Chapter 22: Dark Tide
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the fifty million OCs in this fic now. Wow, that was unexpected. Come to think of it, I wasn't planning on having that many in this fic.
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Jeri was deeply concerned about Tadashi. For one thing, he seemed to be becoming more and more withdrawn, especially since his brother gained a partner and both Ayaka and Yuji digivolved their partners to Ultimate. The blond was starting to become more and more negative as time went on, something that deeply distressed her.
Then he didn't show up at school one day, so she decided to visit the blond. Making her way to his apartment, she knocked on the door. She hoped that everything was alright, but had a feeling it wasn't. Tadashi wasn't the one who opened the door, but rather his brother. The larger blond smiled at her.
"Hey, Jeri, how's it going?" he asked.
"I'm doing well. How about you, Kurita?" the brunette inquired, smiling back.
The large blond nodded. "I'm doing pretty good. Come on in," he invited, holding the door for the girl. "Tadashi's in his room. He wasn't feeling well today."
She hoped that simply meant that he was sick instead of depressed. She made her way into the room where the blond boy was lying in bed in his pajamas, playing a game on his Game Boy Advance.
"Hey, Tadashi, how are you feeling?" the brunette asked him and he glanced up from his game.
"I'm fine," he responded grumpily. "What are you doing here?"
Jeri was somewhat taken aback by that question, but decided to smile anyway. "I'm here to see you since you weren't at school today." Then she decided to shift attention to the game he was playing. "What game is that?"
"Advance Wars," Tadashi replied, not exactly happy to have the girl checking up on him. The brunette didn't know anything about the game he was playing except that it was some sort of strategy game and decided that he wasn't in the mood for visitors so she said her good-byes.
"I hope you get to feeling better," she told him. The blond looked up from his game and gave her a somewhat impassive look before she walked out the door.
"How's he doing?" Kurita inquired from the opposite end of the living room, concerned for his brother.
"Is he still grumpy?" Coronamon inquired, sitting at the kitchen table.
Jeri nodded sadly. "I don't know what's with him."
"He wasn't very nice to me, earlier," Liollmon commented from on the couch. "Come to think of it, he's not very nice to me that much period."
"Yeah, I really wish I knew what was going on, but I don't so… I don't know what to do," Kurita commented.
Jeri looked at the now-closed door to her blond friend's bedroom. She wished there was a way to cheer him up, but she couldn't think of any. Come on, what would Takato have done for you, Jeri? She thought about the brown-haired boy in sadness, wishing he would come home again. She also missed Rika and Henry as well as Kazu, Kenta and Ryo. She wondered where they were and if they were alright.
"So, how are you doing?" the brunette asked Kurita, sitting on the couch next to Liollmon.
"Alright," the large blond responded. "School's going great and everything. I'm definitely ready for graduation but that's still a few months away. Oh, and taming's going great with Liollmon."
"Yeah, we kicked the butt of a DinoHumon yesterday," Liollmon replied, curling up next to Jeri like the cat that he was. The girl scratched him behind the ears and smiled.
"You're so cute, Liollmon," the brunette told him.
"Aw, thanks!" the lion cub told her in gratitude.
Jeri then turned her attention back to Kurita. "Have you seen Keith Jackson lately? He wasn't there at Hypnos the last few times I went."
The large blond shrugged. "You know, I haven't seen him at all the last couple days. Rinchei and I went to Hypnos yesterday to train with him but he wasn't there. Same with the day before." The blond scratched his head. "Come to think of it, yesterday Yamaki gave me a strange look when I asked him about him."
"I hope he's alright," Jeri told him, concerned for the mysterious American that managed to teach her some English.
"I'm sure he is," Kurita said before muttering something under his breath. "Maybe Antonio knows something."
"Huh?" the girl asked.
"Well, Keith's friends with this professor from Chile named Antonio Urrutía, so maybe that guy knows where he is. Let's see, what time would it be over there?" The blond scratched his head, trying to calculate the time difference.
"Well, it's safe to assume that it's on the other side of the world, so maybe there's about twelve hours difference," the girl suggested.
"That sounds about right… maybe. Still, it's about four here so that means it's probably a bit too early to go bug him," the large blond remarked.
"Can't you try contacting Keith? He's got a digivice, right?" the girl questioned.
"Maybe… I think he might be in stealth mode right now," Kurita knew it was all pretty suspicious and he wondered what was happening. So, he thought about his plan. Let's see, Antonio's a university professor, so what time does he get up? Probably around five-thirty or so…
"Okay, how about we go week Antonio in about an hour. You don't have anything pressing to do, right?" the blond asked Jeri.
"Actually, I have to go help my father out at the tavern… Oh, great, I'm late!" the girl panicked a little bit. "Well, I have to go, so see you later."
Kurita nodded. "Alright, see you around," he told her with a smile as she hurried out the door. He was still going to visit Antonio, but without her. Hopefully the time zone difference didn't screw things up.
He didn't realize that Tadashi was on the other side of his door, glaring at him through the crack for considering a visit to the curly-haired Chilean man.
###
"Homing Laser!" MetallifeKuwagamon shot a blue beam from the gun on his hand and Infermon attempted to dodge. Unfortunately, the giant bug didn't expect the attack to suddenly alter its trajectory and hit him head on.
"Infermon!" his brown-haired partner yelled out in shock.
"Don't worry, Gunter, it's only a flesh wound," the virus remarked, getting an angry look from his partner.
"Maybe we should help," Miki suggested before Tadashi stopped her with a gesture.
"It's his time to shine. I think we should only interfere if he's about to lose," the blond told her.
None of the others knew what to think of that one, though Ed figured it out after a few seconds. "We need to conserve our Digimons' strength," he concluded, getting a smile from Tadashi. Maybe that meant that they were on the right track. He only hoped that the blond could handle the truth when the time came.
Abby felt a shiver run through her body and she glanced over the ocean. She didn't like that feeling. In fact, she felt that the ocean was calling out for her and that they needed to get this over with before the true enemy came and got them. After glancing at the ocean, she turned to Gunter and Infermon. "Go get them!"
Gunter definitely had a few tricks up his sleeve, though he knew the limitations of the programs he designed for the upgraded digivice. "Activate program: ! Increase defense to the max!" he shouted out, holding his digivice. Since he didn't have any modify cards with him, it was a good substitute.
Unfortunately, as he figured out, Infermon was stuck, not moving. The insect was focusing all his energy on defense which meant that attacking was out of the question.
"Oh, please, this is definitely not the time to be experimenting!" Miki scolded him and he gave her a glare, even though he knew she was right. Still, she's ticked him off too many times.
"Come on…" Gunter then thought about what he needed to do just as his partner was getting hit by projectiles, which, despite causing only minimal damage, still hurt. And then there was the fact that this enemy digimon could even decide that it was pointless attacking Infermon and focus on the Tamers and their un-digivolved partners. He needed to think of something.
Thankfully he had programmed the various modification files with some functions that would help him. "Activate Program: ! Decrease defense to ten percent above normal. ! Increase Attack to 20 % above normal. ! Speed to 30% above normal!" The digivice shot a burst of light at Infermon, who moved quickly. However, the Tamer knew that there was a good possibility that his partner would lose energy quickly, something which he hadn't solved quite yet, so he turned to the others. "Any chance somebody has a Stamina Seed card?" he requested.
Ayaka immediately pulled out her deck of cards and looked through it, finding the card about midway through the deck. She immediately handed it to the tall German. "Here you go," she responded with a bit of a shy smile.
"Thank you very much!" Gunter exclaimed enthusiastically. He wouldn't use the card quite yet, but he waited until it was needed.
"Spider Shooter!" Infermon yelled out, spraying a few shots of red energy at MetallifeKuwagamon, who tried shielding himself from the attack but damaged the armor on his arms and chest anyway, revealing the obsidian material beneath.
"He's a control spire digimon," Abby realized.
"Wait, you mean there are actually digimon made from Control Spires?" Miki questioned, surprised and kind of creeped out.
"A good chunk of Adventure 02 involved them fighting digimon that were made from them, created by an evil digimon named Arukenimon," Ayaka explained.
"Funny, that arc was pretty good until the Destiny Stones showed up," Abby commented. "Personally, I'd replace them with something else, like crest fragments or something. Or even crests for the new Digidestined." The girl now had a plot bunny running through her head but no way to write it down, causing her to become somewhat anxious.
Ed wondered what was wrong. "What's going on?"
"Oh, I have something I so need to write down," the brunette responded and Ed pulled out his drawing pad in reply. The girl glanced at the drawings inside, instantly forgetting her ideas. "Wow, these are pretty good!"
"Network Grenade!" Infermon yelled out, shooting himself at the energy after changing to a cocoon form. The attack hit MetallifeKuwagamon head-on, damaging him even further.
Unfortunately, that was about the time that the giant virus ran out of energy. "Digi-Modify!" His partner exclaimed in an over-the-top manner. "Stamina Seed Activate!"
The card rejuvenated the living computer virus just in time for MetallifeKuwagamon to prepare another attack for Infermon. The gold-armored insect created a blade for Infermon. "Emit Blade!"
As the insect headed straight for him, Infermon prepared an attack of his own. "Spider Shooter!" The attacks hit the two digimon at about the same time. However, while MetallifeKuwagamon only caused minimal damage to Infermon, the reverse wasn't true. Instead, the spider-shooter attack bored a hole straight through MetallifeKuwagamon's torso, deleting him. The giant computer virus then degenerated to an exhausted Keramon, who was caught by Gunter as he fell.
"Good job, Keramon!" the brown-haired German told him, smiling widely. "You did excellent, my friend!"
"Thanks…" The digimon said before dozing off.
The rest of the team smiled except for Abby, who turned and faced the ocean with dread. The others didn't notice this except for Ed and Cutemon, who looked worriedly at the brunette. Her partner was the one that spoke. "What's wrong, kyu?"
"They're coming," the girl responded. She wouldn't let this get to her. She would be strong. She reminded herself of her friends, even as she noticed a multitude of dark figures walking out of the water onto the beach.
They were there for her. And they wouldn't stop for nothing. The Deep Ones were on their way, beckoned by their god to take the child of light.
###
When Kurita set the teleportation program on his digivice, a gift given to him by Mr. Immortal himself, he set it to land him right outside the professor's house. The air was a little cool due to it being winter in Chile at the moment, but it seemed relatively mild compared to wintertime in some places. Still, the heavy blond man didn't take any chances.
"So, are you sure he'll be awake?" Liollmon asked, not quite liking the situation they were in. The lion actually didn't like unfamiliar situations, so he was starting to feel a bit nervous.
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure that he's either up or about to get up," Kurita replied. "Plus, he seemed pretty nice last time despite being woken up in the middle of the night."
"Yeah, but last time we had Mr. Immortal with us. It might not be the same this time," the digimon warned.
Because of his digimon's worries, Kurita was starting to feel a little worried himself. Maybe he should have come at a different time like early in the morning in Japan. As it was, he was most likely missing dinner, something he didn't do often. Still, he figured he'd at least try. He knocked a second time and he heard some ruffling inside the small house that the professor shared with his partner digimon. The blond wondered what it was that prevented the man from at least getting a girlfriend.
Finally, the door opened and a familiar man in a blue bathrobe appeared on the other side. "Oh, hey, you're Kurita, right? Come on in!" Antonio exclaimed, feeling hospitable despite it being four in the morning. The Japanese teen was an hour off and he didn't realize it. Still, the heavy Chilean man was already up and moving, so he didn't seem to mind, not that he minded when they were there a few days earlier.
Kurita entered into the house as Antonio shut the front door. "So, how's it going?" the thirty-seven year-old asked, smiling.
"Good. I just thought I'd pop by," the blond responded. "You?"
"Oh, I'm just early, working on an upgrade for the D-Arc," Antonio replied. "I'm trying to translate a program from Al's digivice so that it's compatible with mine, but it turns out I'll have to expand the API a little bit. More like a lot, but whatever." The shorter man chuckled a bit. "Never a dull moment in the world of the programmer."
"Yeah? And what do you need to do?" Kurita inquired, curious.
"Well, I have to access the assembly code in various strange and unusual ways," the man replied, before smiling enthusiastically. "So, make yourself at home! I still need to get dressed, so you can relax on the couch, just don't sit on Veemon. That's his usual napping place. You want anything? Coffee? Tea?"
"Uh, I'm fine at the moment. I'm probably going to eat dinner as soon as I get back to the house," the tall blond replied, not liking that he wasn't taking up the Chilean man on the offer.
"Oh, don't worry about it." The man then headed for the back of the house and Kurita waited. After only a couple minutes, the shorter Chilean man walked out of his room, wearing dress slacks and a tucked-in, sky blue shirt without a tie or belt. Also, his feet were noticeably bare. "So, what really brings you all this way? You couldn't have travelled thousands of miles for nothing."
Kurita thought up his words carefully. "Well, Jeri was asking about Mr. Immortal and I haven't seen him in a few days…"
"Ah, I figured it was something like that." One thing Kurita noticed about Antonio was that he was extremely expressive in his gestures. It must have come with the culture since Spaniards and Italians were known to be emotional, expressive people. The man's face turned into a bit of a scowl, though as he said his next statement. "You mean that he didn't contact you?"
Kurita shook his head. "I haven't heard from him in a couple days."
Antonio nodded in understanding. "Well, he got in trouble with Yamaki for giving you your partner digimon. It wasn't against the law, but I guess he sent a SWAT team, or whatever the Japanese equivalent is, after him anyway."
"Maybe it's against Hypnos policy?" Kurita suggested, shocked by the news.
"I asked my friend Gorou Mizuno and he told me that there wasn't a policy against giving friends digimon," the shorter Chilean replied. Kurita grimaced a little bit. Yamaki was definitely a good guy but there were definitely times when he could get a little too authoritarian or extreme. That brought to mind the Juggernaut incident that killed numerous digimon residing in the real world while simultaneously allowing the Devas to get through. The blond wondered how any of the Tamers could have trusted him after that.
"So, where is he now?" Kurita inquired. Antonio gave him a warm smile.
"Currently, he's on his own private island at a place called the Brigade Compound. Apparently in his future, this organization of Tamers called the Tamers' Brigade existed and he's trying to give it a jump start." The man's expression went neutral and he shrugged while tilting his head. "I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but at least he's getting a few homeless kids off the street. I guess it's fine as long as they don't all go to the Digital World with us."
Kurita looked forward to the trip, even though it wasn't scheduled for another three weeks. The blond handed his new friend his digivice and the man took it before typing in coordinates for the island that Mr. Immortal was on. Then the heavy Chilean man handed it back. "Here you go. All set."
The blond Japanese man smiled before giving a polite bow. "Thank you very much."
"Hey, it's my pleasure. Stop by any time if you need any advice," Antonio responded, smiling.
###
The malignant digital life forms were inching toward the top of the cliff, climbing upon each rock and aiming for the brunette. Or at least that was what it seemed at first. The team decided to take preemptive action against these enemies in hopes that they could defeat them. The only problem was that there seemed to be far too many of them to defeat in one strike and they all had champion-level strength.
So they had to digivolve. "Super Digivolution Activate!" Tadashi, Ayaka and Miki all shouted.
"Coronamon digivolve to… Flaremon!"
"Syakomon digivolve to… Calamarimon!"
"Salamon digivolve to… Sanzomon!"
The three Ultimates then made quick work of as many of the specters as possible. Flaremon was busy unleashing numerous fire attacks while Calamarimon was spurting out massive amounts of ink. In the meantime, the three other Tamers did their best to help, destroying as many of the creatures as they possibly could.
"Digivolution Activate!" Ed yelled out. Abby didn't need to shout the phrase since her partner could digivolve without it.
"Prokyomon digivolve to… Guepardomon!"
"Cutemon digivolve to… Rabbitmon!"
The massive amount of enemy creatures didn't stand a chance against the three Ultimates and two Champions and before they knew it, there was only one left that they kept alive for information.
"Okay, what are you and why did you come after us?" Tadashi asked the enemy creature that was in his partner's arms. Flaremon was about ready to delete the abomination if it did anything remotely out of line.
"We are the Deep Ones and we serve our god, the Dark Undersea Master, Dagomon," the Deep One explained. "We are after the bearer of the purified crest that threatens our master's existence."
"Purified crest? What do you mean?" Ed inquired. "Are you talking about the Crest of Light?"
"No, I was talking about another, more dangerous crest, one whose power is completely contrary to our master's nature," the ugly fish-creature said. "The master doesn't want it activated and wants you destroyed, Eduardo Urrutía!"
With that warning given, the Deep One dissipated into data. The group stared at it for a few seconds before their eyes moved towards Ed, who was standing there in disbelief.
"Dagomon's after you?" Abby asked in surprise. "And here I thought he would be after me."
"I wonder what crest you have," Ayaka told him.
"Probably something like Miracles or Hope," Gunter guessed.
"I've got hope!" Tadashi objected. "And, Ed, I thought your last name was Diaz." The blond narrowed his eyes in a glare at the black-haired boy.
"It is," Ed replied. Legally until my dad can actually change it.
"Then why did that digimon call you Urrutía? You're not related to Antonio, are you?" the Japanese boy questioned. Ed decided to not answer it directly.
"Urrutía is actually a somewhat common last name that derives from the name of a town in the Basque country of northern Spain. Plus, there's that Argentine revolutionary who helped take over Cuba, Che Urrutía. And then there's how Antonio is a really common first name in Spanish since it's the name of a Catholic saint." Ed hoped that explained everything away.
"Plus, Argentina's right next to Uruguay where his mother's from," Abby added. Ed had to stop himself from chuckling since he realized that his dad would probably disapprove of any insinuations that they were related to the famous revolutionary. Antonio actually felt that the man was absolutely nuts.
Tadashi realized that they were skirting the issue. "You're related. Actually, you're his son," the blond concluded, angry.
Ed knew that there was no way of getting around this issue. He didn't like that he had been outed to the blond since he had a strong dislike of his father. "What of it?" the black-haired teen asked, frowning.
"You lied to me!" Tadashi shouted.
"You complained about him from the start and you hate him for no real reason! And I didn't lie to you once; I just didn't tell you who my father was!" Ed yelled back, losing his emotional control.
"No real reason?" the blond snapped back. "Oh, please, he wouldn't let you have a partner! And he's a stinking adult with a digimon partner! Only kids are supposed to get digimon!"
Ed glared at the blond. "And who are you to say that?" he replied icily, turning away.
The rest of the group, digimon included, stared in shock as the two separated, each sitting down on opposite ends of the cliff. As it was, it was getting late and they needed to set up camp.
It was going to be a long night.
###
Kurita and Liollmon arrived at the Brigade Compound at about 6AM in that time zone, about 8PM JST. The large man walked up to the entrance of the building and knocked at the door, meanwhile taking in the scenery. The compound was located on an island with a small mountain in the middle and plenty of greenery all around. Plus, the sight of the sunrise made everything quite beautiful.
"Pretty big place this guy's got here," Liollmon commented.
"Sure is," Kurita replied in agreement.
The blond waited for a few minutes, chatting off and on with his partner. Unfortunately, nobody answered. There wasn't even a doorbell either, though that might have been partially because they were on a secluded island with nothing other than the waves and seagulls to give the place company.
After knocking three times, the blond decided to go inside, not knowing what to expect. The place was dark and seemingly deserted, though that might have been partially because it was six in the morning.
So, the blond continued walking through the place, glancing through the halls. It seemed to be separated into dorms as well as what were possibly classrooms and training areas. There was also a massive weight room with all sorts of equipment as well as a large cafeteria. Kurita wondered how on earth Mr. Immortal could afford all this.
Finally, he reached the room where the millennia-old blond was, busy reading. Mr. Immortal looked up with a smile. It had apparently been a couple days since he had shaved since there were definitely the beginnings of a beard on his face, a thick one at that. The man was also wearing a pair of blue goggles. "Hey, how's it going? You know, I was going to call you eventually."
Kurita chuckled a bit. "Oh, okay, that's good. It's good to know that I wasn't going to be out of the loop forever." He looked down at what the Tamer of Forever was reading. "The Pillow Book?"
"Yeah, Old Japanese literature, said to be one of the first novels written," Mr. Immortal replied. "I've been trying to learn Japanese for several years, to be honest. One of the hardest I've had to learn."
"What would you say was the hardest?" Kurita questioned out of curiosity.
"Well, when I first got stranded, while I was in a prison cell I had to learn the local language. I'm not quite sure what it was called, though. I had to learn Sumerian a little while after that, which was interesting to say the least." The man shook his head. "I basically had to get little kids to name stuff for me. Took me awhile to learn the vocabulary and grammar needed to converse in it, though."
"I hear that the best way to learn a language is to be immersed in it. Is that true?" Kurita asked, getting a shake of the head from the Tamer of Forever.
"Not really. I've known people who put themselves in an environment like that and wound up with horrid grammar and pronunciation." The man chuckled a bit. "I'd say wait until you have a good handle on pronunciation and vocab before doing that."
The Japanese teen nodded before the American spoke again. "Aren't you the least curious about what this place is for?"
Kurita stopped in his tracks and gave a confused look. "What's it for?"
"Well, in the future that I came from, there was a peacekeeping organization called the Tamers' Brigade and, well, I decided to start it up a little early by recruiting all the homeless Tamers I can find." The man smiled. "Of course, I've been getting a lot of rejections from these kids. Apparently they don't want to get off the street as much as they say they do."
"Wait, so what is this Brigade for, anyway?" Liollmon asked, breaking the silence.
"It's supposed to be a supranational, politically-neutral organization that's meant to deal with relations between humans and Digimon and protect both worlds from whatever threats come their way." The man gave a pensive expression. "If you want, you can help out."
"Oh, yeah, that's fine. We're not bringing these guys with us to the digital world, though, are we?" Kurita asked in concern.
"Oh, no, they stay here unless somehow they were thrust into the digital world themselves," Mr. Immortal replied rapidly, hoping to get rid of any doubts the heavy man may have.
Unfortunately, Liollmon had a different reaction from relief. "Wait, you mean we won't be bringing them as back-up?"
"They're minors and, quite frankly, I concur with Tony, we shouldn't bring kids into the digital world with us. It's too dangerous." The man was adamant.
"I totally agree with you," Kurita replied.
"Wait, so what is it about this age thing that won't let you bring kids into the digital world?" Liollmon inquired.
"Would you send In-Training digimon to fight against Megas, even with help from other Megas?" Mr. Immortal asked, hoping to make a point.
"No, of course not! They'd be an easy target," the lion replied, finally getting it. "Oh!"
"So, ready?" Mr. Immortal inquired of Kurita.
"Sure thing," the blond Japanese teen replied.
###
Camp wasn't so fun after the argument between Tadashi and Eduardo. "I can't believe that idiot had the gall to not tell me that Antonio was his father!" the blond complained to Ayaka and Miki. The trio of Japanese Tamers was a little ways from the others, definitely out of listening distance.
"Oh, please, with how much you badmouth that guy, I'm surprised he admitted it tonight," the dark-haired girl commented. "Heck, I was surprised. Then again, they do look a lot alike."
"Here's the thing, Tadashi, the reason why Ed didn't tell you that Antonio was his father was because he didn't want to ruin the peace in our team," Ayaka told the blond, frowning.
"Yeah? Wait, did you know about this too?" the Japanese boy questioned angrily, pointing at the blonde girl.
"Yes, I did," Ayaka replied, her arms folded. "And think about it. Imagine if you met somebody who was badmouthing your brother. Would you tell him that you were related to him?"
Tadashi knew she had a point. "Probably not."
"But still, he should have told us earlier!" Coronamon exclaimed.
"You're not helping, kitty," Miki told the digimon with a glare.
"Oh, please, my partner's right and you know it!"
Ayaka didn't think so. Then again, neither did Miki, and that was saying something. Unfortunately, Tadashi continued to push his argument.
###
On the other side of the encampment, Ed, Abby and Gunter were hanging around along with their partners. The muscular German was busy scanning the water from the edge of the cliff while Abby and Ed were having a little chat.
"Ed, don't let what Tadashi said get to you, okay?" the brunette told the dark-haired boy, who was lying back on the rocky ground.
"I won't," Ed responded. After a brief pause, he spoke again. "I don't know why Tadashi doesn't like my dad. It's not like he actually met him."
Abby understood but she tried to think of things from the blond Japanese boy's point of view. "Well, maybe he feels threatened because your dad's a Tamer. I don't know for sure since I haven't been traveling with you guys that long, but maybe he's afraid that whatever authority he has in this team could be threatened if we came across your dad."
"I guess he is kind of the leader," Ed replied, talking about Tadashi. The truth was that he hadn't thought about it much, though the blond seemed to be the one giving orders most of the time.
"Plus, there aren't any adult Tamers on any of the anime. Well, at least none of the seasons that have aired," the brunette added. As it was only 2002, Savers hadn't aired yet in her world, so she was right.
"And besides, what would you think if someone was keeping something important from you, kyu?" Cutemon asked.
Ed knew that the pink rabbit had a point. Of course, it wasn't that important and Tadashi didn't actually encourage the black-haired teen to admit his secret to him.
Still, the teen realized that the most important thing that they had to have on the team was peace so they'd actually be able to work together when the time came. Ed was trying to think of a way to restore that peace as best as he could, though he realized that he would probably have to apologize despite it not actually being his fault.
The dark-haired teen got up and stretched. It was about then that Gunter was headed back to the duo. "So, anything new?"
Gunter gave him a worried look. The German was eerily calm; something that meant that something bad was going on. "Well, things aren't good. The water's got some sort of corrupting agent in it."
"No, it's not just not good, it's bad!" Keramon panicked.
"Corrupting agent?" Abby inquired, both confused and disturbed by the news.
"Well, from the looks of it, the water contains microbes that would turn Digimon into those… things we fought earlier," Gunter explained.
"So, that means that the water is how he builds his army. We should go tell the others!" Ed exclaimed, before getting up. He was about five feet from the duo before stopping and turning around, nervous. "Hey, Gunter, how about you go tell the others about your discovery?"
"I'll do that, but I want to go check out a nearby stream in case the water there isn't contaminated. That should prove my hypothesis that the source of the corrupting agent is in the same place as Dagomon." The German smiled widely at his partner and exclaimed. "Let's do this!"
"Yeah!" Keramon replied loudly, following his partner to the stream he was talking about.
###
Kurita returned home in the middle of the night, hoping that his parents didn't notice his absence. The large Japanese man glanced at himself in the mirror before walking out of his room.
Unfortunately, as soon as he walked out of the room, he had a SWAT team right on him, guns pointed at him. From out of the group, Yamaki moved forward.
"Hello, Kurita Nakabayashi," the man greeted a shocked Kurita.
"Uh, what is going on?" the heavy guy asked.
Yamaki explained. "Simple: you are working with someone wanted by Hypnos and you used his programs to visit him. Thanks to your brother informing us of your intent, we were able to keep track of your whereabouts and noticed you went to both Chile and an unnamed Caribbean island."
Kurita stood shocked as Yamaki explained further. "For having dealings with a suspected rogue Tamer, you are to be taken in for questioning," the skinny blond added. The heavy one decided that he might as well give himself up, though he had no way of contacting either Antonio or Mr. Immortal for help.
As he was handcuffed and taken away, he looked toward his brother's room to see the kid looking through the cracked-open door, smiling. That unnerved him.
###
The next day, Tadashi appeared at school, happier than he had been in a while. Before school started, he sat down at his desk and waited patiently, writing a little bit while he did so. When Jeri entered into the room, she noticed him.
"You seem pretty chipper today," the brunette commented with a smile, sitting in the desk next to his.
"Yeah, things are great," the blond replied, his eyes narrowing. "Just great."
Jeri didn't know what to think of his expression. "Why, what's going on? Did you beat that game yesterday?"
The blond shook his head. "No, I just found something to turn my brother into Hypnos for. It turns out that he knew where this Mr. Immortal clown was."
Jeri looked at him, shocked. "What?"
"Yeah, that means one less adult Tamer to deal with," the alternate version of Tadashi Nakabayashi commented excitedly. "Isn't that great?"
The brunette frowned and turned away. At the same time, she felt guilty for asking the blond's brother about how Keith Jackson was doing. She couldn't believe how her blond friend did that.
She sat there, disturbed by what had just happened. She wasn't sure what to say to the boy who she had a crush on. She was going to have to do something about it, so she decided she would let Keith Jackson know about it.
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