Episode 3 – Decisions

"Come on Amy!" Sofi pleaded.
"I can't, I've really got to get on with this stuff," Amy replied.
"I'm sorry we left you alone last time, but it won't happen again, we just wanted to see how well you'd cope," Sofi explained.
"It's not that, though I am still annoyed, I just have more important things to do!"
Talyn, Sofi and Amy were sat in the library again. All three of them had received a distress call on their Digivices, signalling trouble in the Digiworld. Sofi had been trying to talk Amy into it for the last five minutes.
"Sofi, she doesn't want to come, we should go," Talyn mumbled.
"I've not decided if I want to do this yet," Amy added.
"But the more you do it the more you'll want to do it," Sofi replied.
Amy wasn't going to be moved easily, Sofi realised.
"Fine, we'll take this one, please think about it though," Sofi finished.
Amy nodded to them, and they departed the table to walk up the stairs.
"We're supposed to be a trio," Sofi guttered under her breath.
Talyn didn't answer; he continued to lead the way to the psychology section of the bookshelves, where the hidden entrance awaited.
He retrieved his Digivice and Sofi placed a hand on his shoulder. The world flashed and they were faced with Patamon, Lopmon and Salamon, eagerly awaiting them.
"Where's Amy?" Salamon said.
"Amy's busy," Sofi huffed, obviously as disappointed as Salamon.
"She needs more time to decide," Talyn added, "You'll have to wait behind whilst we check out this distress signal."
Distress signals were not uncommon. Talyn and Sofi were quite well known throughout the Digiworld as the 'Guardians'. Digimon could call for help using the various access points, scattered around the Digiworld. Each one could be relocated to a particular access point in the real world, which was what Talyn and Sofi had been doing, so that they had better coverage over any point they needed to get to quickly. They usually arrived in the forest however, because no high level Digimon were around that area, and it was a secluded enough point that they were hardly seen to enter using it.
"Where's the signal coming from?" Sofi asked.
"The mountain, east of here, looks to be quite far up," he replied.
"I don't remember any access points on top of it," she exclaimed.
"Me neither, we'd better be careful."
They began walking. It was a Thursday, which meant Talyn and Sofi had the afternoon off. Out of the two, with Sofi having the most lessons she had the least free time, but they managed to find various pockets of free lessons to come to the Digiworld, though not every day; they were more like part-time guardians.
When they reached the outside of the forest, Patamon and Lopmon Digivolved in order to carry Talyn and Sofi the rest of the way; doing so in the forest would give away their access point.
Angemon could easily hold Talyn and carry him whilst he flew, Turuiemon however had to have Sofi hang on to her back as she ran and jumped through forestry and open grounds. The journey didn't take long; they reached the foot of the mountain in about twenty minutes, and dismounted.
"Let's get this show on the road," Sofi exclaimed.
The trek would take them a while by foot, but they would have a better chance of finding the distress signal than if they were travelling much faster.
"Talyn, what do you think we should do about Amy?" Sofi asked.
"I think we should let her make up her own mind," he replied.
"I'm talking about as part of the team, we've come so far in two years, and we're nearing the end! She's got to learn a hell of a lot in a very short space of time; can we really train that into someone?" Sofi asked.
"I don't know," he muttered, "She Digivolved Salamon pretty quickly."
"That doesn't mean she's formed the necessary bond," Turuiemon interjected.
"It could have been a fluke," Sofi agreed.
"Do you even think we should be training her?" Angemon asked.
"What do you mean?" Sofi said.
"Neither of you two were trained, granted you had a longer time to acquire your level, but Amy might develop quickly on her own, especially with the added pressure of you two around her," he explained.
"Pressure?"
"She's obviously going to feel inferior, which could either go two ways: rejection or pushing on," Angemon said.
"What you're saying is then, we take her to a place with high level Digimon, the kind we may even struggle dealing with, and see if she can pick it up on her own?" Sofi pushed.
"Maybe, but who's to say she won't force her Digimon to Digivolve, which could result in an even worse scenario."
Sofi shuddered at the memory.
"If Amy agrees to do this, she shouldn't be left in isolation, that much is clear," Turuiemon added.
"But you can't spoon-feed someone on how to do this sort of thing either," Talyn argued, "Guarding the Digiworld will mean a lot of new mistakes for her; we can't tell her what to do indefinitely."
"And you shouldn't push the issue," Turuiemon added.
"How do you know I was pushing?" Sofi asked.
"Sofi, I've known you for two years, lay off her a bit," Turuiemon replied, "It's only been a couple of days, and she's been here once in that time, let her have some respite to clear her thoughts."
"But we're running out of time!" Sofi argued, "The logical point is this: She has a Digimon, that makes her one of us, so we should do everything we can to get her up to scratch as soon as possible so that we have three working members of the team. Three's better than two no matter how you look at it."
"About this whole third member," Talyn said, "What do you guys think? Is she the start of the next cycle of Digidestined? Or is she supposed to be with us?"
"I don't think that's a question that can be answered, I think only time will tell," Angemon replied.
"So how would you feel about having another person?"
"She might actually be intellectual," Turuiemon laughed.
"I know I can get a bit snappy when I'm in rookie form, but it's only because I can't spread my wings," Angemon replied.
"Snappy? You're like a whole different Digimon!"
Sofi laughed, she'd noticed the clear distinction between Patamon and Lopmon. Patamon was a small trouble maker who liked to spin jokes, whilst Lopmon liked to retain some of her Champion Level prowess, and took after Sofi in her attitude to learning.
"It is strange how Digivolution can change a Digimon," Sofi noted, "Might be worth looking into."
"I didn't know you were interested in psychology," Talyn asked.
"I'm not as such, but, there's such a change from Patamon to Angemon, it might give us some little clues about the whole Digivolving process," she replied.
"Is this for that book you're writing?" Turuiemon asked.
"Might be, at the moment it just lists Digimon we've encountered, I've never made notes on the mechanics of the Digiworld or Digimon," Sofi replied.
Their trail of conversation was lost as they saw a figure standing over head; so far they'd climbed only a quarter of the mountain.
"You lot sure are noisy," the figure said.

Amy sighed, and not for the first time that day.
Too many things happening all at once, she thought.
Exams coming up, her relationship with Donald becoming more unstable every day, and now a whole new world that apparently needed her help.
She jumped as someone placed some books on her table, until she realised it was Donald.
"Mind if I sit here?" he asked.
Why would she mind? "Go for it," she muttered.
"What're you studying, Chemistry? I've got some Physics to do," he said.
"How is the studying going?" she asked.
He placed his head in his hands, "It's good, I'm getting the hours in, but it's just not sticking."
"You'll get there," she reassured.
He didn't reply, just flipped through a few more pages and started scribbling more notes out. Amy returned to her own work.

"Who are you?" Talyn called to the figure.
From her voice, and stature, they had deduced she was a woman. There was also a smaller figure standing next to her.
The figure started walking towards them, her silhouette becoming clearer. She wore a hat, or rather, a helmet of sorts, had red gloves on, a yellow shirt and trousers.
"My name's Sora," she answered.
The figure next to her appeared to be a Digimon, a pink bird with blue features.
"What are you doing here Sora, and who's your partner?" Talyn asked. Angemon waited patiently beside him, tensed.
"This is Biyomon, we came to see what the distress signal was all about," she replied, "And you? I assume you're the 'Digimon Guardians' I've been hearing about."
"That is correct," Talyn replied, "How do you know of this place?"
"How do I know it? I saved it. I'm a Digidestined," she replied.
Sofi's mouth fell open, but Talyn didn't react.
"Are you a new Digidestined?" he asked; his voice noticeably more uncertain.
She giggled to herself, "Probably not, I've been here before," she walked over to them, for some reason more relaxed, "But, I haven't returned for a long time."
She looked at Angemon.
"And I haven't seen this Digimon in almost just as long!"
"You came here as a Digidestined?" Talyn asked.
"Yep, saved the Digiworld along with my friends. One of them was also partnered with Patamon back then," she replied.
Sofi quickly took out a notebook from her bag, and clumsily retrieved a pen, "How many of you were there?"
"What are you doing?" Talyn asked her.
"Interviewing! She's a Digidestined! I might never get a chance like this again!" she whispered excitedly.
Sora smiled at her, obviously not offended, but Talyn sighed, "We're here for a reason."
"We can talk along the way, like I said, I came here to investigate too," Sora said.
They began walking back up the path that led to the top of the mountain. The sun was low in the Digiworld sky, but they still had a couple of hours before it set, and before they'd have to go back to the real world.
Talyn glanced at Sofi, and could see her practically buzzing with excitement whilst they were travelling with Sora, her eyes were lit up enthusiastically and contained the same sparkle they had when they'd found the temples; he smiled inwardly to himself.
For as long as he had known her, she'd been questioning and learning about everything she could find. With the appearance of a Digidestined, her mind would no doubt be working overtime to process all the information.
"So, how many of you were there?" she began.
"At the start, there were seven, but about half way through our adventure we picked up another," Sora replied.
"That's like what's happened here!" Sofi said, "Someone else has just… kinda joined."
"We think," Talyn interjected.
"Anyway, the seven of you, did you know you were Digidestined?" Sofi asked.
"We were at summer camp, in the real world, and we received our Digivices there and then. Somehow we were brought into this world and met up with our partners here, we had no clue what lay ahead," Sora said, "We met a Digimon called Leomon who told us the legends of Digidestined, that's how we learned. After that we faced an evil Digimon called Devimon, who was defeated by our own Angemon."
"There were legends back then? You weren't the first?" Sofi asked.
"There were apparently one more set of Digidestined before us," Sora said.
"You were the second?"
"Though most Digimon believed us to be the first, the ones before us actually sealed away what we later faced and defeated," Sora explained.
"What was it?"
"Apocalymon, a Digimon of terrifying power, who threatened both worlds," Sora said.
"Both? The Digiworld and the real world?" Sofi asked; her eyes ever wider.
"You bet."
"How could a Digimon threaten the real world? They can't even go there," Talyn interrupted.
"The Digiworld is built from the networks of the real world, so there's a link, and sometimes that link weakens if it is pushed too much, we had Digimon running amok in the real world," Sora said.
"We really don't know that much," Sofi explained, "We just get by on the minimum knowledge. I've got so much to learn!"
"Well, I'll try to answer my best," Sora said happily.
"Shouldn't have said that," Talyn warned her, "She'll never let you leave."
"Can Biyomon Digivolve?" Sofi asked, "Was the Digiworld the same then as it is now?"
"Yes and yes. Biyomon Digivolves to Birdramon, she first did it when we saved a village of Yokomon from Meramon who'd been cursed with something called a black gear. Then she Digivolved with the crest of Love into Garudamon."
"Would you mind recounting your adventure? I'm trying to collect information about the Digiworld, and this could be an entirely new section! It's been myths and stuff, but mostly I've just categorized every Digimon we've met so far," Sofi asked.
Whilst they walked up the mountain, Sora told them of her teams journey, progressing through the Champion levels of Digivolution, the black gears and Devimon, and then beyond that, when they found the crests, SkullGreymon, when they met the eighth Digidestined, Myotismon and VenomMyotismon, the Digimon in the real world, and then going back to the Digiworld to find the Dark Masters had taken over, their battles with them, and then Apocalymon.
"You were the ones who faced the Dark Masters?" Talyn asked, "We've actually read about you then, at the temples we found a while ago. It listed a lot of triumphs Digidestined had achieved; with the Dark Masters being… close to the oldest actually."
"I've never heard of such a place," Sora admitted.
"Oh it's amazing!" Sofi said, "That's where I got the inspiration from. But at the time I never thought I'd meet one of the old Digidestined. Someone must have been collecting the history. Unfortunately there wasn't much detail about a lot of it."
The conversation soon stopped however, as they higher they went, the worse the weather got. Soon it was snowing heavily, but they walked on, determined to find the source of distress. The tracks they created in the snow-covered mountain top that were quickly filled up again.
Sofi wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck, the cold was bearable, but she didn't like snow down her neck.

Amy was watching Donald work. His face was a mask of concentration, trying to work through his practise questions.
"Donald?" she said.
He looked up distractedly, "What?"
"How's it going? The studying," she asked.
Confusion flashed across his face, and then annoyance, "Fine thanks," and he turned back to his books.
She felt it again inside of her, that feeling she couldn't shake… in the bottom of her stomach…

Still Digivolved, Angemon and Turuiemon were up ahead trying to clear the path.
"I think I've found it!" Angemon called back to them, his voice carrying over the wind.
Talyn took off at a run, with Sofi and Sora close behind. The distress signal was coming from an access point indeed, but before that sat an injured Digimon.
"I don't recognise it," Sofi said.
"Otamamon," Sora answered, "Though why it's up here is another question…"
"Keep a look out Angemon!" Talyn shouted to his partner, who stood at the cliff edge.
"I think we've already got company!" the angel Digimon called back.
Through the roaring winds, they heard a new voice, almost machine like. Sora and Sofi spun around to face the cliff edge, and from somewhere below flew an enormous Digimon, one which Talyn and Sofi hadn't seen before.
"Megadramon!" Sora shouted.
"Is it hostile?" Sofi replied.
"Let's see what it does," Talyn said.
They had obviously wandered into some sort of territory, because the Megadramon circled the mountain, crying out into the wind. It turned and faced them.
"Dark side attack!" it shouted, and from the guns on its arms shot many missiles, which headed straight for the team.
"Hostile!" Sofi warned.
"Be careful, it's very dangerous!" Sora warned them, "You'd better Digivolve, Biyomon."
"Biyomon, Digivolve to… Birdramon!"
The large bird flew off to join Angemon in the air. Turuiemon had to stay behind, not being able to fly.
The missiles hit Angemon, who tried to knock them off course with his staff, but they exploded on impact. Birdramon flew to avoid them, but a few of the missiles followed.
"What level is it?" Talyn asked, watching helplessly as Angemon fell to the mountain face.
"Ultimate, if I remember correctly," Sora replied.
"If we could just talk to it, we could explain why we're here," Sofi exclaimed.
"Megadramon are easily angered, and best avoided at all times, I doubt you could get close enough before it attacked you right out of the sky," Sora replied, "I suggest a retreat."
"What if it hurt Otamamon?" Talyn said, "It deserves some of its own treatment. Angemon, Digivolve!"
"Angemon, Digivolve to… MagnaAngemon!"
Empowered, the angel Digimon jumped to his feet and flew back into the air.
"Birdramon, Digivolve to… Garudamon!"
"You should be able to hold off the attacks now whilst we escape," Sora said.
"Escape?" Talyn asked.
"We're not going to fight it! There's no point, we can escape whilst we have the chance," Sora explained.
"What's the plan?" MagnaAngemon called as he dodged another missile.
The two Ultimate Digimon were efficiently re-directing the missiles away from the mountain face. The enraged Megadramon however kept up the onslaught.
"I agree with Sora, we don't know what happened, it's better to help the Otamamon than fight that," Sofi called.
She could see Talyn weighing the options, he wouldn't like it, but it was the logical thing to do. She knew he didn't relish fighting, but when it came to justice, he had a strong sense of it sometimes; almost too strong.
"Fine, we're leaving, try and distract it so we can escape," he ordered the Digimon.
"Can you get us down faster?" Sofi asked Turuiemon.
"If I Digivolve, I should be able to hold you all," she replied.
"Turuiemon, Digivolve to… Antylamon!"
Within its long arms, Sofi and Sora held the Otamamon, and Talyn watched the scene behind him. Antylamon took off at a run, occasionally jumping down parts of the mountain.
"We should have taught that Digimon a lesson," Talyn muttered.
"We don't know why Otamamon was there in the first place," Sofi said, "We didn't need to fight it."
"It still attacked us," Talyn murmured.
They raced over the rocky cliff face, and the last section Antylamon jumped off completely, landing lightly on the floor below.
They waited, unable to see MagnaAngemon or Garudamon through the cloud now covering the mountain top.

She was just winding herself up, he had to work hard; he needed to.
Yet why would he not pay attention to her? It was like she wasn't even there.
Their exams were still a couple of months away, why did he have to work so hard? She couldn't blame him though, some people just did that; Sofi included. But it just seemed he was more focussed on the exams than on her.
She needed to get away.

When they did return, the Megadramon was still following them.
"Damn it!" Sofi shouted.
Antylamon stood before them, waiting. Talyn, Sofi and Sora ran to more covered ground, and as MagnaAngemon and Garudamon landed, Antylamon jumped and grabbed hold of the underside of Megadramon's head. It pulled it down, and caused it to crash into the ground.
The large rabbit quickly flipped away as Garudamon wrestled with its writhing body.
Megadramon flipped and twisted, and Garudamon snapped off. Jumping back to evade more attacks, MagnaAngemon took the opportunity to attack the Megadramon.
"Angel rod!" he shouted, and his purple sword flashed into existence. He struck at the underside of the Megadramon, and the creature flinched reflexively, knocking MagnaAngemon away.
Antylamon twirled in an accelerating vortex, and once it was going fast enough, released itself and flew straight towards Megadramon, knocking it over to the ground.
"Wing Blade!" Garudamon attacked.
The Megadramon fired at the attack, but it still struck, energetic flames circling around it. Knowing it was surrounded by three ultimate Digimon, the Megadramon started to retreat.
"You tell those Otamamon to stay away from my mountain," it growled with gritted teeth.
"Did you attack it?!" Talyn shouted after it, moving into the battle zone.
"Talyn! Be careful!" Sofi warned.
"You're an ultimate level Digimon and you attacked a rookie level? Where's the fairness in that?" Talyn ordered.
The Megadramon eyed him, "You had better be careful Digi-Guardian. You don't know the workings of this world well enough yet to judge us."
"He seems awfully angry," Sofi remarked.
"We did just invade his territory," Sora said.
"No, there's something else," Sofi pondered.
"We're here to keep this world safe," Talyn replied, "So that Digimon like you don't take advantage of your strength."
"The Revolt is coming back, Digi-Guardians," Megadramon warned.
"The Revolt?" Sofi asked, looking at Sora.
"Never heard of it," she replied.
The Megadramon spun and flew off before they could question it further. The three ultimate Digimon turned to look at their partners.
"Why would a Megadramon simply attack an Otamamon? It doesn't make sense," MagnaAngemon exclaimed.
"It did seem particularly hostile towards us," Talyn agreed.
"We got what we were after anyway, we'd better look after this guy," Sora said.
They took the injured Otamamon back to the nearest village they knew of, a smaller settlement just south of the area they had landed in. Being so close to the foot of the mountain, they warned the Digimon inhabitants of the danger Megadramon posed.
"Don't worry about us, we'll keep out of the way," a Gekomon said.
"Good to know," Sofi replied, "We'd better start heading back."
"How long have you been here?" Sora asked.
"We've been coming here for about two years now," Talyn replied.
"Two years?! That's long! My time was only months at most!" Sora said, "This is a strange situation you've been put in."
"We've had worse than this," Sofi said, "I mean, in two years we've actually done a lot."
"That's all you do though?" Sora asked.
"Pretty much, the Digiworld's in a state of peace, and we uphold that."
"I certainly didn't have trouble finding out about you when I got here," Sora said, "Even Biyomon knew of you."
The pink bird, who had de-Digivolved, walked at Sora's feet.
"I haven't done that in a long time," she complained.
"What made you come here anyway?" Talyn asked.
"Well, it's been a while, and… I was just thinking about it. Then I saw the distress signal on my Digivice, so I thought why not? Biyomon and I have kept up communication, but I hadn't actually seen her in so long," Sora explained.
"Where are you from then? I was under the impression most of the first Digidestined were Japanese?" Sofi asked.
"Born and bred," Sora replied.
"You must have learned English then?" Sofi asked, "Your accent's very good."
"It's my second language actually, I learned it as a child," Sora explained.
"Sofi, it's almost time," Talyn interrupted.
Sofi shot a glance at her watch and gasped, they'd been here for most of the day now.
"But, I have so many more questions!" she complained, "Do you still keep in touch with your partners and do you know any more Digidestined?"
"Of course, we're a team! Like you are, which reminds me, why isn't your third here?"
"She was a couple of days ago," Talyn said, "But she doesn't know if she wants to help us or not."
"Maybe you could talk to her?" Sofi asked.
"Do you know what time it is in Japan?" Sora asked.
"Japan's nine hours ahead of England so… around midnight?" Sofi said.
"Pretty much, and I've been working all day, I can't wait to get back and go to bed," Sora said.
"Well, that's fair enough I guess," Sofi replied.

On their way back to the portal, Sofi still questioned Sora about her adventure and what she knew of Digimon. By the end she'd amassed five pages worth of information.
"I guess this is it," Sofi said sadly.
"You know for a night's adventure, this has been the highlight of my year so far," Sora said happily, "And as for your friend? People need to come to decisions on their own. The Digiworld is an intimidating place, so the best you can do is just be a friend for her, and support her every step of the way."
"You're right," Sofi said.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to say goodbye to Biyomon," Sora said.
"Just one more question," Talyn interjected, "Will we see you again?"
"Or others?" Sofi interjected, "It's so lonely."
Sora smiled, "Who knows? I doubt you've ever truly been alone; you're not the only people alive who can come here. But no matter if you're Digidestined or not, the Digiworld lies in your hands and it's your responsibility. I will check my computer from time to time however."
Sora and Biyomon continued walking alone, the portal was a little way off, and Sofi and Talyn sat down with Patamon and Lopmon.

The bookcase slid open. Amy didn't know why she chose it, but the allure of the Digiworld, a new place where no human was present, except Talyn and Sofi, both of whom she didn't even know that well, called to her. She longed not just for fresh air, but new air, peace, quiet, solitude.
For some reason she had packed her Digivice.

"It's so strange meeting someone who's… done everything they needed to, I bet this seemed like a walk in the park to her," Sofi laughed.
"I think she enjoyed it," Talyn said.
"I can't believe how much she told us! I don't know what I'm going to do with all this information," Sofi exclaimed whilst re-reading the notes she had taken.
Talyn chuckled quietly to himself.
"Don't you think it's strange? A Digidestined appearing after we found Amy?" Lopmon asked.
"Maybe," Talyn said, "But it could easily be coincidence, like she said, others must have been here at some point, we may have just not seen them."
"SkullGreymon," Sofi looked up from her notes, "That sounds like what happened to us."
"You're not going to forget it, are you?" Talyn asked, tensed up.
"Talyn, it happened, whether we like it or not. There's no point hiding from it, at least it was a learning experience for us," Sofi replied.
Talyn stood up quickly, "I can't forget it Sofi; I'd rather just not talk about it."
He walked off in the direction of the portal, Patamon following.
"He's a strange one," Lopmon said.
"He's just troubled, I should really stop bringing it up," Sofi replied.
Sora must have gone, because Talyn didn't return. Sofi didn't think he'd leave without her, so she wandered over with Lopmon to find Talyn fiddling with his Digivice.
"It's broke," he said.
"What?"
"The portal's not working. I've reprogrammed it for the library, but it won't let me through," he said.
"How can a portal break?" Sofi asked, "Let me look."
"It must have worked for Sora, she must have done something to it," Talyn suggested.
"Nonsense, she wouldn't do a thing like that," she replied.
The portal suddenly flashed and activated.
"Strange, must have been a minor problem," Sofi said.
Talyn nodded, but before they could step through, they heard a voice behind them.
"Wait for me," called the voice of Amy. She was followed by Salamon.
"Amy? What are you doing here?" Sofi asked.
"I don't know, I just had to get away!" Amy said, "I'm sorry, I know you said not to come alone, I just had to. I only went for a little walk."
"And I protected her!" Salamon said happily.
"You were in another fight?" Talyn asked sternly.
"No," Salamon said, "But I was ready in case there was."
"It's just nice, you know? It's so peaceful in this forest; I had to take a break. I haven't been here that long," Amy explained.
"Amy, it's fine!" Sofi smiled, "The Digiworld is our world too, we can come here whenever we like."
Amy smiled, "I think I'd like that."
Sofi's smile widened, "Does this mean…?"
"Yeah, I was talking with Salamon. I'll come here with you, even if it's just to get you off my back. It's a nice place to get away from the world to," Amy said.
Sofi jumped in the air and hugged Amy.
"This is great!" Sofi said, "What do you think Talyn?"
"I think," he began, "… I think it's time to go back."
He was obviously unsettled, but Sofi barely noticed. She recounted the day's events with Amy as they passed through the portal, back into the library, and went to pick up Amy's to Amy's annoyance, Donald had already left.

That evening, Sofi went on ahead, eager to get home and compile her notes. Talyn left quickly as well, and Amy wondered if she'd made the right choice. Apparently they had met an actual Digidestined, and Amy was a little curious and regretted missing out. A couple more visits wouldn't be a bad thing, she decided, but she didn't walk home with a smile on her face.