's security CCTV cameras captured the vanishings of the townspeople. Unfortunately, the sound card on his computer is shot and in need to be replaced. It's why I'm here." That wasn't all. Yolei decided to provide more detail.
"You see, there's a cave that's in the Server continent that connects the DigiWorld to his world," she added as she transformed a scowl at Ash. "Ash discovered it when he came back from running an errand and I have a feeling he saw Kari bathing during his first stint there." Oh crud muffins. Yolei figured out that Ash got a sneak peek at Kari cleansing herself with Hawkmon? What could he say or do? Finally, he uprighted himself, willing to get Yolei back on track and not the same ones that Sora ran on.
"Yolei, which is more important, seeing what's on that disc or your claim of voyeurism?" he grunted. "Let's try to keep things in perspective, please." To Ash, the truth of peeping at a naked Kari was pointless at this state of the story. Sora had to believe that disc held something that could stoke a possibility that Ken made some sort of invasion to round up prisoners.
"I agree," she said. "The cave that connects the two worlds sounds suspicious enough. Let's get over and show Izzy the disc." Right. Agreed. The three raced over to an apartment complex where a redhead male was inside working on some paperwork. He was in his school uniform, meaning he was doing his homework. Suddenly, a knock cracked his concentration.
"Izzy?" Yolei echoed. "You in?" The boy noticed the young feminine voice and walked over to the door.
"Right on time." Wait...he was expecting Yolei? He opened the door, seeing the group. "Yolei. I got Cody's e-mail that you were coming. Something about a mystery?" Yolei smugged a scorn, knowing better that news traveled fast.
"Yes, Izzy. It's urgent." Izzy stepped back, allowing the others to come in. Inside, Yolei introduced Izzy to Ash and Pikachu then the detail of the situation. Needless to say that Izzy's mind began to go into overdrive. It could explain the smoke billowing from his ears.
"Let's load the disc into the drive and see what I can pick up." Ash handed the disc over to Izzy who inserted it into a disc drive dish before pushing that in. It started to play. There were the people as mentioned before plus others. Ash's mother was talking to Max about something.
"Ash hasn't really turned down a challenge yet," he gloated. No wonder he's a tough opponent. "I don't think the Battle Frontier will pose any difficulty." Ash's mother giggled at Max's words.
"I think I played some sort of role in that behavior," she confessed with a shy smile. What role was that?
"What's your mom meaning by that?" Yolei questioned.
"She...was very adventurous and reckless in her youth," Ash opened. Like mother, like son. Yolei shuttered to the thought. It's no wonder why he's such skilled in a manor of departments. Back to the video. Prof. Birch entered the scene, watching the sky. Max and Ash's mother saw this, wondering what was up. That wasn't an attempt to do a pun.
"Prof. Birch?" Max called. Birch pointed up to the sun, though a thoughtless idea. You don't look directly into the sun.
"Guys, there's a solar eclipse!" he bellowed in excitement. Sure enough, shielding most of the sun from entering their eyes, they watched the sun being turned black. That's when the visual was lost in the snow. Was the audio? "Why so soon?" It wasn't lost but that couldn't disguise that notion. "We weren't suppose to have another for another five years."
"Yeah, this wasn't scheduled," Ash's mother agreed. Suddenly, evil female cackles drowned any heard audacity that it displayed.
"What the heck?" Max screeched.
"My, this is an unusual world," the new voice awed so villainously. Izzy cringed. Did that new voice ring a bell?
"LadyDevimon?" he labeled. Lady...Devimon? A Digimon?
"Who are you?!" Ash's mother hollered.
"Oh, don't worry about trying to figure my name," LadyDevimon sneered. "By the time I'm done, I'll move on." Her laughter began to tickle Ash's nerves, but these tickles weren't meant for laughing. Suddenly, an explosion echoed. What happened? "What the-" A loud screech was heard. Without visual, it was hard to determine what was going on.
"Is that a Lugia?" Max shouted. Lugia! Ash heard it, but couldn't make a detrimental belief. A moment of silence, before another caw sounded.
"A Ho-oh?!" Birch noticed. Ho-oh? Ash and Pikachu were shocked. Why?
"Ho...oh?" he repeated. Did he know of Ho-oh? Sora saw the panicked face on Ash, thinking something happened to him with a Ho-oh.
"You know about that Ho-oh?" she asked. Ash was stiff as a flagpole. He quivered. Something horrible occurred between Ash and whatever Ho-oh was.
"Ho-oh was the first legendary Pokémon that I saw, long before Lugia, Entei, Unown, even the three birds of elemental balance: Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno. When I first laid eyes on Ho-oh, it was embedded in gold. Of course, at the time, I had no such clue that it was a Ho-oh until I met Morty who told me about it." So, Ash held a special bond to this Ho-oh. "I saw Ho-oh again as it flew to the Hoenn Region, where I went before this all happened." This was some serious impact for Ash to hear that this Ho-oh invaded Pallet Town but for what? Saving the townspeople?
"LadyDevimon is bad news, because it's a virus Digimon," Izzy explained. "I think that Ho-oh and Lugia came to protect the townspeople from her." If that's a fact, then they either failed or had some more help. Ash bought some of Izzy's pointers, but wasn't confident about what may have led to the townspeople's abandonment. The tape continued, no visual still, but something else.
"People of Pallet Town!" yet another female bellowed to the crowd. Ash shot up, recognizing the voice.
"Princess?" he shrieked. Princess?
"Allow me to lead you to safety!" The audio was mixing with all sorts of sounds, which died down to nothing. Ash was freaking out as the "snow" lifted from the screen. Izzy stopped the tape. Ash felt confused, berated, betrayed, just nowhere near his perky self.
"What are you doing away from your kingdom, Sarah?" Sora, Yolei and Izzy were helpless to aid the stunned trainer. Could a return trip be necessary? Ash wanted to find his neighbors, but now, going back may put his life in danger. Could he still want to find the townspeople...even with the evidence of struggle heard loud and clear?
TO BE CONTINUED...
