Episode 2 – Trials of Champions

The next day, Amy woke up to find the 'Digivice' still on her desk.
She thought back to the previous day, wondering if it had all been a strange dream… But it couldn't have been, the Digivice was proof, as real as the mountain of work she had to do.
How was it possible that another, digital World existed? How could someone just teleport through a computer screen? She would have to confront Sofi today; since she didn't know Talyn all that well. How long had they been going?
She pondered the questions over and over at breakfast, her Mum staying quiet, noticing her daughter was deep in thought. It was her sister, Becky, who broke the silence.
"Did someone die?" she asked.
Amy looked up, a little startled, "What?"
"It's so quiet! What's up with everyone?"
"Uh, nothing, just thinking," Amy replied quietly.
"Fine," Becky said, "I'm off, see you later!"
"Bye."
Amy was left alone with her Mum, and the silence stretched on. She hadn't taken the Digivice with her; it was stowed away in her school bag.
"You seem to be in an awfully bad mood recently," her Mum noted.
Amy sighed, "Just stuff going on, I'll get over it; I'm sure."
"Well, it's good to talk about it you know?"
"I had a chat with someone yesterday, but, it's new stuff, and it's not really stuff I can talk about, if you know what I mean?"
"Oh God, someone didn't actually die, did they?" her Mum said with a worried look on her face.
"What? No! It's nothing like that," Amy replied.
"Is it Donald?"
"Mum, you're obsessed."
"You can't blame me for being curious. You say you've met a guy, I've never heard of nor seen him, and he's the first guy in what… going on 5 years now?"
"Have you been counting? Seriously Mum, not cool," Amy placed her dishes in the sink and scrubbed them down quickly, "I've no idea what to do about Donald, but this doesn't concern him either."
"Ok, sorry I asked," her Mum moved to the other side of the kitchen, busying herself with the cupboards.
"Thanks Mum, I know you're just worried, but seriously, I'll figure it out," Amy muttered.
"I know you will, have a good day."

Sofi had left the window open all night.
It was February, and despite it being late winter/early spring, her room felt like the arctic itself.
"Heaven's above!" she muttered as she closed the window, and turned the radiator up.
"Sorry Dad, but I need warmth," she mused.
Her Dad was strict on heating and saving money; she was always lectured on how they didn't need things like central heating, or anything modern for that matter. Luckily, she hadn't acquired hypothermia during the night, and could still wrap herself up, emptying half of her small wardrobe in the process.
"No school today?" her Mother asked, seeing her waddle down the stairs in the duvet.
"I left my window open, I'm freezing," she explained, moving with great difficulty.
"Why did you do that?" her Dad asked.
She looked at him, "No idea, for the fun of it."
Her Dad didn't get humour, not a lot of it anyway.
"It was an accident," she explained.
He nodded and returned to reading the paper.
"We didn't see you much last night," her Mum stated, "how did your exam go?"
Sofi had had to work the night shift in the small shop at the end of the road last night, due to a phoned-in illness, "It went ok," she said, "Actually, the first and third pieces were my best ones, it was the second that let me down."
"But the second was your best!" Her dad exclaimed.
"I know, I guess nerves got to me a little. You know the part in the third one that I couldn't do? It came out fluently! I've never played it so well, I was so surprised, I nearly messed up the rest of it," she explained.
"Well, at least that's one out of the way!" her Mum said happily.
"When will you know if you passed?" her Dad asked.
"Couple of months," she replied.
"Good, now you can focus on the rest of your exams."
Her Dad had always pushed her with exams, always urging her on to perform her best and study hard. At times it frustrated Sofi to no end, but that was just who he was.
"It's a couple of months before we even finish the courses," she explained, "I've got plenty of time."
"Early bird catches the worm," was all he replied.
She sighed quietly and finished eating, then returned to her still-cold room, and packed her bag for the day. Her eyes flashed to her Digivice and she thought of Amy; it had completely left her mind. They hadn't found her after school; she must have gone straight home. Lopmon had said Amy would come back of her own accord, and whilst Sofi didn't doubt this, she thought it would probably be a better idea if Talyn and she went to find Amy in the real world first. She didn't have any means of communicating Talyn in the real world, but sometimes he walked the way to school as she did. Today, she hoped, was one of those days.

Talyn was waiting by the crossing he knew Sofi would come through.
"Good morning," he said.
"Hey," she replied, "We've got quite a day ahead of us haven't we?"
He nodded, "Yes, I've been thinking about how we could approach her, do you think we should wait for her to go back to the Library?"
"I think we should definitely talk to her in this world before she goes back there," Sofi replied.
"Yes, that seems logical," he said.
"I was thinking Talyn; do you think it would be worth having a means of communication other than Digivice distress signals? I mean, do you have a phone? It would be so much easier to get a hold of you if something like this happens again. Plus with the added member, it will be better to keep in touch," Sofi suggested.
"I guess so, I never really thought of that. Do you think she'll become a member?" he asked.
"I've never come across Salamon before, so it could have some powers we may find useful. I hope she does choose to join us, three's always better than two," Sofi replied.
"How's that book you're writing?"
"Steady, we haven't met many new Digimon yet, so I've been organising it and editing some pages and evolution lines," Sofi replied. She was recording and mapping every Digimon they encountered, as well as their own, into an encyclopaedia, a sort of reference book.
"A new Digimon and person appear; do you think there's a possibility more new, possibly dangerous Digimon are on their way?" Talyn asked.
"It's a possibility we can't rule out, it's our job to be on the lookout for things like this," Sofi replied.
"What do we know about Amy? Is she really suited for it?"
"She must be, or else she wouldn't have been chosen. But I know what you mean, from what I can tell, and I only see her in Chemistry, she's a very… non-committed person. You know, loves everyone and everyone loves her sort of thing," Sofi replied.
"Where do you think she'll be this morning?" Talyn asked.
"With her friends, or hiding from us," Sofi laughed.
"You'd better talk to her first, I might intimidate her," Talyn replied.
Sofi mused, "Not if you at least try to be nice."

They found Amy tucked away at the back of her friends' circle.
"I'll wait here," Talyn said.
Sofi tried to catch her eye, but Amy wasn't having it, so she starting walking towards the group.
Sofi knew everyone in the year, as was part of her job being on the student council, so she easily infiltrated the group without causing a scene.
"Sorry to interrupt," she said, "Amy, can I talk to you?"
She guessed Amy must have been expecting it, because she nodded, but kept her eyes lowered. Sofi lead her away from the group, but not towards Talyn, who watched them from the corner of his eye.
"So, how are you?" Sofi asked, not sure of how to go about this.
"Look Sofi, I know why you're here," Amy said, "I don't know what the hell is going on, so I'll listen to you. Sorry for running off yesterday, but I got a little freaked out."
"I understand, that's perfectly normal; it happened to me too," Sofi tried to reassure, "When do you have a free lesson today?"
"Period 3," Amy replied.
"That's great, come to the library, me and Talyn will be there, and we'll tell you everything you want to know, sound good?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll be there."
"Good, but one more thing, please don't tell anyone about it? Obviously, we want to keep it a secret," Sofi said.
"I went to another world yesterday… Yeah, that's not a good conversation point, don't worry about it," Amy replied.
They moved apart and Sofi returned to Talyn.
"Period 3, library, she's agreed to talk to us," Sofi said.
"Good, I guess I'd better get going, I've got double Law first," Talyn said, and he strolled away quickly.

It played on Amy's mind for the whole morning.
She'd had a double lesson of biology, and hadn't focussed at all. Her notes were skeletal, barely covering a whole page. She'd have to catch up, but the upcoming meeting bothered her more. She had a Digimon… and she didn't even know what that meant. When the bell rung, signalling break, she didn't bother waiting the twenty minutes for period 3, but simply packed her belongings away and went straight to the library. It was a large room, a two floored building attached to the main block of the school. It was quite possible to get lost in the innumerable shelves that littered the second floor, which stood open on the right, and there was plenty of study space on the bottom floor with desks arranged singularly, or doubled up for group study. Two staircases led up and down to the taller second floor. Some bookcases had ladders to reach particularly high sections. Of course, the lower years were banned from using them. The entrance to the dark room was on the second floor, on the far right wall, where adjacent perpendicular shelves led to it, but was covered by another adjacent parallel shelf of books beyond them. Amy had never used enough of the library, she came here to study often nowadays, but had not done so before her final year, nor had she ever made use of the vast resources it contained. The Librarian, Mrs Teel, who'd spoken to her yesterday, sat at her desk on the bottom floor facing the entrance. Amy didn't bother the woman, but moved straight over and sat at a desk just next to one of the staircases. The Library was open at all times for the higher years, but opened to the lower years during break and lunch. During that time, it became a room as noisy as every other in the school. Studying was near impossible, so Amy sat and waited. Her friends would wonder where she was, but she had more urgent matters to think of.
Only twenty minutes later, bang on the bell, did Sofi and Talyn finally enter.
They certainly didn't look like any sort of team. Sofi was refined, intellectual looking, her eyes surveying the room quickly, her long wavy hair falling down to her shoulders, whereas Talyn stood a whole head taller than her, with scruffy, layered black hair, bored looking eyes pointing directly at her. He nudged Sofi and they both walked quickly over to her, Sofi muttering words rapidly to Talyn.
"Hey!" Sofi said happily, a smile spread across her face, "I didn't think you'd come!"
Talyn nodded at her, and sat down rather awkwardly.
"Hello," Amy said quietly.
"Don't be so nervous," Sofi joked, "We're not here to interrogate you; in fact you should be the one doing the interrogating."
Amy took this as her cue, but where to start?
"Ok… I guess the first thing is… what is that place? The… rabbit said it was a Digital World?"
"Good question," Sofi replied, "Yeah, it's a Digital World, or Digiworld for short. From what we know, it was a computer program developed by the Japanese some years ago now, that… escalated somewhat, we don't know much. Um, it's inhabited by those Digimon, or Digital Monsters, that you saw, though they come in all different shapes and sizes."
"How long has it been there?" Amy asked.
"We don't know for sure, like I said, it was developed in Japan, many years ago. There is something strange though, The Digiworld 'appears' to have been around for much longer than it has here in the real world, and we think that may be because it had its history programmed into it. I mean, there are stories, legends and myths, everything you'd expect from a world, but it can't have been around long enough in the real world for that to happen. Make sense? So we think that a lot of History was just computed into it. One thing we do know however, for as long as it has actually been running, there have been humans inside it."
"Real people? Like us?" Amy asked.
"Exactly, for some reason, certain individuals were able to transcend the barrier between the real world and the Digiworld, and this has been going on for decades now," Sofi explained.
"Certain individuals?"
Sofi looked at Talyn.
"This is where we come in," he began, "Throughout the Digiworld-real-world history it seems groups of people, usually 5 or 6 kids, enter the Digiworld. We call them Digidestined. The first ones were Japanese, for obvious reasons, but it soon became global. The Digidestined are chosen for some quality they have, and usually have to save the Digiworld."
"Save it?"
"For as long as it's been running, it's been subject to evil… Sometimes Evil Digimon, sometimes evil programming, but the Digidestined are always chosen to save it, and they've never failed yet, we believe," Talyn explained.
"I know it sounds a bit sci-fi, or fantasy, talking about good and evil in a computer programme, but it's long been thought the Digiworld has taken a life of its own, away from its programming," Sofi interjected.
"Like an AI?" Amy asked.
"Sort of, I suppose," Talyn replied.
"Ok, so why us? Why can't these Digimon save it themselves?" Amy asked.
"Again, we don't know much, but there's a bond formed between a Digidestined and their partner that allows the partner Digimon to acquire some great powers. It normally allows the Digimon to undergo a process called Digivolving, where it… changes, powers up. But they can't usually do it without the bond, not on command, but they can Digivolve when they grow old and gain more energy. The bond is actually a physical entity, and you already have yours, it's the Digivice you received yesterday," Talyn said.
Amy took hers out. It was red and silver, small, and oddly shaped, "This binds me to that dog?"
"Salamon, yes" Sofi said.
"What about you guys? How long have you been Digidestined?" Amy asked.
They looked at each other again.
"Two years," Sofi replied, "We first went at the start of Advanced Levels. But we're not exactly Digidestined."
"What do you mean?"
Talyn spoke up, "We'll explain all this later, you just need to know, you've been chosen, we think, to be one of us, to work with us. Will you accept?"
"Talyn!" Sofi hissed, "Let her think a bit first. Look Amy, we're not trying to tell you it's your destiny or anything, and if you choose to join us, there's a pretty steep learning curve to go through, so all we're asking is, come with us, we'll show you what we do, let you get a feel for the place, and then you can make up your mind? How will one visit hurt you?"
Amy considered this, "Is there anything I need to do?"
"Just make sure you bring your Digivice and some food, we're in there for quite a while sometimes," Sofi said, "we've got less than an hour, but we can go through lunch as well, Talyn and I both have Physics later, so we'll have to leave anyway."
"Fine, let's go," Amy said, picking up her bag and standing.
The other two led the way, telling her to split up and to come in intervals, so as to reduce any suspicion.
It wasn't long before they were facing the computer monitor.
"Would you like to do the honours?" Sofi asked Amy.
"Do I just point my Digivice at the screen like before?" she asked.
"Talyn and I will hold onto you; that way we can all be transported in one go, so go for it."
She did so, and the world flashed again. Amy found herself standing in the same forest as before, with the same dog jumping up to her.
"Let her breath, Salamon," Talyn said, as Amy crashed into the ground.
"You came back! You came back!" it exclaimed happily.
"Um, ok, introductions," Sofi began, "That's your Digimon Salamon. This is Patamon, he's Talyn's Digimon."
The hamster was sat on Talyn's shoulder.
"My Digimon is Lopmon," Sofi finished, the rabbit was standing by her feet.
The first thing Amy noticed however was the change in her clothes, and Talyn's, and Sofi's.
"What happened to our clothes?" she asked.
"Ah, it does that," Sofi said, "Again, we don't know why."
"You don't know much about this place do you?"
"Not at all," Talyn said.
He wore the same suit as yesterday, shirt and black tie, waistcoat, trench coat, black skinny trousers and shoes. Sofi wore an orange hoody, skinny grey trousers, orange shoes, with a white scarf.
Amy looked at her own clothes, a white t-shirt covered over with a pink jacket and skirt with black tights and white canvas shoes, and a beanie on her head.
"Oh I like it!" she muttered.
Sofi laughed, "Unfortunately you can't take those back with you."
"Well that is a damn shame; anyway, what do we do now?"
"Let's go for a walk," Sofi suggested.
They set off down a forest path; Talyn led the way with Patamon, whilst Sofi stayed next to Ami. Salamon and Lopmon followed behind them.
"What do you do here? You said you weren't Digidestined," Amy asked.
"It's complicated, but we think we're sort of temporary guardians, we look after the Digiworld, defeat evil Digimon, and we just make sure it keeps running normally," Sofi said.
"So you've actually been in real fights with evil Digimon?"
"Oh yes, many times. Most of them aren't your typical fantasy story evil; we just call them that to distinguish them from others. Sometimes we don't even have to fight them, it varies a lot," Sofi explained.
"What's the worst Digimon you've faced?"
Talyn stopped dead, as did Sofi.
"Let's… not get into that right now," she said quietly.
Amy knew she had trodden on soft ground, "Sorry."
"It's ok, no harm done," Sofi replied, "It's kind of a bad event in our lives and… we'd rather not think of it."
"I won't ask again," Amy promised, "Where are we going?"
"To a weaker part of the Digiworld," Talyn interjected, "You need to train."
"Train?" Amy said.
"In two years, we've advanced quite a bit, so if you're going to join us, you'll have to catch up fast. Since you're only getting a taste however, we thought you may want to try a bit of what we do. There's always some commotion in this part of the Digiworld, so it's a good starting point," Sofi explained.
"Will I have to fight?" Amy asked.
"Probably not, but you can never be too careful," Sofi replied.
"Don't worry Amy! I'll save you!" Salamon said.
"Thanks, but you look as threatening as… well, marshmallows, can you actually hurt anything?" Amy replied.
"Don't underestimate them," Sofi warned, "They've got powers you'd never suspect."

"I never gave you permission to plant on my land!" argued a Digimon.
"I don't need your permission; this village belongs to the Digimon who live in it! Any land that's yours actually belongs to the village!" argued the other.
"What's going on here?" Amy asked Sofi.
"Couple of Gazimon arguing, why don't you try to diffuse it?" Sofi suggested.
"What? Just walk over and… solve it?" she asked.
"Yeah, we'll be here if you need backup," Sofi said.
"But what am I supposed to do?"
"Talk to them, find out which one is in the right, and deal with the other," Talyn explained.
"Um, ok…" Amy strolled down the hill, Salamon at her heels, and strolled up to the little shacks. She found it strange yet amusing that Digimon lived in small villages just like these. This one was in another clearing in the forest, the ground was somewhat sandy, but had clumps of grass here and there; they must have been near a beach. The Gazimon were like humanoid rabbits, and were rather intimidating to her.
"What do you want human?" asked one of them as he saw her approaching.
"Uh, what's going on here? I've come to help," she muttered.
"We don't need no human help! Get out of here," shouted the second Gazimon.
"Hey that's not nice!" Salamon shouted back, "We're only trying to help."
They paused, "Are you a Digidestined?"
Amy considered what Sofi and Talyn had told her, "No."
"So what are you doing here with a Digimon?"
"I'm just… it's my first day, I'm just trying to find out what's going on," she explained.
"First day huh..? Well, how about we show you what the Digiworld is really like?"
Amy didn't like the way he'd said that. Both Gazimon forgot their issue and started walking towards her and Salamon. She looked back to Sofi and Talyn, who seemed much further back than she remembered. They were talking amongst themselves, and hadn't seen her.
The Gazimon started to surround her, one hit a bell and more Gazimon faces appeared out of the shacks; they walked out and ran towards Amy.
"Salamon… How powerful are you?" Amy asked, unsure of what to do.
"I can't take down a village!" Salamon complained.
"We don't like humans meddling in our affairs," one of the Gazimon said, "It looks like we'll have to teach you some manners."
Amy sighed with relief as she saw Sofi and Talyn walking towards her.
"Friends huh?" one of the Digimon said, before he tapped his foot quickly on the ground.
Out of the sand sprang several larger Digimon, blocking off Sofi and Talyn.
"Deal with the friends!" a Gazimon told them, "We'll take care of this one."
"They're only rookie level," Salamon muttered, "But there are a lot of them."
Amy was being backed into the forest, away from Sofi and Talyn; she didn't like this one bit.
One of the Gazimon suddenly lunged forward, aiming for Amy. She ducked as Salamon jumped into it, knocking it away, but taking the blow.
The small puppy fell to the ground in a heap, and Amy quickly jumped over to it.
"Are you ok? Why on Earth would you do that?" she asked.
"I've got to protect you," Salamon replied.
"What? No you don't! Don't be silly," she exclaimed.
"Eugh, that one's got a hard head," the Gazimon who'd jumped said, as it got to its feet.
"I'll stop it… Electric stun blast!" roared another.
Just as Salamon whipped to its feet, a black gas cloud erupted around them. Amy tried to jump away, but found her legs wouldn't move; Salamon was also stuck.
"What is this?" she said.
"Paralysis," said a Gazimon "Gives us a free shot without your little puppy jumping in the way."
Amy looked around for Sofi and Talyn, but couldn't see them anywhere. She was on her own.
"I only wanted to help!" she cried out.
"We only wanted to be left in peace! You wanted to see the Digiworld? We'll show you right and proper, starting with your little friend."
"No, leave her alone, she just followed me!" Amy said.
Salamon was frozen solid, having been hit by the bulk of the cloud. The Gazimon slashed her across the face, knocking her over.
"She's defenceless! You monster!" Amy said.
Salamon cried out in pain as she was hit again.
"Do something Amy!" Salamon squealed.
"What?!"
Amy was suddenly knocked off her feet by a Gazimon bashing into her back. She fell face first to the ground.
As she landed and felt pain surge through her, she heard a beeping noise coming from her pocket.
"Quick Amy! The beeping!" Salamon cried out, as she was tossed next to her.
Amy shoved her hands into her pockets and found her Digivice, its screen was flashing furiously.
"I'll get us out of this, Salamon, I promise," she said through gritted teeth, "I just need to work out how to use this."
"We don't have time!" Salamon shouted. She was picked up and slashed at again.
Amy was horrified; she looked from the Digivice to Salamon, who was being knocked around like a doll. The Gazimon had looks of evil on their faces; she was struck across the head and fell back to the ground.
Her finger hit a button on the Digivice, and a small holographic screen popped out containing one word: Digivolve.
"Press it Amy!" Salamon shouted.
She did so, and light burst out from it, blinding Amy and the Gazimon. Salamon was freed, but she didn't attack, she started glowing.
"Salamon, Digivolve to… Gatomon!" the Digimon shouted.
Amy watched as the dog changed shape, and became a cat… somehow.
"That's better, now I can move," Gatomon said.
With that, she sprang up and started attacking the Gazimon back, with every hit they fell to the ground, knocked out. Gatomon was fast, much faster than Salamon, and apparently stronger too. Amy found she could walk again, and got to her knees to move out of the way, hiding next to a tree as 'her' Digimon jumped and sprang acrobatically around, blocking the Gazimon attacks and answering with her own hits. Soon, it was just Gatomon standing in the middle of a ring of 11 fallen Gazimon.
"I Digivolved," Gatomon said, looking at her paws.
Everything about the small dog had changed; even the voice was more… matured.
"You know what this means?" Gatomon asked.
"What?"
"We're true partners!" the cat jumped up at her and hugged her. Strangely, it stood like a human would, on two legs.
"Partners?"
But Gatomon was too happy to answer. She clung to Amy saying "Partners!" over and over again; Amy couldn't resist a smile, even in cat form the Digimon was cute.
She looked around, hoping to find signs of Sofi and Talyn, though the Gazimon attack had rendered her disorientated.
"Um, Gatomon, what do we do about these Gazimon?" she asked.
"Leave them I guess, they'll wake up with headaches, but maybe they'll have learned a lesson," Gatomon said, "Come on, let's go back."
"You know the way?" Amy asked.
"Your Digivice will, open it up."
Amy took it out again, she pressed the button and the holographic display reappeared, this time with a map.
"That red dot is us," Gatomon explained, "Look there's two more over there, which must be where Talyn and Sofi are."
"Only one way to find out," Amy exclaimed, "Do you change back by any chance?"
"You know what? I don't know," Gatomon answered, "Do you prefer cat or dog?"
"I like this cat form of yours, you at least look a little intimidating," Amy said, "Sofi said I wouldn't have to fight. I'll have words with her."
"But we did well! The Gazimon certainly won't bother us anymore," Gatomon said.
"Yeah but I don't feel right about just leaving them here in the forest," Amy said.
"They'll be fine, I just knocked them out. They know the way back."
Amy felt strangely comfortable around the Cat, who walked on two legs in front of her. She certainly felt something in her heart about the cat, like she'd known it before…

"Numemon," Gatomon said.
They'd found Talyn and Sofi surrounded by green mound-like creatures.
"Oh there you are!" Sofi shouted, "So you got past the Gazimon? Nice one! And Salamon Digivolved by the looks of it, it's been a successful day for you two."
"Do you need any help?" Amy asked, the Numemon were throwing piles of sludge at them, but Talyn and Sofi ducked and dodged them.
"Can we finish this now?" Talyn asked impatiently.
"Oh, go ahead," Sofi said.
Talyn fumbled quickly with his Digivice.
"Patamon, Digivolve to… Angemon!"
Amy was stunned to see the small orange hamster suddenly transform into a majestic white angel. Patamon, or now Angemon, attacked the Numemon with a golden staff, but instead of the Numemon falling over like the Gazimon did, they disappeared into streams of… stuff.
"Why isn't he knocking them out?" she asked Gatomon.
"Numemon are like the rats of the Digiworld, they're everywhere and highly overpopulated. Sometimes it's good to reduce them to data, you know, pest control," she explained.
"He's killing them?!" Amy replied.
"No, he's just sending them back to baby forms, lowering their data count, they'll be reborn again soon in a birthing village, it's just important not to have too many at once."
"Can you kill Digimon?" Amy asked.
"Oh yes, though only through certain methods. But I don't think you'd want to do that," Gatomon said.
"Definitely not," Amy agreed.
When Angemon was finished clearing out the Numemon, Sofi walked over to her, with a spring in her step.
"So what do you think?" she asked eagerly.
"What do I think? This place is dangerous!"
"Oh, this place isn't dangerous, but the rest of the Digiworld is," she replied.
"It is our job to ensure stuff like that doesn't happen to other, innocent Digimon," Talyn said.
Amy noticed Angemon had transformed back to Patamon, and was once again on Talyn's shoulder.
"How do I turn Gatomon back?" she asked.
"Usually it's through loss of energy, takes a lot to Digivolve for the first time, so it should happen soon," Sofi said, "what do you think? Will you help us?"
"I guess I don't have a choice do I? Gatomon's pretty happy having me around," Amy replied.
"Amy, we were chosen to do this," Talyn said, "Not because we may be able to, but because we can do it."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember when I told you no Digidestined had ever failed? Even if we aren't Digidestined, through the power of Digivolution, we can become stronger and protect this world better," he explained.
"Plus, it's only temporary, so it's not like you'll be doing it for the rest of your life," Sofi said.
"How long do we have to do it?"
Sofi looked over at Talyn, and Amy saw something flash across both their eyes.
"We reckon, till the end of the year," Sofi said quietly, "So, months at most."
"Come on, let's return, we've accomplished what we set out to do," Talyn instructed.
"Oh yeah, I should probably tell you, if you plan on coming back, for the first few times we want you to at least come here with one of us. We're going to train you! Today was your first lesson," Sofi said.
"You planed the whole thing didn't you?" Amy asked.
Sofi couldn't help smiling, "Yep! And you did great!"

"She picked it up faster than we even did," Sofi noted.
Talyn and she were walking home together, braced against the cold of February's winter.
"She may not be able to do it again though; the first time's usually a fluke. Plus she still has a long way to go before she's level with us," he replied.
"Obviously. But hopefully with our help it shouldn't take too long," she said.
"It'll be interesting to see just how quickly she gets to Ultimate, that's usually the hardest thing anyone has to face," Talyn noted.
Sofi's chest constricted slightly at the memories, "No more of that Talyn, it's in the past."
"You're right, I'm sorry," he replied.
"Guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Sofi said, indicating her turning off point.
"I guess so," he replied, and continued walking.