Will be mostly Dino-centric until the possible sequel.
The first thing he noticed was that they weren't at the camp anymore. The second was that there was something on his chest and that he had a headache.
The last thing he remembered was that weird wave and those strange meteorites.
"What the heck are you?" he asked.
"I'm Tokomon!" said the blob. It looked like a weird cross between a small pig and bunny with far too many teeth to be honest. "I've been waiting for you forever, Dino!"
"Dino-nii? Is that you?"
"Sakura-chan? Is that you?" said Dino, sitting up and rubbing his head. Tokomon immediately crawled into his lap. "I'm over here."
Sakura Sawada, who had to be the most skittish eleven-year-old girl he had ever met in his life, came through the bushes carrying some sort of yellow ball with a long tail that had purple stripes alternating with the yellow and big eyes.
"Who's that?" he asked.
"I'm Nyaromon!" it chirped.
"What happened?" asked Sakura.
"Have you seen any of the others?"
"I ran into Sora. She said she saw Tai and Izzy and went to go get them," said Sakura.
Dino carefully got up...and only vaguely noticed Tokomon sitting on his head.
"Come on. We need to find everyone and make sure everyone is okay after that weird wave."
Dino had to wonder if he was trapped in some sort of twisted Mist territory. But if that was the case, then why did they bring the group of kids he was in charge of along as well? And what was the purpose of the weird creature that had been on his chest when he woke up?
Seriously, how did he get into this sort of mess after he took on the overseas summer assignment to help improve his Japanese grades at the Mafia Academy?
"Dino-san!" said Sora with relief.
"Dino-nii?" said two male voices with equal relief. "Dino-nii is here too?"
Tai and Izzy walked out of a...tree?
"So we're not the only ones who got these creatures?" said Dino.
"I'm Motimon!" said the pink blob with hands.
"Koromon!" said the pink ball with long ears.
"Tokomon!" said the flower one.
"Well, at least they're friendly. That's a relief I suppose," said Dino.
"And really cute!" said Sakura, hugging Nyaromon.
Dino had a bit of a headache. And to add on to his migraine was the fact that nothing about this made any sense at all!
As if his day couldn't get any weirder, some sort of giant insect showed up, tried to kill them all and the small creatures that had appeared out of nowhere and had attached themselves to the kids suddenly changed into something else!
Seriously, how was this his life?
Two hours later...
Dino looked completely exhausted. Sakura gave him a hug, which seemed to cheer him up a bit.
"Is everyone alright?" asked Dino.
"We're okay, Dino-nii," said TK.
"I'm so glad at least one of the counselors got swept away with us," said Joe.
"Yeah, really," said Sora. "Dino-nii might be clumsy, but he's got a good head on his shoulders."
"Thanks, I guess," joked Dino. "On an unrelated note, do any of you have any migraine medicine?"
"I might have some aspirin," said Sora, pulling out the limited medical supplies that they had.
Fortunately for Dino, there were a couple of aspirin packets in the first aid kit. One of those and a walk where nothing tried to kill them helped a lot.
"I must say, it's a relief to have you here with us Dino-san," said Joe.
"How so?" asked Dino.
"While you're a bit clumsy, having one clear voice of reason is doing wonders for my nerves," said Joe.
"Yeah, it's nice to have a clear leader among us," said Sora.
"Otherwise we'd have to spend the entire time hearing Tai and Matt arguing over the dumbest things," added TK.
Dino rubbed the back of his neck. It was nice hearing the vote of confidence, even if was only because he was the oldest of the group.
"So Dino-nii, what's it like where you're from?" asked Tai.
"What brought this up?"
"Just trying to make conversation," said Tai.
"Well, I'm from Italy," said Dino.
"Italy?!" said Mimi enthusiastically. "Oh wow! The shopping there must be excellent, not to mention the food!"
"Wait, you're from Italy? Why are you in Japan then?" asked Matt.
Dino nervously laughed.
"One of my roommates back at school kept making fun of my spoken Japanese. So I signed up to act as a camp counselor for a summer so I had a chance to practice it more."
"So how many languages do you speak, Dino-nii?" asked Izzy.
"English, Italian, and more recently Japanese," said Dino cheerfully.
"Well you seem to be really good at speaking it now," said Matt.
"That's because another counselor, who wanted to practice their English, helped me out a lot," said Dino.
"How's your migraine?" asked Sakura.
"The aspirin helped. A lot."
"Hey...do you hear that?" asked Joe.
"Is that ringing?" said Tai.
"Okay, what the heck?" said Dino. "What's with the payphones? I mean seriously, what place even has those anymore?"
"I'm so hungry," said Mimi.
"Ditto," said Sora.
"Hey look, Joe has the emergency food!" said Tai.
Patamon looked his partner oddly.
"Hey Dino, why did you clap your hands together before eating?" asked Patamon.
Seeing everyone's interest, Dino blinked.
"I happen to be Catholic," said Dino.
"What's Catholic? Is it edible?" asked Agumon.
Tai looked at Matt.
"I'm not touching this subject with any length of pole," said Tai.
"Agreed," said Matt.
"It's a religion on our world," said Dino. He looked Agumon with amusement. "And no Agumon, it's not edible."
Seeing the oversized shellfish attacking them, Dino tensed.
Fortunately Agumon was able to turn into a bigger dinosaur creature and took it out. However Dino didn't particularly like the fact that they were so reliant on these...Digimon...to defend themselves. While the ones they were partnered with were loyal, there was no telling when they would face an enemy too strong for them.
"So Patamon...any reason you seem to like napping on my head?" asked Dino.
"It's super comfy!" he replied. "You feel like a warm sunbeam on a cloudless sky!"
"Uh...thanks I guess?" said Dino amused. He had an idea what Patamon meant, but it wasn't like he could explain it in front of the kids. "Why do I get the feeling that the lack of food is going to be a common problem?"
Dino really, really wished he had been able to stock up on aspirin or some other headache medicine, because the entire island seemed to delight in creating new scenarios to drive him nuts.
He had gotten used to a few things, like their partners suddenly digivolving in times of heightened stress (danger), the black gears that drove everyone crazy if they had one stuck in them, and the fact that there were all sorts of weird creatures in this place.
That being said, the first time Patamon digivolved to save his ass from an angry (and formerly peaceful) Digimon, any complaints Dino had about the little guy died instantly.
Instead he was over the moon his little friend turned into an honest to god angel, known as Angemon. As a Catholic there was no way he could adequately describe the sheer delight he had at this information.
"I am okay with this," he said cheerfully, hugging his little buddy. TK looked just as enthusiastic about it, since he had a Patamon as well.
"What's an angel?" asked Agumon.
Dino was more than happy to explain about angels to the Digimon, as well as give a little more information about his particular religion. While he wasn't likely to convert the kids, he might have luck with the Digimon.
"Wait, so this 'devil' was originally an angel?" said Patamon from on his head. He really seemed to like that spot.
"Lucifer was the most beloved of God's angels, but he resented the freedom god gave to humanity so he rebelled. Which is why God cast him out of heaven and he became known as Lucifer. Originally his name was Samael."
Seeing he had an enraptured audience, Dino decided to give the Digimon and the kids a bible school version of what it meant to be a Catholic.
He at least had the Digimon hooked...the stories were fascinating and it was incredibly gratifying to see them act out a few of the stories. However in order to make sure they didn't get too caught up in the religion, Dino encouraged the kids to talk about Shinto and buddhism, or what they knew of it.
It certainly helped to pass the time at least. And it helped Dino to understand the Japanese belief system a little better. Some of it had always confused him, like the Obon festival.
"Dino-nii, don't you find this mansion a bit suspicious?" said Sakura.
"You too? I mean come on, when have we ever found anything close to an actual cooked meal around here? This entire place feels fake," said Dino. He was glad he wasn't the only one to notice something off.
Sakura nodded.
"Maybe we can go find some berries or something? Finding our own food is fun!" said Sakura.
"Yeah, eating stuff we find ourselves is a lot more fun and tastes better than going to a restaurant," said Dino.
That plus the entire mansion felt way too much like the one time he had been under a Mist territory during class.
"Come on, let's go find some berries or other fruits to snack on. Knowing the others, they'll stick around the mansion for the night so we can always have Patamon digivolve and fly us back," said Dino.
Sakura nodded enthusiastically.
As the two went exploring for berries, they were unaware of the watcher that was behind all the black gears that kept causing them so much trouble.
"What are we going to do about the two stragglers?" asked Orgemon.
"Leave them. We can pick them off at our leisure once we seperate the rest," said Devimon.
"Why not send Leomon after them?" suggested Orgemon.
"No. We need him close by for when we go after the main group," said Devimon.
With Dino and Sakura...
"Hey Dino-nii?"
"Yeah?"
"What's that pretty orange and gold energy you have around you?" asked Sakura.
Dino stiffened.
"What energy?"
"It's just...your eyes turn this really pretty orange-gold color when Patamon digivolved into Angemon. It looked really familiar for some reason," said Sakura.
"Familiar how?"
Sakura fidgeted.
"Sakura, it's okay. When do you remember seeing fire like this before?" asked Dino. Summoning his flames was difficult, but if she had seen them before then it meant Sakura might have connections to a famiglia.
She was far too sweet and gentle for the Cosa Nostra. He didn't want her dragged into that life.
"I... I remember seeing a pretty fire like that in my dreams. It was really bright and orange. But then a duller orange takes the pretty fire away, leaving only cold and pain," said Sakura. It was clear talking about it upset her.
Dino had a bad feeling about this. His father attempted to seal his son's flames once...for all of twelve hours, when he was a kid after he became so clumsy...and it had done a lot of damage that was thankfully temporary. He had gone active when an assassin nearly killed him, right before his eldest brother was killed by a rival famiglia.
"Sakura...can you tell me about your father?"
Sakura would talk about her mother, but he couldn't recall a single word about her father.
"Papa is always gone. It makes mama really sad. I hear her crying sometimes at night, but I never bring it up because I know it would only upset her more. But Papa came once with an funny old man that he said to call Grandpa."
"Did your 'grandpa' have a name?" asked Dino.
"Timo...something. It was really weird. He had this fancy walking stick and a really fancy ring that was pretty!"
"Fancy walking stick?" asked Dino.
"It had a really shiny rock on the top and fancy gold decorations. And the ring was really big with funny English lettering, but I don't know what it said."
Dino had a sinking feeling in his gut. He had always dismissed the name 'Sawada', because it was semi-common in Japan, but when you put that name along with the possibility of Italian connections it had far more sinister meaning.
"Is your father's name Iemitsu by any chance?"
Sakura nodded.
Dino felt his heart drop. Sakura was related to that utter ass Iemitsu.
Which meant there was a possibility she had flames as well.
In order to confirm his suspicions, Dino gently patted Sakura on the head...while his Sun flames were out.
He sensed it immediately. The strangling presence of a familiar flame signature wrapped around Sakura. Except from what he could tell, it was holding something back.
Dear god, the Ninth didn't put a seal on a flame active Sky, did he?!
"Come on Sakura, we better head back. We still need to get some sleep before morning," said Dino with false cheer.
"Did I do something bad?" she asked.
"No... but the adults that you were supposed to rely on for protection screwed up big time," said Dino honestly.
Any idiot knew you didn't seal flame active children. Sakura was barely eleven...there was no way she could have done anything that would warrant a flame seal! That was akin to casting her out of the family just for going active!
Dino knew immediately something was terribly wrong when the mansion became a pile of ruins by the time they got back. They stayed hidden, while he listened to Devimon brag about the fact that he had faked the entire mansion and the food just to draw them into a trap.
Suddenly he was very glad that they had gotten so accustomed to fresh fruits that they had gone foraging rather than trust the food. Though at least the bath was real.
He held on to Sakura and the two digimon as Devimon scatted the children across the island, and somehow managed to cause the island itself to seperate into different chunks.
"Dino-nii...I'm scared."
"I know... I'm worried too," said Dino, as he hugged her tighter to him. At least they weren't seperated.
He could only hope the kids found a way to get back.