"The Crest of Sincerity"
Please enjoy and review!
The hot sun was beating down on the heads of the Digidestineds and their digimon as they forced themselves to continue walking along, ignoring their hunger and desire for water.
"Man, this desert is so hot, even a lizard would need sunscreen." Matt said as everyone panted and groaned from the heat.
"Sora, can you carry me?" Biyomon asked as she looked up at her partner pleadingly.
"Not even." The orange haired girl dnied since she didn't have the energy to do so.
"The crew cut would look nice on you and its cooler." Tentomon said to Izzy.
"Do I look fat?" Gabumon asked when he noticed his human staring at him.
"No, you look hot. Especially with the fur coat. That thing really needs a zipper." Matt said.
"Or maybe just removable shirt sleeves." Gabumon frowned as he looked himself over.
Stumbling forward, Daisuke almost tripped over her own feet as Veemon grabbed her around the waist to steady the girl.
"Man, I don't know how anything can survive in this heat. I feel like I'm baking here." Daisuke groaned.
"I don't wanna be cooked." Veemon pouted pitifully.
"I haven't rested my feet." Gomamon whined.
"There's no place to sit, except on a cactus." Joe said.
"Great view up here." Tokomon said from his place on top TK's head.
"Next time I ride." The blonde panted as he walked slumped over.
"You look terrible, Koromon. If only I hadn't acted like such a bone head, you never would have digivolved." Tai looked at his partner sadly.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, although come to think of it, you really have made a super icky mess of things." Mimi giggled.
"Thanks, Mimi." Tai said sarcastically.
"Oh, don't mention it, Tai. I'm glad to help with the pep talk now and then." the pink loving girl said making Tai crack a small smile.
She may be blunt, but she was also honest and kind.
"I haven't sweated this much since cheerleader try outs." Mimi said as she took her hat off to whip away sweat, Palmon panting with her tongue hanging out.
"Koromon doesn't look so good. I'm worried." Tai said.
"This heat can't be good for anyone." Daisuke complained as she and Veemon walked over.
"You know what we need right now is a whole bunch of shade. A big umbrella or a really big tree. Or maybe I can grow into a giant cactus and smile down onto all of you as I provide cool, refreshing comfort." Palmon mused.
"It's official, the sun has just turned Palmon's brain into a French fry. Earth to Palmon. Come in." Matt called to the day dreaming Rookie.
"Palmon, look." Mimi said snapping her partner out of it as everyone stared at the humongous cactus that was in front of them.
"Wow, I did that? Gee, I'm pretty amazing." Palmon said.
"Yeah, you better believe it, Palmon. Come on everybody, let's head for some shade." Tai announced.
Everyone cheered as they all ran towards the cactus that was weirdly enough swaying back and forth looking really wobbly.
"What happened to the shade?" Tai asked when they stopped at the base of the cactus.
It slowly faded away from view, meaning it wasn't real at all.
"It was just a mirage. We've been tricked." Matt said as everyone fell to their hands and knees or bottoms in defeat.
"That was cruel." Veemon whined.
"Well, well. It's about time you got here." A familiar voice called out making everyone look around curiously.
A beam of light shone from the ground and a transparent illusion of Gennai appeared.
"And you're just about ready to give up on me." He commented.
"It's Gennai." Matt said.
"Gennai, we've found the Tags and a couple of Crests like you wanted, but when we got into trouble, our digimon couldn't digivolve. They ended up worse off than when they started. Take a look at poor Agumon. He is just not himself and I'm supposed to helping me." Tai said holding up Koromon.
"I think those thingies are more trouble than they're worth." Mimi stated with a frown as she crossed her arms.
"Calm down, kids. Let me explain. The Tags and Crests are extremely important; please make sure no one gets a hold of them. In the end you shall see that they work together to help you create total harmony." Gennai said.
"In English?" Mimi requested since she didn't understand what the man meant.
"Just trust me. After all, I'm the floating, glowing guy." Gennai joked.
"As for Koromon, he wouldn't be so helpless if you knew how to care for him in the proper way." He reprimanded.
"But I did the best I could." Tai said helplessly.
"Patience is what you need to learn, my friends and you will learn it in time." Gennai said.
"But I wanna have Agumon back now." Tai complained.
"I'm starting to lose my connection." Gennai said as he started to flicker out.
"That's something you're going to have to figure out all by yourself. Good luck." He said as he continued to flicker.
"Wait a minute!" Tai yelled.
"Sorry, I'm on a tight schedule." Was the last thing the man said before he completely vanished.
"It never fails. Every time I need to know about something, he hangs me out to dry." Tai complained.
"Are we being cared for properly?" Biyomon asked Gabumon.
"If we were, Agumon wouldn't have digivolved backwards." Gabumon answered her.
"Come on, don't freak me out!" Matt told him.
Daisuke then frowned at this as she turned to look down at her blue dragon who was glancing around curiously.
"Hey, Vee, am I taking good care of you? I mean, have I been doing a good job?" she asked feeling insecure.
When she first met Veemon she was a bit stunned and found he was a weird creature, but later on he became her best friend.
He would always be by her side wherever she went and she would give him whatever he wanted to it and even bathed him.
But she always bumped him on the head when he was being insufferable and she had tried to trick him into digivolving once and she almost allowed MetalGreymon to crush him.
Was she really a good partner for Veemon?
"What are you talking about? You're the best partner in the world." Veemon grinned at her.
"I'm…better with computers." Izzy said sadly as he looked down.
"That's ridiculous. As far as I'm concerned, you're the best." Tentomon assured the redhead.
"You look bummed." Gomamon said to his partner.
"How am I supposed to take care of you? Is there a handbook somewhere? I feel very inadequate." Joe said in disapointment.
"Me too." Gomamon said as some weird fog horn sounded off.
Looking up, the group found a large cruise ship was sailing in the sand towards them.
"Is that a battle ship?" Tai asked.
"Could be. But it looks more like a fancy cruise ship." Sora said.
"The passengers will want their money back if they see this place." Joe said as he stood.
"Yeah." Mimi said as everyone else stood.
"It could be just a mirage." TK said fearfully.
"Yeah, it looks pretty real to me!" Matt said as everyone dived out of the path of the ship.
The yacht then stopped, making the group all look up to see a digimon peering over the edge down at them.
"Ahoy!" the Numemon laughed dressed in a white sailor hat and vest.
"Numemon!" Mimi gasped.
Koromon gave a small sob making Tai look down at him in worry before he turned his attention back to Numemon.
"Hey, fella, could all of us come aboard and freshen up?" Tai called up to him.
Numemon groaned and backed away from the side.
"If you don't mind, this needs a woman's touch." Mimi said as she walked forward with a confident smile.
Everyone then stood back as they watched the strawberry blonde as she then proceeded to flirt with the sludge digimon.
"Well, hey there, big boy. Your ship looks so, so inviting. How about letting us on board so that we can check it out? Oh, please?" Mimi begged with a flirty look, puckering her lips and fluttering her eyes.
Numemon then blushed as his eyes went wide with hearts in them and he lowered the stairs for the group, eager to let the pretty human girl on.
"Is it safe? Joe asked.
The group all walked up the stairs and entered the luxurious cruise ship and were stunned by what they found inside.
They ran down the gold grand staircase and found a beige colored room with tables and comfortable looking chairs all around along with nice bay windows.
"Oh, what? No linen table cloths? Well, I guess we can rough it." Mimi shrugged.
The group all then broke off into three different groups with Joe, Tai, Gomamon and Koromon heading out onto the deck where the pool was located while Matt, Izzy, TK, Gabumon, Tentomon and Tokomon went off to the mess hall where there was food being served.
Sora, Mimi, Daisuke, Biyomon, Palmon and Veemon all wandered off down the halls and were pleased to see that they had found the bathroom.
"Whoa, nice!" Sora smiled as she, Mimi, Daisuke, Palmon and Biyomon giggled.
"Look, we can take a shower!" Mimi cheered.
"About time! I'm dying to wash up." Daisuke grinned.
"Wait, Veemon's still here." Biyomon pointed out as everyone turned to look at the male digimon.
"Am I getting kicked out?" Veemon pouted.
"C'mon, Veemon needs a shower too. He won't look, right?" Daisuke asked.
"Nope! My eyes are closed." Veemon nodded as he closed his eyes.
Shaking her head at this, Daisuke took her ribbon out of her hair and then tied it around Veemon's head to be used as a blindfold.
"Well, all right. Veemon can stay." Sora relented as Mimi nodded in agreement.
Besides, maybe Veemon could keep out any perverts who try to sneak in.
Mimi wouldn't put it pass the Numemon or one of the boys to do it.
The three girls then stripped themselves of their clothing and turned on the faucets, allowing warm water to spray down on their dirty and hot bodies.
"I'm in heaven!" Sora smiled.
"We can spend hours just pampering ourselves. Yes!" Mimi cheered.
"Yeah, we were getting pretty smelly." Sora said.
"No, ya think? Hey, look! They've got soaps and shampoos too!" Daisuke exclaimed.
Palmon was smiling as she stood under the spray, soaking in the water as Biyomon ruffled her feathers as she sat down to enjoy the water.
Veemon was humming as he stood under the water with his human as she used a bar of soap to wash the dirt and sweat off his body.
"That tickles!" he laughed as he squired away from the girl's hands.
"Veemon, hold still!" Daisuke giggled.
A short while later, the girls had all washed themselves and were drying off from their shower.
"Man, that felt great." Daisuke smiled.
"I wonder what the boys are doing right now." Sora mused.
"They've probably found the food or are goofing around by the pool." Palmon grinned.
"Sounds like something they'd do. Now if only they had a clothing store on this boat. We could all go shopping." Mimi sighed happily.
Sora and Daisuke giggled in amusement at that when suddenly, yelling was heard through the vents making the girls and digimon all grow tense.
"What was that?" Palmon asked.
"It sounded like the guys." Sora exclaimed.
"What are they yelling for?" Mimi asked as she started to feel worried.
Biyomon's head picked up when she sensed someone approaching and Veemn pulled the ribbon off his eyes as he looked towards the door.
"Somebody's coming!" Biyomon announced.
The girls all exclaimed in worry as Veemon rushing over to the door and locked it before he then shoved the metal stand that held mutiple soaps and shampoo bottles on it in front of the door.
"We need to move now!" Veemon stated as he rushed over.
"But where are we supposed to go?" Mimi asked.
"Out the window. Hurry!" Sora called as she rushed over.
The three girls and their digimon quickly climbed up onto the bathroom sink and crawled out of the window which led to the hallway.
Hearing the door to the bathroom being kicked open, the group of six quickly rushed down the hallway to try and find their freinds to escape the intruder.
As they rushed down the halls, they were suddenly cut off when a large rooster digimon with red eyes and sharp fangs jumped out from around the corner.
"It's Kokatorimon!" Veemon, Palmon and Biyomon cried out.
"Is he the Easter chicken?" Sora asked.
"Who knows?" Biyomon said.
"That omelet head has Tai and Joe's Crests!" Mimi gasped.
"What did you do with the guys?" Daisuke demanded.
"I ran into several of your friends by the pool, but don't get your heads in a spin. They're just drying off. Nothing like little sunbaked faces fried to a crisp with curly fries and cold sloth." Kokatorimon laughed making the girls cower back.
"Where are the digimon?" Biyomon asked.
"Don't worry about those guys. Confidentially, I find them to be a little bit on the stiff side. That just happens to be my personal opinion." The rooster said.
"Your opinion stinks." Palmon said.
"You're going to meet the same fate." Kokatorimon laughed.
"You've cackled once too long." Biyomon said flying up and using her Spiral Twister, sending the rooster back as Palmon used her Poison Ivy attack on him, just barely missing him and then Veemon used his Vee Headbutt to hit Kokatorimon in the stomache.
Recovering from the surprise hit, Kokatorimon then sent out green bemas from his eyes making the girls cry out as they rushed down the hall with their digimon.
"Come back you chickens!" he yelled.
"Who's he calling 'chicken'?" Sora asked.
As the girls continued running, they found themselves exiting the cabin and were standing on the bow with nowhere else to run.
"Come back!" Kokatorimon yelled.
"What do we do now? We're trapped." Sora said looking at Kokatorimon.
"Time to walk the plank!" the rooster exclaimed.
"Biyomon, do your stuff!" Sora said as she pulled out her digivice.
"Biyomon digivolve too…BIRDRAMON!"
"Hey, that's not fair!" Kokatorimon said as the large red bird flew up.
"What's the matter you big cluck? Can't you fly?" Sora taunted Kokatorimon as he jumped away from Birdramon's Meteor Wing attack.
"Palmon, it's your turn." Mimi said holding out her digivice.
"Right." Palmon nodded.
"Palmon digivolve too…TOGEMON!"
"Veemon, go for it." Daisuke pulled out her digivice.
"You got it." Veemon gave a thumbs up.
"Veemon digivolve too...EXVEEMON!"
Birdramon used her Meteor Wing, scaring the rooster off and he dropped the Crests and then Togemon used her Needle Spray on the big chicken.
ExVeemon then swooped in and delivered a powerful punch to Kokatorimon's gut and sent the rooster flying into the steam pipe.
The pipe sputtered before flames then burt from the top as Mimi and Sora picked up the Crests and then stood on either side of Daisuke.
"Fried chicken." Mimi joked as Sora and Daisuke giggled with her.
"Come on, let's get dressed so we can find the guys." Daisuke said.
The girls then got dressed in their clothing as they went to find the boys and saw that the digimon had been turned into statues, but were turned back to normal.
Tai, Joe, Izzy, Matt and TK had been tied to a net to be baked in the sun, but they were helped down by the girls.
"We're out of here!" The Numemon cried as they tossed off their uniforms and ran off the boat.
"I say we do the same as they are and abandon ship." Tai suggested.
"I guess it's a little late for mutiny." Izzy commented.
"Don't worry. The captain's already been fricasseed." Sora said.
The group all walked down the stairs and continued their walk in the desert, enduring the heat as they walked off, getting away from the boat.
"Well, the weather sure hasn't gotten any cooler." Joe commented.
"Do you hear something?" Mimi asked.
The humans and digimon turned at the sound of a fog horn, yelling at the sight of the yacht sailing right towards them.
"Doesn't this guy know how to quit?!" Daisuke complained as the group ran off from the crazed rooster who was trying to run them over.
"That's one mad digimon with his feather out of joint." Matt said as the yacht gained on them.
"Look!" Mimi said.
"The giant cactus is back." Palmon pointed out the large cactus up ahead of them.
"Oh no, not another mirage." Mimi whined.
"What were you expecting, an outlet mall?" Tai asked.
"Hurry, get over on the other side." Matt yelled.
Running towards the cactus, the group hid under it as the yacht sailed right into the cactus, but it stretched forward with the boat on top of it.
As the cactus quickly straightened, it flung the boat up into the air and it was destroyed.
"AAHHH! I can fly! I can fly! I can't fly!" Kokatorimon yelled.
The ship exploded in the sky, the rooster going down with his ship.
"Wow, it's even bigger than a skyscraper!" Mimi said about the cactus.
"You're right. What's a skyscraper, Mimi?" Palmon asked.
"Look up there. Check it out you guys." Tai said as a pretty dark pink flower bloomed on top of the cactus.
A stone block with a tear drop on it came out of the flower making the humans and digimon all exclaim in wonder.
"What's that?" Mimi asked.
"Maybe it's a Crest." Tai said as the block tilted towards them.
Mimi's Tag slipped out from under her dress and it was glowing a jade green color.
The stone tablet did the same thing as it started to shrink and float down to where Mimi was, sliding into place in her Tag.
"He was right. It's just like Gennai said. The Tags and Crests somehow work together, Mimi." Sora said as the glowing stopped.
"It's the Crest of Sincerity." Mimi said picking up her new Crest.
"I don't deserve it, but if it can help me take care of Palmon, then I'll keep it." Mimi said.
"Aw, thanks Mimi." Palmon smiled.
"But I think I'm going to have to teach you some manners. Do you know you slurp when you eat soup? But don't worry a single leaf on that pretty little head; Mimi's going to help you." The girl said making everyone sigh, but smile at her.
To be continued…