"The Dark Network of Etemon"
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Groaning in aggravation, Daisuke flung her body down and laid on her back as she stared up at the pure blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds.
It had been almost a week since she and the others had left for Server and she was starting to get sick of the fresh scent of the sea and basking in the light of the sun.
She wanted to get off of Whamon and walk around on solid earth once again and eat something else other than fish.
"Not liking those sea legs of yours, huh?" Whamon commented making the girl roll over onto her front.
"Not really." she said as she crawled closer to the edge of his head and laid down there as she peered down at what she presumed to be Whamon's face.
"I mean, I like going to the beach and swimming and all that, but I don't get how you can stand living in the ocean. It's been five days already and I'm bored out of my mind." the girl pouted.
Whamon chuckled at that while the rest of the Digidestineds and their digimon continued sleeping, some even snoring.
The girl had gained a terrible sleep cycle over the week where she would mostly sleep and then wake up at different hours to see if anyone was playing a game or talking about something interesting enough to pass the time.
She would also wake up erly in the mornings and would talk with Whamon while everyone else was asleep and the sea digimon always found their conversations amusing.
"Well, if you were able to dive down and see all the amazing sights down in the deep blue, then you wouldn't find the ocean so boring." the great whale said.
Daisuke hummed in thought at that as she smiled and imagined what it would be like to explore the mysterious waters.
"Too bad I couldn't turn into a mermaid. That way I could see all spend as much time as I want exploring the ocean. Hey, maybe I'll even find a sunken ship with treasure." she giggled.
Whamon once again chuckled at the girl for her imagination and her desire for adventure.
You would think that being in a new world with monsters everywhere and battling the forces of darkness would be enough excitment for her.
"With a spirit like yours, I'm sure you could even find some legendary digimon hiding somewhere down in the sea." Whamon said.
Staring out into the sea, Daisuke narrowed her chocolate brown eyes when she spotted something in the distance.
"Hey, what's that?" she asked as she pointed to it.
"Hmm, oh, you're in luck. Your journey is finally over. That's Server. We made it." Whamon informed.
"Whoo hoo! Finally!" Daisuke cheered as she jumped onto her knees and threw her arms into the air.
Turning to her friends, she found that they were still sleeping peacefully a few feet away from her.
"Guys, come on, wake up! Rise and shine! We're almost at Server!" she cried.
Her excited voice slowly started to rouse the group from their sleep as they rubbed at their eyes.
Tai lifted his head up, blinking away the sleep from his eyes.
"Huh? What?" he asked.
"Wake up. We're nearing Server!" Daisuke said again.
That woke the leader up as he rubbed at his eyes and rushed over to the girl's side to look out over the ocean with his telescope out.
"Hey, you're right! We're landing on Server." Tai grinned.
"Guys, it's time to get up." Daisuke called to the others again as they forced themselves to wake up.
"I was only resting my eyes." Matt yawned.
TK and Poyomon then sat up, both looking a bit dazed.
"Well, your eyes were snoring pretty loudly." Joe said as he fixed his glasses as he sat up.
Veemon snorted as he awoke with a start and looked around as everyone soon woke up and made their way over to look at the island.
"Come on, we're gonna be there in a few minutes. We gotta make sure we have everything we need." Tai said as he pointed off to Server.
"We're really there?" Sora asked hopefully.
"Well, I'm ready to be on land again." Izzy stood.
"I'd sure like a bed that didn't move." TK said as he held Poyomon.
Staring off in the distance, the group saw Server and were amazed by what little of the island they could see.
"Wow, that island's huge!" Agumon exclaimed.
"I've never seen an island so big." Biyomon said in awe.
"It's not an island, it's the continent of Server." Tentomon corrected.
"Mimi, you've just gotta wake up and look at this. We're going to land on a big continent." Palmon said excitedly as she tried to shake her human awake.
The stubourn strawberry blonde was lightly snoring as she refused to be awoken from her beauty sleep quite yet.
"No, I'm getting a pedicure." Mimi whined as she turned over, lost in her dreams.
"Ah, Mimi..." Palmon sighed as everyone laughed at the girl in amusement.
(Later on…)
"Almost there." Biyomon said as Whamon swam closer to the island, searching for a safe place to dock.
"Server, here we come." TK smiled.
Stopping at the beach that was high up, he allowed the group to get off, Tai jumping off with Agumon first.
The others soon followed, jumping off in groups.
"Come on, Mimi!" Sora called up at the girl.
"Uh, this is a little too extreme sports for me. Is there some way I can be airlifted onto the island?" Mimi asked.
"Sorry, we can't just move the continent for you, Mimi. Now, according to the map, this is the best beach to come ashore." Izzy read the map he held.
"Just put one foot ahead of the other and you'll be fine, really. It's as easy as falling off a log, Mimi." Joe called up at her.
"Yeah, well, I've fallen off plenty of logs and believe me it's not as easy as it looks." Mimi then cried out as Whamon shook her off, making her slide down and fall on top of Izzy.
"I think I broke a nail." She said as she lifted herself up slightly while Izzy laid under her.
"Good luck finding the Crests!" Whamon called as he swam off.
Everyone then waved him off as they called out their farewells to the digimon as he dove into the ocean.
"So what are we going to do now?" Mimi asked.
"While you were asleep, Whamon told us where to go in the forest. A few miles from here, there's a Koromon village." Palmon said.
"Koromon? Why, that somehow sounds familiar." Mimi mused.
"I was a Koromon the day you got here." Agumon smiled.
"I forgot." Mimi grinned as she clapped her hands.
"The Koromon are a group of digimon always willing to help out those in need." Tentomon said.
"Okay gang, let's move out." Tai said as everyone nodded in agreement.
"This place is bigger than I thought." Sora said as the group walked in a desert looking plane.
"It's simple physics. The universe is expanding." Izzy explained.
"I think my feet are expanding. We have been walking all day long and there's no sign of the village yet." Joe said.
"Oh, I'd give anything to be in a nice clean bath tub with lots of bubble bath in it." Mimi said as she whipped sweat from her brow.
"You can do that once we get to the village." Palmon told her.
"You honestly think they have bath tubs, Palmon?" Mimi asked hopefully.
"Well…" Palmon trailed off as Agumon stopped walking.
"Hmm?" he asked as he then started sniffing around.
"Agumon, what is it?" Tai asked.
"Tai, I smell Koromon over in this direction." The orange dinosaur said.
"Really?" Tai asked as he ran up and checked with his mini telescope.
"A forest!" he gasped.
"You see a forest?" Joe asked as everyone else talked at once.
"Is that where the Koromon village is?" Matt asked.
"It must be. Come on!" Tai yelled as he and Agumon ran off.
"Hey, wait for us!" Daisuke called as she ran after the two males with Veemon at her side.
Everyone else soon chased after their four friends as they eagerly made their way into the forest in search of shade, food and water.
"Almost there." Tai told them.
Soon enough, they walked up over a hill to find a village below with tiny huts and a large building in the center.
"Wow." Matt exclaimed.
"Look!" Mimi gasped.
"Great, hut tents. We can rest." TK said.
"Even better, a bath!" Mimi giggled as she ran down.
"Wait, stop!" Palmon cried as she followed.
"Uh…" Agumon trailed off with a confused expression making everyone look at him.
"Agumon, what is it? What's the matter?" Tai asked.
"Something doesn't feel right." The orange dinosaur said making the group look over at the village.
"A bath! Somebody grab me a rubber duck!" Mimi cheered as she ran over to the digimon in the village.
They were only heads with floppy ears and had red eyes with golden green irises with creepy smiles.
"Excuse me. Where's the shampoo? Palmon, do you really think that these are Koromon?" the girl asked her partner who ran up behind her.
"No way Mimi, these are Pagumon." Palmon told her.
The Pagumon giggled as they had cute smiles on their faces that appeared quite mischivous.
Suddenly, the Pagumon then knocked Palmon down much to her surprise and then the In-Trainings lifted Mimi onto their heads as they carried her off.
"Oh no, they've got Mimi!" Palmon gasped as the Digidestineds and their digimon rushed over.
"Don't let them get away!" Joe said.
"Around that corner!" Gomamon said.
"Which way?" Tai asked when they turned and saw the huts and all the Pagumon, but no Mimi.
"Oh, help!" they heard her cry out from the largest hut that was in the center of the village.
"To the tower!" Tai said as everyone ran inside of the building.
"Mimi?" Tai yelled as the group saw the grand staircase and yellow drapes around the room.
"Mimi?" TK called out.
"Mimi, where are you?" Daisuke called as she glanced around.
"Hey, look up there, that's Mimi's hat." Sora said pointing to one of the staircases.
Sora ran up the stairs and picked up the pink cowgirl's hat.
"There's the price tag. It's Mimi's." Sora said as the boys ran past her.
"That's Mimi's purse, she never goes anywhere without it." Joe said and the purse still had her digivice strapped to it as it lied there on the floor.
"Logically that can only mean one thing; she's missing." Izzy said.
"That's it!" Tai huffed in annoyance as he threw back some of the yellow drapes.
Sora then looked over to where a cage like shelf was and it had a basket with a pink dress in it as she pulled it out to check.
"No, Tai! Don't go in there!" she cried.
"Mimi?" Tai asked as he pulled back the curtain and he froze in shock.
"Oh, wash, wash, wash away!" Mimi sang as she relaxed in the large in ground bath tub.
Izzy, being curious as ever, walked up beside the goggle head and froze in shock as well.
"Uh, Mimi, sorry!" Izzy yelped alerting the strawberry blonde.
Her face burned red and she then covered her torso with her arms to try and hide herself.
"AHH! Haven't you two ever heard of the phrase; 'Please knock before entering'?!" Mimi yelled as she began throwing things.
"Mimi, we're here to rescue you and-"Tai was cut off when a bowel was thrown at him and hit him in the head.
Izzy was hit in the head by a shampoo bottle while Sora walked over and closed the curtain.
"I believe I said don't go in." she said simply as the two boys lay on the floor, groaning in pain.
"Sickos." Daisuke huffed as she placed her hands on her hips.
The two boys groaned in pain as they remained on the floor in a state of shock.
(Later on…)
"Welcome to our village.
We hope you never go.
Stay and visit here with us.
And please enjoy the show!" the Pagumon sang with party hats on.
The Digidestineds were sitting in a circle as plates and bowels of food were served to them by the Pagumon.
"This is definitely a Pagumon village." Gabumon said to Agumon.
"Something's wrong here, Gabumon. I know what I smelled was Koromon. I bet my nose on it." the dinosaur said.
"But then why are all these Pagumon here?" Veemon asked.
"Here's your fruit platter." The Pagumon said as they brought the bowels with fruits and vegetables in them over to the humans and their partners to eat.
"I feel just like a princess in a beautiful palace." Mimi gushed.
"I once had a Chihuahua named Princess." Joe said making her look at him.
"Listen, Tai, you don't suppose this could be some kind of trick?" Sora asked.
"Of course not. You think I don't know a good digimon from a bad one?" Tai asked as he munched on a pear.
"This is really strange. I always heard that Pagumon were awful pranksters." Tentomon said with crossed arms.
"You were just hearing an awful rumour." Gomamon said.
"Nice of you to say that." One of the Pagumon said.
"These guys are really nice little digimon." Biyomon said to Palmon as the two ate their fruit with a smile.
"Right, nice digimon." Another Pagumon said as he and his friend passed by.
"You like that?" TK asked as Poyomon ate, but then the jellyfish stopped and started shaking.
He then was covered in yellow light.
"Poyomon digivolve too…TOKOMON!"
Instead of the white jellyfish was now the familiar white guinea pig that we had seen on our first day here.
"Hey, he's Tokomon again!" TK cheered as the little guy jumped into his arms.
"That's awesome!" Daisuke grinned happily.
"The food made him digivolve." Izzy said.
"Congratulations." Matt said as TK laughed.
The Pagumon were oddly quiet as they just stared at the two partners hugging.
"Together we can make me Patamon again." Tokomon said.
"Mm-hmm." TK hummed happily in agreement.
"Let's hear it for Tokomon!" Mimi cheered as she stood up.
Everyone then cheered and clapped for Tokomon to show their support while the Pagumon snapped out of their silence and joined in.
"Congratulations!
Way to go!
We're so excited!
All aglow!" the Pagumon sang and they had this creepy look in their eyes.
(In the morning…)
"Tokomon! Tokomon!" TK called.
When the group woke up the next day, they found that Tokomon was missing, so they ran off to go find their friend.
"Where are you?" TK frowned in worry.
"Tokomon, come on out! Where are you?" Daisuke called with her hands cupped over her mouth as she walked around searching for the little digimon.
Tai was on top of one of the huts as he searched with his telescope.
"Where could he have gone too?" Tai asked.
"Tokomon, if you can hear me, say something!" Biyomon flew overhead.
Under the hut Tai was standing on, Mimi, Joe, Izzy and Sora were standing there.
"Well, it looks like he's not in the soft part of the village." Sora said as Matt walked over.
"It looks like he's not in the village." The blonde said.
Izzy was drawing a map of the village in the dirt as everyone walked over to the hut.
"Hmm, can we hurry this up? I'm scheduled for a facial and a mud pack in half an hour." Mimi said.
"Tokomon should know better than to interrupt your beauty treatments." Gomamon joked as he winked at her while Veemon snickered.
"You're so right." Mimi sighed making Joe look at her.
"He's being sarcastic." He told her making her gasp in shock.
"Well, he's not by the waterfall." A Pagumon said as the swarm hopped over.
"Okay, thanks." Izzy said as he crossed out the picture on the ground.
"This is bad." The redhead whispered.
"Where could he have gone?" Daisuke asked as Veemon came up to her side.
The eight original Digidestineds had never told them about Tokomon being lost or getting kidnapped before, so they weren't sure where to look or what to do.
"Where is he?" TK whimpered as he clutched at Daisuke's hand.
The girl placed a comforting hand on his head, keeping her focus on the boy while Veemon noticed the Pagumon grinning wickedly behind the group.
What were those sneaky digimon grinning about?
"Tokomon's really very small. He can't have gone too far." Izzy said.
"Agumon's been gone a long time. I wonder if he's found anything." Tai lowered his telescope in worry.
Suddenly, he spotted steam rising from the forest and he lifted his telescope to get a closer look.
"Huh? That's weird." The goggle head commented.
"What do you see Tai?" Matt asked.
"Smoke by the river." Tai pointed.
"Smoke? What?" Joe asked as everyone turned to see the steam rising higher.
"Did someone start a fire?" Daisuke asked.
"It's Tokomon!" TK exclaimed.
"No, really, it's nothing. We looked by the river and didn't see a thing." One of the Pagumon said as the swarm grew nervous.
"Didn't see a thing!" the swarm repeated.
"Are you sure about that?" Veemon demanded as he crossed his arms and glared at the Pagumon.
"Well, it is possible that Tokomon arrived there after you searched the area." Izzy said.
"Hey, what if that smoke's being made by Agumon?" Daisuke suggested.
"Yeah, it could be possible that Agumon found Tokomon by the river and is signaling us." Sora said making the Pagumon sweat.
"I'll check it out." Tai offered as he walked over to the group.
"No, don't do that!" the Pagumon cried.
"Hey, so what's the problem? We're just going to look around." Sora told them.
"What's got you guys so worked up?" Daisuke asked as she started to feel suspicious.
Could the Pagumon be responsible for Tokomon's sudden disappearance?
"Take our word for it." A Pagumon said hesitantly.
Screaming was then heard making everyone turn to see Mimi had found a baby digimon that was a black kitten head with gold eyes.
"Ew! Ew! What is this thing?!" Mimi asked fearfully.
Eyes growing wide in recognition, Daisuke rushed over and carefully picked up the baby digimon and it cooed happily and it cuddled into her warm chest.
"It's a Botamon! We saw digimon like these at Primary Village." Daisuke informed.
"Why would there be a Botamon here?" Palmon asked as the Pagumon got even more nervous, looking plain guilty.
"What do ya mean?" Matt asked.
"Botamon is the small egg form that digivolves into Koromon and then into Agumon." Gabumon explained.
"Then the Pagumon lied to us." Tai stated.
Everyone then turned their glares on the Pagumon who twitched nervously before they then started singing as they hopped off.
"It's time for us to leave here.
We really hate to go.
We told you this was our place, now you know it isn't so.
Pagumon is our name…"
"There they go." Sora commented as the In-Trainings quickly made their getaway.
"Never trust anything without feet." Tai glared.
"Or with creepy smiles." Daisuke added as she rocked Botamon.
With the troublesome Pagumon gone, the group wuickly rushed off towards the river in search of their missing friends.
When they arrived, they heard yelling over the roaring waterfall that Tai recognized as his partner's.
"Agumon!" Tai yelled.
"Tai! Help me!" Agumon cried from behind the water fall.
"Hang on, Agumon!" Tai called.
Running behind the water, Tai found that Agumon was lying on the ground injured as two Gazimon stood around him.
Tokomon and the Koromon villagers were all locked up in cages.
"Agumon, are you all right?" Tai asked as he stood in the cave.
"Now I am." Agumon smiled as his two captors glared at the human boy.
"So, you're one of the Digidestieds." One of the Gazimon commented.
"Digivolving time. Agumon, get up." Tai told his partner.
"You got it!" Agumon narrowed his eyes.
"Agumon digivolve too…GREYMON!"
Everyone else stood outside as they watched Greymon's horn cut through the water, opening a path for them as some of the rocks from the mountain fell.
"Outstanding." Izzy exclaimed.
Botamon then cooed in excitement as he stared up at Greymon in awe making Daisuke smile down at the baby.
"That's right. That's what you're gonna be when you grow up." she chirped.
Matt gave a small smile at the girl, amazed by how well she was tending to the baby digimon.
Younger digimon always seemed to be drawn to her and it was confusing to him, but he supposed that she did have a warm aura around her that comforted others.
"So, you like to fight two against one, eh?" Greymon asked the cowering Gazimon.
Greymon then fired his Nova Blast at the Gazimon, sending them off into the river.
"Greymon did it!" Tai pumped his fist.
"Tokomon, I thought I lost you again!" TK freed Tokomon and held him.
"I'm like a boomerang. I keep coming back." Tokomon smiled.
"The Pagumon are gone. You can all return to your village now." Sora told the Koromon as they were freed from their cages.
"Thank you!" they all cried.
"Hello!" a male voice called as they heard the feedback from a microphone.
"Great. A digi rock star." Joe quipped.
Looking up, they found a hologram of an orange monkey who wore sunglasses and held a microphone and guitar.
"You measly little Digidestined humans, thank you very much. Hello." He greeted.
"It's Etemon! Oh no!" the Koromon cried.
This digimon Daisuke remebered hearing about, but only briefly.
He was quite troublesome to deal with and had the ego of a rock 'n' roll singer despite being tone deaf and having no range when it came to singing.
That was all that was really said about him, so she was unsure of what kind of threat the wannabe rock star was.
"You little bratty kids messed up all my big beauty plans. So now I'm gonna have to punish you all by playing a little number I just wrote. It's called 'Wreaking the Whole Place'!" Etemon smirked.
"Wrecking the Whole Place?" Tai asked.
"Do you think he can do that?" Izzy asked.
"Dark Network Concert Crush." Etemon called.
Suddenly, the ground started to quake making everyone gasp as they saw the ground glow red and black cables rose from the ground as Etemon laughed.
The cables began to destroy the village, hut by hut and started getting closer to the Digimon and humans, a blast making the water splash on the group.
"Everyone digivolve now!" Sora called.
"Let's go!" Tai and Matt said.
"Gabumon digivolve too…GARURUMON!"
"Well, ya say you want a digivolution. Guess what? The answers no!" Etemon sang off-key as he played a cord on his guitar making the cables vibrate.
Dark Network was activated again making the two Champions roar in pain as they reverted back to their Rookie forms.
"Something strange is going on." Tai said.
Another blast hit the water making everyone cry out from the quaking.
"Concert Crush took our power." Agumon frowned sadly.
"Does rock and roll have that effect in your world?" Tentomon asked.
"Only on our parents." Sora said.
"So there's no way for us to fight this monster?" Izzy asked as the village was being destroyed.
"As we are, no. If only we could digivolve a step further." Tentomon commented.
"A step further?" Matt asked.
"That must be what Gennai was referring to when he told us about finding the Crests and the Tags." Sora realized.
"I think it's a little late for that, Sora." Joe told her.
The attack got more dangerous as sparks hit the mountain, boulders falling down to block their exit.
Trapped, the humans and digimon all took off running further into the mountain to escape Etemon.
When they reached the end, they found a wall with a strange eight pointed sun symbol on it.
"What's this?" Tai asked.
"This is a place where we hide when anything bad happens to our village." Koromon said.
"What do we do now?" Tai asked them.
Suddenly, his Tag glowed orange making him pull it out from under his shirt and everyone looked at it curiously.
The walls and ground around them all glowed orange as everyone looked around the room curiously.
Daisuke's breath caught in her throat as she felt the familiar power of the Crest of Courage and stared at it longingly.
She could tell that Tai was feeling the connection to the Crest since it belonged to him, but it was technically hers too.
Would she also feel this connection when Matt found the Crest of Friendship?
Shaking her head to rid herself of the thoughts, the girl watched as the wall with the Crest on it shrunk and floated down in front of Tai who stared at it, dazed and in awe.
"I think I know what this is." Tai said.
"Okay, what?" Matt asked as the orange tablet then slid into Tai's Tag.
"A Crest." He told them.
"A Crest?" Sora asked.
"Exactly. Now we've got a Crest." Tai smiled.
"How awesome is that?" Matt grinned.
"Look!" Sora pointed to where the wall used to be.
Looking over, everyone exclaimed in awe when they saw that the Crest had teleported them away from the village.
"Didn't this used to be a wall?" Joe asked.
"Yeah, but the Crest must have brought us here. These mountains are a long way from our village." Koromon said.
"All right, frequent flyer miles." Joe smiled.
"This place is the bomb." Matt said.
"It's beautiful." Mimi clasped her hands.
"Hmm, with this Crest, we can do anything we want. You know guys, I think this is the first step to our trip home." Tai said as he held his Crest.
To be continued...