Chapter 8: The Runaway.
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Disclaimer: I don't own digimon.
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He laid wide awake, waiting until, as far as he knew, everyone else was asleep before he got up. He was going to try his plan out, tying the bed sheets as hard as he could and making a long rope. He also gathered some of his things, putting on a black t-shirt and somewhat baggy beige cargo pants. Then he clipped his digivice to his belt, a black model with a golden ring etched with digicode and hung his computer bag around his shoulder.
He dropped the rope out of the third-story window and slid down, hoping that nobody would notice that he left before he reached an embassy. He had no idea where he was in the town he was in and he certainly didn't speak the language. He ran down the streets, hoping that nobody noticed him. Nobody did, in fact. To everyone walking around that old European town, he was just another bystander.
He reached the park in record time, walking down a path and hoping his partner was somewhere around there. "Hey, buddy, you there?" he called out, hoping to get the small digimon's attention. After some ruffling in the bushes, the small mammal appeared. He was a brown, raccoon-like digimon.
"Finally! I get to see you in person!" the digimon exclaimed, latching onto his partner's back and getting on his shoulder.
The teen smiled. "Yeah, no kidding. Sorry about that. So, ready to get out of here, Prokyomon?" he asked the digimon, glad to have finally escaped.
"You bet."
###
The two continued on, chatting. The human told his partner a bit more about where they were headed and the digimon. The human kept on trying to find someone that spoke English, but couldn't. He found it strange that his mother thought it a good idea to take him here of all places. Maybe she felt that he wouldn't be able to escape if they went to a country where he didn't speak the language.
It was a couple hours after meeting up with his partner that he finally found a familiar landmark. He was amazed he hadn't spotted the iconic building before. At least from the sight of the Eiffel Tower he could now guess where in France he was.
It was about that time that his stomach started to rumble. He really needed to find something to eat. He checked his digivice, hoping to find some sort of soup kitchen or something since he didn't have a dime on him, but instead, he found several signals. Other Tamers, he thought. He doubted that any of them would take him in, but it was an idea. He also noticed an unusual, green signal.
Checking the signal key on his digivice, he found out that it was a portal.
That would be an interesting idea, he thought, sitting on the steps and watching the sun rise. But, I would rather get home to dad.
He thought about the man who he had only met a few months before. He felt it was strange that his mother hated him so much, go as far as claiming that he had some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, even though that was furthest from the truth.
His thoughts were interrupted by a nearby crash. Instinctively, he got up, holding his digivice to face whatever it was that had appeared. From the debris came a blue, cocoon-like digimon with numerous knives attached to the various tentacles on its body.
"Chrysalimon, Champion Level, Virus Attribute," the teen read from his digivice. "That's… Gunther's partner."
Another crash was heard, this time from another, far larger digimon: a grey raccoon that the teen instantly recognized. "Mapachemon?" The teen really didn't know how that digimon of all things came into existence or who had him as a partner, but the sight of the large, grey raccoon made him run in the opposite direction.
"What are we doing?" Prokyomon asked his partner as the two ran as quickly as possible through the Paris streets. Seeing all the architecture made the teen want to stay behind a little longer, but he knew there was no way that was going to happen and that the digimon behind him were going to be duking it out.
"We're getting away, buddy!" he exclaimed, unclipping his digivice and looking at the map on it. He ran toward the green dot, ready to head into the digital world in case Gunther's partner lost.
"Those digimon are headed after us!" Prokyomon exclaimed. The brown, data-type raccoon was feeling just as anxious as his partner but felt that he should be fighting these two digimon to defend him.
The runaway just looked behind at the two digimon, and they really were gaining on him, so he made his way through the narrow alleys, running through the neighborhoods to look for his destination. He finally found a large ditch and headed into it. Looking at the map, he saw that the portal was just ahead.
"Okay, Prokyomon, we're going to have to seal this up," the teen said. "Activate WarGreymon's Terra Force!" he yelled, sliding the card, which his kidnappers hadn't found surprisingly. Prokyomon unleashed an energy blast from his mouth, sealing the two of them in.
"What now?" the digimon asked as the two ran down the tunnels, some of them lined with skulls. Of course, they just had to be going through Paris's giant catacombs. For all he knew, the runaway was probably running through somebody's remains.
Then he stopped, glancing at the portal's lights before giving his partner an answer. "That's what." Then the two of them ran head-first into the digital world.
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A series of attacks, a fireball, a knife, a blast of ink, a sword and a missile, hit the enemy digimon, a Tekkamon, causing it to be deleted almost instantly. As the enemy digimon data flew off into the air, the team that had deleted it relaxed for a few seconds before one of them cheered. "We did it! And we didn't even need Antylamon or Beelzemon to do it!" Tadashi cheered. He looked at the rest of the team, who didn't seem too impressed.
"Yeah, but we still can't beat an Ultimate one on one," Taizou said, deadbeat. "You know, I've been trying to generate a blue-card, but I haven't gotten it to work. I've even looked online for suggestions."
"Yeah, for some reason I think that the guy's upgrade to the digivice totally screwed that one up," Yuji complained. "Still, at least we defeated this guy, thanks to Commandramon's Scouter Monoeye. So, yes, thank me for all that."
"Um, the Scouter Monoeye didn't find a weak point this time," Ayaka contradicted him.
"Yeah, the combined force of all our attacks totally did all the work," Miki agreed.
Tadashi was somewhat irritated that his point didn't get across, though he did agree that that adult's upgrade may have screwed things up a bit. Then again, they hadn't gotten any sort of update from him since shortly after Yuji got out of jail. According to the man's website, which only Taizou bothered looking at, it was due to 'family issues', whatever that meant.
It was just then that Taizou received a phone call. He pulled out his cell and answered it. "Hello… Oh, hey, Yamaki, how's it going? You want us at Hypnos? Okay, we'll be there immediately. Bye." The buzz-haired boy looked at all the others with an uneasy smile. "So, you guys coming to Hypnos?"
"Sure! I wonder what that's about," Tadashi replied.
"Maybe Yamaki's going to give us a raise," Yuji suggested.
"Yeah, right," Taizou said, not buying it in the least.
"Maybe since we've finally beaten an Ultimate, they'll actually send us to the digital world," Tadashi suggested, the blond grinning widely.
"I hope not," Miki said, before saying something totally off the wall. "I have a hair appointment tomorrow."
"Wait, so you'd deny the chance to save our friends for a stupid hair appointment?" Tadashi asked, flabbergasted.
Ayaka had a different idea. "Um, I hate to break it to you, but the digital world is extremely dangerous. We'll most likely have to get our parents' permission."
Tadashi's eye twitched at that one. He did not want adults interfering with their adventures. It was bad enough that they had Hypnos around and that they had told his parents.
Still, he headed straight there, hoping to go to the digital world sooner as opposed to later. After all, it had been two months since the others went missing and there still wasn't a plan to go to the digital world to get them back.
###
Shibumi looked in awe at the latest readings his probes had sent him. He had no idea that such a place existed in the digital world. The latest findings included ruins from where the D-Reaper once was, no life signs detected.
At least until he found some bizarre readings matching that of a Mega Level digimon. So something had survived the D-Reaper's assault on the planetary digital world? He thought, just before his thoughts were interrupted by Yamaki.
"Mizuno, I need you in the conference room for a meeting," the blond man said.
The red-haired man turned toward his superior. "I may have discovered something living in the region of the digital world that the D-Reaper once occupied and I feel a need to investigate it, but it can wait. Still, it might be something that Antonio's squad will have to deal with when the time comes."
"Please do," Yamaki remarked as Shibumi got up and they walked toward the meeting room.
"Are you afraid of what the newer team might think of this news?" the man asked his friend.
"More or less," the blond responded, "Though they'll get over it. Something like this was bound to happen eventually."
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A few minutes later, they were in the conference room, and so were five of the eight Tamers of Shinjuku left in the human world. "I'm sure you're wondering why I decided to have you over for this meeting," Yamaki started to say, looking on the expecting faces of each of them and knowing that they were going to have to face the facts. "Well, I'll start out. Sometime yesterday, a second digivice signal was discovered in the digital world."
"Wait, you mean there was somebody in the digital world already?" Tadashi asked in sheer surprise.
"Yes, and he has been there since shortly after the D-Reaper invasion. When he was detected, I had Ryo investigate him since he had to go there for Cyberdramon to cool off anyway, and the other Tamer turned out to be a Japanese teenager who called himself Crimson. What he is still doing there, I don't know. Now, for this second signal, the other organizations from the Latin Americans, The United States, as well as the European and African Unions detected it before we did. And, in a punch, a consultant for the Latin American Confederation's organization Saxum announced to everyone else that he was going to put together a team with representatives from various countries around the world."
"So, does that mean that we'll get to go?" Tadashi asked, getting excited.
"No," the Hypnos director responded simply, taking the entire team aback. "Antonio Urrutía, the man in charge of this expedition, who also conveniently gave you your digivice upgrades, decided to recruit a number of college students who happen to be Tamers that can reach the Ultimate level. He said that the group would be 18+ only."
"What! He can't do that! We're the ones who are supposed to go to the digital world to save the others!" Tadashi exclaimed angrily.
"Tadashi, calm down," Taizou reprimanded him.
"Okay, here's the thing. They're adults! Adults can't go to the digital world!" Tadashi claimed, still angry that they were ignored.
"There is no evidence that they can't," Yamaki objected. "And sending you to the digital world would have the unfortunate implications of making you child soldiers. We can't have that, especially since you haven't reached the Ultimate level on your own."
"You know, he's right," Ayaka said.
Yuji disagreed. "What? How can you say such a thing? The heroes of the TV Show were kids."
"The TV Show is a piece of fiction," Yamaki objected. "Also, as an added part of their mission, Team Urrutía is going to search for our missing Tamers in the area beyond the sovereign's layer."
"What! That was our job!" Tadashi exclaimed, even angrier at the whole thing.
"You were given two months to reach the Ultimate level, Tadashi. Now, I was letting you know because that way you didn't have to deal with the stress of having the salvation of the original team of Tamers on your shoulders. This meeting is adjourned." Yamaki promptly got up, irritated that the blond boy would not see that there were very good reasons.
Tadashi wouldn't take no for an answer, though. "Shibumi, when will Team Urrutía head to the digital world?" he asked.
"In about a week, why?" the man asked.
"Just curious." The blond turned away and walked out, seemingly defeated. "I'm going home."
###
When he got home, Taizou decided to investigate the situation by contacting Urrutía himself via webcam. It was surprisingly easy.
"A friend of mine wants to know your reasons for not having us along with you on your trip to the digital world. Care to elaborate?"the bushy-browed boy asked him through his instant-messaging client. He got a response after just a few seconds of waiting.
"Yeah. Sorry, but I have some really good reasons for that. I was hoping to have the original Japanese team along, but they're currently missing, so that's not going to happen. Also, you're all minors, something that I was somewhat willing to overlook with Takato and the others, due to them having more experience than me. A lot more." Taizou read through that quickly, formulating a response.
"I actually agree with that," he said, surprisingly. "Any other reasons?"
"The level situation. No one on your team can reach Ultimate yet. Plus, there's the experience part of the whole thing: your team has only been tamers since about two months ago," the man tried to explain as civilly as possible.
"Gotcha. All very good reasons," the brown-haired boy responded, smiling slightly.
"Glad you understand."
"What about your son? What's he going to be doing while you're gone?" Taizou inquired.
He waited for a couple seconds. Strange… he's usually really quick about answering, the teen thought, sitting back in his chair. A few seconds later, he finally got a response from the older gentleman.
"I'd rather not talk about that." Taizou was a bit weirded out by that response. Maybe he lost custody or something. I know he's divorced.
"Alright, then," the brown-haired boy said. "Thanks for your time. I know you're pretty busy so I won't keep you."
Urrutía nodded. "No problem," the man responded. "I'll still be here for the next week. By the way, your Bestiary program works great."
"Thanks. See you later." After a brief exchange of valedictions, the two logged off.
Truth be told, Taizou was actually a bit envious of the son. At least he had a relationship with his father, unlike the brown-haired Japanese boy. And from what he knew about Antonio, the man was more than willing to spend time with him unlike Taizou's own father.
He hated that.
Hopefully whatever custody problems would be solved quickly.
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In the digital world, the Runaway made his way across the vast deserts on the surface. He was reminded of home in Vegas for some reason, something that caused him to smile with nostalgia.
The boy glanced at his digivice for the first time in over an hour. No signals… good.
He kept on walking. "So, what do you think, buddy?" he asked his partner.
"Lots of sand. I don't like it much," the brown-furred raccoon replied. "So, you think we're gonna make it back to the real world?"
"Yeah, I hope so soon," he replied, wiping the sweat from his black hair. For some reason, despite several hours of walking, he wasn't really tired or hungry. "I wonder how my friends are doing back home."
"Yeah? Who are they?" Prokyomon inquired, curious.
The Tamer smiled. "Well, there's Gus, who's this blond guy. He's this wannabe musician who's really into his music. Then there's Mario. Those guys are the two I hang out with the most."
"Wow, that's cool!"
"Then there's my friend Matthias. I just call him Matt. He's one of my closest buddies from growing up," the black-haired teen said. "I haven't seen him in a while. I was hoping to go visit him, but I haven't had the chance to yet. All that school."
The raccoon was silent for a couple minutes. "So, what's going on with school?"
"Not much. Just had to do a bunch of school work," the boy responded. "I'm trying to get ready so that I can start going to public school in the fall. My dad didn't want me not learning anything for six months so I've been slaving away." He chuckled at that one.
After a few more minutes of silence, the raccoon spoke again. "So, what are we doing?"
The boy's face gave off a look of determination. "Looking for some sort of settlement. You know, ever since I got here, this place has been incredibly barren. I want to find a way to the real world, but I'm not sure if there is one. Maybe one of those pink beams of energy can do something… Hmm…" He scratched his chin and then rejected the thought. "On the other hand, those might kill me, so that's a bad idea."
He pulled out his black and gold digivice again to check for more signals. There still wasn't anything.
Good, he thought, glad that whoever had the Mapachemon wasn't chasing him. The thought that someone had stolen a digimon he had designed irked him to no end. And to make matters worse, he had no idea who could have done it.
###
The day after the disturbing announcement that Tadashi and the others wouldn't be going to the digital world, the blond was searching the city frantically for either a portal to the digital world or the Watchmaker, since the old man said that he would bring the boy and his friends to the digital world when he needed to go.
The boy figured that this would be his chance.
He continued walking along the road where he first met Coronamon, his footsteps hitting the sidewalk. That was when he noticed the shop in the very alleyway where he met his partner.
That wasn't there before, he thought to himself, deciding to investigate it. He saw that the sign said closed, but he touched the door handle anyway, opening it to find out that the building inside was far bigger than it was on the outside.
"Didn't you see the sign? It said we're closed, so go away!" Tadashi looked in front of him to see the old man working under the large device in the center with Clockmon handing him tools. The room was large and dark, with numerous clocks of various types on the yellow walls with a few doors leading away from the room.
"You said you'd take me to the digital world when I was ready," the blond said simply. The old man froze and then slid out from under the large machine, a massive grin on his face and his giant clock of a partner backed off.
"Well, what do you know? It's about time you came!" the old man exclaimed, getting up and wiping the sweat off his brow. "You know how long I've been waiting? Forty-eight hours!"
Tadashi gave a confused expression. "Uh, sorry, I didn't know."
"And here I was expecting you to be looking for me during your free time all the time," the Watchmaker stated before laughing a bit. "I guess you have a little sense after all."
The blond narrowed his eyes. "You know, I still don't believe you that I'm going to turn evil."
"You might not. I got that whole vision from an AncientWisemon, so it might not be true. Time is always flowing, after all," the old man said. "So, what made you decide to seek me out?"
While Tadashi spoke, the old man headed toward a nearby computer and started typing in information. "Okay, this guy from overseas, I don't know where, his name is Antonio Urrutía and he's leading a team to go to the digital world without us."
"Chile, he's from Chile," the Watchmaker let him know.
"Oh, okay, that's in South America, right?" the blond asked.
"Right," the old man confirmed.
"Anyway, he's going to the digital world with his own team," the boy repeated.
"Yeah, and they'll fall into a trap as soon as they arrive," the Watchmaker stated nonchalantly, much to Tadashi's surprise.
"What?"
"It's simple, actually," the old man explained. "The majority of portals from our world into the digital world make everyone land in the same spot: the center area of the surface level of the Orbital Digital World. When Tony and his team finally go to the digital world, the spot where they land will have a large number of rogue and renegade Tamers. They'll be outnumbered and won't stand a chance."
The blond was disturbed by the explanation. "No way. Why don't they go there sooner?" he inquired.
The old man gave him a stern look while gesturing for Clockmon to go into the back. "It's because of the government agencies in charge preferring to muck up the whole mission. Believe me; Urrutía intended to go as soon as he could, however…"
"They made him wait a week," Tadashi finished.
"Exactly," the Watchmaker confirmed while nodding.
"So, that's why you need us to go, even though we're kids," the blond boy guessed.
"That's part of the reason. Another reason is that you'll benefit from the journey," the old man explained. "You see, children are more malleable while adults tend to be set in their ways. This allows them to develop more as people."
Tadashi nodded, not thinking of how sinister that could be. "I get it."
"Good. Now, did anybody ever tell you about the crest programs?" the old man asked.
"Crest programs?" the blond asked, confused.
"Yes, crest programs. You see, in the file on your digivice that carries your information, there's a line that indicates your dominant crest trait. Now, I won't tell you what it is, but I'll tell you that due to a glitch in the digivice upgrade, you'll have to use the crest program to reach the Ultimate level instead of a blue card."
Tadashi gasped. "No way. You mean that's why I wasn't able to digivolve my partner further?"
The old man nodded. "Exactly. Antonio Urrutía intended the crest programs to be an optional method of reaching that level for Tamers without cards. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. Thankfully some have accidently reached that level on their own, such as Günter Kaufmann, for instance."
"Who the heck is that?" the blond asked in confusion.
"You'll find out soon enough," the Watchmaker said with a toothy grin.
"Oookay. So, when can we leave?" the blond inquired.
"Go get your friends. Don't worry; you won't need to tell your parents. They won't even know you're gone, anyway," the old man told the boy.
"What? You can do that?" he asked, surprised.
"Uh, yeah. Since the enemy will be reaching the digital world about now, I'm going to be sending you to the digital world yesterday. At the same time, there will be a version of you still in this world so it'll be as if you never left." The old man chuckled. "Ah, time-travel paradoxes. Gotta love them."
Tadashi was really confused about that. "Uh, okay… I guess. I'll go get the others."
The old man smiled as the blond boy ran off. It was nice to see someone with such youthful vigor. How he wished he could go back to that time. But here he was, nearing the end of his long life.
###
Yuji received a phone call while he was doing homework in his dining room as per his parents' request. "Hello?" he greeted the person on the other end. "Wait a second, you found that old crackpot you were telling me about? What? No way! I gotta see this! I'll meet you there."
Immediately he got up and ran out the door, leaving his work halfway finished. Commandramon decloaked while following him to the elevator.
###
Ayaka listened to Tadashi relay his story over the phone in disbelief while she sat up on her bed. "Are you sure we shouldn't…" Then she listened some more, concerned for her friend. "We'll see about that. This sounds too good to be true."
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Taizou shook his head as he turned his office chair away from his desk. "I can't believe this. You actually believe this guy?" He listened some more on the phone. "Okay, I'll come just to make sure you don't get killed."
He truly worried about his friend. That was certain.
###
Miki's eyes widened in excitement, despite how she didn't particularly like the boy that was speaking. "That's so awesome! I'm definitely coming!" she exclaimed into the phone while soaking in the hot tub and doing homework. "It's going to be sweet having no parents around for who knows how long."
###
They all gathered in front of the old man's shop with their partners. They didn't know what to expect upon entering, but the shop was definitely far bigger on the inside than on the outside. Among the group, Taizou had the most suspicions about the whole thing and wanted to get done with this as soon as possible.
"So, are you all ready to go to the digital world?" the old Watchmaker asked, walking from out of one of the corridors with his partner.
"Sweet Tardis. So, when do we get to go?" Yuji asked, excited to leave.
"In a few minutes. I'm just going to let you know about everything that you need to," the old man said with a toothy grin. "Mizuki, you ready?"
The girl walked out from the same corridor that her traveling companion and his partner did, her partner Armadillomon in her arms. "I'll explain everything."
After a few minutes, the entire team knew everything that the old man wanted them to know.
"So, why don't you just get Antonio Urrutía to do this in the first place? He has a team that he's put together to do just this?" Taizou asked, suspicious.
The Watchmaker was kind of peeved by that question. "Well, that's the thing. No matter when you go in there, you're not coming back for a while and when Antonio finally gets to go into the other world, it will be too late. I already told Tadashi everything."
"And how can I be sure that your whole thing won't create some time loop and we won't be missing anyway?" the buzz-haired boy asked.
"It won't. I've explored time plenty and I know what will happen. Predestination paradoxes just do not happen. It's as if the old timeline is erased whenever you travel through time. Now do you want to find the others or not?"
Ayaka looked toward the others. "I'm still not sure about this. What are we supposed to do if we want to come back? There will already be a version of each of us here."
The old man grinned. "Now, that's a good question." He turned toward Mizuki. "I like this girl." Then he turned back to the blonde. "It's simple: you just sneak into your rooms in the middle of the night and make physical contact with your other selves. The resulting temporal paradox will cause you to become one again."
"There are a couple of side-effects to that that you should probably tell them about," the red-head warned him.
"Oh, but they don't need to know about that just yet," the Watchmaker objected. "Besides, it's nothing bad."
"Side-effects?" Yuji inquired, confused.
"What kind of side-effects?" Taizou inquired, even more suspicious.
The old man shook his head. "You shouldn't have mentioned that, Mizuki. Believe me, it's nothing bad. You'll see. Now, let's move through time and space, shall we?" The old man then pulled a lever and the clock shop started to shake.
"What? I didn't agree to this!" Taizou shouted, trying to hold onto something as the building they were in tumbled through time and space.
"Yeah! What the heck?" Coronamon yelled out, grabbing onto a bulkhead.
"You really need to get those inertial dampener's fixed!" Mizuki yelled out, sitting in a chair with seatbelts around her with her legs crossed.
"Yeah, you never mentioned this!" Tadashi shouted, somewhat irate and holding onto a pillar with both his arms and legs.
Then the shaking stopped and everyone let go of their bulkheads. The clock shop man then spoke again. "Okay, now, everybody out!"
The group looked at each other and then walked over to the door to the Clock Shop. When they took their time to go out the door, the Watchmaker spoke. "You know, you don't have forever, kids."
Taizou looked back at the old man and sneered. "Wait, you actually expect us to just go out there?" he asked.
"Of course. Then again, since you're taking your sweet time…" the Watchmaker trailed off before turning to his giant clock of a partner. "Come on, Clockmon! Send them out!"
"Chrono Breaker!" the digimon yelled out. The next moment, the kids were out of the clock shop, about ten meters away from it.
Tadashi looked around and as soon as he saw the vast expanse of desert around him, he spoke. "We actually made it."
"What? Did that guy just put us in the digital world without permission?" Taizou inquired, flabbergasted.
"We didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to our families," Ayaka complained.
"And neither did Tai's team when they first went to the digital world," the old man stated from just outside the door to his giant time machine. "Believe me, I was there."
"Yeah right! That's just a cartoon," Miki replied, not believing him. "It wasn't real."
"You should ask Ryo about it sometime," the old man stated before turning around. "Or, you could ask Takato, since worked alongside Tai, Takuya, Davis, Taiki and Marcus to help defeat Quartzmon." With one final chuckle, the Watchmaker shut the door of the Clock Shop.
Taizou was livid and so he ran up to the giant time machine and knocked on the front door loudly. "Hey, let us back in!"
"Eh, just think, we get to go off without our parents," Yuji said happily.
"You might want to get back from that," Tadashi cautioned the boy with the short brown hair, who gave him a glare. Suddenly, the Clock Shop disappeared into the ground with lightning. With that, Taizou got even angrier.
"You idiot! You gathered us together. You set this up!" Taizou yelled.
"Yeah! I had a hair appointment!" Miki complained.
Ayaka took a deep breath. "We all walked out of that building knowing full well what was going on," the pig-tailed blonde told the group.
Tadashi hadn't expected the rest of the group to be so disappointed. Well, with the major exception of Yuji who was happy as could be to get away from his parents.
"Come on, look on the bright side! At least we don't have any parental supervision!" the long-haired boy cheered. "Plus, we have duplicates in the real world that are living our lives for us!"
Tadashi nodded, still disappointed. "I want to prove him wrong," the blond boy said all the sudden.
"What?" Taizou inquired, confused and looking at his friend.
"The last time he met me he told me that I was going to be evil. There's no way I'm going to let that happen," Tadashi replied.
"And I'm not going to let that happen. Don't you worry!" Coronamon exclaimed at his partner's side.
"Um, in case you haven't noticed, we're all in the digital world and you're worried about your dark side," Taizou stated, unimpressed.
The blond looked up at his friend. "Listen, we have to get going."
"Right… You know, I hope that Hypnos knows we're here. For all we know, they're already sending an ark," the brown-haired boy replied, hopeful.
"Unfortunately, that won't be possible," the group was startled to hear a voice coming from their digivices. They pulled them out to see a hologram of the Watchmaker standing in front of them, grinning. "I installed a stealth program in your digivice so that none of the organizations out there will detect you until you finish your mission. Of course, they may detect your life signs, but it should take them a while to find out who you are."
"What? That's blackmail!" the Taizou exclaimed angrily.
"Come on, you don't want to go home so soon, do you?" Yuji asked, grinning. Taizou shot his ex-best friend a death glare.
"You need to do this. Who knows, you might grow a little, much like the Digidestined," the old man stated. "Just go north. That's all I'm asking. There's a compass program in your digivices as well that will lead you to Oppidum Septentrionale. There you will meet your sixth member. Just beware of any others you may meet."
Tadashi nodded. "Okay, we'll do this. You guys with me?" he asked the group, a serious expression on his voice.
"It's not like we have much of a choice," Ayaka responded. "I'm in."
"Same here, but you already knew that," Yuji said, trying to be as charming as possible.
"I guess that hair appointment will have to wait," Miki conceded, disappointed.
The last one was Taizou. He looked Tadashi straight in the eye for several seconds before giving his answer. "I'll go, but don't expect me to like it."
Tadashi smiled at his friends. "Alright, let's do this. Okay, Yuji, what's the name of our mysterious other Tamer?"
Yuji looked at his friend with a bit of confusion before grabbing his digivice and accessing the holographic map to detect the other Tamer in that world. He then clicked on the dot.
"Eduardo Diaz. His partner is something named Prokyomon," the long-haired boy read off his digivice.
"Hmm… I wonder what the origin of that name is," Ayaka said. "Eduardo is similar to Edward but Diaz… Hmm…"
"It's Spanish," Solarmon stated.
"So we're dealing with a Spaniard," Taizou stated.
"According to this, he's some American. He was born in Lancaster, California on August 3, 1988," Yuji stated.
"Well, let's get going, then," Tadashi said. "Ready Coronamon?"
"I was born ready!" the lion replied.
"How about you, Commandramon? Ready to work with these chumps?" Yuji inquired of his partner.
"Absolutely, master!" the cyborg dino replied.
"Good to hear! And don't call me master!" the long-haired boy responded cheerfully.
"Salamon?" Ayaka asked, nervous that they're actually doing this.
"I'm with you wherever you go," the dog replied.
"How about you, Syakomon?" Miki inquired.
"I hope we make it," the mollusk replied.
"Oh, don't worry. We'll get out of this mess."
"Solarmon, let's go," Taizou stated, dryly and not happy.
"Certainly."
###
Many miles north of the team, and hours later, Ed checked his digivice for the umpteenth time. He didn't expect anything different, but it was. Where there were no signals around the area that he landed in the digital world, there were dozens. He had an army after him and he had to run.
He hadn't run out of energy yet, something that was strange to him. Yet he pushed himself to run as fast as he could with Prokyomon in his arms, completely defying his size.
It would be awhile until he slowed down.
###
A/N: A few mysteries here and there. And a little time travel, but not too much, though it's admittedly still a mind screw. Oh well. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. Hopefully it was good.