Okay, it's time for the crossover part of the story to begin. This will be a little interesting to do. I have to keep track of two separate realities and two separate groups of tamers in this story. But this chapter will only be dealing with those in Takato, Henry, Rika and their group. Later, we'll see what's going on with Yamaki and the rest.
Let me know what you think and I hope I don't make anyone too out of character. Wish me luck.
Whatever she was doing, it was extremely different than walking through one of her portals. Of course, Impmon had only traveled through two of Destiny's portals. But this was really odd. As soon as she had mentioned they were headed for another reality, everything blurred out of view. For a few seconds, they were surrounded by utter blackness. Not darkness, but blackness. Then the world began to come back into view slowly. But it looked different than before.
"…nts?" finished Henry. "Guess we just let them worry then."
Rika scanned the area before asking, "Where are we and why are we here? And why is it suddenly so warm?"
Destiny, her head tilted as if she was listening to something else, slowly answered, "In order: another reality, don't know for sure yet, and because it's summer here."
Currently, they were standing in what looked like a park. While there was no one in sight yet, a path nearby indicated that this area usually saw a lot of traffic. Dark green leaves covered the trees instead of the colorful ones back home, indicated it was indeed a different season. In the distance, tall buildings framed the skyline. And Rika was right about the warmth.
"Shouldn't we get out of sight?" asked Takato. "I really don't think we want to frighten any random joggers or something that comes by."
"Speak for yourself, Goggle-head," muttered the purple rookie.
The dark-haired prophetess shook her head. "Digimon are more common here than in your reality. There are many partnered pairs across the globe in this one. And it has only increased in the last six months. While they are not everywhere, your presence will not create a panic. The most you may gain is odd looks for the large number in one location."
"I thought you didn't have much info on what's going on," Terriermon accused. "Have you been holding out on us?"
"No, I just received more information when we arrived," she answered. "Along with instructions. I have to meet someone. Please wait here."
"You drag us to another universe and then you plan to leave us in some random park," asked Rika. "Where are you going?"
"To find a future ally and native of this world," the girl answered, already walking away. "Stay here and I'll be back soon."
Jeri, addressing the infuriated tamer, pointed out, "She knows what she's doing, Rika. She's been to other realities before and knows how to handle things. We haven't. We need to try and trust her judgment."
"Yeah, Rika, you need to momentai," added the rabbit digimon.
The girl gave Terriermon a glare, but released a resigned sigh. "Fine. But I hope we don't have to stand around here for long. I feel like an idiot just waiting around like this. And not a word or I'll tie those long ears in a knot," she threatened the green and white creature as he opened his mouth with a comment.
A small hand tugged on Jeri's green dress. Ai and Mako were looking at her. While the twins were fairly comfortable with any of the older tamers, they were closer to Leomon's partner. The older girl glanced at the pair.
"We're supposed to stay close to you and Leomon for a while," Mako informed her solemnly.
"Why?" asked Jeri curiously. Then she glanced around the clearing. "Where's Impmon?"
As soon as Destiny told them to stay, the purple rookie decided to go. He quickly instructed his partners to remain close to Jeri and Leomon, who he trusted to keep them safe, and edged away from the group. Renamon, everyone actually, was watching the frustrated Rika in case her temper decided to explode. Otherwise, his exit would have been noticed.
Impmon grinned to himself as he moved through the park. It was a whole new reality full of fresh targets to terrorize. Some of the people back home were actually starting to catch on to him, making his pranks harder to accomplish. Honestly, did they expect him to pass up an opportunity like this? He spotted a pair approaching slowly, so the virus type leapt in the closest tree. All he had to do was wait.
Two humans, older than the tamers, were walking down the path. They were talking, completely relaxed and unsuspecting. One would expect from how close they stood together that they were just another couple on a date, but they were too comfortable. Most dating couples he had seen (and eventually scare out of the park) were either really awkward or trying to act extra cool. There two seemed like just close friends, but he could be wrong. He wasn't a perfect expert in human relationships.
The girl was carrying a tennis racket and had red hair that framed her face. Apparently she was fairly active. She was talking to the boy, smiling. That would change quickly.
The boy was more… interesting. First off, his hair! Impmon was positive that it had to be defying several laws of physics to look like that. The brown spikes stretched high above the boy's head, regardless of what gravity should be doing to it. And he didn't know why, but the human reminded him a little of Goggle-head, even though he wasn't wearing any himself.
The two humans drew near his perch, still unaware of the digimon's presence. He wouldn't hurt them. Just scare them and watch them run off screaming. He took careful aim.
Destiny knew who she was supposed to find and where. She hadn't before, but they had given her the information when she arrived. Along with a few memories from her last encounter with some of the people here. Especially two of them. And one of them was who she was seeking. It was nice to have at least an idea about things again.
They had moved since she had last dealt with them, but she had directions. Courtesy of the power of them. Thus, she kept on track and arrived at the door quickly. While she had received some odd looks for her attire, no one had tried to stop her.
The prophetess knocked on the door. The dark-haired girl waited, going though all her new knowledge that she had yet to examine. After a few moments, the one she was supposed to find opened the door.
Standing in the entrance was a girl with short, brown hair with a pink barrette. A digital camera hung around her neck. Beside her was a smaller, white feline shape. Both stared at the blue-eyed stranger in surprise.
Destiny gave the girl a slight bow, "Greetings, Child of Light."
"Most people don't call me that," she slowly answered. "I'm Kari Kamiya. Who are you?"
"I'm who changed your life over eight years ago. I am the one who sent you and your brother a gift one dark night. I am Destiny."
Tai Kamiya couldn't believe how much the world had changed. In the six months since MaloMyotismon and his crazed scheme, digimon had become common knowledge to the public. More and more digidestined had appeared. Most had partners of the in-training or rookie level. The more experienced, like those who had fought around Christmas time, could sometimes make it up to champion, but mostly it was still low-level stuff for the new guys. But the kids were as happy as could be to gain a partner. It was just too bad that not all the changes were positive.
It had really begun at the same time as the increase in general knowledge of digimon, but it didn't really pick up strength until three months ago. When Diaboromon returned, Armageddemon attacked the city, and all the chaos that it had brought, anti-digimon sentiment had begun to spread like wildfire. Mostly paranoid adults, for the digital creatures were popular with almost all children, there were those who saw them as too unpredictable and dangerous. They believed that digimon being partnered with kids only attracted more violent ones. Some digidestined had to still hide their partners because of their parents' fears. Izzy had even said there were faint whispers that even the government was frowning on the digimon's presence.
It was summer now and Tai had no intentions of focusing on that kind of stupidity. He had planned to spend it with his friends and fellow digidestined. That is until he found out that they already had plans.
"Honestly, Sora. Everyone is leaving," he complained to one of his best friends. "You're leaving for a tennis tournament, Matt has a major band gig, Joe is at some sort of 'nerd away camp' for one of his super classes, and Mimi is still in New York. And Yolei is on a family trip and Cody is at a fighting competition of some kind. I wish them all luck and everything, but what am I supposed to do?"
The girl smiled at him, "Come on, Tai. In a few days, most of us will be back. Until then, you'll still have Izzy, Ken, Davis, T.K., and Kari. It's not the end of the world."
"You know Izzy will spend the whole time trying to update his files on all the new digidestined," Tai groaned dramatically. "Agumon and me will slowly lose our minds as he talks on and on about whatever new software program he has."
Sora and Tai both knew their respective partners were nearby, trying to give them some privacy. They seemed to think that there was hope for something between the Digidestined of Courage and Love. Whether there was or not, the two friends knew their conversation was still being listened to by an orange dinosaur and a pink bird. But if the digimon wanted to pretend they weren't eavesdropping, the humans could as well.
"Nice practice by the way," added the spiky-hair boy. "Though I still think you make a better soccer player."
The red-head swung her tennis racket threateningly, "Oh, I can still beat you at any sport. When I get back, we'll get a game going with Davis and Ken. That should be fun."
"Deal," he agreed. "But the question is, what do I do until then?"
"Well, you could…"
Before she could finish, a shout interrupted her. Instincts born of many battles in the digital world caused them to jump backwards before whoever it was finished speaking.
"Badda Boom!"
A small fireball struck the sidewalk ahead of them. The two digidestined turned their attention to the source of both the voice and the pyrokinetics. Up in the tree overhanging the path, nearly hidden from view by the foliage, was a purple shape. And now it was chuckling.
"Not the best reactions I've ever produced," their attacker informed them, "but not bad. So, Super-hair, are you going to run screaming with your girlfriend or just stand there staring like an idiot?"
"Pepper Breath!"
"Spiral Twister!"
All the earlier illusions of their solitude were complete destroyed at their digimon leapt into action. Agumon's fireball was far larger than the one that had been hurtled towards the humans and Biyomon had the advantage of flight to get close to their opponents elevated position. The purple being was forced to leap out of the tree to remain unharmed.
As he landed on the ground, Tai could tell he had to be a digimon. The creature was short and vaguely evil-looking. The boy didn't know if it was because of the fanged smiley face on his stomach or the fact that he threw fire at him, but the digimon looked like trouble. A red bandana was tied around his neck and three-fingered gloves of the same shade covered his hands. A barbed tail behind the creature furthered the evil image. Finally, emerald green eyes stared out of his pale face.
"Yeesh, no one has a sense of humor anymore," he muttered. "I was just having some fun."
"You attacked Tai and Sora," asked Agumon, "for fun?"
Biyomon added, "They could have really been hurt."
The purple digimon sighed, "No, they couldn't have been, bird-brain. I know what I'm doing. I have loads of practice with fire, so why don't you and the shorter, orange pineapple-head wannabe buzz off and I'll find someone else to have fun scaring. Someone without overprotective bodyguards."
Tai narrowed his eyes, "You can't go around throwing fireballs at innocent people. Whoever you are, we won't let you hurt someone."
"I'm not going to hurt someone if I don't want to, Hairball. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have already," the strange digimon shouted. "Now back off and I won't have to get rough."
"You attacked first," reminded Sora, her voice accusatory.
"And we won't let you get away with nearly hurting our partners," Agumon explained. "Pepper Breath!"
"Spiral Twister!" added the bird digimon.
The short creature dodged the attacks as best he could, not yet firing his own attack but looking extremely frustrated.
"You know, this isn't really a fair fight. Two digimon versus one?"
"And you against helpless humans is better?" asked Biyomon.
"How many times do I have to tell you: your precious tamers are fine," he snarled. Tai puzzled over the term "tamer," but the purple rookie wasn't finished. "And if you won't play fair, I guess I'll have to try something else."
The small shape began to morph and grow. What now stood on the ground was a cross between a biker punk and a fallen angel. One arm was covered by a large weapon that looked to be extremely dangerous. His black wings unfurled impressively while his three green eyes glittered with mischief.
"He… digivolved," gasped Sora.
"Congratulations, toots," the tall, dark digimon smirked. "You've taken the title of 'stater of the obvious' from Kazu. Never thought anyone would beat that loser at that."
"Tai," whispered the orange digimon urgently. "I… don't think he's a champion."
"No, kind of skipped that. The name's Beelzemon, I'm a mega, and I have better things to do than hang out here with you idiots," the digimon informed them. "And since I could wipe the floor with you, I'd suggest letting me go."
The former leader of the digidestined shook his head, "Can't do that. You don't seem to have a problem with attacking people for no reason. And there are too many people who could get hurt around here. We'll have to do something to prevent that, even if it means knocking you out and stuffing you back into the digital world forcibly."
"Okay, few problems with that plan, Hairball," Beelzemon growled. "One, how many times do I have to say 'I'm not going to hurt anyone' until you get I don't plan to go off attacking kids on swings or something? Two, I'm a mega who can fly away and smack your rookies around like rag-dolls if I wanted to. How are you going to stop me?"
"Agumon Warp digivolve to… WarGreymon!"
You know, I don't think he's making the best first impression on the digidestined. But did you think that you could leave Impmon in a park and not expect him to try and cause trouble? Hope you liked it. Please let me know. Know that button at the bottom of the screen that says "Review" on it? Press it, please.