Sunny Days
"Ooomph!" TK and Patamon landed in an overfilled dumpster in a sketchy alley.
"Really? We had to fall in the trash?" Patamon struggled to wiggle himself from of the weight of the trash bags.
"At least you didn't have something sharp poke you. I hope it was a really thin piece of glass, and not a...nope, that's a needle," TK sighed as he pulled a syringe out from his thigh.
"Where are we?" Patamon hung over the edge of the dumpster.
"Hmm, judging by the trash and the graffiti on the buildings, I'm going to say New York City. I've always wanted to go, but not like this. It would be cool to take pictures with Elmo," TK climbed out of the dumpster and picked Patamon up.
"Hate to burst your boom bubble, but I don't think we're in the real world," Patamon frowned.
"Maybe you're right. It's empty here. Unsettlingly empty," TK held Patamon in his arms.
"It sucks I can't digivolve in case of an emergency," Patamon sighed.
"It's okay. Everything in due time. Do you know what you would digivolve to?" TK asked.
"No, it'll be as much as a surprise to me as it is to you," Patamon said.
"Interesting. It's hard to predict- you could turn into something random like a cactus with boxing gloves, or something totally predictable like a larger version of yourself. Like what if you transform into a large piggy bank with an Iron Man costume? That would be interesting," TK pursed his lips.
"I'm not a pig!" Patamon turned around to face TK and crossed his arms.
"Oh, are you a hamster? What if you digivolved into a hamster with a mecha suit?" TK hummed.
"I'm not a hamster either! I'm a Patamon! And what's your deal with wanting me to wear some sort of armor suit?" Patamon huffed.
"Okay, I'll go the other route. What if you just end up as a knockoff Superman? Imagine, like Superman vs. Batman?" TK looked up at the corner of his eyes.
"TK!" Patamon snapped.
"Sorry, I don't have the best imagination," TK shrugged.
"I'm really starting to miss everyone else- they made you look smart," Patamon scrunched his face up.
"I see...," TK bit his lip.
"Wait a minute-"
"No no, let's go and try to find everyone! We probably should be doing that. What good would we be by ourselves anyways? Tentomon did say I was one of the more helpless ones in the group, and you actually not being able to digivolve isn't adding any points in our favor," TK quipped.
"Hmm, maybe we should stop talking for a bit, huh...," Patamon wriggled out of TK's arms and walked alongside him.
"Maybe," TK shrugged and put his hands in his pocket as they walked through abandoned brick buildings.
*whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop*
"Uh, are those police sirens?" TK picked his head up at the sight of flashing white and blue lights.
"Yeah," Patamon stopped walking.
"I thought you guys said there weren't police here," TK said.
"When did we ever say that?" Patamon shot him a weird look.
"When Izzy was cooking his meth," TK said.
"I don't recall or remember what we said, but I don't think we ever said there were no cops here. I think you might have misunderstood us," Patamon said.
"Alright, so let me ask this. Is meth legal here?" TK asked.
"Oh god no. Izzy better be careful, cause he could end up in jail and that's nothing to take lightly," Patamon shook his head.
"What? I swear all the times we've mentioned jail and none of you freaked out or warned us about it?" TK gasped.
"I thought you guys would have common sense to know that we have jails here. After all, we can't run society smoothly without some way of enforcing law and making sure people fall in line, right?" Patamon said.
"I guess I see where you stand. Are you sure you're not a pig?" TK narrowed his eyes.
"You might not like where I stand, but you can't even see where you're walking! Watch out, you almost cracked that big egg!" Patamon walked in front of TK to stop him.
"What the heck? It's huge. It's what I imagine a dinosaur egg to look like," TK bent down to look at it.
"It's a digi-egg!" Patamon said.
"A digi-egg?" TK asked.
"Yeah, that's how we're born. But I wonder what this is doing by itself," Patamon frowned.
"Huh, there's a note that says to rub it. Should I do it?" TK bent down to inspect the egg closer.
"Maybe that's how they hatch. Do it," Patamon said.
"Here goes," TK picked the egg up and started to rub it.
*crack*
"Achoo!" a white, ghost blobby creature appeared in TK's arms and blew bubbles in his face.
"Oh...does this mean I'm a mommy now?" TK raised an eyebrow.
"I guess so," Patamon lifted up one of his paws.
"Hmm, I wish we could find a buggy for it or something. We'll be doing quite a bit of walking," TK said.
"You mean like that one?" Patamon pointed to a fancy stroller.
"Oooh, exactly like that one! Alright little guy, let's buckle up!" TK gently placed the small creature into the stroller and started pushing it. "Patamon, do these things need to wear diapers?"
"I'm not sure. I don't remember much about being a baby. Do you?" Patamon said.
"Not really. I know I had to wear diapers, because all babies wear diapers in the real world. But I don't remember much about being a baby. Matt was the older brother, so I'm pretty sure he was the one who took care of me when my parents were fighting during the divorce. I wish he was here right now. I bet he would know what to do. Maybe we should get this thing back to its parents," TK frowned.
"TK, we don't have parents here," Patamon shook his head.
"Then how do guys grow up? This little thing can't just live out on its own. It's just a baby!" TK gasped.
"Each neighborhood has its own nursery. Like there's one digimon that's destined to be a caretaker of all of the newborn digimon until they grow past the baby stage," Patamon explained.
"Huh," TK frowned.
"It's weird that this digi-egg was found outside of the nursery. That's definitely not normal, but you're on the right track. We should find out where this nursery is," Patamon said.
"Hmm, I wonder how we're going to do it, when it seems like it's a ghost town here," TK looked around as he pushed the stroller.
"Hey!" a furry, green monster popped up from a trash can.
"Whoa!" TK and Patamon jumped back.
"Let's make a bet! If I can guess where you got your shoes from correctly, you buy me lunch. If I guess wrong, I'll hook you up," the green monster smirked.
"No thanks, I'm not wearing shoes," Patamon tucked his feet in.
"Yeah, no thanks. I'd feel bad since you'd lose," TK shook his head.
"I never lose! You got them shoes on your feet! Now buy me lunch!" the green monster cackled.
"No, we didn't agree to play your game! Also, we have no money," TK angrily yelled.
"You got that fancy stroller," the green monster smirked.
"My baby is using it though!" TK gasped.
"You sure?" the green monster cracked his knuckles. "Gentlemen?"
"Grrr...," a group of intimidating, furry creatures surrounded and hovered over TK and Patamon.
"Uh, okay...we don't want to fight. Come on little guy," TK sighed as he unbuckled the little baby digimon from the carriage.
"Well, if you're going to steal our stroller from us, can you at least tell us how to get to the nursery?" Patamon quipped.
"First of all, we didn't steal this from you. We earned it. Second of all, just walk a couple of blocks straight, then cut that corner and walk along that street and you'll see that building. Super obvious, it will have alphabet blocks along the entrance," the green monster flashed them a thumbs up.
"Thanks...," TK flatly said.
"Yeah, no problem. Carry on with your day! Heh heh heh," the green monster slipped back into his trash can as his goonies walked off with the stroller.
"Man, I can't believe we got mugged. We can't tell anyone about this," TK groaned.
"I wasn't planning to...," Patamon scoffed.
"Wahhhhh," the baby started to cry.
"Aww, I want to cry too. Everyone's right, I'm such a dopey idiot!" TK sniffled.
"TK, pull yourself together! You're going to make me cry too! Now how am I expected to digivolve now?" Patamon pressed his lips together.
"Okay, you're right. We can make it out of this...let's sing a song," TK took in a deep breath as he cradled the crying baby. "Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet, can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?"
"No, we're supposed to get to the nursery," Patamon huffed.
"It's just a song, Patamon. Relax. Besides, the mugger told us how to get there," TK said.
"I can't believe we're even trusting the mugger," Patamon grumbled.
"I mean, we have no choice but to, unless we come across someone else. Besides, it's not like we have anything more to steal. That's actually pretty sad," TK sighed and continued to sing. "Come and play, everything's a-okay, friendly neighbors there, that's where we meet, can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?"
"Can you sing a different song? Or not at all? I hate this one. For some reason, it's really hitting a sore spot for me," Patamon said.
"Okay, fine. But the baby liked it...," TK sighed and kept walking.
"Well, I'll be damned. The thief was right. Look, TK!" Patamon pointed to a building straight ahead.
"It's the nursery," TK cocked his head to the side. "Let's go."
"We can finally drop off this baby and keep moving on," Patamon said.
"Oh, I know we haven't spent that much time with it, but I'll miss it already. But it'll probably be better off here than with us," TK pouted as they climbed up the stoop to the building.
"Wow...," Patamon gingerly stepped in and scrunched up his face.
"Waaaah! Wahhhhhh!"
"Ew, I take back what I said. Maybe we should hold on to him. It smells like baby poop," TK tucked his nose in his shirt.
"Wow, this nursery is awful," Patamon winced.
"It almost looks like a crack house. If it weren't for the babies everywhere, I would think it was a crack house," TK whistled as he explored the dilapidated rooms of the nursery. Each room was almost as filthy as the previous one, with crying and dirty babies everywhere.
"Where is the person in charge of the nursery?" Patamon asked.
"I don't see anyone here. I'm assuming that's not normal, is that?" TK bit his lip.
"No! And the nursery definitely shouldn't be this filthy! I'm wondering if these babies are even getting fed," Patamon walked around.
"Doubt it. The fridge is empty," TK frowned.
"So are all the cupboards," Patamon shook his head disapprovingly.
"Oooh, when that guy gets here, we're going to give him a piece of our mind! We can't leave the babies like this!" TK huffed.
"What? What are we going to do? We can't feed them! There's no food here," Patamon frowned.
"But we can at least clean up a little. Come on, this is awful," TK grabbed a mop and bucket.
"Uh, I'm starting to see where Agumon is coming from now...," Patamon sighed.
"Now do you want to give the babies a bath or do you want to mop the floors?" TK asked.
"Ugh, you take care of the babies...," Patamon grabbed a sponge and tossed it into the bucket.
Meanwhile...
"Yeah, I'll be back for the Cubans! You promised me," Elecmon yelled as he stepped out of a smoke shop. He started scratching away at some lottery tickets as he made his way back to the nursery and frowned. "Ugh, another dub...and another one. I'll eventually become a millionaire one day. I just need the right ticket."
"Wahhhhhh!"
"Ugh, back to reality," Elecmon slipped a cigarette in his mouth and sighed as he opened the door to the nursery.
"It's okay baby, this is called a bath. You're not used to being clean, are you?" TK gently washed a small, black creature with black cat ears.
"Hey! Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my nursery? Super Thunder Strike!" Elecmon shot electric shocks from his tails.
*zap*
"Ugh!" TK fell to the ground.
"TK!" Patamon ran over to TK.
"Super Thunder Strike!" Elecmon attacked Patamon.
"Geez, what is your problem?" Patamon groaned.
"Why did you tase us?" TK laid on his back.
"Who sent you here? Social services?" Elecmon aggresively went on all fours and growled.
"Nobody...we came here on our own. Are you the one in charge of this place?" TK rolled over to stabilize himself.
"What's it to ya?" Elecmon defensively said.
"You should be ashamed of yourself if you are! Did you know these babies are dirty and hungry?" TK angrily said.
"Yeah, and what am I supposed to do about it?" Elecmon mockingly said.
"If I'm not mistaken, don't you get public assistance to cover the cost of raising the babies?" Patamon made a face.
"Yeah, but that only goes so far, especially with all the babies I have here!" Elecmon exclaimed.
"That's impossible! All of the nurseries should be provided with a decent amount of money to take care of each baby," Patamon said.
"Should... which is why I use the funds to buy lottery tickets instead. Maybe I'll win big, and then it will help us out more," Elecmon said.
"Uh, I don't think it works like that at all...," TK grimaced.
"Have you at least tried to work with what they give you?" Patamon frowned.
"Actually, no... I'm new at this," Elecmon said.
"Yeah, you must be," TK shook his head.
"Look, don't judge me! I was appointed as nursery leader, and for what? I don't know what I'm doing! I have no experience with babies!" Elecmon exclaimed.
"I see that," Patamon quipped.
"Patamon...," TK said through the side of his mouth.
"What? I'm just agreeing with him," Patamon lifted his paw up.
"Uh...sir-oh, I just realized we never got your name," TK awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
"You can call me Elecmon," Elecmon said.
"Okay, well Elecmon, I'm TK and this is Patamon. We honestly didn't mean to intrude, but we saw this random baby in the street, so we wanted to bring it somewhere safe and this is where we ended up. Trust us, neither one of us have experience with babies either, but it didn't stop us from trying," TK put his hand on his chest.
"Really? You guys seem to have done a good job. All of the babies are cleaned up, they're not crying as much, and the house looks better than I left it," Elecmon remarked.
"You're welcome!" Patamon said.
"The only thing left to do is to feed them, but we noticed that you don't have anything in the kitchen," TK frowned.
"Oh, that's because I DoorDash all of our meals. I don't know how to cook," Elecmon shrugged.
"But doesn't that get really expensive?" Patamon made a face.
"See what I mean? I don't get enough money to support all of these babies!" Elecmon threw his hands up in the air.
"Uhhh...seems like you need help. Why don't we look at your last couple of bank statements?" TK raised an eyebrow.
"Oh boy. If this might help," Elecmon pulled a shoebox from underneath a sink and grabbed several crumpled papers from inside.
"First things first, you might want a better filing system," Patamon snorted.
"Patamon...," TK said in a warning tone.
"Well, here you go," Elecmon nervously handed TK the bank statements.
"Hmm, you get $25,000 a month to run this nursery...I see DoorDash for $257, another DoorDash for $332, DoorDash, DoorDash, New York Bagel for $50. What did you buy at a New York Bagel that was $50?" TK skimmed through the papers.
"These...," Elecmon pulled out some scratch-off tickets.
"Yeah. And how many times have you won anything from those?" TK crossed his arms.
"I won $5 once," Elecmon reluctantly said.
"And how much was the scratch-off ticket for that?" TK raised an eyebrow.
"$20- but there was a $1 million jackpot with that scratch-off!" Elecmon protested.
"That you didn't win. I think you'd save more money if you quit doing these scratch-offs. They're clearly not working out for you," TK said.
"Ah, you know, you're right! I should switch to Keno instead," Elecmon snapped his fingers.
"No, no, no, not what I meant!" TK hit himself in the face with the stack of papers in his hand.
Meanwhile...
"Heh heh heh heh heh, they're all alone, and that hamster with wings still hasn't digivolved yet- maybe because there isn't any reason to. Maybe I should keep it that way for now, this is going to be even easier than I thought," Devimon laid back on a recliner and snacked on some plain popcorn as he watched surveillance footage of TK and Patamon.
"Hey boss, whatcha- hey! How is your TV working? Can you fix mine? I miss watching Big Bro-"
"NO!" Devimon cut Leomon off. "I need you to do something first!"
"Will you fix my TV?" Leomon asked.
"Who the hell do you think you are to be bargaining with me?!" Devimon grabbed Leomon and pinned him against the wall.
"Sorry Batman. I am ready to be at your service 24/7, just like all of our Planet Fitness locations, where if you sign up for the Black Card, you'll enjoy special benefits like 10% off cooler drinks, a VIP lounge area-"
"Okay, that's good enough!" Devimon interrupted Leomon's hypnotized spiel. "Look, I need you to go to Primary Village and eliminate that orange hamster, but be discreet. The last thing we want to do is to cause that little shit to digivolve."
"Primary Village? Isn't that the nursery next to the strip club with all the uggos in that sketchy neighborhood?" Leomon grimaced.
"Do it NOW!" Devimon screamed in Leomon's face.
"Okay, okay...," Leomon trudged out of the room and sulked.
"Ugh, I wish I picked better henchmen," Devimon rubbed his temples and plopped back down in his recliner.
"Alright, after looking over everything, I feel optimistic about all of these changes. Maybe it will be possible to take care of all of these babies after all," Elecmon sifted through all of his bank statements.
"It's all a learning process, none of us come out knowing how to do everything right off the bat," TK said.
"I just wish I had some more guidance in this before they threw this job at me," Elecmon cradled a baby.
"Hate to say it, but that's life. Figuring out a lot of stuff out on your own. However, there's a reason why they trusted you with this job, so have some faith in yourself," TK shrugged.
"I couldn't have done it without you guys. I needed some outside perspective," Elecmon said.
"Damn straight!" Patamon said.
"Patamon...," TK raised an eyebrow.
"What? I'm just agreeing with the guy," Patamon huffed.
Meanwhile...
"Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious...," Leomon sang quietly, shaking his shoulders. He stood on top of some trash cans and peered through a window, pulling out a knife as he watched TK and Patamon playing with all of the digimon babies.
*rattle rattle*
"What the?" Leomon looked down at his feet.
"Hey asshole, you're stepping on my house!" a muffled sound came from the trash can.
"What? This is a trash can," Leomon grimaced.
"And? Are you judging my home, you classist jerk?"
"I really don't have the time for this...," Leomon stabbed his knife straight down the trash can and slinked away into the shadows.