"The Gateway to Home"

OK, thank you everyone for all of the great comments. I really appreciate them. I'm also happy that you guys like Kaitoumon, I wasn't sure what people would think of him at first. Anyway, here is the next chapter. Please enjoy!

As it turns out, Myotismon wasn't really coming after us.

He was just passing by to try and scare us.

What a creep!

Seriously, what kind of person gets a kick out of scaring little kids?

That's sick.

We were all relaxing now, me sitting with Mimi, Palmon and V-Mon at the shore of the lake as Tai and Joe were in the lake gathering some water in plastic bags and Gomamon was swimming.

"Hey, check it out, Mimi." Joe said holding up his water filled bag.

"How about this for an instant bath? I'm glad I took these bags from the restaurant." He said as Gomamon swam over to him.

"Gee, now you'll be able to go soak your head the next time you have an allergy attack." The seal joked.

"Right. That was so funny I forgot to laugh." Joe said.

"Now that Myotismon's chasing us, we're gonna have to keep running like a bunch of crazed shoppers at the mall. He's just a big creep if you ask me." Mimi said.

Love the way she sees things and she is totally right.

"I have to agree with you on that." Joe said.

"Yeah, he's small potatoes for us." Tai said.

"My wish is to never see him again. Period." Palmon said.

"Mine too." Mimi smiled with her partner.

"Gather around everyone!" Izzy called making us urn to look at him.

"I hope lunch is ready because I'm starving." Tai said as Izzy and Tentomon came running to us.

"Gennai's back. He wants to speak to us." Izzy said.

"Is this a scheduled visit?" Mimi asked.

"Hope he found a way to get us out of here." Joe said.

"What is it this time?" Tai asked.

They all said this at once, so it was hard to tell what everyone said at first.

We all got up and went to go see what the old man wanted.

There was the transparent form of Gennai with all of our friends surrounded around the hologram and we went to.

"Don't keep us in suspense. What's this all about anyway?" Tai asked.

"Well, I brought you some good news and some bad news. Which would you like to hear first?" Gennai asked.

Does it really matter which we hear first?

"Save the good news for last. I hate being depressed." The child of Reliability said.

"He's a basket case anyway. Let's start with the good news." Matt said.

"Actually, you all look like you could use some cheering up. I've been told another child will be joining your group." Gennai said shocking us all.

"Another child? Who tells you these things anyway?" Sora asked.

"Well, this is someone you shall want as a friend. This someone is a Digidestind." Gennai said making everyone ask questions about this 9th child.

"What?" Matt asked.

"Really?" Mimi asked.

"Another one?" Joe asked.

"Are they my age?" I asked.

What?

I was sick of being the youngest and I'm sure TK wants someone our age too, even though he's a year older than me.

"Oh, I hope this new one will have a digimon that will be able to help us." Yokomon said.

"You and me both." Sora said.

"The important thing to remember is all nine of you must be together. As long as you are separated, the worlds will not be in harmony together. And everything will go wacko, so we must find this other child as soon as possible." The old man said.

"How do we do that?" Tai asked.

"I hope it's someone my size." TK said.

See?

He totally agrees with me.

"I hope she's my size so that we can swap clothes." The child of Sincerity gushed.

Having another girl on the team would be cool.

"Tell us something about this kid. Like what's his or her name?" the child of Courage asked.

"Uh, name? It's…I forgot." Gennai said.

"You forgot?!" Matt yelled as we all yelled at him.

OH MY GOD!

What is wrong with this guy?

"GENNAI!" Tai yelled.

"Let me at him! Let me at him! Let me at him!" I yelled trying to go after him and V-Mon held me back.

"He's not really there." My dragon said.

"I don't care!" I said.

"Calm down. I do know the location of the child. It's Japan." Gennai said making me calm down and look at him in surprise like everyone else was.

"Japan?" Tai asked.

"Where is Japan?" Gabumon asked.

"Japan's a big island in the far east." Agumon said.

"Agumon and Tai were transported there when our two worlds converged." Izzy explained.

"If they ever converge again, maybe we'll all get to go home." Joe said.

"Yeah." Mimi sighed sadly.

"Remember, that was the good news." Gennai said.

"Can't wait to hear the bad news." Tai said.

"Myotismon had heard of the 9th child and will be going to Japan soon. He's gathering his forces as we speak. If he gets to the child first, both of our worlds will be doomed." Gennai said.

Great, that sucks.

"Doomed?! We need some spies on the inside." Tai said.

We all went off to the castle where Myotismon lives, dressing up Agumon and Palmon to go undercover so that they could find out what the plan was.

Their new names are PunkAgumon and ReggaePalmon.

Don't ask, Mimi came up with the names and costumes.

"According to my information, the gate to the other world should be somewhere inside this castle." Gennai said as we stood outside of the walls.

"My theory is that Myotismon sent DemiDevimon to distract us while he stayed behind to prepare the gate. Truly an ingenious plan on his part." Izzy said.

"A good theory indeed." Gennai said.

"Agumon and Palmon have certainly been gone a long time. It's not that I'm worried, it's just that…well, I hope they're looking for the location of the gate." Tai said as he looked up at the castle.

They'd been in there for an hour or so now.

V-Mon, TK, Patamon and I are playing tic tac toe in the dirt as we waited on them, bored.

"I'm worried." Tai said.

"Just be patient." Matt said as vines were thrown down the inside of the wall.

"Hey, look, they're back!" Mimi said.

"Sorry we took so long. We had a big bruiser on our hands." Palmon said.

"Let's go." Tai said as we ran over to the vines.

"My signal is useless inside the castle, so you're on your own. I'm counting on you." Gennai said.

"We got it covered." Tai said as the vines wrapped around him and Mimi, pulling them up to the window.

"I hope so. You must stop Myotismon from carrying out his plans and protect your friend in Japan." Gennai said.

"We better move it." Palmon said as we were all soon pulled up to the window and entered the castle.

We all started walking and the place was like a maze.

We each split up into three teams to go look for the gate.

"Something's totally weird here." Tai said as we walked on a bridge.

"What is it?" Agumon asked.

"We've passed this way before." Tai said.

"This place looks the same." I said.

"Great." V-Mon drawled.

"Is that you, Tai?" Izzy's voice came from behind us making us look over the side to see the red head and his partner.

"Yeah, I'm up here. Did you find anything unusual down there, Izzy?" my brother asked.

"Well, you could say that, Tai. The truth is, your way down there and we're up here." Tentomon said.

"I think you guys may need glasses. We're way up here above you." Agumon said.

"But there's no way!" Izzy said as he looked over his side of the bridge that was under us, looking up at us.

"That's scientifically impossible." He said.

"That stuff doesn't matters here." I said.

"Yeah, our world defies all logic." V-Mon pointed out.

You would-a thought he'd learn that by now.

We all met up with the others on a bridge to talk about what was going on.

"My theory is Myotismon has set up these optical illusions to detour us from finding the gate." Izzy said.

"Well, I'd say he succeeded. We're still as lost as we were before we started." Tai said.

"All we've done so far is go round and round in circles and we don't know up from down." The child of Friendship said.

"Honestly, it's making me dizzy." Joe said.

"Huh?" Gomamon gasped as he jerked his head to the side.

"What's up?" Joe asked.

"Someone's coming." The seal said.

"You sure?" the bluenette asked.

"You doubt me?" Gomamon asked.

We gasped when we heard voices and saw shadows of some digimon walking below us.

"I'm itching to fight." A gruff voice said.

"Eh, 'cause ya got fleas?" another voice teased.

"They seem to know where they're going." Matt whispered as we ducked down.

"Maybe we should try to follow them." The child of Love said.

"They'll lead us to the right place." Tai said as we all got up and started looking for the tunnel that would bring us to where that group of digimon are.

We made it just in time to see a giant gate open up and a white cat told a group of digimon to walk into the gate.

Myotismon then turned to go to his carriage to follow them.

"You're not going anywhere! Not us long as we can help it." my brother yelled.

"What is your name? Do you work for me? Can't you see I'm busy at the moment?" Myotismon taunted with the white cat, Kaitoumon and DemiDevimon at his side.

"Yeah, right." Tai said as we ran over.

"DemiDevimon, would you please take care of this annoying gang of hoodlums? I have better things to do." The Dracula wannabe said as the bowling ball with wings flapped over.

"Of course sir. Anything you want. I'm at your service." DemiDevimon said bowing to the vampire as he got inside his carriage.

"I'm not letting you get pass this gate." DemiDevimon said as he flew over to us with a gang of Numemon, Vegiemon and some other digimon I've never seen before.

"Fat chance, you little twerp!" Tai said.

"I've brought reinforcements. It's all yours, Nanimon." DemiDevimon said to this guy that looked like a huge bowling ball with arms, legs, hair, boots and sunglasses.

"Right. Don't even think about passing by me. You got it?" Nanimon said as he stood in front of us.

"Fare well, digi-dude." Myotismon said as he went through the gate.

"OK, let's fight!" Nanimon said.

"Yeah!" his soldiers cheered.

"We don't wanna fight you guys, but the future is at stake." Agumon said.

"You'll have to forgive us." Palmon said.

"Agumon digivolve too…GREYMON!"

"Palmon digivolve too…TOGEMON!"
Nanimon and his group backed away in fear as the dinosaur and cactus toward over them.

"Gabumon digivolve too…GARURUMON!"

"Tentomon digivolve too…KABUTERIMON!"

"Gomamon digivolve too…IKKAKUMON!"

"V-Mon digivolve too…XV-MON!"

The six digimon stood or flew over the group of smaller digimon, making them all run away from them so they wouldn't get hurt.

"Everyone, back into ranks!" Nanimon yelled at them as they ran away.

"Y-You're big!" Nanimon said as Kabuterimon cut off his path to run away.

"Anybody need a wrestling coach?" he asked waving a white flag.

"Hey! You can't resign!" DemiDevimon said.

"You wanna bet, pipsqueak? When it comes down to having my fanny kicked, I'm outta here and if you don't believe me, ya might check the fine print on my contract." Nanimon said.

"We're comin' through." Tai called.

"Don't let me stand in your way!" Nanimon yelled as he ran away, throwing a pink glob of sludge on DemiDevimon's head.

"Might as well give up." Matt said.

"I'm out numbered! Good help is so hard to find." The blue bat said.

"Just admit you picked the wrong side and give it a rest already." TK smirked as Patamon flew over.

"If you're trying to prank me, it won't work." DemiDevimon said, then sobbed.

The gate doors rattled making us look over to see Kaitoumon was there with the white cat.

"You haven't dealt with me yet!" the female cat said as she jumped up to where Greymon was.

She easily kicked him, Kabuterimon and Ikkakumon in the face, making then grunt in pain before she back flipped and landed on her back paws with a grin.

"That was too easy." She giggled as Greymon and Ikkakumon fell back.

"Try this." Togemon said as she tried to punch the cat, but she jumped out of the way.

Garurumon growled and tried to claw at her, but the cat kept dancing away.

"To the gate everyone." Tai said.

"We gotta get through." Sora said as we all ran around our digimon to get to the gate as it started to close.

"Gatomon, stop playing around and let's get moving." Kaitoumon called to the cat.

"Hey, I don't think so." Gatomon said to us as her tail ring glowed and the statues of dragons glowed and came to life.

"Devidramon. He's one nasty dragon, guardian of the gate. Devi doesn't like losing. If you want a real surprise, look into his eyes. You'll be hypnotized." Gatomon purred.

One of the Devidramon stepped into our path, blocking us off as XV-Mon flew down to protect me.

He used his V Laser, then Greymon used his Nova Blast and Garurumon used his Howling Blaster, making the three nasty dragon jump back.

The other Champions joined in, but the attacks didn't leave a single mark on the Devidramon at all.

Then they stood together in a line as their eyes glowed this pink color.

"I'm starting to feel really weird." Greymon said.

"What's happening?" Tai asked as we all gasped.

The Devidramon the attacked our digimon, smacking them in the face with their claws as one stood in front of us humans.

"How about that for some awesome fighting? We got cha beat by a mile." DemiDevimon cheered as we ran away from the dragon in front of us.

"You haven't won yet!" Togemon called as she ran over to keep the black dragon away from us.

"The gate's closing!" Tai yelled.

"XV-Mon!" I yelled as he flew up and scooped me up in his arms.

He started flying towards the gate where Kaitoumon was standing there as all of the other digimon fought the black dragons.

"Hang on, we're going through." XV-Mon said.

"But what about the others?" I asked as I saw the others running around.

"We'll see them later. Don't worry, they'll be fine. You just need to remember what Magnamon said and we'll be fine too.

I watched as they all fought, not wanting to leave them behind, but what choice do we have?

We have to do this to protect the 9th child.

The child of Light.

"DAISUKE!" Tai yelled.

Kaitoumon looked at us, a strange look in his eyes as he flew back into the gate and XV-Mon followed after him.

We passed through the gate, Gatomon and DemiDevimon right behind as, the light blinding us as we passed through.

Gatomon and DemiDevimon passed right by us as Kaitoumon appeared in front of us, XV-Mon holding me close to his chest to fight him off as we were pulled through the portal.

"So, you looking for a fight?" my blue dragon asked.

"No." Kaitoumon said shocking us.

XV-Mon then transformed back into Demiveemon from the light and I held him to my chest as Kaitoumon picked up the bottom of his cloak and covered us with it.

"Please, be silent until this is over." He said.

Demiveemon and I shared a look, not sure what to do.

This guy had been trying to kill us since we first met, but he was helping us now?

"Why should we trusht you?" Demiveemon asked.

"Because I want Myotismon dead more than you do." Kaitouon said.

I thought about, then nodded.

I could see in his eye that he was being honest and he was our only chance to survive now.

The light faded and we were in the sky above the camp grounds, Myotismon and his army setting off to go to the more populated parts of Japan to search for the 9th child.

"Kaitoumon." This wizard looking digimon called as Kaitoumon hid us without anyone noticing.

"Yes, Wizardmon?" he asked.

"Search this area here with this and come back to us when you find the 9th child. Good luck, friend." Wizardmon said tossing a Tag with a pink Crest to Kaitoumon and he caught it.

"Understood." He said.

Wizardmon nodded as he took off.

As soon as he and the others were out of sight, the dragon winged man flew down and placed us on the grassy ground.

"Why did Wizardmon give ya the Cresht?" Demiveemon asked.

"This is only a copy. There are dozens of copies. Myotismon has the real one." He explained as he held the fake out to us.

"See? Your Crest would react if it were real." He said pointing out the fact that my Crest wasn't glowing.

"So why help us now?" I asked.

"Most of us are serving Myotismon because we were abused into being his slaves, like Gatomon and myself. Others because they love a good fight. Or because they simply wish to help their friends." Kaitoumon explained.

"That makesh shense. Gatomon ish a Celeshtial digimon and they're good guys." Demiveemo said thoughfully.

I looked up at Kaitoumon's eye that was blocked by the eye patch.

He noticed and turned away in shame, playing a hand over it carefully.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done. I have to go now. Good luck." He said before he flew off.

We watched him go; now understanding him a bit more.

He had no choice to hurt us because he was being bullied into doing it.

Man, that Myotismon is the worst kind of…monster.

And Gatomon too.

Any other digimon who is being forced by Myotismon, we'll help them out and save them from him.

I hope the others find a way to get here soon.

TBC