The Crest of a Master

by PizzaSpino

When the Digital World is in peril it doesn't just turn to a regular group of kids. It turns to a group of kids raised in a world centralized around raising and battling monsters! Join Ash and Agumon as they make new friends, battle an army of monsters, and hopefully save both of their worlds from an ancient evil.

11. Stone Cold Golemon

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction written by someone who enjoys creature collector franchises. Pokémon is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, The Pokémon Company, Creatures Inc. and Satoshi Tajiri. Digimon is owned by Bandai, WiZ, Toei Animation, and Akiyoshi Hongo. If you want to support the official releases, worry not. Lord knows there is plenty of merchandise to choose from.

Listening to as I fire up the oven: Sentimental Sand Storage (Digimon World Next Order)

The Crest of a Master Chapter 11: Stone Cold Golemon

When Brock first arrived in the Digital World, he landed in a village on the edge of the southern half of the Data Desert also known as the Database Dunes. There he was informed by the villagers that in order to return home his best bet was to speak with the Celestials. To do that there were two obstacles he would have to overcome. The first was to find the Celestials themselves who were on the frontline of a multiple century's long war.

The best way to find where the Celestials were on the battlefield was to speak with the head of the Temple of the Crests which lead him to his second obstacle: getting to the temple. To this end Brock would have to go around the massive desert that took up almost a fourth of the continent. These routes would have brought Brock and his team closer to one of the other humans and given them more lush environments to forage extra supplies from. But those routes would have also taken up more time. And time was something Brock could not afford to waste.

It was a risky gambit, but Brock knew the fastest way to get to the Celestials as soon as possible was to hike straight through the desert. It was a plan that Brock's newly acquired partner made sure to vocalize his decent on ever day of their journey.

"Look, there used to be a bunch of towns and cities out there," Gotsumon explained before they set off. "But from what I hear almost everyone is now fighting in the war. There are a few trading posts, but to get to any one of them you have to risk bumping into wild Digimon or bandits. And then there's the usual level of hospitality that you'd expect from desert weather. I might live because I'm literal just a bunch of rocks, but I wouldn't be too optimistic about your chances."

With that encouraging bit of pep talk in mind, Brock began his quest.

As Gotsumon promised, it wasn't an easy journey. The sand shrouded lands offered little in terms of food or water, so Brock had to be conservative in his eating habits. He also had to delay the start of his travels for a day in order to help villagers to cobble together an outfit that would help protect his skin and prevent sweat loss. Supply runs had to also be strategic as Brock found himself haggling at each trading post to get more supplies which required that he carefully weigh the value of each item to figure out what he could afford to part with.

All that being said, Brock's situation wasn't hopeless. After all, he wasn't the only one whisked away to this foreign world. As it just so happened, he had a couple of friends by his side who were always willing to lend their talents. One of which was a massive, rock snake.

Had it not been for Onix, Brock's desert trek might have done him in. The rock snake was an excellent mount carrying him and his Digimon across dunes and around plateaus with ease. Onix also was well trained in using Dig which the snake used to create makeshift dens for their party to camp out in during the day. They could also use Dig to make a quick escape from any enemy they didn't want to deal with, which was basically all of them. Any other time Brock would have marveled at the new monsters, but now he had to be practical and avoid anything that would waste his supplies or precious time.

Speaking of time, there were the other humans. Brock was relieved when his Digivice messaged him, showing him that he was indeed not alone. That relief was short lived as he found himself playing mediator in a conversation that was beginning to remind him of one of his younger siblings' squabbles. He later found that that the comparison was not far off as most of the other humans were just old enough to receive their first Pokémon, which probably meant that he was the oldest human in the group.

That didn't bode well.

But, despite all odds, the other kids were managing to take care of themselves. Whether through their own skills, strong Digimon allies, or just plain dumb luck, no one had died yet. The two humans he was supposed to meet up with, Ash and Misty, appeared to have all three.

Based off their conversations over the DigiChat, Ash seemed like a beginning trainer who was at least given basic training on monster battles and survival. Misty, on the other hand, sounded like she had some experience under her belt. But she also had the bad luck of only carrying one of her Pokémon on her when she was yeeted to the Digital World. In any case, he was looking forward to meeting them. After he pushed forward just a little bit more.

"Is this a human thing?" Brock heard Gotsumon ask.

"Rock climbing? Sort of," Brock reached out for a free ledge and pulled himself up. "It's not something all humans do, but some do it recreationally. I don't really practice myself; I just know the basics…"

"Actually, I was referring to goose chases," Gotsumon responded as he climbed up next to Brock.

"Goose chase?" Brock furrowed his brow in concentration. "Do you mean Swanna chase?"

"Whatever you want to call it," Gotsumon shrugged. "I thought the meeting spot was supposed to be back there." The rock monster pointed over his shoulder.

The two of them had passed the sandier portion of the desert and had arrived at the badlands where the golden dunes were replaced with red and tan mountains and mesas. It was a welcome reprieve from the barren landscape as the rocky formations provided plenty of shade, but this came with the possibility of enemies using the rocks as cover for an ambush.

"It still is," Brock defended himself. "We're just scouting to make sure this path is safe."

"Uh huh," Gotsumon did not look convinced. "Just like how we scouted the path a couple of days past that one trading post we were supposed to wait at? Or how about the last meet up spot which we completely ditched to 'just push forwards a little more.'"

Brock winced. Gotsumon's criticism wasn't undeserved. Logically Brock knew that he should have stayed put for a bit to let the other humans catch up to him, but he just felt agitated sitting around doing nothing. Normally Brock considered himself a patient guy, however current circumstances demanded immediate action and he needed to meet up with the Celestials yesterday.

"Look," Brock reasoned. "We'll just finish getting to the top, take a look around, and then we'll head back. Deal?"

"Fine," Gotsumon grumbled as he proceeded to pull himself over the highest ledge. "But if you ask me, this entire detour has been a waste of time…never mind."

Curious about his partner's comment, Brock climbed after him. The other side of the rock formation held a gorge that was filled with sleeping Digimon. One kind of Digimon in particular. The Digimon who were crowding the bottom of the ravine resembled Rhyhorns the size of small trucks. Unlike Rhyhorn, they did not appear to be made of rock plates, rather they were white with black armor plating. The most notable armor being the face plate which had a large frill around the back and a larger horn jetting up from the nose.

Naturally, Brock took out his Digivice to scan the dinosaurs. "Monochromon, champion level. Its armor is as hard as diamonds allowing it to excel in both offense and defense. Their special attack is Volcano Strike."

"And that," Brock smiled as he put away his Digivice. "Is why we scout. Now we know not to go this way."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get out of here before those guys wake up and do to us what they did to that mountain."

Following Gotsumon's line of sight, Brock could see the remains of a massive rockslide creating a pile of rubble that coded the side of the mountain. Taking out a pair of binoculars, Brock could see that the Monochromon did indeed attack the mountain side. Or at least that's what he could deduce based on the markings that decorated the rock pile and the area surrounding it.

"Any idea what that might be about?" Brock asked, putting away his binoculars.

"Nope," Gotsumon turned to start his way back to the meeting spot. "So long as I'm not the pile of rocks they're mutilating, I don't care."

Brock began to follow Gotsumon, but found himself stumbling forwards. His head felt light, dizzy.

"Whoa," Gotsumon rushed to Brock's side to grab and steady him. "You sure you can continue?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine," Brock waved him off. "I just need a quick drink. Just start climbing down. I'll join you in a second."

Gotsumon gave Brock one last dubious look before descending down the cliff. Brock then unhitched his canteen from his pack and opened it for a drink. Alas, all he got was a single drop.

Sighing, Brock reattached his canteen and began his own decent. He'd grab some water from the other humans once they met up. Right now, he had to concentrate on getting back to the rendezvous. Especially as he felt the wind pick up.

Later

Before long, the strong breeze had transformed into a powerful gale which whipped around Brock and Gotsumon. The pair tried to find their way back to the designated rendezvous site, but all they could see were the clouds of dust and sand swirling around them.

"Gotsumon," Brock called through the cloth he wrapped around his face to protect himself from the storm. "We need to…"

"Quiet!" Gotsumon called back as lowly as he could over the dust devil. "I hear something out there!"

For a moment, Brock strained his ears to listen through the howling wind. Sure enough, he could hear something that sounded like a shrieking bark. It wasn't long after that that Brock spotted some new Digimon hopping down from some nearby rocks.

Though Brock couldn't make out the details through the storm, he could still see their outlines. They looked to be fairly large, a bit taller than a human kid. Basic body design reminded him of a fully evolved, non-flying dragon type like a Garchomp or Haxorus with strong back legs and a long tail to balance out the body. Their front arms were also fairly muscular and, if he wasn't mistaken, tipped with some impressive looking claws. The only details Brock could make out were on the Digimons' reptile heads: a pair of erect ears and yellow eyes that shined through the fog of dirt.

Seeing the pack stalking towards him and Gotsumon, Brock grabbed a Poké Ball from his belt and lobbed it at the Digimon. "Onix! Scare these guys off!"

The ball snapped open releasing the towering rock snake onto the battlefield. Onix reared up and bellowed at the gathering pack of Digimon, but this did not scare them away. It just angered them.

Screeching, the Digimon's mouths began lighting up as they spat out orbs of red energy at Onix. The rock snake was able to tank them just fine, but Brock didn't want to take any chances. "Use Rock Slide!"

At Brock's command, Onix whipped its tail across the ground ripping up the earth and sending a series of boulders flying towards the Digimon. This had the desired effect of stopping their attacks. But it did not send them packing.

Instead, the Digimon charged forwards, weaving around the projectiles and leaping on to Onix. The Digimon then began plunging their hefty claws straight into Onix's rocky hide causing the rock snake to below out in pain.

Brock was about give his Pokémon a new order when he was hit with another wave of dizziness. "Onix, use..use.."

Brock stumbled in an attempt to catch himself, but he couldn't prevent his collapse. He blacked out.

Later Still

The first object Brock felt when he awoke was the worn-down mattress beneath his body. The kind that people used at camping sites. The second thing he felt was a small pool of water at his lips. Without thinking, Brock began to greedily gulp down the liquid.

It was only when he finished his drink that Brock was able to look around at his surroundings. The room he was in was very dark with only a few scattered lanterns providing light. The ground looked to be covered in various mattresses, sleeping bags, and blankets giving the image of a messy sleeping chamber. As to what slept in this chamber, Brock only had to turn his head to see who was holding the cup he had finished drinking from.

"Excuse me, are you really a humon?" asked the Digimon in a childish voice. The Digimon in question was the same kind of Digimon that fought against Onix before Brock blacked out, but now that they were out of the sandstorm, Brock could make out the details.

The dragon-type looking monster was mostly red with a white belly and various black markings across its reptilian body. The most notable marking was the hazard symbol on its belly. The Digimon's ears resembled bat wings and cocked curiously as the Digimon leaned in to sniff Brock.

"Is humon okay?" asked the Digimon. He leaned forward to sniff. "You smell dry."

"No, no, no," a pair of claws from another Digimon of the same species grabbed the first Digimon by the shoulders and pulled him back. "We've been over this. You need to at least go through proper introductions first before you even consider getting into someone's personal space."

The more-well-spoken of the two Digimon then addressed Brock. "You'll have to forgive my associate. He means well, but at times his manners can lapse."

"Uh, it's no problem," Brock sat up on his mattress and took out his Digivice. "Guilmon, rookie level. They have a friendly disposition unless provoked. When in battle they can use their claws to break apart stone with Rock Breaker or breathe fireballs with Pyro Sphere."

Spotting the holographic projection, the first Guilmon leaned over in interest. "It's us!"

"Indeed," concurred the polite Guilmon. "Well, as your device has properly identified, we are Guilmon. We are also the miners who work at this mine."

"Mine?" Brock questioned.

"Yeah, mine."

Brock swiveled around his head to find Gotsumon sitting not too far away. He was leaning up against the coiled up, sleeping form of Onix who was on top of a large pile of mattresses and blankets. Gotsumon continued. "Turns out there was a giant mine underneath us ever since we got to the badlands. Go figure."

"Wait, if you guys are just miners, then why did you attack us?" Brock questioned the Guilmon.

The childish Guilmon bowed his head and gave Brock a dejected look. "Humon started it."

"I understand that we can look fairly intimidating in the right light," elaborated the polite Guilmon. "However, we did not instigate that brawl. You were the one who sent that serpent to attack us. We were merely scouting for a last-minute meal before the sandstorm set in."

"But we wouldn't eat another Digimon's pet!" the childish Guilmon quickly added on.

"You thought I was Gotsumon's pet?" Brock asked feeling kind of offended.

"To be fair, you smell like an exotic, hairless monkey," defended the polite Guilmon. "Though now that I have had a good look at you, I'd say you look more like a wingless angel. A much more flattering description, do you not agree?"

"Hey, I'll take it," Brock made a move to stand up, but we immediately hit by another wave of dizziness.

The childish Guilmon caught Brock. "Humon, no! Gotsumon said you need rest and water!"

Brock opened his mouth to protest, but Gotsumon beat him. "Don't try to Kyukimon your way out of this. It's obvious you're dehydrated. Just sit back and drink some stinking water."

"Please don't make this anymore difficult," the polite Guilmon added on. "We already had a hard enough time getting your snake friend to allow us to take you back to our campsite."

"Here, I'll help," Gotsumon gave the rock snake behind him a couple of knocks. Onix's eyes cracked open and looked around. Once they landed on Brock the snake gave a happy groan and practically sprang from its napping spot. Onix then shoved himself into Brock's chest forcing the human back onto the bed.

"Oph!" Brock groaned but began petting the snake's head. "Hey, it's alright. I'm fine, see?"

In response Onix gave his trainer an incredulous huff sending a small cloud of dust from his rocky mouth.

"You don't believe me either, do you?" Brock sighed and sat back up.

"If I may interject," the polite Guilmon interjected. "We may be able to lend you a hand in your recovery. As desert dwellers ourselves, we are not unfamiliar with dehydration. As such, we have some special medications on hand to help with a speedy and efficient recovery."

"Oh yeah!" the childish Guilmon perked up and scampered to the door out of the room. "I'll get you some now!"

"Enablers," Gotsumon grumbled as he watched the raptor run off.

The polite Guilmon cleared his throat. "Perhaps while we wait for my associate to return you would like to hear more about our mines."

"And here's the small talk," Gotsumon fell back onto his mattress.

"Gotsumon, these guys took us in and are giving us some of their supplies. The least we could do is talk with them," Brock gently chided. He then turned to the Guilmon and nodded while he continued to pet Onix who was resting its head next to his lap. "You have my undivided attention."

"Splendid!" The polite Guilmon reached down and grabbed a pouch. From the pouch he produced a golden-yellow ore. "This mine is dedicated to the excavation of Huanglong Ore. Now, by itself this ore is sturdy. Only Huanglong Ore can cut Huanglong Ore. But it is too heavy to be of any conventional use. However, if it is purified and combined with different alloys it can be used to make Chrome Digizoid."

The Guilmon reached back into his pouch and this time brought out several piece of metal. "Chrome Digizoid is the strongest metal in the world. Firm enough to act as a powerful armor, yet flexible to the point that it can replace living tissue. Even wings. In fact, many Digimon find that they have developed Chrome Digizoid armor when they Digivolve."

"I'm back!" the child Guilmon came dashing back through the door carrying a flask. He trotted up to Brock and handed him the flask before spotting the metal on the floor. "Oh, class time." The Guilmon sat down, ears cocked forwards and at attention.

"As I was saying," the polite Guilmon continued. "There are different variations of Chrome Digizoid. Brown is highly flexible and as such tends to be used for conduits and springs. Red is the opposite as it has been re-purified to increase its hardness. Very good for creating armor or a barricade. Obsidian is similar, though it has an extra sharpness to it. Unfortunately, I do not have any samples of gold or blue as they are extremely rare and are needed for the frontlines. However, I do know that blue is light which allows for agility and gold tends to be an all-rounder as it grants the user power, speed, and a certain level of invincibility. Oh yes, there's also black Digizoid, but I am unware of what special qualities it has."

Gotsumon's voice came over from his resting spot. "You've just been waiting to give someone this presentation, haven't you?"

At this remark the polite Guilmon stepped back and bowed its head slightly, clearly abashed from being called out. "Yes, well, teaching is a passion of mine."

"Hey, that's nothing to be ashamed of," Brock gave the raptor a smile. "I learned a lot from that short lecture. I think you'd make a great teacher."

The polite Guilmon returned Brock's smile. "Would it were true. Unfortunately, there's more of a demand to excavate rare minerals at the moment than there is to teach about them. Such is life. Sometimes circumstances prevent us from following our passions."

That comment made Brock's stomach sink. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"HORAAAAW"

Immediately, every occupant of the room perked up at the sound of a loud roar.

"What was that?" Brock asked.

"Intruder!" the childish Guilmon's eyes narrowed into slits before it bolted off through the door followed by its polite companion.

Feeling better thanks to the hydration medication, Brock got to his feet and motioned for Onix and Gotsumon to follow him. "Let's go."

"Oh yeah, sure," Gotsumon grumbled as he went after the group. "Let's all run towards the loud roars. Nothing bad could happen."

Cave Entrance

The miners' bunkhouse wasn't that far from the cave's entrance. As a result, it didn't take too long for Brock to see where all the commotion was coming from. No sooner had he left the barracks did he see a swarm of Guilmon dashing around and past him.

Being surrounded by the same pack animals that attacked it earlier, Onix let out an agitated groan. Brock just placed a hand on its rocky hide. "Easy, they're not after us."

As for what the Guilmon were after, Brock had only to follow the flood of raptors to the cave's mouth. There he could see a small army of Guilmon shrieking and blasting fireballs at a larger dinosaur Digimon. The larger Digimon responded to the Guilmons' shrieks with a loud bellow of his own before stomping forwards through the barrage of fireballs.

Much like with Onix before, some of the Guilmon charged forward and began pouncing on the larger dinosaur to bite and scratch at its hide. The large dinosaur snarled and began violently shaking its body to knock off the raptors.

Watching the fight, something clicked in Brock's mind. "Wait, is that," Brock whipped out his Digivice and scanned the new Digimon. Yep, it was a Greymon. And given that he was supposed to have met up with some humans traveling with a Greymon, the odds were pretty stacked that this Greymon was here for him.

"Hey! Hey! Stop!" Brock called towards the Guilmon. "I think he's with me!"

But none of the Guilmon seemed to notice. All of them were solely focused on the invading champion Digimon.

"Forget it," Gotsumon's voice came up from behind Brock. "Once Guilmon go into battle mode they only think about going for someone's jugular. You'd have more luck talking to a pile of rocks. I should know."

"Then we'll try something else," Brock watched as the Greymon's tail swatted away another Guilmon. "Onix, I want you to use Dig to get behind Greymon. Follow up with Bind."

The rock snake roared and then dove into the ground. Moments later, he sprang up from behind the Tyrantrum and began coiling its body around his target. In response, Greymon roared and twisted his head around to bite down on Onix's neck.

Shoot, this was not going as planned. Brock tried pushing his way through the Guilmon. "Look! It's alright! He's down! Give him some space!"

Unfortunately, even though the champion had been tied up, the Guilmon were still in battle mode and were now stalking closer to the downed dinosaur. As they were about to leap onto the Greymon, a loud hiss sounded out from beyond the veil of the sandstorm.

Suddenly a high-pressured stream of ice and snow erupted from outside creating a jagged wall of ice between the Guilmon hoard and the downed Greymon. Another loud hiss rang out before a Gyarados-looking Digimon stuck its head into the cave.

Seeing its companion constricted by Onix, the sea monster began to charge up another ice attack.

"Gold Rush!"

Before the situation could escalate any further, another Digimon came barreling into the cave mouth from within the mines and leaping into the air. It unleashed a rain of drills from its body which simultaneously shattered the ice barrier and sent the Guilmon scattering.

This new Digimon was a bipedal, yellow and purple insectoid with drills sprouting from its forelimbs and face. The new Digimon immediately began barking orders at the Guilmon. "ALRIGHT! THAT'S ENOUGH HORSIN' AROUND! YOU, OVER THERE, GET BACK TO WORK. YOU, STAY HERE, DON'T MOVE, AND WATCH MY BACK, AND YOU," the Digimon pointed a drill tipped limb at Brock. "What in tarnation are you doin' up an' around, boy? You should be restin', not pickin' fights."

Brock passively raised his hands. "I was trying to break up the fight, sir. I don't think these champions are wild Digimon."

"'Course they ain't wild Digimon" snorted the yellow Digimon. "No Seadramon would just be naturally slitherin' out in the middle of the desert. Not unless it lost a bet. Now, we need everyone to settle down before anything else crazy comes stumblin' into my mine."

As if on cue, a pair of humans came rushing through the cave's mouth. The first was a boy who was cover his face with a cap, a pair of goggles, and his shirt pulled up over his mouth. The second was a girl who shielded her body with a clock similar to the one that Brock had been using during his time crossing the desert which Brock could assume she got from a trading post.

"See? I told you this would be better than the sand," the boy bragged to the girl as he allowed his shirt to slide off of his face.

"Well, sorry," the girl shot back. "But, when I hear monster roars and explosions, I usually jump to the crazy conclusion that there's something dangerous."

No sooner had the girl finished her sentence that a group of Guilmon screeched and came running forward only to be slowed down by a warning hiss from the Seadramon. The girl watched this exchanged and turned back to the boy. "And I stand by that."

The boy was about to argue back, when he spotted Brock. "Hey! It's you!"

The boy made a move to step forward but was stopped by a Guilmon stepping in front of him and snarling. The downed Greymon, mouth still clamped around Onix's neck, gave the raptor a warning snarl of his own.

Not wanting another brawl or worse, a mutilated kid, Brock made his way past the Guilmon and in front of the boy. "It's alright. They're humans. They're with me."

The boy grinned up at Brock and removed his goggles. "Nice to finally meet you! Name's Ash Ketchum. But you probably already know that from the chat app."

Brock returned Ash's grin. "You leave an impression. Brock Harrison."

The girl marched forward and pulled the hood off her head revealing a mob of red hair. The girl then gave Brock a look that could best be described as a mix between a glare and an evaluation. "Hello, my name is Misty Waterflower and I have a couple questions. For starters, what are you doing here? We went to the meeting spot and all we found were a couple of saddle bags."

Waterflower, Waterflower, where had Brock heard that name before?

"Impromptu scouting mission, aggravated Guilmon attack, followed by dehydration," Gotsumon droned. He made his way past the Guilmon and stood by Brock's side; arms crossed. "For the record, none of it was my fault."

"Cool, is that your partner?" Ash asked as he took out his Digivice. "Gotsumon, rookie level. It's got high defense thanks to its ore hide and can shoot rocks from its head using Rock Fist. As a species they tend to be spunky, mischievous, and ambitious."

Brock smiled at this description. He remembered when he first read Gotsumon's profile and then had to go back and re-read it. None of those three words matched his partner.

"Meh," Gotsumon shrugged. "I grew out of that phase a long time ago."

"And those are your partners, right?" Brock referred to the two champions stationed at the cave entrance. The Seadramon and the Greymon who was still bound by Onix. Whoops. Brock took out his Poké Ball. "Uh, sorry. Let me get that for you. Onix, return."

A red light emitted from the Poké Ball enveloped Onix before retracting into the ball carrying the Pokémon inside. This elected a round of "Ohhs" and "Awes" from the watching Guilmon who seemed to have relaxed out of their battle modes.

Greymon stood up and shook himself off. "For the record, I was winning."

"Ahem," the yellow Digimon walked forwards to the humans, which elected a step back from Misty.

Ash turned the Digivice on the yellow Digimon. "Digmon, armor level. Nicknamed The Drill of Knowledge they specialize in underground survival and battling using their Gold Rush and Rock Cracking attacks."

"Pleasure to meet ya'll. My name is Digmon and I'm the foreman of this mine. As happy as I am that this scuffle is getting cleared up, we're gonna have to discuss livin' arrangements," said Digmon.

"What do you mean? We're just staying the night," Misty asked.

Digmon shook his head. "Not likely. I've been livin' in this desert since I was an Upamon, so I've seen my fair share of storms. This is lookin' like one of the nastier ones. If you think it was harsh today, then let me tell you, it's just gettin' started. Once that storm reaches its peak, the wind is gonna move the sand around so fast that it'll skin you alive faster than a hungry Snimon skins a jackrabbit."

Dreed began to blossom inside Brock. "How long do they last?"

"Hmm," Digmon watched the storm howl and whip around outside. "If I had to give a guess, I'd say about couple days."

No! They were so close to the edge of the desert!

"Works for me," Misty gave a sigh of relief. "After a week of hiking through the desert it'll be nice to rest for a bit."

"This ain't no luxury resort, girl," Digmon stated. "You'll be resting tonight but startin' tomorrow I'm going to be puttin' y'all to work."

This elected a groan out of Misty while Ash just shrugged. "It's not that bad, Misty. All we have to do is move rocks around for a couple of days. It should be easy. Watch."

At that declaration, Ash walked over to a rock the size of his head. He reached down to grip the stone and pick it up, but it took a couple of moments of groaning and muscle strain before he could even begin to lift it. He then began to slowly crab walk across the ground. "See, easy," he managed to say through gritted teeth and even that sounded like it took too much effort.

"Boy, put that rock down before you throw out your back," Digmon scolded. "I ain't lettin' a bunch of untrained wonderers do mine work. It's dangerous and requires more muscle than your toothpick bodies can handle."

"Then what are you going to have us do?" Brock asked.

"Mess hall duties," replied Digmon.

At this response, every Guilmon in the area froze and gasped. A couple of them began whispering to one another while others shook their heads. One Guilmon even took the miner helmet it was wearing off his head and solemnly placed it over his heart.

Digmon then turned to the two towering champions. "And as for you two…"

"We're helping the humans in the kitchen," Greymon grunted. He then emitted a dim light and began to shrink down until an orange Totodile the size of Gotsumon took his place. The Seadramon followed suit and was replaced by a smaller amphibian.

"Uh, sure," said the Digmon, clearly taken aback. "I want you in that kitchen before the crack of dawn."

The Next Morning? Sort of. They're in a cave, it's hard to tell.

The pair of Guilmon who helped Brock the night before woke him and the other humans and their partners the following morning. Brock, being used to having to wake up early, was out of bed and ready to sneak past the army of slumbering Guilmon. Misty and the Digimon partners were next. They were tired but offered little resistance. Ash was apparently a heavy sleeper and had to literally be dragged out of the sleeping quarters before he woke up.

"Can't we just sleep until breakfast," Ash yawned.

"We are supposed to be making breakfast, dummy," Misty scolded.

"To which you have my sincerest condolences," said the polite Guilmon. "Not many of the staff here know much about cooking and those who do are usually too tied up in mine work to make a proper meal."

"Armies need metal fast," nodded the childish Guilmon in agreement. "We don't get to cook too much."

"What do you guys eat when that happens?" asked Agumon.

"We hunt!" replied the childish Guilmon.

"Or, if prey is scarce, we end up eating ingredients raw," supplied the polite Guilmon.

Misty's nose curled in disgust. "I don't think I could ever do that."

"I wouldn't say that," the polite Guilmon rebutted. "You'd be surprised what you're willing to do when you're hungry."

Brock mulled over the new information. "So that's why Digmon has us on mess hall duty. He wants us to do the work you guys don't have time for."

It didn't take too long for the group to arrive at a door embedded in the wall of the cavern. The polite Guilmon pointed to another door further away. "That is the mess hall. This is the kitchen, where you'll be working. I warn you, what you are about to witness is not for the feint at heart."

Agumon snorted and reached for the door. "It's a kitchen. How bad can it beeeee…."

The reptile's sentence trailed off as one of the Guilmon flipped the light switch. After some flickering, the kitchen lite up to reveal nothing short of a travesty. There were counters covered with grease and claw prints, some from fore claws and others from feet. The floor was a mine field of crusted mud piles and dropped utensils. Dirty dishes were hoarded around one counter near a wall which Brock could only guess had a sink buried somewhere underneath the mess.

"Okay," Misty grimaced as she and the rest of the team filed in. "I understand not having much time to do kitchen work. But this is ridiculous. How have none of you guys died of food poisoning?"

"Hehe, don't know," responded the childish Guilmon.

From his spot, Brock surveyed the kitchen. This was defiantly bad. Not only was this kitchen a health inspector's worst nightmare, but they had to clean it up, cook enough food to serve a small army of dinosaurs, and do it all before said dinosaurs start waking up and filing into the mess hall.

A challenge perhaps, but not one that could break him. Not even close.

"Alright," Brock addressed the other makeshift kitchen workers. "Before we start cooking, we need to get this place clean and we need to do it fast. Do any of you guys have any kitchen experience?"

To Brock's surprise, Gotsumon was the first to speak. "I can do just about anything. Just throw me at whatever these guys can't handle."

With that, the rock monster walked away from the rest of the group and into a closet. Soon after everyone could hear some rummaging signaling that Gotsumon was probably gathering cleaning supplies.

"My mom owns a diner," Ash offered. "So, she's shown me some kitchen stuff. Like washing dishes."

"I'll help!" Agumon volunteered.

"Actually, I should probably help Ash," Misty said, eyeing the mountain of filthy culturally. "No offense, Agumon, but you're a bit on the short side and we don't need any more footprints on the counter."

"Fine then," Agumon said defiantly. "I'll just clean the cabinets."

"Feel free to use fire," Gotsumon said as he brought out various cleaning supplies. "I think I saw one of the grease stains move."

Betamon then spoke up in a quiet voice. "I'm even shorter than Agumon. I'll scrub the floors."

"We Guilmon tend to be fairly tall for rookies. We can assist with cleaning the counters," offered the polite Guilmon with the childish Guilmon eagerly nodding.

"You don't have to help," Brock responded knowing that the two miners were probably not excused from their usual duties.

"We insist," the polite Guilmon waved Brock off. "It's not every day we get to interact with humans or chosen Digimon."

Well, if the Guilmon really wanted to help then there wasn't much Brock could do to stop them. Plus, even though their makeshift cleaning crew was getting organized, it was still a lot of work for such a small period of time. They could use more hands. Actually, that gave Brock an idea.

Reaching down to his belt, Brock grabbed one of his Poké Balls and tossed it up in the air. "Geodude, help us out!"

The ball cracked open releasing a floating Pokémon who resembled a rock with a pair of arms and a face. The new Pokémon cracked is knuckles before grabbing a broom and getting right to work sweeping the floors.

"Cool!" Ash exclaimed watching the rock Pokémon float around. The childish Guilmon ran up to Geodude and immediately began sniffing him. In response the rock gently batted away the dinosaur dragon as though it was an overly grabby child.

"I'm going to need some extra water before we unearth that sink," Misty took out her own Poké Ball. "Let's go, Staryu."

At her command, the starfish Pokémon leapt onto the counter by the plates. The Guilmon investigating Geodude immediately switched targets and began smelling Staryu. Apparently Staryu did not have Geodude's patience and sprayed the Guilmon with a light Water Gun when it got too close.

With that, the team got to work. Brock found himself checking out the ovens and stoves to make sure they were still in working condition. Fortunately it turned out the answer was yes and all they really needed was a good scrubbing.

From the corner of Brock's eye he could see Gotsumon dragging a stool to an empty counter which the ore Digimon got to work cleaning off. Brock's first instinct was to go over and offer to help his Digimon get set up on the counter, but after partnering with Gotsumon for a few weeks Brock knew that Gotsumon preferred to be left to his own devices.

Misty's Betamon was looking to also be a quite Digimon as it spent its time going over the floors with a wet sponge. At one point the amphibian came to a stop right by Brock and addressed him in a soft voice. "Um, excuse me. I'm sorry, but can I get the spot where you're standing. It's okay if you don't want to move."

Smiling down at the small Digimon, Brock moved to the side. "Go ahead."

Betamon then gave him a little smile before getting right to work cleaning the floors by the stoves. It looked like Betamon's quiet disposition was more a product of a shy personality as appose to Gotsumon who just didn't want to talk to anyone outside of the occasional barb.

In contrast to the two subdued partners, Agumon was cut from an entirely different cloth.

"Bet you I can finish cleaning this cabinets before you finish those plates!" Agumon challenged his partner.

Ash shot his partner a grin. "I don't think you know who you just challenged!"

"I challenged the guy who's going to eat my dust," Agumon stuck his tongue out.

"Sorry, I can't hear you over all this scrubbing!" Ash called back, picking up the pace on his scrubbing.

"Slow down. At this rate all you're going to do is rearrange the grim," Misty scolded.

A couple of minutes of silent cleaning passed before Agumon decided to break the silence again. "Hey, Brock! How come can Geodude fly? He's a rock," called out the reptile from where he was cleaning.

"It's thanks to the minerals he's made of," answered Brock as he put some elbow grease into a particularly tough blob of Arceus-knows-what. "Rock Pokémon have a high mineral composition which plays a large role in what they can do and how they live. Geodudes have a lot of magnetic minerals in their bodies which allow them to levitate. It's also the reason why some regions have Geodudes with the electric typing."

"Ah, a fellow geologist!" chimed in the polite Guilmon.

"I wouldn't say geologist," Brock responded bashfully. "But I do have a lot of experience with rock Pokémon. My dad's side of the family specializes in them."

"Yeah? Does your mom work with Pokémon too?" Misty asked while she held up a dish for Staryu to rinse.

"As a matter of fact she works with water types," Brock said eyeing the Staryu.

"Excellent taste," Misty smiled in approval.

"Must be pretty cool having two trainers as parents," Ash threw in.

This comment was met with a loud snort from Gotsumon's corner.

There was an awkward pause as everyone turned to look at the rock monster. Gotsumon, sensing the stares, turn around. "It's nothing."

"Gesundheit," offered the childish Guilmon.

With his station cleaned, Gotsumon got off his stool and headed over to the pantry to start retrieving ingredients. "I'm going to start making some bread."

"Oh boy, oh boy!" the childish Guilmon scampered forward to start hoovering over Gotsumon. "Can I help?"

"You can give me some personal space," Gotsumon responded. "I can always use more of that."

"Is that why you were down in that tomb?" asked Agumon.

Brock halted his cleaning. "Tomb?"

"Yeah, tomb," Agumon then elaborated for everyone who hadn't been traveling with Ash and Misty. "You see, my friend, Gabumon, was on the team who found all the chosen Digimon. Most of the time all they did was follow the Digivice to a village and have all the Digimon there go up to the Digivice to see if it would respond to them. But this one time, they followed the Digivice to an underground tomb where they found a Gotsumon."

"What were you doing in a tomb?" Ash asked.

"Nothing," Gotsumon responded. He began pouring flour into a bowl. "And my plan would have worked too, if it hadn't been for that Gabumon."

"Why would Digimon even need tombs?" Misty asked. "I thought you guys dissolved when you died. There wouldn't be anyone to bury."

The polite Guilmon answered this question. "I'm not sure how humans use tombs, but in the Digital World we don't use them to store bodies. Tombs are used to store the belongings of powerful Digimon in the hopes that once they reincarnate they can come back and claim what was once theirs. Unfortunately, it was a pretty flawed system as many Digimon would falsely claim that they were the deceased or just downright rob the tomb."

Ash brightened at this new information. "Hey, Agumon and the other chosen Digimon were pretty important. Do they have tombs?"

"Nope," Gotsumon cut off that line of thought. "Most of the Digimon who followed the first human were just crazy soldiers who decided throwing their lot in with an alien was a good idea. There was one, maybe two, of them that might have a tomb, but I wouldn't give your hopes up that it's anyone in this room."

"Geo geodude dude," snickered Geodude as he casually floated on by.

Gotsumon sighed. "I know I'm one of those crazy soldiers. Don't remind me."

"Wait," Ash did a double take. "Did you just understand Geodude?"

"No," Gotsumon drawled. "But I've been around these guys long enough to get the gist of what they are saying. Besides, I know when I'm being criticized. It's a universal language."

"You know, if there are two chosen Digimon who had tombs that's still a one in five chance that I've got some inheritance somewhere," Agumon said, looking dreamy at the thought.

"Yeah, you don't strike me as someone who was that important," Gotsumon simply said.

Agumon scowled. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Alright, break it up you two," Brock stepped between the two Digimon. "We've still got a lot of work to do, so no fighting. Okay?"

Gotsumon just shrugged and turned back to his work. "I can do that."

Agumon growled at Gotsumon's back before giving it an angry snort. "Fine."

As Brock returned to his work, Misty came over and whispered in his ear. "Is he always like that?"

Brock gave her an apologetic smile. "He can be pretty raw, but he's not a bad guy once you get to know him."

"If you say so," Agumon grumbled as he walked on by. "Between this guy and Gary I'm starting to think that I'll have to keep a 'Jerk List' for this adventure."

In time the kitchen was deemed clean enough to cook in and the rest of the team, minus the Guilmon who had to get started prepping for mine work, joined Gotsumon in cooking food. After another quick round of questioning, Brock found that Ash, Misty, and Agumon (despite Ash's mother's career) were only competent in the basics of cooking while Betamon wasn't much of a chief at all (made sense as her clawed limbs were only good for swimming or scuttling across the floor). As a result the former three were assigned to basics like fried bacon and eggs and the latter amphibian was relegated to carrying around extra ingredients on her back. A task she was able to perform with no complications thanks to living a life without hands.

Meanwhile, Brock busied himself with managing multiple dishes and casseroles at once.

"Are you okay over there?" Misty called over. "That looks like a lot of cooking for just one guy."

"You should see a Friday night at my house," Brock grinned. He then took out a casserole from the oven that had a slight smoky scent to it. "Agumon, can you come over here? I need you to try a bite of this."

Curious, the fire Totodile hopped off his stool and plotted on over to Brock who had just cut out a slice from an earlier casserole. "What do you need?"

Brock handed Agumon a breakfast casserole slice on a plate. "Could you try this? Tell me if it needs more time in the oven."

Agumon took the offered slice and let it slide off the plate and into his jaws. He gave it a couple of chews before tears began to well up in his eyes.

Seeing this, Brock knelt down in concern. "Agumon?"

"So good," Agumon said, mouth still full.

"Really?" Ash took Agumon's declaration as an invitation to try some himself. He didn't come to tears like Agumon, but his face did brighten up. "A little burnt, but it's definitely good."

"The burning is actually intentional," Brock explained. "See, back at home I've observed that different Pokémon have different preferences depending on their types. Fire types tend to like their food a bit more crispy since they usually cook their food out in the wild. Digimon may not be exactly the same as Pokémon, but after seeing both Agumon and the Guilmon breathe fire I figured they might have similar eating habits."

As Brock explained this, the trainers could see Agumon hopping up and down trying to grab some more of the casserole which was now being held up by Geodude.

"Come on, just one more bite?" Agumon begged, arms wiggling in the air.

"Dude, Geodude," Geodude shook his head and continued to make his way over to the serving station, casserole out of Agumon's grasp.

"I'm just looking forwards to having someone around who knows how to cook," Misty said as she cracked a couple more eggs onto her pan.

"Hey, we know how to cook," Ash said sounding slightly offended.

"Your bacon's burning," Misty replied.

Seeing that his bacon was indeed smoking, Ash scrambled back to his station and began immediately removing the meat from the pan.

"It's not that bad," Brock gave the burnt bacon a look over. "I think the Guilmon should still be able to eat it."

"Oh, you haven't seen the worst of it," Misty rolled her eyes. "You should have been there when we first set off with Greymon."

Back when they first started adventuring with Greymon

"I've got dinner!" announced Greymon as he came stomping back into camp.

"Great, I'm starving," Ash gave the dinosaur a look over. "Where is it?"

Instead of responding right away, Greymon began huffing and convulsing. At first Ash and Misty began to panic, thinking that the champion was sick. But then the Tyrantrum's mouth opened up and he spat out a pile of chewed up meat in the middle of camp.

"Dig in!" Greymon proudly offered.

Both Ash and Misty looked like they were about to barf too.

End Flashback

"Not my fault you two are so picky," Agumon huffed.

"You don't see Betamon or Gotsumon puking up dinner," Misty vexedly replied. "And I'm willing to bet none of the other Digimon did that either."

Back when Gary and Lillie first started adventuring with Garurumon

Both Gary and Lillie stared at the pile of regurgitated meat and berries. Lillie tried to smile at the wolf, but was failing to hide the sickly green tint her face had taken on. Gary, on the other hand, made no effort to disguise his disgust.

"We are NOT eating that," Gary flat out told his partner.

"Why?" Garurumon tilted his head. "Do you not like venison?"

End Flashback Two

Brock put the final tray in the serving counter as the first of the Guilmon began to file in. "Gotsumon, do you have that bread ready?"

"In a second," Gotsumon called back. "I just need to break it up."

"I'll help," Agumon carried his stool over to Gotsumon's station and climbed on. "Dude, what did you do?"

"What do you mean?" Brock got the feeling that if his partner had eyebrows, one would be raised.

"You messed up the bread," Agumon held up a loaf that looked deflated. "It's supposed to be bigger and fluffy."

Gotsumon snatched the loaf away from Agumon. "You need yeast for that. This is flatbread." He then tore of a piece and handed it to Agumon. "Here."

Agumon popped the piece in his mouth. He chewed for a moment, and then blinked at Gotsumon. "Wow. This is pretty good too. I might just have to take you off the Jerk List."

"Hazzah," Gotsumon said with all the enthusiasm of someone who was filing their taxes.

With that, the miners came into the mess hall in full force. It started out fairly orderly, but soon descended into chaos. The Guilmons started a line which devolved into a crowd and then a swarm. Not wanting to pass up on the chance for a home cooked meal the raptors would push and shove, snarl and snap and even threaten to spit fireballs at each other. To minimize damage to the eating area, Brock had to implement a "prioritize the peaceful" serving policy where he sent any Guilmon he caught picking a fight to the back of the crowd.

Then Brock had to deal with the Guilmon who wanted seconds before everyone was served. This was a bit tougher to deal with as Brock didn't have a trained eye for spotting the difference between Digimon of the same species, but he did have Agumon. The yellow reptile had a pretty adapt snout and could identify which Guilmon had been to the counter and which had not.

Soon enough the miners filled back out of the mess hall and into the mines leaving the humans and their Digimon alone to clean up the mess. After they had some food themselves.

"Finally," Ash collapsed into a bench at a now unoccupied table. "I thought it would never end."

"I thought you said your mom ran a diner," Misty said as she sat down next to Ash.

"I just did some dishes and swept sometimes," Ash moaned. "I've never served."

"Then I'd say you were a natural," Brock slide into a seat across from the two bearing several trays for food he set aside for themselves.

Following the arrival of their monster partners at the table armed with several more trays of food, the group began to eat their own breakfast with varying degrees of table manners.

Misty watched Ash and Agumon wolf down their meal as though it was about to disappear. "Careful, you're going to choke." She then took a couple of bites of her own meal and smiled at Brock. "This is really good. Did you do any restaurant work? Or is cooking a big hobby of yours?"

Brock humbly rubbed the back of his head. "No restaurant, just home cooking. I haven't had much free time for hobbies since I started running the gym."

At that comment Ash began to cough.

"I told you you'll choke," Misty groaned as she began to get up from her seat to assist.

"Don't worry, I've got this!" Agumon declared. He then slammed the side of one of his claws into Ash's diaphragm dislodging the food lodged in his throat.

As though he wasn't just gagging, Ash immediately rounded on Brock. "You're a gym leader!? Why didn't you tell us!?"

"Well, between the battle last night, getting some rest, and making breakfast, we really haven't had much time to talk" Brock carefully responded, taken aback by Ash's new bout of vigor. "Besides, it's not really all that important."

"It's going to be important when we get back!" Ash was now grinning ear to ear. "What kind of Pokémon do you use? No, wait, don't tell me. I want it to be a surprise. Just promise to come at me with everything you've got when I get my Pokémon."

"You don't need any Pokémon. I can take his team on myself if that's what you want," Agumon mumbled as he returned to his tray.

"I don't think there's going to be much of a surprise, Ash. You've already seen his rock Pokémon and he said his dad's side of the family specializes in rocks," Misty said with an eye roll. She then blinked as something clicked in her mind. "Wait, you wouldn't just so happen be Flint's son, would you?"

Brock felt a small pit in his stomach. "Yeah."

"I guess that makes your gym a family inheritance," Ash mused. "Hey, do you think I can challenge your parents to battles too when I come by your gym?"

"I wouldn't count on it. They're both off being bums," Gotsumon simply said.

Just like that, the conversation came to a screeching halt. Everyone siting at the table, human, Digimon, and Pokémon, slowly turned towards the rock Digimon who just continued to eat his meal as though nothing was wrong.

Misty was the first to speak up. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

"Just ripping the band aid off," Gotsumon shrugged. "I'm not sitting through another conversation where this guy flops around trying to cover for his guardians. See, I'm not an expert on this whole family thing, but I do know when a sap's taken advantage of and it's painful to watch."

By now, Brock's face was in the palm of one of his hands while the other was tapping the table as he felt a boil of emotions bubbling under his façade. "Gotsumon," he said in a steady voice. "That's private information. What is going on with my parents is between me and them."

"And all the other human offspring they ditched with you," Gotsumon turned to Ash and Misty and continued. "Do you guys want to know why you had to chase this guy across the entire Database Dunes? Well, from what I understand your species have these humans called "parents" who are basically humans who act as your personal elders. They protect you; they teach you, and all that jazz. But this guy's parents decided they had enough of that and went off into the world leaving a bunch of in-trainings with Brock here."

"Wait," Agumon interjected, his muzzle screwed up like he was thinking really heard about something. "Does that make Brock a human champion?"

"That's the messed-up part," Gotsumon huffed. "I think he's still just a rookie. Probably closer to the champion level than your human, but I'm still getting some rookie vibes from him."

"Is that why you've kept on moving?" Ash said slowly. "You're trying to get back to your family."

Brock took in a deep breath. It was not how he was hoping to broach this topic, but since Gotsumon kindly "ripped the band aid off" he might as well elaborate. "Let me start out by apologizing to you guys. I know that I've been forcing you to chase after me and that wasn't fair to you. But, yeah, both of my parents are out abroad, and I'm in charge while their out."

"Oh no," Misty frowned. "You don't think your siblings are in trouble, do you?"

"I've drilled them on what to do and who to contact in an emergency," Brock quickly stated. "I think they should be okay, but I really do need to get back to them."

"Then that's just another reason we need to defeat Millenniummon!" Ash declared. "Once we bring him down, then we can get you back home to your family!"

"About that," Brock ducked his head a little knowing that what he was about to say was probably not going to go down well. "When we get to the temple, I'm going to ask them if there is a way I can get sent back home."

Ash blinked. "What? What do you mean? What about the Digimon?"

"Don't get me wrong, I don't want the Digimon or their world to die," Brock quickly defended himself. "But I've already got responsibilities back home. It's been a while since I've heard from either of my parents and while I do trust the local police to help my siblings, I really need to get back to them."

Brock released another deep breath. "Besides, I've been thinking about that last group chat we had about Millenniummon…"

"We all had an agreement," Ash cut Brock off. "It might not be hopeless. We just need more information."

"And I a standby that," Brock nodded. "If we arrive at the temple and it turns out that all I need to do is press some button to evolve Gotsumon to mega or reseal Millenniummon, then I'll do it. But I've been speaking with some of the traders and other locals, and it sounds like the first human was here for a couple years before he was able to face Millenniummon. I don't think I have the time or the skills to pull that off."

"What do you mean you don't have the skills? You're a gym leader! That has to count for something!" Ash fought back.

"Yes, I do know how to fight," Brock replied evenly. "But not at the level of universe ending threats and I can't afford to stick around to train to that tier."

Brock gave both Ash and Misty his most imploring look. "Don't you guys have family as well? Aren't they worried about you?"

Both of the younger humans grew quiet at this inquiry. Misty was the first to speak up. "I don't know. It's been a long time since I've talked to my sisters. I don't think they'll notice if I'm here for a while longer, but they might know something's up if Pokémon storage reaches out to ask them about the Pokémon I'm keeping in my PC box. They'll definitely notice if I'm gone for more than a year."

WHAM!

While Misty thought through her situation, Ash slammed his hands down on the table. He then got up from his bench and marched out the mess hall slamming the door behind him.

"Wait for me!" Agumon cried out before running after Ash as fast as his stubby legs could take him.

"Ash!" Misty got up to go after the goggled boy, but Brock stopped her.

"Give him a little space," Brock said. "We can talk about this some more later."

Misty studied Brock for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Is it okay if I go clean up myself up? It's been a while."

Brock smiled. "Go ahead. Gotsumon and I can take care of clean up."

The Kitchen

For a good solid hour, neither human nor Digimon said anything. Brock washed the dishes and trays while Gotsumon began to work on preparing sandwiches for the lunch rush. Geodude just awkwardly floated around the kitchen doing various odd jobs while sparing the occasional glance at his trainer.

Finally, Gotsumon broke the silence. "Go ahead. Say it."

Brock put down the tray he was working on. "What you said was over the line."

"How so?" Gotsumon asked, not pausing his work.

"When we started our journey, I told you about my family's situation because I thought you'd want some context on why I was going to try and leave," Brock spoke in steady voice, but both rock monsters could hear a slight strain to his tone. "I didn't tell you about my family so that you could blurt it out to other people."

"Why are you defending them?"

"We've been over this," Brock groaned. "My brothers and sisters are too young to look after themselves. I'm the oldest, so I have to take care of them."

"I'm not talking about the children," Gotsumon stopped working on food and turn to stare at Brock.

"My parents aren't bad people," Brock began.

"Really?" Gotsumon reached into a cold box to bring out a large fish. "Because it sounds to me like a parent is supposed to be the heads of these 'families.' That they are supposed to be the ones taking care of the humans beneath them."

"Yes, that's sort of what they…"

"Then why are you defending them?!" That was the first time Brock heard Gotsumon raise his voice. The rookie had now taken out a knife and began chopping up the fish.

"Well what would you have me do?" Brock could feel his own voice begin to rise along with Gotsumon's.

The blade of the knife came down on the fish's head, severing it from the neck. "There's only one fate rulers who abuse their subjects deserve," Gotsumon stated darkly.

Silence returned to the room as Brock processed his partner's words. Before Brock could follow up, Gotsumon spoke again, this time in his usual deadpan. "I think that other human's been left alone long enough. Go talk with him."

Reading between the lines, Brock returned Geodude to his Poké Ball and left the kitchen to talk with Ash.

The Mines

It took a little bit of wondering, but after speaking with several miners Brock was able to find Ash and Agumon. The pair had come across a massive subterranean river. It was actually a very beautiful site. The water was lite up with patches of glowing, aquamarine crystals that created a small, glassy groove.

Ash was standing near the riverbank with Agumon, the two's forms being illuminated by a nearby bush of crystals. While Agumon sat on top of a large rock, head dipped forwards signaling that he was listening intently to the boy, Ash was picking up random rocks and tossing them into the river.

As Brock approached, he could hear the boy and monster talking.

"You said so yourself, combat is important to your world," the reptile said imploringly. "Once we defeat Millenniummon, we'll be the strongest pair around! Your mom will understand. You were going to leave her to go on a journey anyway, it's just in the Digital World now."

"That's what I was thinking," Ash responded. He picked up a stone and flung it towards a pile of boulders that made up the cave wall on the other side of the river. The stone skipped across the surface once before sinking. "But it's been a couple of weeks, and she doesn't know I'm here."

"Well, I still say you shouldn't feel guilty," Agumon said. His voice had a bit of a huff to it, but Brock could hear the underlining pleading tone. "Venturing out to become stronger is perfectly natural. Every elder knows that as soon as an in-training Digivolves into a rookie that it's only a matter of time before they leave on their own. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to my village, but that's okay because it was my time to leave anyway. Why should it be different for you?"

Ash cast his gaze down at his feet. "Maybe not, but I still think she would have wanted a call."

"Mind if I cut in?" Brock walked forward to greet the duo. Both Ash and Agumon swerved their heads around to look at Brock. While the poor lighting in the cave prevented Brock from seeing Ash's face, he could clearly make out the frown on Agumon's. Brock raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just wanted to check on you two."

"Everything's fine. Ash is just having some Rookie Venturing Anxiety," Agumon responded.

Brock arched an eyebrow. "Rookie Venturing Anxiety?"

"You know, when you first leave your hatch village to find where you belong? But it's okay. He just needed to talk to someone," Agumon looked over at Ash with a worried look. "You're okay, right? You're not going to try and go back to the human world yet, right?"

There was a minute of silence. Ash fiddled around with the rock in his hand before looking over at Agumon and giving him, what looked like to Brock, a forced smile. "No, I'm staying here."

Agumon released a sigh of relief. "Of course you're not leaving," Agumon then smiled up at Brock. "It's okay. I get that you have other humans to take care of. You can go home, and Ash and I will just pick up the slack."

"That's nice of you," Brock reached down and picked up his own stone. "But if it's alright with you guys, I want to join in on your conversation. We're going to be traveling together for a while, at least until we get to the temple, and I want to make sure the air is clear between us."

Ash blinked. "You want to clear the air? Why?"

"Well," Brock took his stone and flung it out at the water. It skipped for a bit before sinking about halfway across the river. "You didn't look to happy earlier. I want to make sure I didn't say anything that upset you."

Years of taking care of his younger siblings and dealing with a wide variety of trainers visiting the Pewter City Gym had taught Brock a fair bit about dealing with people. For starters, putting them on the spot can cause someone to put their guard up. Instead, he had to establish himself as a neutral party, someone who was going to listen.

Sure enough, Ash began to talk. "It's not you. You were right, my mom doesn't know I'm here and she's probably worried sick. But I can't leave. Not yet."

Brock watched Ash toss his stone out into the river. It skipped a couple of times before plunging into the water. "Because you want to help the Digimon?" Brock probed.

"Yeah, but," Ash picked up another rock to skip. This one just sank. "This is something I've always wanted."

"How so?" Brock bent down to feel around for another good skipping stone.

"I've got my first monster partner, he can talk to me, he's strong, I fight with him better than any simulation battle, and," Ash began to fidget uncomfortably.

Brock stood up and turned his full attention towards Ash. He didn't say anything, just let what was said next come naturally.

"And I feel like I'm actually good at something for once!" Ash emphasized this last statement with another stone toss. It also sank.

Brock mulled over this information for a second. "You said you were from Pallet Town, right?"

"Yeah?" Ash watched the ripples from his last rock die down.

"That's some pretty big shoes to fill," Brock stated. Despite being a small farming town near the sea, Pallet Town had made its mark by serving as the stomping grounds for some of the most famous and powerful trainers Kanto had ever seen. There were the Oaks, no further explanation needed, but then there was one other trainer.

That trainer went one to become the strongest trainer in the world. He was famous both for his uncanny skill to work with almost any Pokémon as well has his mystifying aura. The man liked his privacy so much that he hardly spoke a word. Arceus knows how he was able to keep the paparazzi from finding out about his personal life. Even his death was shrouded in mystery supposedly having fallen from the top of a mountain, though no one found the body.

"Back home, nobody thought I wouldn't even pass my trainer classes," Ash admitted. "But here, I'm the hero. Everyone thinks I can save the day and sometimes it feels like they're right."

"So, you don't want to leave all of this, but you are also worried about your mom?" Brock surmised.

"Pretty much," Ash gave another rock a half-hearted toss.

"I know how you feel."

Both boys and Agumon looked over to see that Misty and Betamon had entered the riverside cavern. The pair made their way up to the group where Misty continued to speak. "I've been going through some similar motions myself. At home it felt like I was trying to find my footing, but here I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be. Not just babysitting my sisters."

Sisters, sisters, that's it!

"I knew I recognized your name from somewhere!" Brock exclaimed. "You said it was Waterflower, right? You wouldn't just so happen be related to the Sensational Sisters from the Cerulean City water gym, would you?"

This question resulted in various reactions. Misty's hands clinched into fists and her face grimaced. Betamon looked back and forth between Brock and Misty while Ash's jaw dropped.

Agumon tilted his head. "Wait, isn't that the gym we weren't supposed to talk about?"

Misty released a frustrated sigh. "Yes, Agumon. That's the gym we weren't supposed to talk about. That's the gym I work for. I'm a gym leader."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?!" Ash rounded on the girl. "Is it because you were a lousy gym leader?"

"I left because I was the only competent one!" Misty snapped. She then switched to an exaggerated valley girl accent. "Like, oh my god, you loved our show? That's so sweet. Here, have a badge. Oh, you want to have a gym battle? Well, like, I'm too tired from getting my butt kicked earlier. Just, like, take the badge. Thank you for cleaning our pool, here's a badge!"

Her impression of her family over, Misty returned to scowling. "The only time that gym is run right, is when I'm in charge and that only happens when those guys are off doing a show or at some gym leader conference."

"Well, they do tend to lighten up those meetings," Brock smiled while a light blush crept across his face. It quickly vanished when he caught sight of Misty's glare.

"My mom left them the gym because they're older than me which should make them more responsible," Misty picked up her own rock and hurled it across the river. It slammed into another rock in the middle of the water and split in two. "Instead, we're just the laughingstock of the Kanto League."

"What happened to your mom?" Ash asked.

"Died protecting a pod of Lapras from poachers," Misty leaned back onto a nearby crystal and slumped a little. "She was the original Cerulean gym leader. My dad was a marine biologist. They both loved water Pokémon and put their lives on the line to protect them."

Misty bent down to pet Betamon who leaned into her touch. She gave the amphibian a small smile. "I know if they were in my shoes, they would definitely try to save the Digital World."

Betamon stared up at Misty in awe before looking around at the other humans. "So, where do we go from here? I'm glad to hear that Ash and Misty want to stay with us, but what about Gotsumon?"

"I don't need to keep a guy where he's not supposed to be. I'll be fine."

Both human and Digimon swiveled around to see yet another eavesdropper. This time it was Gotsumon who was sitting in the shadows of a large rock a bit away from everyone else. An impressive feat as no one heard the rock monster's approach nor saw his glowing eyes in the dark until he decided to bring attention to himself.

"How long have you been there?" Brock asked incredulously.

Gotsumon shrugged. "Long enough."

"Hey, Gotsumon," Agumon called out. "We've been going through a lot of drama over here. I'm thinking about putting you back on the Jerk List for starting it."

"I can live with that."

Just then, a loud series of roars echoed throughout the caverns. It was followed up by a series of Guilmon shrieks and several rumbles indicating explosions. The commotion shook some of the rocky ceiling lose causing dust to rain down on the group and some hanging crystals to jiggle around, threatening to fall and skewer whoever was unlucky enough to be underneath.

"Can't we go one day without something threatening to crush or eat us? Is that really too much to ask?" Misty groaned.

"You've been here for a while, you should know better by now," Gotsumon responded.

Mine Corridor

The group of humans and Digimon ran towards the mouth of the mines (an act which Gotsumon saw grounds to complain about) where they found chaos. Filing in, clump by clump, was the massive herd of Monochromon that Brock and Gotsumon saw the previous day.

The massive Rhyhorns were crashing into the cave and out of the sandstorm that had gotten so thick that the non-armored portion of the Digimon's skin was looking pink and irritated. To make matters messier the Guilmon were fighting back against the Monochromon. They were screeching, blasting the larger Digimon with fireballs, and even leaping onto the backs of the Monochromon to try and rip into the fleshy parts of the champions. In response the Monochromon would charge forward to knock back the Guilmon, lob their own fireballs back at their attackers, or slam their large bodies against the side of the cave to knock the Guilmon off.

"Gold Rush!" even Digmon had joined the fray firing off drills at the dinosaurs like missiles.

"We need to cut them off before this gets out of control!" announced Misty.

"It's a bit too late for that," Gotsumon deadpanned.

"Betamon, make us a barrier!" Misty ordered her partner forward.

"Right!" Betamon charged forward as fast as her stubby claws would allow before being enveloped in an energy filled bubble. "Betamon Digivolve to…Seadramon!"

The bubble burst open unleashing the massive sea serpent from the previous evening. Seadramon hissed at the invading Monochromon before rearing up and opening her maw. "Ice Blast!"

A stream of snow and hail erupted from Seadramon's mouth and began freezing the ground between the Monochromon and the rest of the mines. The serpent weaved her head back and forth building up the ice until it became a tall wall. The wall looked stable, but within seconds it began to crack.

"There's too many!" Digmon called out to the humans. "The ice won't hold them!"

"Then we'll reinforce it!" Ash called back. "Agumon!"

"On it! Agumon Digivolve to…Greymon!" Just like Betamon before him, Agumon had transformed into his champion form and rushed forwards to push back on the cracking ice.

Brock took out a Poké Ball. "We'll help too, Onix!"

Released from the Poké Ball, the rock snake slithered forward to help Greymon. But even with the efforts of two champions and a large rock type, one of the Monochromon managed to burst through. The ceratopsid charged forwards towards the humans who were now defenseless with their monsters busy trying to keep the rest of the rampaging herd back.

But before the dinosaur could trample the trainers, a certain rock monster flung himself forward intercepting the charge. The Monochromon stopped its rampage in surprise and turned its attention to the Gotsumon who was now lying on the ground before it, cracked and battered from taking the Monochromon's charge head on.

Seeing the creature that threw himself at it, the Monochromon snorted and pawed at the ground signaling another charge. It was at this point that time seemed to slow down. Brock's mind raced. Should he call Onix back and risk more of the Monochromon breaking through or should he call out Geodude and risk the smaller rock monster in a battle against a tank of an opponent? True, Gotsumon was a hard Digimon to get along with, but as he told Misty earlier, the ore Digimon did have his finer points as evidence by his sacrifice.

As if to answer Brock's frantic thoughts the Digivice on his belt began to glow. Just as the Monochromon was about the charge, it was stopped by a force field which enveloped Gotsumon. Within the safety of the sphere, bolts of pewter energy struck at Gotsumon's form causing him to grow and change.

"Gotsumon Digivolve to…"

The rocks that made up Gotsumon's body bulged and grew. He maintained his humanoid shape, but his back developed a hunch allowing for new rocky spikes and stubs to grow down his back. Gotsumon's grey complexion lightened into a dark yellow and his mouth pulled forwards making a short muzzle.

Finally, the energy within the bubble began to strap the boulders making up the new champion with various dirty wrappings and stitches around the joints. A black helmet welded and belted itself onto the upper half of the Digimon's head before the bubble burst.

The new Digimon landed on the ground below with a loud THUD shaking the cavern even more. It faced down the Monochromon and released several plumes of sulfur smelling gas from some of the spikes on its back. "Golemon."

Alarmed by its opponent sudden change, the Monochromon roared and spat out a massive fireball. Golemon raised his long arms and swept the flames away. He then intercepted the Monochormon's follow up charge with a grunt.

Ash took out his Digivice to scan the stone giant. "Golemon, champion level. It says here most of his body is made from rock data with some cursed words carved into his back to protect him from the poison gases inside him. He can unleash these gases with his attack Crimson Curse or charge his fists for a Golem Punch."

"Is now really the right time to be doing this?" Golemon asked in a deeper voice than Gotsumon's.

"They just keep coming in," Greymon roared. More cracks were forming on the ice wall while larger chunks of the cave's ceiling began to fall. "If this keeps up, we're going to die in one massive rockslide."

Wait a minute. A rockslide. Just like the one that…

"We need to let them through," Brock said as he took out Onix's Poké Ball and returned the snake.

Everyone looked at Brock like he was crazy. Brock quickly defended himself. "If we keep this up, the Monochromon are just going to pile up and collapse the entrance. What we need to do is redirect them. Geodude, I need your help!"

Brock tossed up the geode's ball to unleash the rock monster. He then called out to everyone on his side of the ice wall. "We're going to make a sandstorm. Since the Monochromon are trying to get out the sandstorm we can use our own to herd them instead of fighting them."

"We ain't got any better plans. Do it!" called back Digmon.

With that Greymon and Seadramon stepped to the side to allow the herd of Monochromon to finally crash through. As soon as they did, Geodude clapped his hands together to use his Sandstorm attack. This summoned up another sandstorm, milder than the one outside but could slowly chip away at the health of anyone who wasn't conditioned to its harsh conditions. Despite the risk of chip damage, all non-Monochromon combatants took refuge in the artificial storm to clear a path for the stampede of dinosaurs.

Fortunately, it looked like the plan was working with the Monochromon following the clear path while leaving the storm studded walls alone. It also helped that some of the Guilmon had managed to climb on top of some of the Monochromon and were now riding them down the mine's caverns with several cries of "Wheee!"

"Lead them to the river!" Brock called out to the riders and his Pokémon. From where he was floating, Geodude gave Brock a quick thumbs up and followed the dinosaur rodeo down to the cave.

As soon as the Monochromon herd had passed, the remaining miners and visitors began to follow them. Ash ran right up to Brock and grinned. "That was awesome! How did you think of that?"

"Luck, mostly," Brock explained. "I just remembered that the pile of boulders we saw on the other side of the river looked like a rockslide Gotsumon and I found right before we were taken to the mines. Since it looked like the Monochromon were attacking the boulders, I figured that they must have been trying to get at the river as well as escaping the storm."

"Your guess wouldn't be too far off," Digmon chimed in. "Sometime back we hit a fault line and that caused the rocks to block a second entrance to the caves. I'm guessin' that river must have been a stop for the Monochromon herd while they migrate."

True to Digmon's theory, as soon as the group arrived at the river, there were the Monochromon. They were no longer rampaging, rather they were calmly wading into the water and drinking heavily from the glowing stream. They didn't even seem to care that there were a number of Guilmon still scampering around and jumping on their backs.

"Wow," Misty blinked as watched the scene before her. "You gathered all that by just looking at some rubble from yesterday?"

"Like I said before, it was more of a lucky guess," Brock humbly supplied. He then frowned and turn towards Ash and Misty. "Hey, look, I'm going to be honest with you guys. I understand why you want to stay here, but I'm not sure if this is really going to work. I'll go to the temple with you guys to find out more, but I'm also going to see if there is a way back. If not at the temple, then when we met the Celestials. And I'm not just going to look for a way back for just for me, but if this quest turns out to be too much for anyone else."

The unspoken threat of Millenniummon's power hovered over everyone's heads.

"Um, Brock," Ash held out his hand. "If you do go back home, could you call my mom and tell her I'm okay?"

"C-could you do the same for my sisters? Only if they ask, of course. No need to talk to them if they don't notice anything," Misty shyly added on.

Brock gave them both a soft smile and took Ash's hand. "You have my word."

After getting some information on Ash's mom and Misty's sisters' numbers (for some weird reason they never agreed to exchange numbers with him at any of the gym leader meetings) Brock tracked down the other person he really needed to talk to. It wasn't too hard as he was now the size of a house.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Golemon gruffly greeted Brock.

"Well, I'm grateful that you saved my life, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't still mad," Brock leaned up against a crystal overlooking the river.

"Meh, fair enough," the rock giant stared down that the running water before turned back to address Brock. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I do not understand this whole family thing. So maybe you're right. Maybe I was speaking out of turn when I called your parents bums. But I have seen what happens when Digimon in power abuse those they are supposed to protect."

"Would this have anything to do with why you locked yourself in that tomb?" Within the last 24 hours Brock had discovered that his partner knew how to bake, had locked himself in a tomb for who knows how long, and was very opinionated about how people in positions of authority should conduct themselves.

Golemon didn't answer Brock. He just continued to watch the water as a Monochromon made its way into deeper waters where only its head poked out.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Brock asked.

"I want to forget about it," Golemon huffed. "Look, Brock. We've been traveling with each other for a couple of weeks. Just in this mine alone you've befriended some Digimon you thought were going to kill you, herded a bunch of dinosaurs that were definitely going to kill you, and even more impressive, you've put up with me. You're a nice guy and nice guys always get the raw deal."

The golem then sighed, releasing some earthy smelling smoke. "But I can't blame you on wanting to go back there. Especially when it looks like this place is marked for demolition."

"Hey now, there's a reason we keep saying that we need more information," Brock gave his partner an optimistic smile. "It's looking bleak, but you're world's not dead yet."

"Just make sure you don't go off dying yourself," Golemon snorted. "You don't want to compound your conundrum when you get back home."

Compound his conundrum? Brock frowned. "What do you mean?"

Golemon just rolled his eyes. "Think about it. If you die and turn into an egg then you won't be able to take care of your family. They'd just be stuck taking care of you."

"Uh, humans can't do that."

The champion's head whipped around as fast as a rock giant's neck would allow. "What?"

"We don't turn into eggs when we die," Brock explained. "There are some rare cases of people coming back as ghosts, but for the most part human life is a one and done deal."

Golemon carefully studied Brock. He then looked over at the fire-breathing Guilmon that he fought with yesterday, then at the Monochromon who came close to trampling everyone earlier, and finally to the howling winds of the desert they spent weeks hiking through. Golemon then slowly stood up and walked away. "You're crazy."

Near the blockade

The ground rhythmically shook as a lone Digimon darted across the grasslands. Each tremor served as a reminder that the towering Digimon used by the Celestials as a blockade were close enough to end him if they spotted him. This Digimon just got finished smuggling someone else across that blockade and was now looking for his client. He didn't have to look far.

In a flash, the winds whipped around the Digimon and he found himself in front of a taller Digimon with one it its sickle claws pressed up against his neck.

"Why are you following me, Broker?" asked the taller Digimon.

The broker just smiled up at the taller Digimon and spoke in a polite and steady voice. It was as though the broker didn't care that a blade was right next to his jugular. "Why, I just wanted to do a little follow up with my client. See if you made it through the blockade in one piece."

The client snorted. "If a sniveling rookie like you can make his way past the guards, so can I. What really astounds me is that you were the only one who discovered that weak spot."

"I wouldn't say I was the only one to know. Exploit, probably, but not the only one to know," the broker modestly scratched the back of his head. "More to the point, I was wondering if you wanted some follow up information."

"All I wanted was a sabbatical," the client removed his bladed claw from the broker's neck and began walking away. "I've given you your payment. We're done here."

Not one to let such a useful client walk away, the broker released an exaggerated sigh. "And here I was, thinking you might be interested in the whereabouts of the humans."

Successfully baited, the client froze. The small ears atop its head gave a little twitch. "Humans?"

"Oh yes," twin tails practically danced behind the broker. "No doubt you've heard of their arrival. And I just so happen to know where one of the chosen Digimon resides."

The broker watched the client turn around, ears perked forwards, tail slowly swishing behind him cutting up the grass with its sharp fur. "What makes you think I'd be interested?"

Aside from your horrible poker face? "Well, as an information broker I was wondering if you could run a test for me. You see, centuries ago Digimon speculate that if you were to load the data for a Digimon partnered with a human you might gain enough power to Digivolve. Now, I would like to test this theory myself, but as you pointed out I'm just a mere rookie."

The broker's face broke out into a fanged grin. "But this should be an easy task for an ultimate such as yourself."

AN: Want to see something jarring? Watch a couple episodes of Digimon Tamers that heavily feature Guilmon talking and then listen to Yukimura talk in Digimon World Next Order.

Wow! I wonder who those two were at the end there! We'll get back to them…in a couple of chapters.

Uggh, I just promised myself last chapter to keep these shorter.

I probably don't need to explain my choices too much here. Brock's Digivice is pewter grey like the name of his hometown and Golemon is his champion as reference to Golem, the final evolution of Geodude.

According to Eric Stuart, Brock's first English voice actor, Brock's last name is Harrison. This was probably something Eric made up on the spot to satisfy some curious fan, but I'm rolling with it.

The More You Know: Theropod dinosaurs are believed to be closely related to birds who have been known to regurgitate food to feed their young. Knowing this, it isn't too much of a stretch to say that some dinosaurs may have provided for their offspring in a similar manner.

There is no guessing game when it comes to wolves. We know that they sometimes regurgitate their food to feed their pups. Only nature can be this beautiful and disgusting.

On a different note, did you know a group of rhinos is called a "crash?"

Reader Response Recess!

Ashpoke55: Hm. Should Ash's Agumon turn into a WarGreymon or a WarGreymon X? Well, it's going be a loooong time before we reach mega, but I will say this: there are more than just those two choices.

Legoguy67: Our heroes won't be facing off against the cronies featured in chapter 2 anytime soon. They'd get creamed! That being said, they will be meeting those guys at the end of this arc (hopefully I can finish it around the beginning of next year).

If it makes you feel better, we will be meeting someone important next chapter and get a glimpse of another threat in the chapter after that.

The One Who Reads and Writes: In regards to your time observation, yeah weeks may seem a bit much now that you point that out. That being said I am sticking with it because these guys are crossing a continent on foot. Just assume that there are some days of travel and camp off screen. I won't give away too much, but by the time this arc is done our heroes will have spent about a month in the Digital World and it won't go unnoticed.

In regards to Pokémon civilization, I'd say it's more human-like in the Mystery Dungeon games, but those kind of exist in their own world. The Chansey school example is interesting as one could argue that it is a case of people taking a Pokémon's natural abilities, in Chansey's case its healing skills, and training them to use it in an urban environment. This may be going into head cannon territory, but I kind of figured that Pokémon would happily go along with jobs that utilize their abilities/instincts while the human does the managing and paperwork (skills that don't pop up in the wild). Kind of like how dogs are happy to do tasks that they are designed and bred for. Granted Pokémon are smarter than your average dog, but I figured the basic principle stands.

I do think that the method of Millenniummon extermination that you listed is how he was defeated in Digimon Fusion. Or so I heard. I didn't really get into that series. This fic's version of Millenniummon has a glaring weakness once you know what makes him tick, but even then he's going to make you work for it.

One final note. It's going to take a while, but if you stick with me long enough you'll get your wish on the Pokémon front.

Digimon Introduced:

Golemon: Champion, Virus, Mineral

Monochromon: Champion, Data, Armored Dragon

Guilmon: Rookie, Virus, Reptile

Digmon: Armor, Free, Insectoid

Pokémon Introduced:

Geodude: Rock/Ground, The Rock Pokémon

Next Time: Lillie and her team decide to cut through a forest. There they find a pack of diseased Digimon who manage to infect a member of the party. Can Lillie and Lunamon find the cure or will someone need to be put down?