Chapter 31: The Abandoned Castle
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Just the OCs.
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After the Unification Wave hit, Antonio found himself in the middle of a vast valley. Looking around, he saw numerous mountains nearby as well as a large castle on the opposite end. Glancing at the medieval building, he wondered who lived in it. There were also a number of inactive control spires around as well.
"Hey, Veemon, recognize this place?" the heavy man asked his partner.
"Nope, not one bit," the blue dragon replied. "Wow, just when we had finally defeated Flaremon, this happens."
Antonio scanned the nearby castle. "No signals over there. I'm not even sure if there are even any digimon in the building, though there seems to be a bit of a blind spot on my digivice."
"What? You want to explore it?" Veemon inquired.
"No, I want to go home. You know, I have to wonder why, of all programs for Mr. Immortal not to give me, he neglected to give me a translation of the program for creating TVs in the digital world for going back to the real world or at least the source for the original." The large man checked out his digivices map and attempted to scan for a portal. The nearest one was thousands of miles away it seemed.
The man's musings were interrupted by some rustling in the bushes. Glancing over, the man spotted a familiar olive-skinned Greek woman, looking at him seriously. Katarina seemed to be on guard about something. Then again, she just had the man of her dreams tell her off, so that couldn't have helped her mood any.
Antonio just smiled and waved. "How's it going, Kat?"
The woman raised an eyebrow and spoke with her usual accent. "Kat, huh?"
"Or if you want me to just call you Katarina all the time, I can do that too," the heavy man offered.
The Greek woman shrugged. "So, do you have that program that you can use to create a gate to the real world?" she inquired, getting a negative answer from Antonio.
"Mr. Immortal never gave me one for some reason," he responded.
Katarina frowned. "You know how we first met, right?" she asked.
"Uh, how?" Antonio was legitimately curious.
"Well, I was in the library at my university when suddenly Mr. Immortal came out of my computer. When I saw that happen, I demanded to know what had happened." She smiled at the memory. "Then he took me to the Digital World."
"And then she met me!" Muchomon exclaimed, grinning widely. "Come on, you loved me from the first day we met."
Katarina smiled at her partner. "How did you meet him?" she inquired of Antonio.
"It was just a couple of days after my partner emerged on accident after Gorou and I replaced a bunch of monitors that a friend of his destroyed out of fear," the heavy man responded. "I went to my dorm after class and I found the guy talking to Veedramon."
"Veedramon?" The Greek woman asked in surprise. "Don't tell me he emerged like that and you couldn't devolve him."
"It's true. One of my goals in creating a new OS for the digivice was to end the whole permanent digivolution to Champion that a lot of digimon have to deal with," he explained.
"Back then it was kind of a pain to get me around," Veemon responded.
"So yeah, back to Mr. Immortal… He introduced himself. At first I thought he was some weirdo in a trenchcoat with goggles on his head but then he showed me his partner. I wondered how he could have a digimon if mine was the first to emerge but he explained that he had been stranded in the past. Monsters from another world, Time Travel, all impossible but I guess I believed him."
"And now he's off with the Watchmaker, traveling the universe again. Did you ever figure out why he got stranded?" the girl asked.
"It had been so long that he couldn't remember," Antonio responded. "For some reason, the two of them traveled back to the earliest point in time where the realities had split. If I had to guess, I'd say he was trying to find the source of the realities."
"'Source of the realities,'" Katarina repeated, thinking about it. "I wonder what it was."
"He didn't know at least. I guess he got stranded in the ancient Middle East and ended up spending the next few years of his life investigating before finding nothing," Antonio surmised.
The duo looked at the position in the sky that the sun was at. It was only a little ways from setting behind a mountain. "This world didn't have a sun before, did it?" she asked.
"No, it didn't. Great, we're going to have to find shelter soon," the heavy man stated, untying his tie and putting it in his pants' pocket. Eyeing the castle in the distance, he added, "You willing to go on a hike to that castle?"
Katarina smiled. "You read my mind."
###
"I still think this is a bad idea, oof!" Muchomon complained as they reached the entrance, accidentally tripping on a rock and landing on the bricked road beak-first.
"You afraid that some vampire lives here, my little birdy?" his partner joked with a smile.
Antonio opened up the front doors. They creaked open to reveal an old entryway that was lit by torches hanging from the ceiling. The floor had a red carpet on the rocky floor and the walls were built of brick and had torches on them as well. The duo decided to check out the wooden doors that were along the walls.
"Definitely looks like something that Dracula would hang out in," the heavy man joked as he checked one door to find out that it was locked.
"Very funny," Katarina said as she checked out another door which turned out to be locked as well. "Come on, there's got to be one that's not locked up."
"Why do I get the feeling that somebody up and left awfully quickly," Antonio deduced, reaching for another door which actually opened. Looking in, the heavy man found a hallway and walked down it, admiring the medieval architecture and the beautiful and ornate red carpet on the ground. The two Tamers and their partners checked each of the numerous doors as they walked down the hallway, finding them to all be locked as well except for one.
Veemon opened it and looked inside. "Oh, hey, the kitchen!" he exclaimed.
"Be careful, you don't know if the food has expired or not," Muchomon warned him as they went inside and checked out the pantries and cupboards which were all filled to the brim with food ranging from various breads and pastries to boxes of generic cereals. And all of it seemed fresh.
The group of Tamers and their digimon sat down and ate a meal. As always, the digimon seemed to overeat while the humans ate a normal amount, though Antonio obviously ate a bit more than Katarina.
While eating, the two of them talked about a number of topics. Things started to get a little strange. "I have two daughters," Katarina said, then she realized what she just said. "Wait, that… Oh..."
"Yeah, I know. I swear I have two sets of memories myself," Antonio told her. "One where I continued on with college, got married, got divorced and found out years later that I had a kid and then one where none of that happened and where I wash windows instead of teaching."
Katarina nodded. "I'm still a computer programmer in the other one. I'm freelance instead of working for Saxum. Oh, and I married one of the guys I dated in the other timeline but broke up with because of being… infatuated with Mr. Immortal."
Antonio looked somewhat disappointed and uncomfortable. "So, you're married?"
"No, I'm divorced. Carlos ended up running off with some girl at work, leaving me to take care of our daughters," she responded, feeling sorry for the girls. "I hope they're with their grandparents and okay."
"Your parents, right? What are they like?" Antonio asked.
"Greek. They want me to get married to a Greek and breed more Greeks in both sets of memories," the woman explained before chuckling.
Antonio smiled. "Do you have the grandmother who's afraid of the Turks?" he joked.
Katarina rolled her eyes. "No, my grandparents aren't crazy like that." Where do you think these things?
"Oh, good," the heavy man said with a smile. "You were married to a Spaniard in the timeline where you got married, right?"
Katarina nodded after biting into a pastry. When she finished, she spoke again. "My parents didn't like him that much but they accepted him after a while. Then he cheated on me and left. Now they hate him even more."
"I bet. I know I would," Antonio told her, grinning widely.
"What about you? What did your parents think of your wife in the timeline where you got married? Or did you get married in both?"
"Oh, I only got married in one of them and I wasn't really talking to my parents much at that point since they were in Chile and I was in California," Antonio said with some regret, his eyes narrowing and his mouth turning into a frown. "Come to think of it, in the other one, I didn't have Gorou as a roommate so he didn't encourage me to go after a computer science degree like him. I ended up dropping out before I even met Lorena."
"What was she like?" Katarina asked out of curiosity.
"Well…" Antonio thought his words carefully. He didn't want to chew out his ex-wife. "Things started out decent until I told her I wanted to wait until marriage. Then she pressured me until I proposed. After that, well, I had a bachelor party and then we ended up getting married about two weeks into our engagement. All in all, our courtship maybe lasted two months. And our marriage lasted a year and a half." The heavy man shook his head. "Things just soured. I tried my best to spice things up but in the end it ended up not working out. I thought things had gotten better since we had such a good time but then I got back and I found her making out on the couch with an old high-school sweetheart of hers."
Katarina frowned. "That's too bad." The woman yawned. "Well, I'm ready for bed."
"Yeah, let's see if we can find some separate rooms for each of us, right?" the heavy man suggested.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," the woman responded, getting up along with the heavy man. The two walked out of the kitchen with their digimon.
###
After what seemed like an hour of searching and finding far too many locked doors, Antonio and Katarina finally found a bedroom inside the large castle. The bed in the middle seemed absolutely massive as in far larger than a king size. That worked out well since neither of the two adult Tamers wanted to share a tiny space and they had enough room for their digimon in between them.
"You know, I wish we could have found another bed in this place," the woman commented in her heavily accented voice, sitting on the right side of the bed.
"It's a huge castle. I wonder who was in it before we got here," Antonio remarked, sitting on the other side of the bed, facing away from the woman ten years his junior.
"It was probably owned by some digimon despot or local rule. That would be my guess," Katarina suggested. "Ugh, I so want to get out of this dress."
"Go ahead," the large man replied sitting on the opposite side of the bed and looking away. "I'm not looking. Oh, and do you care if I take off my shirt? I get hot at night."
"I'd rather not see that, but go ahead if you feel like it," the woman told him.
Veemon was confused about that. "Hey, Antonio, don't you normally sleep…"
"Not in front of the lady, Veemon. And Katarina, if you don't want me without my shirt on, I'll just sleep fully clothed," he compromised with her, smiling. For that, she was grateful. She glanced over at the man, who had just pulled the covers over himself and was facing away from her even though she had slipped down to her bra and panties. She figured it was going to be an awkward night, but at least he made it slightly less awkward.
"Well, good night, Antonio," she told him before going and turning off the light.
"Alright, good night," the man told her before drifting off into sleep. From the looks of it, both digimon were dosing off as well and Antonio felt as if he was making progress with Katarina in their friendship. A part of him wanted more, but he felt as if he needed to wait until he was sure she was completely over his old friend. He hated what Mr. Immortal told her.
Katarina had a hard time drifting into sleep, though she managed after a little bit. However, she woke up after a couple hours. Muchomon was still sleeping but there wasn't much else going on. Unfortunately for her, Antonio was snoring loudly. The woman decided to get up and clear her head, reasoning that there didn't seem like there was anybody else in the castle. Still, she put her skirt and shirt back on and picked up Muchomon anyway, walking through the place with the sleeping bird in her arms.
She didn't know what to think of the situation she was in. It seemed so surreal that she was stuck in the digital world with a man that she didn't find attractive and who she barely knew. True, she had known about him for years from what little Mr. Immortal talked about him; however, she hadn't had the chance to really talk to him until today.
She walked through the castle, holding the digimon. She didn't hear anything or see any enemy digimon around, but she was still cautious. Eventually she made her way down to a dungeon area, wondering what was there. Maybe there are prisoners… she thought.
Unfortunately for her, there were and she wasn't remotely dressed for the situation. There were three boys lying asleep as well as four girls who were likewise asleep. She figured the girls were guards and they each had digimon with them. The woman froze at the sight, realizing that she had stupidly walked down there in her underwear. Don't panic, just make your way upstairs, she thought to herself. She would get Antonio, get dressed, and free these prisoners all while dealing with the girls. Maybe the prisoners each had partner digimon…
The woman made her way out of the dungeon, watching out for anything else that could be lurking through those halls. She headed straight for the bedroom, being careful not to wake up Muchomon. There she turned on the lights, causing Antonio's snoring to cease.
"What is it?" the heavy man asked groggily, sitting himself up. From what Katarina could see, he had apparently lost his shirt in the middle of the night since he was there shirtless. She didn't like the sight one bit.
"I found something," she replied.
"Can't it wait until morning," the man inquired, falling back onto the bed.
"There are prisoners, kids," she told him, putting Muchomon on the bed. The plump bird immediately woke up.
"What's going on, mistress?" he asked, surprised.
"There are a bunch of kids down below," she responded with urgency. "So, are you coming or not, Antonio?" she asked.
"Give me a couple more seconds," the man requested. True, he didn't want to see kids hurt, he needed to sleep. Plus, he was wondering if he was in a dream and he had passed out in class or something.
The woman was irritated. Antonio, of all people, should have been the most willing person to get the kids out of that dungeon. So she walked over to Antonio's side of the bed and pulled the sheets off. Unfortunately for her, the man was only wearing underwear, a pair of tight, grey boxer-briefs.
"Sorry, I didn't want you to see. I know you don't find me attractive," the large man told her as he groggily reached over and grabbed his shirt to put it on.
"I don't care. I'm assuming it was an accident that you took off your clothes?" the Greek woman surmised as the heavy man put his shirt on.
"Uh, yeah, pretty much. That's part of the reason why I don't really wear anything to bed most of the time," he explained. "Now, to find my pants… Oh, great, they're probably under the covers."
Just then, Veemon popped up from under the sheets with his partner's black dress slacks. "Here you go!" the digimon exclaimed.
The heavy man then hurriedly put his slacks on before getting his shoes and socks on as well.
"So, you ready, Tonio?" she asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," he replied. The two of them headed straight down the stairs, ready to rescue those kids. Unfortunately for them, as soon as they reached the entryway, they heard voices. Then attacks burst forth and hit their digimon, knocking the two of them out.
"Oh great, the guards woke up," Katarina guessed. Unfortunately, she wasn't right. A group of five teenage boys, all skinny, walked into the entryway from outside.
"Well, who do we have here?" the lead boy, a brown-skinned Mexican-American asked no one in particular. He had an Agumon by his side and he looked positively irate.
"This is Petros Xanthopoulos and his wife, Katarina. Either that or they're brother and sister," one of the other members, a blond boy with a bowl cut and blue eyes indicated using his digivice. Next to him was a Shoutmon, much like the one that Mr. Immortal had.
When Antonio heard the name, he paused for a second. He had no idea when that was changed up or that it was changed in the first place. Mr. Immortal probably did it when he messed around with my digivice just before he left.
"I wasn't asking you, Alex!" the Mexican snapped. "So, are you married or single?"
Antonio glared at the teen. Still, he didn't answer. Instead, Katarina decided to answer him.
"Married. We have been for several years," the Greek woman responded. The Mexican gave her a predatory look over.
"Ah, I see. However, neither of you have rings, so I can tell things aren't going too well," the enemy Tamer responded. "The name's Luis and I'm from East L.A. So, tell me, Katarina, how's your love life?"
Antonio hoped that she didn't say anything too stupid. Then again, she was probably just going to try to play the part.
"That is none of your business!" Katarina snapped, giving the teenager a glare that would melt plastic.
Luis snorted in response. "Oh, wow, okay. Well, guess what, lovebirds, you get to go to jail!" he exclaimed with a grin. "Zack, Lenard, take these guys to the cell and keep your digimon trained on them at all times. I don't want the fat one to get the upper hand or something."
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A few minutes later, they were thrown into the exact same jail cell that they were trying to get to earlier along with their digimon. "Great going, just where we were going to go to save these kids," Katarina remarked, not impressed with their situation.
"Yeah, no kidding," the heavy man replied. "I can't believe that didn't work, to be honest."
"How was I supposed to answer that question? After all, we're not actually together," Katarina complained, annoyed that someone would ask such a personal question.
"I know, right. As it is, I'm not much for that and it didn't work out too well for me in my one marriage since I sucked at technique," Antonio admitted to her. "I think the one time I finally did good was just before my wife divorced me and that was probably when my son was conceived."
"Too much information!" they heard from the other cage. The black-haired Chilean looked over to see a Japanese boy with long, brown hair. "Seriously, can you talk about your relationship somewhere else?"
Antonio glared before chuckling. "We're not together. Heck, I don't know why my digivice registered me as a man named Petros."
Taizou woke up from all the commotion. He noticed that all the female guards were in a nearby cell as well. The short-haired boy glanced over and was surprised to see Antonio Urrutía and an unidentified olive-skinned woman in a nearby cell.
"So, you agree that Mr. Immortal was being kind of an idiot by trying to set us up?" Katarina asked.
"Well, I have to admit that I find you attractive, and that I have a bit of a crush on you, but I don't think it's really his business," the heavy man admitted, eliciting a blush from the olive-skinned woman. "And plus, you don't find me that attractive either, so you probably don't want a relationship with me."
The woman thought about that for a second. She liked Antonio since he had a nice personality and was considerate of her feelings, far more so than Mr. Immortal who was frightened at the possibility of a relationship. The woman turned and smiled at the heavy man before her thoughts were interrupted by Taizou.
"Antonio Urrutía, right?"
The Chilean nodded. Then a smile crossed his face when he realized who he was talking to. "Taizou Aoyama! What are you doing here?"
"Well, I kind of got stuck in jail by the Digimon Emperor," the Japanese teen explained, standing up in his cell. He was really confused now and the addition of strange memories of living in the real world didn't help.
Antonio was confused. "Digimon Emperor? So that's what this castle's for, huh? Where is he?"
"He left earlier today to fight some dude that's been tormenting him, but I don't know when that bozo's coming back," Yuji explained.
"Was it in the afternoon?" Katarina inquired.
"Uh, yeah, something like that," the long-haired boy replied. "After that, we all got these weird visions."
"Yeah, it almost felt as if I saw what my life would have been like if I hadn't come to the digital world a couple weeks ago," Taizou said.
"Same here!" Yuji exclaimed. "And Robert just thinks we're crazy."
"Robert?" Antonio inquired.
"I'm here!" the voice came from another cell and a dark-skinned Italian sat up. "What's up?"
"You know, I think now would be about the right time to start thinking of a way to get out of here," Katarina commented. "The name's Katarina Xanthopoulos, by the way."
"I don't know how to pronounce your last name and I don't care," Yuji remarked, eliciting a dirty look from the Greek woman. "But if you want to get us out of here, pretty lady, go ahead."
"The first thing is our digimon," Antonio indicated. "Those rogue Tamers were stupid enough to…" The black-haired man paused when he noticed the blond boy on the team walk down the stairs and into the dungeon. They were going to have to talk about the plan some other time.
Still, the blond just pulled out a pad and started drawing. Next to him, the Shoutmon was lounging. What was his name? Alex?
Al? From what Antonio could see, the kid looked like he had a bruise on his cheek. Maybe the other team isn't treating him too well.
You are absolutely correct, Antonio Urrutía, the heavy man heard a voice in his head, causing concern to appear on the man's face.
Okay, who are you and what are you doing in my head? Antonio asked, glaring into nowhere.
I am Sorcerymon and I worked for the former owner of the castle you are now in, the voice explained. I've been observing you ever since you entered.
Antonio glanced around and noticed a figure in one of the shadows. Okay, so you worked for this Emperor?
Unwillingly, yes. However, I also worked for Lord Myotismon before the Emperor came. The wizard digimon still hadn't shown himself, but with that guard around, Antonio couldn't blame him.
Isn't Myotismon an evil digimon? Antonio questioned, giving a look of surprise.
Not this one. Unfortunately, he was killed and his egg deleted, so he's never coming back again. He worked to try and better the digital world, even if doing so went against his nature.
"Antonio, what are you thinking?" Katarina asked.
"Just a second," he said. What do you want me to do?
The guard you have there is constantly abused by his superior. In fact, he's not even in the digital world by choice since Roger Volkmann blackmailed him, Sorcerymon explained. He's also secretly supportive of a resistance cell in the Triumvirate that was initiated by a figure named Harbinger and a girl named Laura O'Higgins.
Antonio decided to walk toward the blond. "What's up?" he asked casually. The blond boy glanced toward the man in surprise.
"Uh, hi?" he responded, nervous.
"My name's Antonio Urrutía? What about yours?" the adult Tamer inquired.
"Alexander… Alexander Rinaldi," the blond enemy Tamer replied.
"That an Italian last name?" Antonio asked.
"Yeah, my great-grandfather came to the US in the late 1800s, his name was Charles," Alex responded.
It was probably Carlo, Antonio guessed before speaking again. "So, do you actually like working for these guys?"
The blond shook his head, smiling uneasily. "Not one bit. I wish I was back in Cleveland."
"Yeah? I've never been there," the heavy man told him before smiling. "So, if you don't like working for Luis and his cronies, then why are you still here?"
"I can't go back," Alex responded in embarrassment.
"Well, maybe you can tell me some of your problems later on," the heavy man suggested. "Don't worry, your secrets are good with me."
Alex smiled before getting up and heading toward the door. "Shoutmon, you ready to destroy this?"
"Yeah!" the red dragon exclaimed, pulling out his microphone and smashing through some of the bars.
After a matter of seconds, the prisoners were now free. "Wow, now I need to get in shape again," Robert remarked in his nasally voice, trying to get a cramp out of his neck."
"No kidding," Taizou said. "Now, what about our digimon?"
"I have them," Sorcerymon responded, coming up from out of a wall with three digimon: Solarmon, Commandramon and Terriermon. The three digimon reunited with their partners enthusiastically.
"Yeah, Robert! You're looking great!" the dog-bunny exclaimed, jumping on his partner's head.
"You too, buddy!" the husky American responded.
"It is great to finally see you again, Taizou," Solarmon remarked.
"I agree," the brown-haired Japanese boy replied.
"And then there's you, sir! It's good to finally see you again!" Commandramon exclaimed.
"Heck yeah! Let's blow this place up!" Yuji exclaimed.
"No, there's not going to be any sort of blowing up stuff here!" Antonio exclaimed. "Sorcerymon, what about Veemon and Muchomon?"
"They're fully healed," the white wizard remarked.
"Wow, I feel like I was hit by a truck!" Veemon exclaimed.
"I concur," Muchomon responded. "It's quite good to be over that, though."
"So, what now?" Katarina inquired.
"Oh, I have an idea. Veemon, are you up to biomerging?" Antonio asked.
"What?" Yuji asked in confusion. "You can flipping biomerge?"
"Learned that trick the last time I was in the digital world and had to save Mr. Immortal from a digimon called RuinSphinxmon," Antonio explained.
"Wow, that's impressive," Katarina commented, smiling flirtatiously. "I can only go Ultimate."
"And I can only go Champion," Alex remarked.
"Same here!" Robert said.
"You can only go Champion?" the large Chilean asked Alex.
"Yeah, unfortunately. That's part of the reason the others pick on me," the blond explained, tilting his head to the side. "He's a stronger than average Champion, though. Plus, he's fast!" The boy seemed excited to be talking about his partner like that.
"Yeah, and I could probably take out the others in a heartbeat and put them down here!" the red reptile exclaimed. "Though they might not like that."
"What about the female guards?" Antonio asked. "They could help if we undid their brainwashing."
Sorcerymon immediately went over to one of the girls and touched her head. "Yes, I can undo what I did easily," he indicated. "It'll just take me a few minutes."
"Then we can get out of here. We'll have to separate the Tamers from their partners and confiscate their digivices while we're at it," Antonio decided. "Let's do this!"
###
Luis was busy enjoying his bath and not paying any attention to what was happening around him. He really liked it, a lot. It was nice to actually have one for a change.
"Come on! When can I have a bath?" he heard from the other side of the door. That was Zack, the fat one. The Mexican-American Tamer was irritated by that.
"Shut up!" he yelled back. And there was silence.
After a few seconds, Luis got up, dried off and put on his clothes.
Then he found himself in a prison cell.
"Oh, hello, Luis, how's it going?" the man saw Alex walking down the center of the cells. After Shoutmon had damaged the metal bars lining the cells, Sorcerymon repaired them using his powers.
"What? You dare betray us? My partner can reach Ultimate you know!"
"And Antonio's can reach Mega. As it is, your partner's in the other dungeon," Alex explained before smiling. "Don't worry; we'll take good care of you."
###
"Alright, the castle's bolted tight. We also found some extra bedrooms upstairs along with some rooms that can be converted into bedrooms if you wanted," Taizou explained to Antonio. "You know, that was too easy."
"Yeah, no kidding. But at least we avoided a battle," the heavy man told the Japanese boy. "Still, I think I'm going to cash it in for the night."
"So, what about, like, going back home?" Angela inquired, coming up from behind Antonio with Lalamon. The girl was a dark-skinned Latina of Mexican descent and was wearing a pink, buttoned-up shirt over a black dress shirt and some tight blue jeans.
"Unfortunately, we need to find a way back. Tomorrow, we'll look for the TVs you mentioned earlier but I'm not holding my breath since my digivice isn't detecting any portals around here," the heavy man explained, relaying what the others told him. "Don't worry; we'll keep you all safe and sound here."
The Mexican-American girl smiled. "Thank you. My team will keep watch while you get to sleep," she offered.
"Alright, that works. Thanks," Antonio responded. "In the meantime, I'm going to send a message to all members of the Tamers brigade to come here. I guess this might as well be home base for now until we can get everybody back home."
###
The next morning the heavy man got up from a bed in a fancy guest room that he had found. He then showered and put on his clothes from the previous day with the exception of his tie. He was going to have to find a washer and dryer soon or else his clothes were going to smell rather gamey.
After all that, he made his way downstairs to the dining hall where a number of the Tamers were eating. There were also a few new faces as well since a couple of the Brigade members had shown up along with the small teams they had gathered together along the way. The man went and grabbed some food and was shocked to see a couple of Veggiemon serving the group along with a couple of Zassomon, which looked just like Veggiemon only green instead of yellow. Still, they both shared nasty tempers. Sorcerymon must have called them there or something.
After getting his food, the man spotted Katarina in a window chair, eating along with Muchomon. Antonio decided to try his chances. "So, you mind if I sit here?" he asked the olive-skinned woman, who looked up with a smile.
"Sure," she responded. The large man proceeded to pull out the chair across from her diagonally and next to Muchomon. The man smiled as he bit into his food.
"So, what's up? Sleep well after everything?" Antonio asked in between bites of a breakfast burrito, curious.
The woman yawned before responding. "Well, I didn't exactly sleep great. After all, I'm in a foreign world and now I have the memory of two daughters. I hope they're doing well."
"I hope so to. Don't worry, I think the same thing about my son," the large man assured the woman. "I just hope that he's doing good."
"And then there's this whole Tamers' Brigade thing. What was Mr. Immortal thinking when he named it that?" she asked, gesturing as she did so.
"I know what you mean. I think he named it after an organization in his world/timeline/time/whatever," Antonio responded.
"So, I was thinking of new names. How about the Tamers' Alliance?" she asked, eliciting a shrug from the heavy man.
"Sounds too much like the Rebel Alliance to me," Antonio told her.
"Coalition of Tamers?"
"That might work, though I'd shorten it to Tamers' Coalition," the heavy man responded.
"Okay, then, we'll call it the Tamers' Coalition. You're the one in charge, after all. I figured we could have some telepathic digimon insert knowledge of the English Language into the brains of the various tamers from around the world." The woman had a lot of ideas. Strangely enough, she ended up working with Antonio and working a large number of them out. To both their astonishment, they seemed to enjoy it.
It was after Antonio was done eating when Taizou walked to them with news.
"Guys, we found Tadashi and his team. Ed's with them," the brown-haired Japanese boy informed them hurriedly.
"You talked to them?" the heavy man asked.
"Yeah, I know exactly where they're at now. If you want, I can have Zeppelinmon primed and ready," Taizou informed him.
"Alright, let's get down to the hangar in ten minutes," Antonio ordered.
"Gotcha. I'll get Yuji, Robert and Angela to meet us down there," the brown-haired boy said. "I'm sure they'll want to meet their old teammates."
Antonio smiled as the guy left. "Well, it's good working with you, Kat. You mind if I call you later while I'm on this mission?" he asked, grinning.
"Sure, call me whenever you want. I'll give you status reports," she said the latter part seductively and with a wide smile.
"Yeah! We get to go on a mission!" Veemon exclaimed as he followed his partner out of the cafeteria.
"What would you think of dinner when I get back?" the heavy man asked her before thinking that it was too soon to be asking her out. The olive-skinned woman grinned back.
"That would be great. I look forward to meeting Ed, by the way," she told him before they exchanged good-byes.
Katarina smiled at Antonio as he left. She liked that she had a new friend even after everything had fallen apart with Mr. Immortal. And she thought about how she had ruined some of her old relationships because of him, something she didn't want to do again.
But the woman realized she had work to do. She was going to be substituting for Antonio as leader of the coalition while he was gone and that meant keeping track of whatever new Tamers that decided to show up at the castle and making sure that none of them were rogues. In the meantime, she had to answer to Antonio.
She looked forward to working with him.
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A/N: Yeah, nothing like a bad romance to spice things up… Hopefully you liked how this was written. I'm trying to take it slowly with these two, especially since they barely know each other and they just spent a day together. I'd hate for it to get too unrealistic.
Meanwhile, sorry for the delay. There were a couple of things in this chapter that I didn't quite like and plus I disconnected my laptop from my parents Wi-Fi so I wouldn't be so distracted for school (I'm going to college for two years. First time at school for six years for me. Hopefully this'll give me a better job than retail, especially since I've already chosen my major).