Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

TAI
All Tai wanted was to go to soccer camp for the summer, not some stupid cheap camp. Sure, it was more affordable, but all of his friends were going to a soccer camp, or not even going to a camp at all! And to make matters worse? He was stuck with probably the most insufferable group of people he's ever seen in his life.

From annoying antisocial Izzy to unbearably loud Mimi, he felt stuck in a group of people he just couldn't click with. The only person he really liked even a bit was Sora, but that's mostly because he knew her.

Tai watched the other campers from the tree he had climbed on, chuckling a bit at Joe being afraid of some bug that T.K. seemed fascinated about. What a pussy, looked like he'd wet his pants just from the fear!

The boy watched the rest of the campers blissfully, when he suddenly felt a chill, and something soft yet cold land on his nose.
"What..?"

Soon, he heard his camp counselor call the group inside, and he climbed down the tree. "Tch.. guess the canoe races are gonna be cancelled.." He mumbled to himself as he walked to their shared room. Unluckily enough, Joe heard him. "Is that really what you're worried about?! It's SNOWING in JUNE! Oh dear, I shouldn't have gone to camp.. this was a bad idea.."

Tai rolled his eyes as Joe kept mumbling about not wanting to be at camp and about how he shouldn't have let his brother make him go. Tai thought it was pretty stupid, almost laughably so. He'd really go to a camp he didn't want to just cus his brother said?

"Joe, don't worry, we'll be fine. And Tai, don't laugh at him!" Tai knew that voice anywhere. Sora. "Let's just get inside and wait it out." She said with a shrug before going inside. Soon, everybody was inside.

Ugh... Tai was never one for being cooped up inside! Especially not in a small room like they were staying at-- 7 beds and one bathroom somehow crowded in one small shared room? Nuh uh, no way.. but he had to live with it, for now. What made staying inside worse, was the fact that it was snowing! A much needed release of all the heat that's been plaguing the campgrounds this summer. Soon, Tai fell asleep to the sound of Izzy clicking and clacking on his keyboard. How did that kid manage to bring that in the camp anyways..? He didn't think of it much more as he fell asleep.

"Oh, oh, oh! I think the snow fiiinally stopped!"

Quickly emerging from the bed, as if he never fell asleep at all, Tai suddenly was full of energy at TK's words. He ran outside, and saw the fluffy white snow encompassing the once burning hot campus, like a sweet bit of whipped cream on top of some yummy hot chocolate.

"Well, hey, we may not be able to have canoe races, but toboggan races are just as fine!" He exclaimed, running right outside. TK followed close behind, and Matt behind them, worried for his little brother. The rest of the group pooled outside soon enough, in awe at the snow.

"What an anomaly.." Izzy mumbled to himself, typing somethin' or other in his computer that Tai really did not care for. He leaned down and rolled up a bit of snow to make: THE PERFECT SNOWBALL. Tai was the best at making snowballs. Although he was tempted to throw it at Izzy to make him focus on something other than his computer, he figured he'd give the boy a rest and throw it at TK, who looked like he'd prefer to have a snowball fight anyways. Being right, as always, Tai laughed as TK threw one right back at him. Matt only yelled a 'be careful' to TK as he leaned against a tree to watch over him. Or maybe just to glare at Tai.

Tai saw Sora sit by Izzy, who was sat on the stairs leading up to the small house they shared. She shivered while Izzy, who seemed relatively unaffected by the cold, tried to figure out why his electronics were totally and completely bugging out now. She turned her attention to watch Joe in amusement. He was running around and totally freaking out at the fact that there was snow everywhere! And Mimi of course was more so worried about the fact that she hadn't brought her pink fluffy snow boots with her, though no one was sure how she would have even fit them in her already huge suitcase full of clothes and makeup and things Tai didn't really care about.

Watching everybody play (or die of anxiety, Joe) in the snow, Matt soon looked up in boredom. A boredom that would soon be dissipated by the fact that there was an AURORA BOREALIS. Here? In Japan?

"Woah, guys, look" He said, pointing up to the sky. They all looked up and gasped in shock and awe. Especially Tai, who found this to be the coolest thing ever. He looked around quickly, seeing that everyone else around them was also marveling at the sight, when he noticed Izzy still having his nose down in his stupid old 'puter.

"Hey, kid! What's your na.. Izzy! Izzy. Izzy, come take a look at this thing!" He called out, getting the attention of the wiz kid. Tai looked right back up quickly, as the boy he called finally joined them in looking up at the sky.

All the children gasped as they continued to marvel at the beautiful colors in the sky, Mimi gasping out many 'woahs' and 'wows' as Joe stood beside her, mostly just staring breathlessly. Izzy joined them, and muttered under his breath "prodigious.."

"Do you guys think it could really be an aurora?" Sora asked, to which Izzy responded with a hesitant shrug. "It.. could be. I've never seen one in this region, though. It should be impossible! We're way too far south. There must be some other sort of explanation for this.. some sort of shared hallucination? Maybe a light show? Or maybe I'm just going mad." Tch. Typical Izzy, Tai thought to himself.

Joe shook his head no in fear, about to grab everybody's hands and push them inside. "We really ought to go back inside, guys.. this definitely isn't safe for us. What if it's a bad sign? Or we're in trouble or something? Or we get sick! Who knows, maybe I'm allergic to snow in the summer!"

Tai was gonna respond, but Matt beat him to it. Tai scoffed as the jerk spoke. "As if we're gonna miss *this,* Joe." Joe only responded with a scared whine. "The sky is short circuiting or something, I swear." Matt added on, peaking Izzy's interest, but only making Tai scoff in the stupidity of whatever Matt said. Even if he agreed a bit.

Then the oddest thing happened- some sort of.. somethings... appeared in the sky.

"Woah, what's that thing?" Questioned TK, as the object(s) started heading right towards them.

Heading right towards them.

"Are those things getting closer..?" Mimi questioned, to which a panicked Sora responded with an eep. "Looks like it. Everybody, duck!" Sora quickly took Mimi's hand and tried to lead her away and protect her from the impending objects of seemingly doom that were barreling right for them. However, any attempts to run were in vain, as it seemed the objects were somehow aiming them.

Soon, the things landed, shrowding the children in a cloud of dust for a moment. "What the--" Tai gasped as he coughed out some of the dust that got into his lungs. What in the world was that, and more importantly why did it almost freak him out?!

"Is everyone okay?? Did anybody get hurt??" Sora called out in worry. Sora looked over the group, sighing in relief as she realized no one had gotten injured.

Mimi picked up her digivice. "Ohh, what's this thing!" Mimi asked in a sing-song. Tai notices his and picks it up too, the rest following in tandem. "Huh. Looks like some weird game thing." He looks over at Izzy, expecting him to know what it is since he's some.. computer geek kid or something.

Izzy looked over the digivice, inspecting every little aspect of it for a bit too long before speaking. "I think..."

Everybody listened in anticipation.

"...I think I don't know what it is" He said, with a defeated shrug. So much for anticipation! "Looks like some sort of.. miniature digital remote apparatus. Might be used to control something, or maybe it's a part of a device much bigger."

"Huh. Explain again, use human words." Tai demanded. But before anybody could even think to respond, the ground started shaking, and a distant sound of rushing water could be heard.

Joe, who looked utterly defeated and overstimulated by it all, just sighed. "This can't be anything good.." He said, to which Matt scoffed and nodded. "Obviously not."

And soon, the distant sounded water became a tsunami, huge and intimidating. They couldn't run, and yet again Tai somehow felt a sort of fear. "Surfing time..." he mumbled, not sure if he was trying to lighten the mood to comfort himself or the others.

The tsunami consumed them. 

Chapter Text

TAI
Tai found himself on the ground, soon.
Before he opened his eyes, he tried to remember what it was that just happened. Wasn't there just, like, a big tsunami? Hella weird. And now what happened? He groaned, feeling grass under his arms. How was he on land? Did somebody save him? Why? He didn't need saving. He could save himself. Maybe the huge wave just brought him to land.. hopefully. He'd rather be stranded on some island then wake up and realize someone else had--

"--Yoohoo, Taiii!"

What.

That voice was unfamiliar. Tai opened his eyes up immediately, sitting up and looking around. He didn't have to look too far to notice who just spoke. Or.. what just spoke?

It was some.. odd pink thing. It was pretty small, couldn't have been taller than Tai's lower leg. It had inhumane, red eyes, sparkling with a mix of mischief and curiosity. It had a shaky mouth with fangs poking out. Fangs! Fangs couldn't be good.

"AHH WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU"

Tai yelped with a startle as he jumped up, taking a few steps back, and nearly stumbling and falling right back down again as he backed away. What was this thing!?

But of course, the little pink blobo creature bounced towards Tai, insisting on bothering him with a stupid little grin on its face. It continued to speak

"Hey, don't be afraid of me!" It smiled, jumping up and down. "I'm your friend, I'm your friend!" And it seemed very intent on insisting that!

"I'm not afraid!" Tai was quick to say, before continuing on with his words. "And anyways, answer me! Just what are you?! This is definitely not normal.."

The pink thing bounced around Tai like an overactive child on a sugar high. It was a bit much for him to keep up with, but he followed it's movements.

"I've been waiting for you for soooo long, Tai!" The pillowcase looking monster seemed more preoccupied with it's own excitement, stumbling and almost falling down on it's face a few times as it did. Tai calmed down a bit with that, getting the feeling that this thing.. couldn't be dangerous. Plus, he could really just punt it across a field pretty easily. It looked lightweight enough.

Confused by the highlighter-colored misshapen cat, Tai decided to continue questioning it. "Waiting for me? I've never even heard of you before. How could you have been waiting for me?"

"We're partners! Digimon partners! My name's Koromon, and I've been waiting for you for sooo long!"

Koromon jumped up into Tai's arms, the confused and flabbergasted boy catching him as he did so. Yep, definitely not a threat. Tai blinked a few times, processing it's words. Just felt like gibberish to him, really. Izzy could probably figure it out, maybe.

"Partners? Whaddya mean, partners. And Koromon..? That's a pretty weird name."

Koromon giggled and squirmed around in Tai's arms, clearly very excited.

"Is it? It means 'brave little warrior!' And don't you forget it!"

Heh. 'Brave little warrior,' eh? None of Tai's real questions were really answered by that, but he couldn't lie. That was a pretty sick name.

Tai sighed, holding Koromon more securely now. "So, what did you mean, you've been waiting for me?- And- wait! How the hell do you know my name?!"

Koromon was about to reply, when he noticed someone hiding behind the trees, watching them quietly. He growled at that, not trusting it. The being seemed weird, and wouldn't approach them. Tai saw Koromon looking elsewhere, and looked as well. Behind the trees, he noticed Izzy. Izzy! Good, the smart kid. He'd definitely know what's up, right? "Oh. Izzy!"

Izzy cleared his throat for a moment, staring at Tai, calculating something in his head as he noticed and observed Tai, Koromon, and how the both of them seemed to be interacting. After a moment of silent observation on Izzy's part, he spoke-- voice quiet, as usual.

"Tai? Hm. It is you."

And behind Izzy, another odd little pink thing walked up. Huh? Another one? Things just kept getting weirder! That one looked like a nerd too, like Izzy. At least, Tai thought so.

"I've got this odd and unnatural species following me everywhere. It appears you do, as well." He pointed at Koromon.

Izzy's little companion waddled up with an annoyingly adorable smile, and nodded as it spoke. "It is me! Motimon, at your service!" It said, seeming very polite.

"Huh. Another one." Tai said, before taking a moment to let it sink in. "Wait, HUH??! ANOTHER one?!" He repeated, this time yelling louder. In his surprise, he dropped Koromon, who bounced off and giggled at Tai's surprise. "What are they?!" He again questioned, though hoping that this time there would be an answer.

Motimon hopped closer to Tai, Izzy following him quietly and watching his every move. The little octopus looking abomination's brown eyes glittered in happiness, seemingly happy to get the opportunity to explain this. Tai noticed Izzy seemed to be waiting in anticipation as well, waiting for Motimon to speak.

"Allow me to introduce myself, in that case! My friends call me Motimon, for that is my name!"

Tai chuckled at the... joke, Izzy only walking next to Motimon with no other expression. It wasn't the funniest thing, sure, but to seem so uncaring about it? Tai didn't quite understand.

"I believe the miniature remote digital devices that had been 'gifted' to us earlier by the skies have taken on some sort of new life form, which is absolutely unheard of from any scientific experiments I've ever heard of. Are we some sort of guinea pigs? What if camp was just some sort of laboratory experiment that they notified nobody on.."

Izzy started pondering the possibilities, muttering to himself theories of how they got to this different world, and why. Tai thought it was weird so he shut that down immediately.

"Definitely not, Izzy, stop scaring yourself. This might just all be some sort of weird dream if anything, y'know? Since we got hit by that tsunami." He shrugged. He didn't really know what else it could've been, but he'd make a guess. He was dumb, but not completely stupid! He could make a theory or two. Izzy only huffed silently at Tai's words. What a weirdo.. but Tai was getting used to weirdness pretty soon by this point.

"This world doesn't seem to be our own. The vegetation is much too lush, and absolutely more calming."

Izzy's words made Tai realize something. Something he only acutely was aware of, but was too occupied with Koromon and Motimon to really notice. That being that.. they were in ANOTHER WORLD.

Tai didn't even know how to respond to that, looking around in shock and awe at the new world. It didn't seem to be so different, but it looked like what you'd see in those dinosaur movies, and Izzy was right. The trees were so tall and green, the grass fluffy and soft and it didn't have that weird yellowish hue a lot of Earth grass had. And the air seemed cleaner, too. What was going on?!

"Your friend's right, Tai!" Koromon added, bouncing up and down, obstructing Tai's view.

"You're in.. the DIGIWORLD!"

Koromon and Motimon said in unison.

Uh oh. 

Chapter Text

IZZY
Izzy was busy trying to deconstruct the events of the day in his mind, trying to figure out what in the world had just happened. What in the world.. hah, as if they were even in their own world anymore. This was certainly not Earth, yet for some reason he felt as if it was connected. But he couldn't be sure about that until he found some rational, sensible proof. He looked around what his... little partner thing called the Digiworld, trying to make sense of it.

It had cleaner air. That was one thing Izzy could tell for sure. He could breathe easier here. He also found himself smelling a different smell, although he couldn't quite tell what it was. It wasn't something he was oh so acquainted to, but it somehow also wasn't something new in an odd sense. The plants seemed bigger, likely due to the different oxygen in this world. But if the oxygen was different, how were the two of them breathing just fine? And if the plants were bigger, then the animals sure had to have been, as well. But that's Earth sense. Clearly Earth sense and this Digiworld's sense were different, in some ways. Their animal like partners seemed small too, so he wasnt quite sure.

He was about to continue observing the world around him, when he heard ignorant Tai speak. "So.. just where IS this.. Digiworld?" He asked, stupidly. Izzy may show himself as polite many times, but he couldn't help but think he was better than some of the people in this camp.. at least brains wise. No, not the time to think of that now.

"I think it's less of where, and more of *what*, Tai." He pointed out. He watched Tai shrug. It was as if he didn't care at all.. ugh.

Tai stretched, then spoke. "I'm gonna go get a *bird's* eye view. Wait a sec here, Izzy." Izzy watched as Tai climbed a tree, with a great amount of ease, pull out his telescope, and start looking around. Okay, fine, that was a good enough idea. Izzy could agree with that.

Izzy watched as the pink blob that called itself a 'Koromon' followed up behind Tai onto the tree. Izzy wished he could climb up there as well, make the same observations Tai was making, and maybe even better ones. Though for now, he'd wait.

Then, a terrifying roar sounded throughout the forest. Motimon tapped Izzy, seemingly scared, before speaking. "I'd say it's in our best interest if we get out of here, Izzy."

That certainly wasn't a good sign. Izzy was certainly afraid now, yet also intrigued. How prodigious! He'd see some more life forms. Likely a predator, now.

But before he could hear Motimon's answer, he saw Tai dodging an attack from some weird.. big bug thing. Izzy gasped, watching the huge creature bulldoze through the trees. "UAhh?!?! What is THAT thing, Motimon?!"  He asked the thing, who was trying not to look at the big digimon.

"Well, not in a good mood, that's for sure!"

Izzy could nearly laugh at the absurdity of that answer, but now was certainly not the time for laughter.

"Well, that sure answers a ton!" He replied sarcastically, stress getting to him now.

The huge, red, deformed bug came back around. Clearly, it had blood on it's mind, and a prey in site: Tai and Koromon. All four of them watched as the digimon tore through the sky and ran through the trees, some smaller bird like creatures desperately trying to get away as well. They were lucky that the digimon didn't have eyes for them right now.

"His name is Kuwagamon." Motimon finally answered. "He's an insectoid digimon! He vicious and ruthless and-- oh dear, not good! His teeth are like knives! And hands like scissors!"

Izzy certainly didn't like the sound of that. "Tai!" He called out to his fellow camper, but his voice was drowned out by yet another ferocious roar coming from the Kuwagamon. Izzy was absolutely sure that Tai was about to become dead meat, when.. Koromon jumped up, at the bug.

Izzy watched as the little guy.. spat some bubbles? At the big bug. Izzy was immediately intrigued. That meant these guys had POWERS. But his intrigue was quickly diffused as he watched Koromon and Tai fall to the ground, the big Kuwagamon getting thrown off guard and throwing them off the tree. Izzy had to wonder how in the world they survived that.

"Tai, what-- are you okay?!" Izzy asked, running right up to Tai. He.. He had to at least make sure the only friend he had here was fine! He wouldn't want to wonder this place alone. He thinks.

"Well, I've certainly had better days." Tai retorted, clearly stressed by the incident. Before Tai could continue, though, Koromon soon fell on the ground a few paces in front of them.

"Little guy!" Tai called out in worry, running towards the aforementioned little guy. "You should pick on bugs your own size.. are you stupid?!" He scolded Koromon. Koromon definitely seemed hurt at that last word.

"W-well, I had to protect you, Tai! Don't you understand? I'm your partner!"

Both Izzy and Tai had to almost laugh at that. What a stubborn little thing.

"You're pretty brave, huh.." Tai said, something Izzy had to agree with. He wondered if his own 'partner' was in any way, shape, or form like that. Were all of these so called partners so brave and selfless? If so, why? And especially, why for them? Why were they seemingly chosen for this? Uh oh, overthinking again.

"..sorry for calling you stupid." Tai sighed, Izzy being surprised that he took back his own words so quickly, knowing Tai was pretty stubborn in his own right. "I'm pretty impressed."

Koromon seemed so happy about that, impressing Tai. And Izzy glanced at Motimon, who seemed to want such a compliment as well.

"It was nothin'.." Koromon said bashfully, as well as with a small, sweet smile. The kind moment couldn't last long, though. Izzy heard some more trees being wrecked behind them.

"Uh, Tai, it's heading this way again!" He said, pointing behind him, though looking at his camp mate with a concerned look. Motimon started hopping towards a certain direction, waving the team over. "Come here, everyone! Quickly! This way!"

Izzy thought it'd be smart to trust a creature that lived in this place, so decided to follow him. "Cmon, guys"

The four of them ran, adrenaline running, hearts pumping, for their lives. Izzy's never ran so much before, but the fear for his own life keeps him from getting too tired too quickly. A fear only intensified by the loud roar of Kuwagamon, who seemed to be MUCH closer than Izzy had expected. Though he dared not to look back behind him.

"You two are awfully slow!" Motimon said at the boys, somehow way ahead of them despite being tiny as a toddler. Then, he said.. the weirdest thing ever???

"Inside this tree!"

And Izzy might've thought Motimon was crazy, before seeing the creature actually.. go inside the tree. Now he was thinking HE was crazy. Was this all some sort of odd fever dream Izzy was experiencing? Why? What is the significance of it?

Before he could have even a bit of the time to deconstruct what was going on, Tai yelled "cmon, let's go!" And grabbed Izzy by the hand. With Izzy running behind him, holding Tai's hand, and Koromon being held securely against Tai's chest, the three of them ran into the tree Motimon had said they should.

And they literally entered the tree.

"What in the.. what is this?! This isn't scientifically possible, even!"

"Sh!" Motimon shushed Izzy, who shut up immediately. This was very much overwhelming for him, and maybe being quiet would be a better idea. Less likely that the bug thing would find them that way, anyways. Yes, definitely the smartest idea.

"This is a hiding tree!" Motimon said, as if that explained everything. Izzy was glad to at least have a word for it now, though.

The four of them all crouched down, waiting until the cries and roars of the fearsome Kuwagamon finally left. It felt like hours, days, years, even, before it finally got quiet enough. And even then, Izzy didn't have the balls to get up. It was only after Tai did, and seemed safe, that he followed his footsteps.

They all stayed quiet for a moment, just making sure that everything was safe, before..

"All clear, guys! You're safe. I promise! No need to hide anymore."

Izzy was nearly embarrassed to say how loud he yelled at that sound, expecting it to have been Kuwagamon's roar still. He stood still in shock, while Tai paused and then yelled out- "Sora!"

"You guys can come out now. There's no other monster that I see."

Tai was first to leave, then Koromon, then Izzy who was now holding Motimon. Just in case! The little guy was probably exhausted from the running.

Everything seemed quieter, and Izzy saw no reason not to trust Sora. Even though she could come across as quite headstrong as times, Izzy did not think of her as completely stupid and thought she had a pretty sensible mind at times. Izzy observed as Tai and Sora interacted.

"Oh.. uh, well, we were just hiding so we could come up with a plan to get out safely!" Tai said, clearly embarrassed. Izzy did not understand why he was embarrassed, or felt the need to lie, but just stayed quiet.

Then, Tai and Izzy noticed it at the same time.

Another. Little. Creature!

This time, it was plant shaped. Looked like a little brassica rapa (turnip) or a raphanus sativus (radish.) It's body was made of another pink hue, much like Izzy and Tai's little partners, though this one had leaves. The leaves were colored blue and yellow, and seemed to have yellow stamen, complete with anthers, making Izzy wonder if it was a male, though it seemed to be female. It also had a long red thingamabob on the very top, something Izzy would now need to study. It also seemed to have octopus like legs, making Izzy wonder if that was a trend of some sort among the digimon, though Tai's partner didn't seem to have any legs at all. Unless it did and they were just really very small?

"I am enchanted to meet you, friends of Sora. Welcome!" The little turnip radish (turndish?) said. It seemed.. polite. Sweet. Odd.

Sora then spoke, introducing the little turndish. "Tai, Izzy, meet Byocomon! My own, personal.. something or other!" She said, with a smile as she turned to Byocomon. Hm. Sora had seemed to have gotten along with her partner rather quickly. Not something unusual for her. Izzy's been studying her, and she's really very friendly and loving-- even if it's not something she always outwardly portrays. Of course she'd make friends with this creature quickly.

"Looks kinda like a radish." Tai said, making Izzy feel proud that he wasn't the only one who made the connection to the raphanus sativus. "Must be another one like the ones we met, Tai... the whatever they ares" He said, addressing Tai, but mostly speaking to himself.

And just when Izzy thought things couldn't get weirder, another one came right up!

This one was hamster like, a lighter pink than the others. It had similar.. horns? Antennaes? to Koromon, but had beady black eyes. This one was second cutest, second to Motimon.. in Izzy's opinion. It also had four legs, not tentacles.

"They're popping up everywhere.." He mumbled under his breath, trying to figure out the why. These small ones looked similar, in some ways. Maybe they could sense each other?

"Hello!" a surprisingly cute voice called out from the little hamster boyo. "I am Tokomon! Hey TK, over here!"

TK. Good. It seemed as though the camp mates were all finding each other, very good.

"Coming!" TK called after the.. the what was it? Tokimon? So many names. Izzy would need to draw diagrams of these creatures and label them later.

"Tokomon, there you are!" TK said, running after the thing. Tokomon. Okay. Tokomon. Izzy could remember that.. right? Wait. What was it called again? He had no time to think before hearing another familiar voice, this one being Matt's.

"TK!" Matt called out, following TK worriedly. The sight almost made Izzy scoff. Matt acted so cool and nonchalant, yet would get petrified the second his younger brother was out of his sight. Izzy also noticed another creature, one Matt was holding. He thought he wouldn't have gotten surprised anymore, but this one was completely different from the others! It seemed to have orange fur and a pale face, almost like just the head from some bald kid. What made it less humanlike was the lack of nose. Oh, and, yknow, THE HORN STICKING OUT OF IT'S HEAD. It seemed to be pure metal! Oh, Izzy was gonna have a field day studying these guys.

Tai walked a few steps closer to Matt and TK. "Matt! TK! You too?" He asked, Izzy assuming he was referring to the creatures.

"Yeah, I'm here, too." Tch, Izzy definitely thought Matt could be stupid at some points.

"Well, obviously." He responded, rather snarkily. "He's *referring* to the creature you are holding under your arm, Matt."

Matt rolled his eyes at Izzy's response, but responded with a small shrug. "Oh. This guy?"

The 'this guy' in question seemed shy, bashfully hiding slightly in Matt as it spoke.

"Hello. You seem interesting." It said. "Tsunomon is my name, and I am quite pleased to meet you."

Yuh oh, another name for Izzy to remember. He was already bad at interacting with people, but needing to remember names made it much harder.

TK and T.. T.. what was it.. oh, right, Tokomon! Were hugging. TK seemed to love this thing already. How.. TK like. TK never strayed from Izzy's impressions of him. Likely because he was just a young child.

Izzy tried to, once again, make some sort of connection between these creatures, when he heard a yell. He jumped up and hid slightly behind Tai, truthfully being a bit afraid that that Kuwagamon could be nearby again. But nope.. only Joe. Screaming. At the top of his lungs. How.. 'smart.'

"AAAaAaAAaAAaAaAAAAAHHH HELP ME! THIS THING KEEPS FOLLOWING ME! WHAT DO I DO?! AM I GONNA DIE?! AHH!"

'This thing' seemed to be synonymous with the little creatures it seemed all the group had by this point. Izzy looked over Tai and noticed another. And this one only served to confuse him more, because it looked NOTHING like the rest! Maybe it was a completely different species? He didn't understand. This one was seal like, with a sleek grey coat and a firey head of.. hair? Is that hair? He didn't really know. Either way, it was another creature.

"This thing won't leave me alone, help gu--"

"Hey, who you callin' a thing?" The creature responded, seemingly very offended by the fact that Joe would even think of calling him a 'thing.' "I'm no stuffed animal. The *name*, is Bukamon!"

Bukamon laughed and it's laughter caused Joe to scream again. Izzy was getting very paranoid that the Kuwagamon would find them again. He only felt graced by some sort of otherworldly deity that he hadn't died.

"Wh-What's wrong with you guys! Don't you see those.. those creatures?! Aren't you terrified!"

They all (besides Matt) responded to that, starting with Sora.

"Why should we be? They seem friendly enough!"

"Plus, they're clearly harmless. Why would we be afraid?" Tai added.

"And just look how cute they are!" TK said, picking up the.. Tokomon? and showing it off.

"And I'd like to analyze them." Added Izzy, finally, after politely waiting for the whole gang to have spoken.

"But they're- they're everywhere! What even happened?? We got hit by some weird tsunami, and now what?! Did we get in a coma?! Did we just wake up from it, all at the same time somehow?! Did multiple years past, do I have a beard?! Have these guys taken over the world and completely changed it?!" ...How improbable and inconsequential. Izzy understood the fear, but to this point?

Bukamon jumped off Joe's shoulders, giggling as he joined the rest of the digimon.

"Don't worry! We're not here to hurt you. We're... Digimon! Digital monsters!"

All the creatures-- nope, sorry, *Digimon*-- spoke that last bit in unison.

Digital monsters, huh. 

Chapter Text

IZZY

"We're digital monsters, sure, but we're also so much more than just that!"
Koromon giggled, before adding on to his sentence.
"We're.. cute!"

Tsunomon nodded, adding on quietly: "And we're also very loyal. Everything we do is for you!"

"And we have beautiful hair!" Said Sora's partner, Izzy's adding on quickly with "--Or no hair at all"

"We can be pretty funny to, if I say so myself." Bukamon clearly prided himself on his own perceived self funniness. Tokomon spoke afterwards. "And must I restate again how cute we are?!"

Is that it? Is that what these creatures thought the humans thought was important? Just.. basic traits? Sure, they were important in some instances, but Izzy was interested in much more. He wanted to know what they were, what made them, how they exist, if they were part of something greater- something larger. And if so, was Izzy somehow involved, too? He needed answers. Reasons.

"Yeah, that's great and all, but.. why are WE here? I don't understand our point in being here. As well as that, I just don't see how we even can surVIVE in this world. Clearly our physical compositions are different, therefore how we function should be different. I have so many questions..."

Izzy heard someone scoff under their breath, calling him a nerd, but he didn't care too much. He assumed it was just Tai or Matt, being the usual jerks. He was used to names, always being called them in school, and at this point found them irrelevant and childish. He thinks.

Motimon giggled though, shrugging afterwards. "You really do have a lotta questions, huh? It is very cool! I hope to answer at least some of them, but unfortunately I don't think any of us are quite sure how to answer those big ones quite yet."

Joe then spoke, voice trembling. Izzy assumed he was bothered by the uncertainty of it all, as well.

"So.. how do we get home, then?"

Everyone went quiet at that. Right... how WOULD they get home? Izzy himself wasn't very interested in returning to Earth right now, especially not after making such a discovery, but he figured it'd probably be best to know how to get back just in case something happened. All the team looked at their digimon, curiously.

Clearly the digimon didn't know much, either.

"Sorry, guys" Koromon whispered.

"We've never even had humans ENTER here! Not ones that we know of, at least." spoke Byocomon. "But we're here to help you all, always!"

Tokomon hummed in agreement at that, as well as jumped around a bit. "That's right! Don't lose hope, guys. We'll help you find your way back to your home!"

TK smiled at Tokomon's words, nodding in agreement. "You're right, Tokomon. We just gotta keep up hope and find our way home!"

"Well, first we need to find everyone."

The team looked at Matt questioningly, before all realizing..

"Mimi!" Sora cried out in realization. "How could I have forgotten about Mimi?!"

Izzy didn't understand her distress. He figured they'd find Mimi eventually.. like, she's dressed in hot pink constantly. She logically could not be that hard to find. Even if it took a while. But she could wait, couldn't she? He scoffed. "Don't worry so much, Sora. Knowing Mimi she's just in a field, picking flowers. She probably hasn't even realized she's in a different world yet."

"Don't talk mean about Mimi, Izzy." Sora huffed, a bit hurt that Izzy thought so little of Mimi. It bothered her, that's for sure.

Matt sighed, cutting in, and slipping his hands in the pockets of his dark blueish black jeans, as he turned away from Sora- although he was still addressing her as he spoke next. "Don't worry, Sora. I'm sure we'll find her."

And as if Gd himself was listening, they heard a cry from the forest.

"AHHHH! SOMEBODY, HELP ME!"

"Okay, well then- she's certainly not picking flowers."

"IZZY."

The group ran towards the yell.

"Miiiimi, where are you??" Called out Tai, as they kept running to her screaming. A screaming of which likely wasn't very helpful if she was running away from something, Izzy thought.

Then, they soon finally spotted Mimi, somehow running just fine in her hot pink summer dress that Izzy had to admit he found a bit fashionable. She ran over to everyone, Sora running to her.

"Mimi! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No! Run!"

Mimi kept running off, without even waiting for the team. They all seemed dumbfounded for a second, before hearing what it was that scared her so bad: Kuwagamon's roar. Really? Izzy was getting rather sick of this. What a persistent creature.. he'd have to write about this 'digimon's' persistence when they found safety, though that is assuming they WOULD find safety. He got so caught up in his thoughts, yet again, that he hadn't realized that he was just standing there. Matt grabbed his hand and had Izzy run with the rest.

"Head in the game, Izzy. Not the time to be zoning out. If you hadn't noticed, a giant bringer of death is trying to *bring us death.*"

Izzy scoffed, almost sarcastically. He wasn't too sure how to thank Matt the right way, so he didn't. He didn't know why he would even need to, really.

Soon, though, they came to a stop. Mimi was aching and complaining, and it seemed Kuwagamon had flown off for a moment. Izzy had to assume it wasn't for long.

He took a moment to look up into the sky to see if he could hear or notice Kuwagamon again, but then looked back down to Mimi when he heard an unfamiliar voice. Another one! So, they really did all get one of the.. digimon things. Mimi's also looked rather plant like, like Sora's. Izzy had to wonder if it was a camouflage type of thing. It had big red eyes and small feet, though with vicious seeming claws.

"Mimi, are you okay?" It asked Mimi, seemingly very worried, even though Izzy was nearly 100% sure that Mimi was being a.. little overdramatic.

"I-I'm okay, Tanemon.. I'm sorry.. thank you" Mimi thanked the Tanemon, very genuinely. Hm. Tanemon, alright, oh dear. Another name to remember.

Sora ran over to Mimi, leaning down besides her.

"Are you sure you're alright, Mimi?"

Mimi just nodded. Sora still was worried, Izzy observed. Another thing he didn't understand.

Soon, another roar was heard through the sky.

"Uh, guys, we should get out of here!" Tai urged, running in place, clearly anxious to get out of there. For once, Izzy had to agree with him.

They all started running again. Running, running, running. It was starting to get exhausting, but Izzy didn't want to die-- especially not after being in such a huge, anomaly of a place!

They kept running, until they reached an impasse- a cliff. Uh oh.

"We have to do something." Tai concluded. Uh oh. Izzy knew this was gonna be a dumb thing. And before anybody could really stop him, Tai yelled at the Kuwagamon.

"HEY! MISTER HOT SHOT! STOP TRYING TO SCARE US AND JUST FIGHT ME ALREADY"

There was a moment of silence, before Joe spoke

"im okay im fine deep breaths like my brother told me im okay im fine"

Tai rolled up his sleeves, then ran right towards the bug digimon.

Sora and Matt yelped as they saw Tai run. Matt had no words, but it seemed Sora was fuming. "Tai, are you CRAZY?! You can't fight that thing! What are you doing?! Get back here already!"

Tai was completely ignoring her. Still making a beeline for the Kuwagamon, he was about to land a punch before.. he was pushed away.

"Sorry, Tai." It was Koromon. "But don't worry! We can beat this guy together. Just, in a different way!"

Izzy watched as Koromon charged at the Kuwagamon, so fast that it left Tai unable to even get up and process what happened. Then, Koromon shot another one of those pink bubbles at the Kuwagamon as it did before. Huh? What was it thinking it would accomplish with that? If it did nothing before, what would change now? Izzy was starting to get frustrated with the stupidity surrounding him.

But then something unexpected happened. Well, certainly unexpected to Izzy.

All the digimon attacked the bug monster. Was that the goal? To inspire the others, show that they could attack too? Huh??

They all watched in shock, awe, and a bit of-- no, let's be honest here-- a LOT of terror, as the little creatures who deemed themselves the partners of the camp kids basically threw themselves at what currently seemed like death itself. They all seemed to have the same type of attack as Koromon, though. And it was definitely too weak. But it seemed to have.. thrown the Kuwagamon off? Izzy watched as the huge thing fell into the forest, somewhat nearby them.

"Byocomon!" He heard Sora call out in fear, running towards her digimon. The others followed after her, checking on their own little creatures. Even Joe seemed worried. Izzy found that odd for Joe. Then he realized Motimon on the ground as well, looking very weakened from the attack. Suddenly he felt himself running towards the little guy, and before he could even register his words, he spoke.

"Motimon, are you okay?!"

What

Motimon nodded weakly, giving what Izzy interpreted as a smile.

"I'm okay, as long as you are okay, Izzy."

...Izzy didn't expect that. Such sweetness. From either of them.

Before Izzy could even start to question it, it seemed that, yet again, he'd be interrupted. Kuwagamon somehow kept coming back, every single moment. It was rather annoying at this point.

"Well, we can't seem to get enough of this guy." Matt scoffed, holding the scared looking TK closer to him.

"You can say that again" Agreed Sora, looking both annoyed and scared.

The Kuwagamon made it's way towards the group, taking huge steps that felt like they could topple over a mountain. They had nowhere to go, they were completely cornered. And just when it felt all hope was lost..

"I've got to fight."

"Koromon, what?-"

Tai looked surprised at the little guy's words, as if he didn't attempt to throw himself at the monster too. Koromon just gave a nod, hyping himself up as he glared at the Kuwagamon.

"Koromon's right" Agreed Motimon, words that for some odd reason Izzy couldn't explain, really scared the computer scientist.
"What? No, that's a terrible idea. Clearly you all are overpowered, even though it's seven of you against one."

But Izzy's words seemed to fall upon deaf ears, as all the digimon seemed now absolutely convinced on fighting this monster. None of them could hold theirs back.

Izzy watched as Motimon wiggled his way out of Izzy's grasp, and saw all of them run towards the enemy.

"Koromon, NO!"

Izzy flinched at the fear and anxiety in Tai's voice.

But that very fear and helplessness seemed to.. trigger something.

Izzy observed a black cloud appear in the sky, and rainbow pillars falling down from said cloud. The pillars encased their digimon partners. Izzy was trying to figure out what was going on, mostly focusing on Motimon so as to not overwhelm himself with too much information.

"Motimon, digivolve to..."

Izzy watched as Motimon.. changed? His jaw fell with such shock he wouldn't be surprised if a few bugs flew in and he swallowed them without even noticing because WHATTHEHECKWHATWASGOINGON

"Wh- whu- this is.. wh-"

The rest of the team seemed just as confused and shocked as Izzy. ALL their partners changed!

After they had all seemed to fully.. evolve?, a yellow dragon lizard salamander dinosaur thingy yelled out two words:

"PEPPER BREATH!"

And Izzy couldn't even contain his shock when he saw the dragon lizard salamander blah blah blah spit out FIRE.

"HELL YEAH, GO GET HIM AGUMON!"

Everyone looked at Tai, who was cheering on said.. yellow thing. Izzy had no idea how he suddenly knew this name, but recognized something else

Agumon seemed to be getting stronger with the cheering on from Tai's side. The rest of the team seemed to realize too, cheering for their own digimon. Izzy didn't know how he knew, but he knew these were definitely the same guys as before.

Izzy watched in amazement as the creature once known as Motimon now fought the Kuwagamon, clearly stronger and even maybe with an advantage.

They all watched as they attacked the Kuwagamon, and this time they seemed a lot stronger. Izzy almost even cheered for Tentomon, but clearly nothing could compare to overenergetic Tai, who kept yelling in happiness for Agumon.

The digimon all did an attack in unison, and.. it worked. It worked!

Kuwagamon surrendered, running away from the fight. The whole group gasped in surprise, and then Tai ran over to used-to-be-Koromon-now-is..uh.. Izzy forgot it's name already.

"Koromon, Agumon, whatever you are, that was AMAZING. What was that?! How did you do that?! Haha, that was the coolest shit I've ever seen! Wow! Great job!!!"

Agumon jumped in happiness at the praise, and the rest went over to their own partners as well. Even Izzy to Motimon.

"I.. am so confused." Izzy said, managing a small laugh at just.. the general absurdity of it all. He gave a small thumbs up to Tentomon. "But. Good job, uhm.."

"Tentomon" Tentomon informed Izzy. "And no sweat!" Tentomon added on slyly, causing Izzy to laugh again a bit. This was the coolest thing he's ever witnessed, and now he just HAD to know the answers.

"So, like- what WAS that?" Oh, Mimi seemed to be ahead of Izzy, asking her new digimon. He never got used to her old digimon's name, so now he was just completely clueless as to what to call it.

The plant like digimon smiled and jumped up once as she responded. "It was an evolution!"

"Yep!" Added on TK's digimon.

"It happens when you are all in danger, and when we have enough energy." Said Matt's.

"And now, we've evolved!" Ended Agumon, giving a silly smile.

"Wow.." Izzy mumbled. Tai heard him and laughed. "Yeah! Wow is right! That's incredible!!"

The digimon all seemed happy at the fact that what seemed fairly normal to them was considered inCREDIBLE to a human.

It was short lived, though, the celebration. The ground shook.

Joe seemed absolutely defeated, shaking his head. "Don't tell me it's who I think it is.."

"Well, I won't tell you, but don't say I didn't warn you..." Sora replied.

Emerging from the trees, Kuwagamon entered once again. It roared with the power of a thousand waves, and if they thought Kuwagamon was mad before.. well, it certainly seemed a lot angrier now.

It tried to squish Tai, and Tai was only lucky he was fast enough to dodge. The big bug digimon created a large hole in the ground, one that soon spread and created a crack in the whole land.

And before they knew it, they were falling down a tall cliff.

Chapter Text

JOE
Joe felt like he was in a perpetual state of fear. He was surprised he hadn't just become the concept of a panic attack, especially now when all of.. THIS was happening!

"IM SO SORRY TO WHATEVER DEITY IS WATCHING OVER ME FOR WHATEVER IT IS I DID TO DESERVE THIS FATE PLEASE SPARE MERCY ON MEEEE"

He mostly just yelled into oblivion while they fell, not even noticing that he wasn't moving downward anymore, yet instead forwards.

"Joe! Joe, you're okay!"

Joe felt a soft, yet almost velvety texture rub against him. He couldn't find the guts to open his eyes yet, though, still so afraid of whatever was going to happen to him, and whatever was touching him-- even though it was a nice feel. He didn't quite recognize this voice.. not that it was unknown, but he didn't feel as if he had heard it so often. Couldn't have been more then once, or twice.

He unfortunately let his fear take over, yet again. Was he dead? Maybe he wasn't able to open his eyes because he physically did not HAVE eyes anymore. Maybe he was just a soul now. Maybe this is what death was like.

"We're gonna make it to land soon, Joe, don't worry."

Land? What kind of land? Did death have land?

Water overcame whatever it was Joe was on, which shocked him so much he had to open his eyes just to breath in after all the water had left. His eyesight was still covered by the water now fogging his eyes, but the cold water certainly made him feel more aware and awake. The velvety fur he had felt also seemed to have become wet, making it now feel more smooth and sleek. He actually rather liked it! Enjoyed the perfect smoothness, and how it felt against his arm. Slowly, but surely, he fully opened his eyes.

And the confusion hit him almost as hard as that previous wave

Well, clearly he wasn't dead. He observed the other camp members besides him, and with that he became aware of their voices- screaming. And he felt what was underneath him. A- a boat of fish?! He yelped and stood up, only to slip on one fish and fall right back down again.

"Well, Joe, you better be careful with my friends! They don't always give rides just for free, yknow." Joe looked towards Gomamon, who was giggling as he spoke. Giggling??? At a time like THIS??

"Wh- what's going on? Where are we? What's- am I-- no, I'm not dead I think, I already sorted that out.. then whats HAPPENING?!"

Gomamon sighed as he put a flipper on Joe's arm, rubbing it like some awkward kid who doesn't quite know how to console his friend. The flipper felt like the smooth surface Joe felt a bit earlier ago.

"You're not dead, that's right. I mean, I hope so at least! If you're dead, then I'm probably dead too, and that doesn't seem like very much fun. Plus, I'm not too sure if they have water when you die, and that just sucks!"

Before Gomamon or Joe could continue speaking, Mimi looked behind her, and..

"Uhm, guys! There's a pretty big wave.."

Joe looked behind him and froze. They all held onto the fish, except for TK who was holding onto Matt, and Joe who was still frozen from fear. Gomamon held Joe's hand on one flipper and the fish with the other. Hm, what a strong little guy

The ferocious wave roared as if it were a monster itself, and in a way it really was. It pushed the fish through the water, moving fast, and once the wave moved on.. they were on land. Land! Oh, land! Beautiful, beautiful land!

Joe could nearly kiss the ground, he was so happy. He felt he even shed a tear.

He heard someone stand up, and then jump.

"WOO! WE JUST SURVIVED THAT!"

Ah, Tai.

"Wasn't that the funnest thing ever?! Oh scary as shit, but--"

"It wasn't fun, Tai, what do you mean!? And can you please watch your language in front of TK?!"

Matt. Joe looked up to see the two, worried they'd get into an argument. Scared, even. Arguments meant potentially splitting up. He didn't want to be alone in this world-- it was the last thing he needed. But he saw Tai just roll his eyes, and then turn over to Agumon. The pair giggled and laughed between themselves, clearly excited over what just happened. Joe did not understand their enthusiasm, that's for sure.

Holding his head up to see all the group members, he noticed Gomamon, who was frantically trying to put all the fish that were stranded on land with them back into the sea. Before Joe could even question what he was doing, he stood up and helped the little guy. It's the least he could do, right?

Well, as soon as he touched one of the fish, he yelped.

"It's so- it's so SLIMY!"

"Joe, have you never touched a fish before?" Gomamon asked, a bit sarcastically.

Although the sarcasm hurt a slight bit, Joe responded.
"Well of course I have, but they were never aLIVE before!"

"They're not gonna be alive if we don't put them back in the river!"

Oh. Hm. Good point. Joe tried his best sucking in his fear, quickly picking a fish up and throwing it into the river and hoping he wasn't allergic. The group watched in confusion, though TK and Patamon seemed to have joined in as well.

"TK, this is a waste of time, let's go." Matt said with a scoff. TK shook his head no, though, before saying "No! We gotta help these guys, Matt!"

What a sweet kid.

They soon got all the fish back into the water. Joe dusted off his hands, as if he had just completed a day of work, then put them on his hips. To him, he really DID complete a day of work! Those fish were terrifying!

"There. Easy!"

Gomamon giggled, jumping onto Joe's back, making him flinch a bit, but he sucked that up too.

"Well, probably not so easy for the fish considering you literally slung them into the water. But we appreciate the help, Joe! And thanks to you too, TK and Patamon."

They all laughed, before Tai spoke up.

"So can we go now already or what?"

His voice was surprisingly harsh. Joe wanted to hide in a hole. He hated when people were mad at him. He was scared of lots of things, but this probably took the cake. This and Kuwagamon. And the dark. And the unknown. And.. he should stop thinking about what scared him.

"Let's be nice, Tai." Chided Sora carefully. She liked to keep the status quo in the group. Joe could appreciate that. "But yeah, I think he has a point. We don't want to be out here when it's late." Byomon chirped in agreement at that.

"Prodigious! I can't wait till night falls. There should certainly be more creatures to research at night.."

"You're certainly true about that, Izzy" Tentomon replied.

Joe went absolutely speechless at Izzy's words.

"Prodigious? ProDIGIOUS?! What do you MEAN, prodigious? That's-- that's the OPPOSITE of prodigious! That's.. that's CONdigious!"

"That's not a word, Joe."

"Who cares if it's a word or not?! Are you CRAZY?! We can't possibly be out at night! We- we need to find shelter! Safety! We don't need to find more BLOODTHIRSTY MONSTERS."

"Then let's get going already." Matt cut in, annoyed that they were holding everybody back. "We'll find shelter, food, and be safe. But we can't do that if we won't even start to walk, so let's get going. TK, walk next to me and..."

"..Gabumon."

"Gabumon."

TK, holding Patamon, nodded and stood next to his brother. Joe sighed in defeat. He knew that Matt certainly had a point in that. It still scared him, though. To the core. He couldn't feel his legs anymore at this point. What could be out there? More Kuwagamons? Or worse, something STRONGER than that?!

"Uhm, Joe, the rest are walking off without us."

Gomamon's words brought Joe back to reality.

"AH"

He right away started to run and follow his friends. Off to find shelter and food. And maybe off to find some monsters, too. Real scary ones. Ones that only come out at night like real creepy crawlies do.. oh, Joe was petrified. Though it still seemed like morning time, so they would have lots of opportunity to find shelter today. Stay calm, stay calm..

They all walked, walked, walked, seemingly for forever. Joe kept getting scared that night time would come too quickly. His only sense of comfort was the fact that Gomamon wouldn't shut up, continuously talking about.. something or other. Joe wasn't paying attention. Though he felt bad, Gomamon really WAS talking about a lot.

"...Yeah, and y'know, I was so confused by that big sea digimon! I sure thought it was friendly, but it really seemed more hungry."

"Hmm.. hungry. I'm hungry too.." Agumon spoke. Soon, all the digimon agreed, their stomachs rumbling in unison. Tai laughed at that, and with his hands behind his head and walking as if he was the king of this world already, spoke.

"Yeah, yeah, we're all hungry. But don't worry! We can find something good, soon. Just be patient, c'mon.."

After a while more of walking, they found something. A beach. And even odder? Phone booths, lining the beach.

"Phones?" Mimi questioned.

"Phones?!" Izzy ran up to Mimi, looking down at the beach below them. "What an anomaly!" He ran right to the phone booths, not even waiting for the rest of the group.

Phone booths? That.. was weird. Very weird. Joe was under the impression that they had somehow time traveled and this was a world full of, like, dinosaurs or something. But he didn't think there were phones back then (or back now?)... maybe this really WAS a different world. That's not something he wanted to happen, and as the realization sunk in, he started making a beeline for the phone booths.

"PHONES!" He could call somebody! He could-- he could call for help! He was absolutely sure he was allergic to something in this world, and he'd probably need help for that, too!

He immediately started to dial in phone numbers, as did the rest of the team. But.. none of the numbers worked. They all were met with some wacky response on the other line, or even just static. Joe got all his hopes up for nothing... this was exactly what he had feared...

"We're never gonna get home..."

He whined, resting his head on the wall of the phone booth. Gomamon, who now was besides him, shook his head.

"Don't give up so easily, Joe! Keep calling. Maybe you'll find something cool or important!"

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right, Gomamon! I'll keep calling."

"Alright, cool! But before you get too into it, you have anything to eat? Or--"

"Just take the emergency bag."

"...oh, uh, okay"

Joe called in a few more numbers, now just making up ones and hoping they'd work. Every time, his hope dwindled more and more. And he was completely oblivious to the arguments and discussions going on behind him about food. Then, the ground rumbled. And the phone booths around Joe were destroyed from geysers in the ground. He yelled and ran away, not even realizing he had left Gomamon behind in his fear.

"AHHH GUYS WHAT'S THAT WHAT'S GOING ON WHAT DID I DO WHY IS--"

"Uh oh." Matt said, simply. "Trouble."

Something erupted from the ground, as if hearing the word 'trouble' and taking that as its cue to jump in.

"Hm. What IS that?" Izzy asked, seeming more curious than scared. His little scary bug digimon answered.

"That's Shellmon."

"A Shellmon? What a dumb name!" Tai exclaimed, though Joe thought it was pretty dumb for him to insult a monster. Especially a monster that could probably understand him. He hid behind the rest of the group, as Tentomon continued speaking.

"Careful with your words! That digimons already constantly in a bad mood as it is. We wouldn't want to provoke it further!"

In a bad mood?? In a bad mood?! Bad moods are never good, that's why they're called BAD. Joe shook his hands in fear as the rest spoke, up and down, nervously, frantically. He did that often when he was afraid.

"Well, we defeated that Kuwagamon, didn't we?" Started Tai. "That means we could definitely take on this guy."

Matt scoffed at Tai. "WE didn't defeat it. Our digimon did. And even then, I'm not so sure it's really even defeated, is it."

The thought made Joe shiver.

"...and this digimon's a looot stronger than us!" Tentomon informed, though the information was making Joe even more freaked out than anything.

"We should've just.. just found shelter, stayed clear of anything.."

"Joe, don't act like this is our fault!" Tai scolded the blue haired boy. "We were trying to get you off those dumb phone booths so we could leave!"

Joe felt very very bad about that. "I was just trying to call every possible number. Just in case." And he didn't think his logic was wrong, but he did know that he could've probably.. paid more attention to his friends. Then he remember Gomamon. Shoot! He just completely left Gomamon by himself! He looked around frantically for him, only to realize that he was just.. chilling by himself in the pond, as if he was all fine. What a character...

The group watched as Shellmon emerged from its shell. Joe swore he could feel himself having an allergic reaction just by looking at it. "C'mon, guys, let's run!"

He said, before starting to.. well, run. He didn't make it very far, though. The big digimon shot a geyser at Joe, pushing him to a rock. He had hit his head pretty hard.. gah.. he immediately became dizzy. He had to be concussed from that..

"JOE!!"

Joe heard Gomamon call out his name, then heard another geyser. That certainly wasn't good, oh no no no.. he hoped Gomamon was okay, but didn't have the mental OR physical strength to go check up on him.

"Digimon, attack!"

Joe heard the digimon call. He managed to sit up, even just a bit-- enough to see Gomamon wasn't visible in the water anymore, and enough to see the digimon remaining attempt to fight the big guy.

"Pepper breath!"

Agumon launched fire at the Shellmon. The other digimon were about to attack it too, but.. they had no power. They were hungry, and hunger made them weak, it seemed.

"What's going on?"

Izzy asked out to the digimon.

"We.. we have no food! We're exhausted, we can't fight like this!" Replied Byomon. Shellmon promptly shot a geyser at her, and then held her against the rock mountain that surrounded the beach.

It was petrifying.

"BYOMON"

They all watched as Shellmon squeezed Byomon more and more against the mountain. Her eyes started to pop out a bit and it was clear she couldn't breath, as she was going pale. She desperately scratched at the hand of the ugly piece of chewed gum looking digimon's hand holding her, but she was too weak. And just when it seemed like she'd go limp, Agumon had had enough power for another pepper breath.

"Pepper breath!"

The fire ball distracted the Shellmon. Byomon fell to the ground, and Sora ran right for her. Anybody could notice the tears in her eyes, and the genuine pain and fear she had felt in that moment. Shellmon turned back to Sora and Byomon, and then with a huge geyser laser, hit them into the mountain. It continued on with said geyser laser, hitting all the digimon and their human partners, including Joe. Though he didn't have Gomamon with him. He left him because he was too scared.

Hah, did Joe regret that now.

But Tai and Agumon remained, somehow. Tai tried running up to personally fight the Shellmon himself, but it caught him with it's tail. It held Tai up, far from the ground, and started squeezing him, like it did to Byomon. But Tai was weaker than a digimon. Tai was just a kid. There was no way he'd survive that. 

Chapter Text

TAI
Everything that just happened felt like a total blur

Tai was struggling. He could feel himself going in and out of consciousness. He was going to die and he was scared. He felt he never apologized to Kari enough for putting her in danger that one day she was sick. He knew he had never apologized to Sora for all the honestly shitty things he'd do to her sometimes. He never really gave his mom's food a chance, even though it was absolutely definitely terrible. Like, mayonnaise meat juice?? What even IS that??

And the thing he was regretting most?

That this was how he'd die. To the hands of some.. some ugly abomination to life. He'd never return to his family. He wouldn't get to play soccer anymore. He wouldn't get to kiss somebody or fall in love or do anything he wanted to.

And you know what?

That made him mad. Real mad! And he hated being mad. So, in his anger, he just yelled. Let it all out. Who'd care? He'd be dead in the end, anyways. And he felt it made him seem more intimidating, anyways.

Though somehow, through his screaming, he had heard something.

"Hold on, Tai!"

Agumon. It was.. Agumon. He saw the little guy try to fight the big Shellmon (which Tai thought was a stupid name, even at the end of his life) but instead get crushed under it's paw. Ooh.. that's.. gotta hurt. But Tai didn't feel like having two people-- err, creatures-- die today.

"Agumon! Get up, you can do this! I know you can!"

He yelled at the yellow dragon lizard thing, though his words at the end were strained the more Shellmon squished him. He was past the point of speaking now, and past the point of trying to make jokes to quell his fear.

"Tai-- I--"

Agumon shook his head, took a deep breath, and then hollered...

"DIGIVOLVE!!"

Tai felt his little digital remote object thingy shake, and light up, and make some noise. Suddenly, he felt.. confident. He had a good feeling that this would all turn out alright.

"A-agumon.."

He managed to say, then glanced at his partner.

His partner who was not his partner anymore.

"Agumon, digivolve to..!"

Everyone, including the others who had all been pretty hurt by being blasted against that mountain, ogled in complete surprise as Agumon got.. bigger. A lot bigger. And changed form, too, getting some sort of helmet and like.. cool blue markings.. and, well, he became super cool! And super terrifying, too.

"...Greymon!"

Shellmon walked backwards, away from Greymon, in surprise at the newly digivolved Agumon. In it's surprise, it dropped Tai, who hit his head pretty hard on the ground. He did manage to get out of the way of their fighting, though, watching Greymon absolutely dominate Shellmon.

"Greymon, beat that guy! C'mon, I know you can! You beat that other guy easily, and now that you're even stronger, so you better beat him!"

Greymon chuckled as Tai's words, before grabbing Shellmon's head. It tried to shoot a geyser at Greymon, but he quickly dodged, and then shot Shellmon right in the face with some more fire. Some fire touched the water, creating an air of smoke around them, making it a lot harder for Greymon to see what he was doing. Yet, he persisted on, still fighting Shellmon.

He found the strength to pick Shellmon up, turn him around like a lasso, and then launch him across the fucking stratosphere. Just to make sure Shellmon was gone for good, Greymon also let out a "DIGINOVA BLAST" That just punted him even further.

And just like that, boom! Greymon won.

Greymon WON!

Tai ran over to Greymon, who was somehow regressing back into Agumon.

"What? You're back to Agumon again?-- no, yknow what, never mind that! That was awesome!"

He picked Agumon up, hugging him happily with all the thankfulness he found he wasn't able to vocalize.

Then Agumon hit Tai with the very words he.. really didn't want to hear.

"I'd do anything to save you, Tai! You ARE safe, right?"

Tai scoffed.

"Saving? I don't need saving, Agumon. I can save myself. You just helped me to.. I dunno, escape, but I could've done that myself in some other way. You didn't save me."

Agumon was quiet for a moment, clearly exhausted and hungry, and now just upset that he felt he did something wrong. Tai noticed the digimon's low mood, and just.. couldn't be too angry at him for too long.

"You know what? It's fine, though. You just made a mistake. That's okay. I bet you're pretty hungry by now, huh?"

The promise of food did make Agumon a bit happier. Though just a bit. He weakly chuckled.

"Hah, do you really have anything to eat?"

Tai laughed and nodded. "I'm sure we can find something."

And a few hours later, the digimon were all eating some rations they had in a circle. Joe was frantically trying to call someone with the ruined phones. Tai thought he probably hit his head a bit too hard if he thought that would help... he sighed and sat behind Agumon, back to back to his partner.

"We should head out soon. If Shellmon comes back, and we're still here.. well, let's just say that's not a great idea."

"Who wants to tell Joe.." Izzy added on sarcastically. Though Tai was sure he wasn't trying to be funny about it, he had to laugh a bit.

"When I'm done eating, I will!" Said Gomamon happily. All the digimon seemed a lot more content now that they had food in their stomachs. Makes sense. The thought of it made Tai hungry himself, and he reached behind him and grabbed what Agumon was about to munch on.

"Hey, you guys can't have that all to yourselves!" He laughed, teasing Agumon, who turned around right away to face him.

"Tai, noooo!" Agumon's voice was teetering between joking and serious dismay, unsure if Tai was joking and was actually trying to take his food or what.

Tai laughed, gonna make this a game. "Take the food back, then!" He laughed, holding it up high. Agumon's eyes lit up at that, understand what Tai was trying to do. They started to wrestle lightly between them, laughing and having fun, before Matt just haaad to ruin it.

"We can.. *play* later. Once we find somewhere safe to go. Let's keep going on already. TK can't be here any longer, he's terrified."

"Ah, he can't be that scare--"

Tai looked down at TK, who was gripping on tight to Matt's shirt. Oh. The little guy really WAS scared. But what did he have to be afraid about? He wasn't the one captured. Tai would've joked about it, but it was honestly pretty sad. And a stark contrast to TK's typical childish nature.

"..yeah, okay, fine, let's go.."

So the team kept walking on, looking for a good place to find shelter, Gomamon having convinced Joe to leave the phone booths.

They then found a trolley cart. Perfect place to sleep for the night! And Tai thought he was the perfect one to be the lookout. 

Chapter Text

MATT
Matt hated this.

He didn't want to even go to camp. The only reason he went is because TK wanted to, and their parents wanted them to be closer. Stupid.

Matt had no friends in camp, and that was intentional. He valued friendship more than anything. He wasn't gonna be friends with people he didn't like or thought he was unequal to, and quite frankly he thought he was better then everyone here! Everyone was weird or mean.

Plus, it's not like he could even TRY to make a friend. Matt acted different with people he considered friends than he acted in front of TK. He didn't want to be one of those bad influence big brothers who cursed all the time and were mean all the time. He couldn't! Sure, TK had their mom, but he had no dad, really. So Matt needed to fill that void.

And Matt knows how his mom is. She can be overbearing and rude and pushy and.. well, not always pleasant. So Matt had to be there for TK. Be the parent he never really had. And though it was stressful, he had already accepted it as his role for most of his life.

But now he's stranded on some other world, with no idea how to get home, with some weird little monsters who call themselves their partners and with big monsters always out to get them and their little creatures were too weak to fight.

Matt knew he went to camp to protect TK, but how was he supposed to protect him from.. all of this?

He saw how afraid TK was in front of the Shellmon. Takeru just wasn't equipped for this type of world, but there was nothing Matt could do about it.

Matt held TK's hand, making him stay close to him as the group walked through this weird ass place.

"UUUUGHH my legs HURT. I want to stop! I hate this.. why can't we stooop??"

What a brat.

"C'mon, Mimi, don't complain." Tai said. "We'll find someplace safe soon. Your annoying complaining won't help, though."

Matt liked that Tai could vocalize what Matt didn't know how. Sure, he was mean about it, but at least mean things hurt more.

"--And I just want to sleep! And eat! I wanna go home. I wanna wear something else! This is sooo dirty now!"

So she just. Didn't listen at all. Okay.

Sora sighed, shaking her head no. "It's okay, Mimi, don't worry.. we'll get home soon, and you'll wear something else. Let's be quiet though. Something might attack us if we're too loud.."

"UGH!" Mimi yelled in discontent. "I don't WANT to, though! I hate this! This sucks, and it's the worst!"

Matt put his hands over TK's ears. He knew his little brother didn't like yelling or arguing that much. Takeru looked annoyed a bit by that action, but Matt thought it was best for him.

"Mimi, shut up." Izzy said simply. Tai laughed at that.

"HAH you even managed to make IZZY tell you to shut up. He barely ever even speaks!"

"You guys are all so mean!" Mimi pouted, jumping up and down a bit. Like a child throwing a tantrum! Ugh! Palmon herself even seemed a bit annoyed by how Mimi was acting. Matt didn't know the digimon could get annoyed. Hah, Mimi had some sort of super powers or something that can annoy anyone and everyone.

"Right, Joe? You're not saying anything so obviously you agree with me." Mimi glanced at Joe, and so did Matt. Joe seemed oddly quiet, and so was Gomamon. Huh. Wonder what that was about.

"Joooeeee answer meee" She demanded. He didn't.

"JO--!"

Suddenly a loud roar sounded from behind them. They all jumped, Matt running behind the others, dragging along Takeru. He noticed Gabumon and Patamon take a fight stance in front of them, clearly trying to be intimidating. Hah, what silly guys.

"Monochromon!" They heard Tentomon say, followed by vigorous writing on a notebook Izzy had found in his backpack. "They're typically friendly... unless they're hungry."

"Well, dudes.. looks like luck's just not on our side today. He looks hungry."

And as if Tai's words cursed them, another Monochromon appeared on the other side. They were fucked!

"I didn't say that to give us even LESS luck!" Tai cursed.

The Monochromon in front of them charged at the one on the other side of them. The group all ran from the fighting digimon, Takeru yelping as they did so.

"We better run.." Matt heard Palmon say, then start to run. The rest ran, and Matt made sure they were all on their way before following them. Patamon and Gabumon never left Matt and his little brother.

After a while of running later, it felt as though they were safe. Everything seemed quiet now. Good. Finally. Everyone was quiet, as they were so incredibly exhausted and hungry. They all slowly made their way around the world, Mimi pouting, Sora zoning out, Tai thinking.. it was weird. Especially TK being quiet. Matt was used to him being a little, hopeful sunshine. Now he was just.. a little afraid boy. It scared him, too.

"It looks like it's getting late.." Sora spoke, breaking the tension between them all.

Tai nodded. "Shoot.. you're right. We gotta find someplace safe.."

"Leave it to me!" Byomon offered, trying to fly up but.. she couldn't really fly that high. Sora laughed.

"Thanks for the effort, Byomon."

Byomon looked defeated at that, but Tentomon took the opportunity.

"It's okay, I can look!"

He flew up and looked around for some..thing. Matt wasn't too sure what really. What would be someplace safe in this world?

"Yes! As usual, I'm brilliant and have noticed a freshwater lake! That should certainly be quite safe, and with plenty of yummy fish!" Gomamon grumbled at the thought of eating the fish.

"Then let's go." Tai said, looking like he was trying to psyche himself up. Matt started to walk, no questions asked. They should get there fast if they wanted to be safe. TK followed him, still quiet as he held onto Patamon.

"Yes! Water. And hopefully safe water, as well. I wonder how different water is here compared to water on our world.." Izzy said to himself, following Matt. The mention of water made Gomamon's eyes widen in happiness, as he remembered that a freshwater lake meant WATER.

"Finally!" He started to run to the water. "Finally some water!"

Joe looked like he wanted to puke just at the thought of it not being safe, but he just decided to silently resign himself and follow as well. Matt was glad that he wouldn't be speaking. They all started to walk to the lake.

Before they knew it, they made it to the lake. Gomamon ran right into the water, and Takeru and Patamon followed him to sit by the lake-- not before asking Matt, though.

"Can we sit by the lake, Matt?"

Matt only nodded, and watched as they left.

"Woah, guys, look at this."

Matt looked at Sora, and then to where she was pointing. All of them gasped.

A trolley cart??

"Prodigious!" Izzy ran right to it. "I was hoping we'd find some more human technology in this world. I wonder what the significance of it is!"

They watched him run inside.

"We could use that as shelter for tonight." Matt said, though he didn't know if he spoke loud enough.

Tai nodded. "Yeah, that seems like a pretty okay idea!"

Matt did feel a bit proud of that.

Mimi's tummy grumbled, and she groaned once again.

"Uuugh, so can we like, eat already?"

Agumon gave her a thumbs up. "We can go fishing!" He said happily. Tai nodded.

"Boom! Awesome idea Agumon. Let's do that"

Mimi watched them run to the side of the lake, before she sighed. "I'll be waiting for my food in the train cart! Make sure it's delicious." Hah. Matt could nearly laugh at that.

They all got situated in their own respective places, some inside the trolley, some collecting food, some fishing.. and the digimon were real helpful, too! They all knew what was good to eat or what not, and they seemed to be wonderful foragers. Matt's job was to make a fire in order to cook the fish with. It wasn't that hard, though, really. He just needed to find sticks, and those were everywhere here.

"So, we've got that situated." Matt said, shrugging, though he felt like he was forgetting something important...

Sora sighed. "Now how do we LIGHT it? I remember learning about it some time in school a couple of years ago, but we never got to try it since it was.. yknow, school. And I completely forgot how to do it anyways."

Tai thought for a moment, seeming to be thinking veeery deeply about this. Agumon walked over to them.

"Hey, Tai, are you okay?"

Matt nearly laughed.

"Yeah, Agumon, it's just that Matt and Sora here don't know how to light a fire! I do obviously, I just.. uh.. can't right now."

What an idiot.

"Oh? Why not, Tai?"

Tai went quiet, before starting with a long "uuuuuuhhhh" and then went quiet again. Agumon laughed.

"It's okay if you can't do it! Watch!"

And he used his pepper breath to light the sticks on fire. Oh, right. He could do that.

"I can do it, I just--" Tai started to defend himself, before realizing he didn't really have much. "Yeah, fine. Thanks. That was pretty sick, admittedly."

Right after the fire was lit, Matt noticed Izzy and Takeru running over to them with fish. Matt didn't like TK hanging out with Izzy. Izzy was weird.

"Hey, look, Matt! We caught some fish!"

Oh! He looked happy! That made Matt relax a bit more, that's for sure.

"Did you? Good job, thanks, Squirt."

Tai snatched the fish out of Izzy and TK's hands, which didn't seem very nice, and then stuck them over the fire. Without even sticking them on a stick or anything. Just stupidly putting his hand over the fire.

Matt sighed. He quickly picked up some extra sticks he found, and then handed one to Tai.

"Don't be stupid, Tai. That's dangerous."

Tai gave him a dirty look.

"Don't call me stupid."

"Then don't *be* stupid."

Both were quiet for a moment, before Tai snatched the stick from Matt and stuck the fish onto it. They both started to cook all the fish.

A while later, all the food was finally ready!

They all sat around the campfire, it finally having turned night time. Joe stayed close to Gomamon. Joe looked very.. dizzy and tired. Matt figured he probably had gotten a mild concussion from the Shellmon hitting them all against the wall. Matt got up without a word, found a clean enough looking hollow stick to put water in, and then walked up to Joe.

"Drink it. Water should help a bit with headaches."

Joe was surprised, but took the water.

"Thanks."

Matt sat back down, and continued eating.

"Ahh! Finally, some FOOD!" Mimi exclaimed content, before right away taking it back. "Though, this is pretty plain. It could use some more seasoning! Salt, pepper."

"What's a 'salt' and a 'pepper,' Mimi?"

Mimi stared at Palmon, confused.

"Well.. y'know, salt.. and.. and pepper?"

As if that explained anything!

"Well, Palmon" Sora tried explaining instead. "Salt and pepper are some things we put on our food back on Earth that makes it taste a bit different. Usually it adds a bit of flavor to otherwise plain food. We have a lot of different seasonings for our food, but we typically use salt and pepper."

All the digimon but Gabumon nodded and said 'oooh.' Gabumon tilted his head.

"I still don't get it."

Matt scoff-laughed at that. "Maybe when we get back home, I'll let you try some, Gabumon."

Gabumon seemed very, very happy at that. Both that Matt actually interacted with him, and that he seemed to actually want to talk even AFTER they left the digiworld.

"That sounds wonderful, Matt, thank you!"

Matt gave a small smile to Gabumon, before looking back to TK.

"Is it good?"

He noticed his younger brother hadn't touched a single thing. He still looked quiet and pretty scared, too. Sigh.. right back to this again.

"I'm not too hungry.." TK shrugged, not making eye contact with Matt. That definitely bothered Matt.

"Well, eat anyways."

"I can't eat with my hands!"

"I won't tell anybody. Just do it, TK, I don't want you complaining about being hungry tomorrow."

Tai glared at Matt.

"Be nicer to him, Matt. But yeah, man! We made this reeeally good food, and I'm sure you'll really like it, TK."

TK looked at Tai, then at Matt. Matt didn't look back at TK. He heard his little brother sigh and get a small fruit, one that the digimon had gathered. Matt, though he didn't show it, was more than relieved at that.

After a bit more of eating, and some of the group members wandering around nearby, Matt heard Patamon yawn.

"Patamon's tired.." TK started, before yawning himself. Matt felt Gabumon fall asleep against his shoulder.

"Yeah. Looks like it's time to fall asleep.." Sora nodded, stretching as she spoke. She seemed pretty tired, too.

Matt nodded, before sitting up. Gabumon woke up at his moving, but Matt didn't pay it no mind.

"We'll probably need someone to stand guard." He noted. "I'll--"

"--I'll do it!" Tai cut in. "I wanna do it. Agumon and I could totally be the best guards." Matt admittedly had to feel bad for Agumon. The little guy digivolved just a bit ago, and Tai was being a jerk and insisting that he stay awake with him.

Mimi nodded, then started to head to the trolley cart. "Let's do it, then! Though I hope it won't be too cold inside there.. I don't think I could manage anymore coldness!" She whined. Tai took the opportunity to tease Gabumon.

"Gabumon, ya better be careful.." He walked up behind him. "If Mimi gets cold enough, she might cut your fur off to make a chic blanket! Haha! She'd be like a monster!"

Gabumon, who was still pretty exhausted looking, frowned at that. Matt didn't like that at all. He walked up to Tai and pushed him away from Gabumon.

"Hey, get away from Gabumon. And don't make anymore jokes about monsters, it's gonna freak TK out!" Matt didn't yell at Tai, but his voice was still very stern and serious.

"It's okay, Matt, I'm fi--"

"TK, we're not talking to you right now. Shut up."

Takeru went quiet.

"And why are you so mean to your brother, Matt?! What'd he do! How can you even call yourself a brother when you act like that?!"

That was Matt's last straw. He punched Tai in the face, and then walked away, seriously angry. Gabumon followed him.

"Don't just run away! C'mon, why don't you finish what you started?!"

Tai's words faded the further Matt got from them. Matt didn't even look back to see what was going on now. He wished he could just.. leave. He didn't need their help to get through this place, did he? He didn't remember if he thought he did before or not, but he knew now that he absolutely did not.

Matt sat by the river, thinking of a lot of things. Mostly about TK. And how Tai said he was a mean brother. Did he really think that? Why? Matt didn't think he was mean. He was just trying to protect TK, and he thought that being stern was the right way to do it. It only made sense to him. Takeru should see Matt as strong and assertive. That way, he'll trust him more. Right? Ugh. Matt wasn't made for being a big brother, he decided. Not that that would make him stop, of course.

And it's not like he didn't like TK or anything. They were just... two different types of people. And Matt-- he-- ugh.

"Matt? Are you okay?"

Matt jumped. His soul nearly just left his body right now. He looked besides him. Gabumon was there.

"What? Gabumon? Did you follow me out here?"

Gabumon just simply nodded. That annoyed Matt.

"I came out here to be alone."

"I figured." Gabumon agreed. "But I also figured that you're alone TOO much. You need a friend sometimes! I want to be your friend. So are you okay?"

Matt only looked at him like he was insane. Though deep down, he couldn't lie-- Gabumon's care for him touched him, and made him want to cry.

"I'm fine. Go rest with the group. You need to sleep."

Gabumon sat besides Matt now.

"You do too. I won't rest until you do."

Matt scoffed. Gabumon was nearly as fucking stubborn as Tai was. It annoyed him a bit, but he also figured Gabumon did only have good intentions. He shouldn't be mad...

"Why are you upset, Matt?"

...but something about Gabumon repeatedly questioning him, and seeming convinced that Matt was 'not okay' or even 'upset' just pissed him the hell off. Matt stood up, trying to take a deep breath, before he grunted and kicked the ground on his other side. He felt angry and he wanted to take it out on something.

"I'm not upset, Gabumon!" He nearly yelled. Why did he do that? That could wake the rest up. Matt felt selfish and that only made him feel worse. Why did he have to do these things he always did? Why did he feel the need to push Gabumon away? "Just- just go back to the trolley. Stay with TK. He's probably cold."

Gabumon hesitated for a bit, before nodding. He left Matt alone.

He took out his harmonica. He'd have preferred his guitar or something, but a harmonica was definitely more portable anyways so he shouldn't be complaining.

He could hear Tai and Agumon laughing about something. He wanted to tell them to shut up since the rest were asleep, but he just.. didn't have the energy. He instead looked up at the night sky. So many stars. None of them looked familiar. It stressed him out and it angered him. He didn't understand why he had to BE here. He didn't want to!

But what was the point in caring so much about something he couldn't change? At this point, the only thing he could do was tune it all out. And his favorite way of doing so, was playing some music.

So he took out his harmonica, and started playing a tune. This tune meant a lot to him. Did it really mean much in the grand scheme of things? Nope. But it kept his mind off of things we didn't want to think about. That had to count for something. Plus, it was pretty hard to play, so he had to focus more on it if he wanted to get it all right.

He played for a bit, the tune making him almost sleepy, but the nature of a harmonica really only served to keep him awake. Something about how the pitch of the song was. He didn't really know. He might be a bit too tired to think straight now..

"What's that song?"

And yet again, Matt felt his soul threatening to leave his body. Why was everybody sneaking up on him today?!

"Oh, shit, hah, sorry for scaring ya, Matt. I just heard something over here and decided to come check it out."

"...it's whatever."

There was silence between them. This was the last thing Matt wanted. Tai was too annoying and charming for Matt to talk to. He had a lot of mixed feelings about Tai, feelings he didn't want to sort out, and that just made him a quintuple times more upset.

"Sorry about before, I guess."

What an apology. Matt scoffed and answered Tai's previous question.

"It's just some dumb melody."

Matt answered with a shrug, hoping to get Tai off of his back with that one. Of course, though, it wouldn't. Cus why would it? Why would ANYTHING work out the way Matt wanted it to?? Why would everything just be fine and okay and normal and-- ugh. He was getting frustrated again.

"I don't think it's dumb. I mean, harmonicas totally not my thing, sure, but I won't lie. You make it kinda cool. Not as cool as me, though!"

"Shut up. Go keep watch."

Tai scoffed at Matt's rudeness.

"Well, don't tell me what to do. Now I'm just gonna do the opposite of that."

Tai stubbornly sat beside Matt.

"You are a dumbass. I hate you"

Matt always hated saying those last three words, but they flew out of him easier than he thought they would. They always did. Another reason not to make friends..

Tai was obviously hurt by that.

"And what did I do to YOU, then?? Huh, man?!"

Matt noticed Agumon nervously walk up to Matt and Tai, but he ignored him. Tai didn't seem to notice him.

"You're constantly an absolute burden who doesn't care about anybody but himself, that's for one."

"Ohh, look who's talking!"

"Don't flip this on me!! I'm the one trying to focus on finding food and shelter! YOU'RE just doing whatever you think is good for YOURSELF."

"Uhm. Guys, we have a prob--"

"--not now, Agumon. Matt's being a jerk and I kinda wanna beat him up for it."

"Is that a threat?"

"So what if it is?!"

Matt could almost feel himself getting red from the anger. But.. no. He had to contain himself. The last thing he needed to do right now was get angry and start to argue. Arguing never led to anything good, and honestly Matt just didn't have the motivation for it right now. Especially not after literally punching Tai before. He wouldn't admit it, but he felt really bad about that.

"Just leave me be."

Matt tried to make his way elsewhere. Where? Eh, he didn't know. He just wanted to get away from Tai.

"Oh, but, uh, Matt, we have a--"

"No. Matt, I'm not letting you run away from me! Either fight me like a man or run like a pussy!"

Tai kept stupidly trying to pick a fight. One that Matt really did NOT want to have.

"I'd rather choose run like a pussy over choosing to fight like an immature child any day. Just drop it, Tai."

Matt heard Tai scoff behind him, and knew that the boy was probably annoyed now. Matt didn't care.

"Ohhh Gd what's THAT"

Tai sounded scared. Something Matt didn't hear in his voice often. He turned to Tai, but before he could process anything.. he was grabbed by a huge digimon. The digimon roared loudly, definitely waking the others up.

"Oh no. Matt-- uhm.. hm, Agumon, digivolve!"

Tai seemed frantic to get Matt out of the grasp of the mysterious digimon that had appeared out of nowhere. The concern nearly touched Matt, but he was more focused on trying not to die. He had managed to get his hands in a position where he could push against the digimon's grip, making it so that it couldn't hold him enough to suffocate him, but not enough so that it'd let go. It was the most he could do for now.

"Matt!"

Matt's heart dropped at that voice. It was TK. He looked to the trolley, noticing his younger brother gripping Patamon tight in his nervousness, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Don't worry, TK, I'll get out of here on my own. You'll see. It'll all be fine, you'll be okay." All Matt could do, though, was say empty promises. He honestly.. wasn't so sure.

"TK, let me go for a second. I'll try to get him out." Patamon said, to which Takeru responded with a nod, before letting Patamon go. Patamon started to shoot some blasts of air at the big digimon, before the rest of the group pooled out the trolley.

"Ugh.. who woke me up from my beauty nap?" Mimi complained. Sora softly hit the back of Mimi's head for that. "Mimi, not the time! This is clearly serious! Byomon, can you try to help? I know you're probably tired, I'm sorry, but.."

Byomon nodded. "No need to explain yourself, Sora." She smiled at her human friend. "Of course I'll help!"

Byomon started hitting the big digimon, before all the rest joined in.

"Tentomon, who is that?" Izzy asked, his serenity and odd calmness a stark contrast to the chaotic and scary nature of the circumstances.

"It's called a Seadramon! It is incredibly aggressive, and it's best to stay away from it, but..."

"Stop talking about what it *is* and start FIGHTING it!" Tai yelled at Izzy and Tentomon before Tentomon could say anything else. The ladybug-like digimon nodded and helped fight Seadramon.

The big Seadramon roared in anger and frustration at the digimon fighting back, and hit them all in one swoop with it's tail, dropping Matt in the meanwhile.

"MATT, NO!" Gabumon's voice rung out. Matt closed his eyes and prepared for a fatal fall. That was, until he saw Gabumon start to glow.

Chapter Text

GABUMON
Gabumon doesn't really know Matt very well.

He knows that he can be rude and doesn't like to speak often, but.. Gabumon could relate, to a sense.

He felt connected to this human.

Why? He didn't really quite know.

What did they have in common? It felt like nothing. The humans talked about salt and pepper so easily with each other, as if it was the most typical, normal thing in the world. Gabumon still didn't quite understand it.

Really, they were two whole different species.

So why did he care so much?

Why did he care if this boy would live or die?

Maybe it's because he's been waiting his whole life for Matt. But he didn't even know he was waiting until he met him.

Or maybe it's because he saw how Matt acted. He was shy, that was for sure. And it felt like he was hiding under a mask. Nearly like how Gabumon was hiding underneath the fur of another digimon.

Gabumon didn't know why he cared

But he didn't want to stop

He wanted to be someone for Matt to trust. And Gabumon wanted to trust Matt, too.

Ah, this was all very confusing for him. Very, very confusing. The only thing that wasn't confusing, though?

​​​​​​​He did not want Matt to die. 

Chapter Text

MATT
Matt thought that it was only in movies, where when someone was about to die, they'd walk this whole sappy metaphorical walk through memory lane.

Guess it was a real thing that happens, too.

He couldn't help but think of his loneliness. Especially when his parents divorced. He moved in with his dad and left all his friends. That was when he first realized that nothing lasted forever.. especially not love or friendship.

He remembers Takeru being so torn at even the thought of his parents divorcing. Matt remembered telling him he'd get used to it. He felt bad about that now.

Maybe he WAS a bad brother.

Maybe he WAS a bad.. PERSON.

He didn't want that to be true, of course, but he couldn't help but think it.

Is this how he'd die? A terrible excuse for a human being? All he wanted was to be seen as cool and strong. Yet instead, he'd just be seen as apathetic. Selfish, even.

He wished he could do it all again. From the start. Differently.

Or at least be able to change his life NOW.

Matt opened his eyes, one last time, hoping to at least see the beauty of the world before he'd die. He couldn't count on much, but Nature being it's typical, beautiful self was something he'd never be able to forget.

But when he opened his eyes, he only saw Seadramon. Seadramon holding TK.

"TK!"

He yelled, tears welling up in his eyes. He didn't care if HE died, but Takeru couldn't! This-- this shouldn't be real!

And then, as if an angel came to swoop him up, he felt himself being picked up by something.. fluffy.

He looked down and saw a huge wolf. It's fur color was the same as the faux fur skin Gabumon wore, but much bigger obviously.

"Don't worry Matt, you're safe now."

Matt looked dumbfounded, just utterly confused, as he gripped tight on the mysterious digimon's fur.

"Who- who are you..?"

The digimon laughed as it glanced up at Matt.

"I'm Gabumon's digilution, Matt. My name is Garurumon."

Woah.

Garurumon landed on the.. neck? Body? Of the Seadramon, biting it with it's viciously long and sharp teeth, so intimidating that just looking at the freaked Matt out. Though he couldn't be too freaked out now, as he had to hold onto Garurumon for dear life if he wanted any chance of surviving. And he definitely wasn't gonna die to THIS chump.

"Go, swim to shore." Garurumon urged. "It's dangerous if you're on me while we fight." He sunk his teeth back into the Seadramon.

Matt nodded. "Okay. Just.. just be careful."

Matt let go and fell into the water, though this time he was more prepared, and closer to it, so he probably wouldn't drown. He started swimming fast as he could to the shore, hearing the loud splashes in the water as the two huge digimon fought. One wave in particular helped him get to shore easier.

Once he managed to get there, he was met with a crying, wailing, sobbing, petrified Takeru hugging Matt tightly. Matt hugged him back with one arm, about to comfort him before he saw Garurumon.

He was terrifying. Matt didn't know how in the world such a small guy could have turned into such a big, huge, wolf-like menace, but thinking of how was the last thing on his mind now.

He watched as Seadramon hurled Garurumon off its tail, but Garurumon was fast back on his feet. Despite not being a sea type digimon, Garurumon seemed incredibly great at swimming-- especially swimming fast.

Though, not fast enough to evade Seadramon's tail hitting him down under the water, and attempting to drown him. Matt prayed under his breath that Garurumon would be okay.. and his prayers were received as he heard a loud, angry wail from Seadramon. And then saw it's tail, detached from the digimon, rise up to the surface.

Garurumon made his way back up from underwater, and as he swam to Seadramon he jumped up on it and scratched his claws into its neck.

Matt put his hands over TK's eyes, and nearly gagged at the amount of blood--even guts--being freed from the prison that was the Seadramon's body. The Seadramon let out a cry so incredibly petrifying that even though Matt wasn't anywhere near the digimon, he felt the need to run and scream and cry from terror.

Garurumon kept scratching until there was no possible way that the Seadramon could even be alive anymore. It's head fell off and both head and body sunk into the deep depths of the ocean.

Garurumon took a part of the tail and swam back to shore to the rest of the group.

Everyone was quiet as Garurumon dropped the tail onto land, and then devolved back into Gabumon. Gabumon fell onto it's knees, and Matt ran right over to him.

"Gabumon, Gabumon! That- that was.. that was incredible! That was- that was *petrifying.* Are you okay?!"

Even Matt was surprised at the worry coming out of his mouth.

Gabumon weakly nodded, giving Matt a smile. Matt picked him up.

"You're.. you're pretty intimidating when you wanna be, huh. Remind me not to mess with you." He laughed a bit. Gabumon laughed a bit.

"THAT WAS EPIC!"

Matt jumped at Tai's ecstasy, Tai running right over to Garurumon. "See, Agumon? Why can't you be like Garurumon? And why can't both of you just stay Garurumon and Greymon forever?! You're so much stronger and cooler that way!"

Matt rolled his eyes and jokingly pushed Tai to the side, making sure he did it lightly as to avoid any confusion and arguments.

"Ah, leave him alone, Tai. I think I prefer him like this, anyways. It feels less likely that he's gonna kill me." Matt grinned. Tai seemed confused at the grin for a moment, before rolling his eyes jokingly and laughing.

"I guess you have a point there!"

Matt felt Gabumon move, looked down at the digimon in his hands, and then saw him point to the tail he collected.

"Got it.. for.. food.."

Matt looked at Gabumon, then the tail, then back at Gabumon.

"Are you sure that's.. even tasty?"

"I'm willing to try!" Agumon said, before Patamon and Gomamon came up behind him and said in unison "Me too!"

Matt watched as the digimon (and Mimi, for some reason) all went to try and figure out how to cook the big tail. What odd balls. He also noticed Tai going over, probably just to see how it'd taste.

Matt smiled as he watched them all eat, even Joe managing to try some.. even if it was just a bite.. barely.

He sat by himself, away from the group. He was glad he was alive, but now he had.. some things to think about. He didn't want to think of things, but he was sure he'd have to anyways at some point.

He sighed, before hearing someone sit down besides him. He looked over. It was Sora.

"You alright, Matt?"

He paused, before nodding.

"Yeah."

She sighed.

"I don't know why, but I don't seem to trust that. Maybe because you, oh, I don't know, nearly just died!"

He gave a little laugh at that.

"Almost."

She nodded.

"Almost."

They both sat in silence for a bit. Matt didn't know what to say, but ironically the worrying about that stopped him from worrying about anything else. He watched her lay down in the grass.

"Garurumon sure was scary. Just.. tore apart that Seadramon like it was nothing."

Matt grimly nodded.

"It was weird. Gabumon would never, but then he evolved and.. I don't know. It's like they change into a whole different being when they evolve."

Sora shrugged, agreeing with Matt. "Well, they kinda do, it seems, don't they? At least Gabumon does. He turns from some little thing who's species I've never seen before to a wolf looking creature. That doesn't feel normal."

"None of this is normal, Sora."

She laughs. "You sure can say that again."

Both could smell the cooking (and almost burning) tail. They looked over, and Sora's tummy grumbled.

"Huh. I'm hungry already. You know what? I'm gonna try that thing. Looks interesting, and I could go for some more food. You gonna come?"

Matt shook his head no. Sora frowned in worry at that. She worried too much, he thought, though he appreciated the sentiment.

"Alright.. but Matt, yknow, if you ever need me, please talk to me. Okay? And if not me, TK. And Gabumon. He clearly really likes you."

Matt nodded.

"Yeah... yeah. Will do. Thanks, Sora."

She smiled at him, before turning away to the others and getting a piece of tail. Matt thought it was disgusting, but eh-- long as they're happy, he didn't care much.

He noticed Takeru walking over to him.

"H-hi Matt."

TK's voice was quiet. Timid. Scared. Matt didn't like it before, but it was a lot worse now.

"Hey, Squirt. Sit by me."

He watched as TK sat by him. Then after a moment of silence and no movement, Takeru hugged Matt and started to sob.

"Matt! Matt! You scared me so much! I thought you were.. I thought you were gonna-"

Matt hugged him with his one arm and shushed him.

"It's okay, TK. I'm here. It's okay. I'm not dead, and I'm not gone."

"Weren't you- *sniff sniff*- afraid though?"

Matt laughed.

"Terrified. I still am, I don't think I'll ever stop shaking."

He showed TK his shaky hands. His heart was still accelerated and his mind was still running, too, but obviously he couldn't show TK that.

"I'm glad you're okay.."

TK mumbled out.

Matt didn't know how to reply to that. So, he did what he always did. He communicated with music.

He took out his harmonica and started to play his favorite tune. As usual. He played played, past when TK fell asleep, past then everyone was finished with their food. Sora walked over a bit and pointed to the trolley, as if to ask 'are you coming in?' but Matt shook his head no. He played his harmonica till Joe came over to tell him he was gonna keep watch, and that Matt should go to bed.

By that point, Matt was pretty tired, so he picked Takeru up and started to make his way to the trolley cart again.

"..oh, by the way, Matt"

Joe spoke.

"Thanks for the water earlier today."

Chapter Text

SORA
Sora was walking through the forest with the rest of the group. They had, oddly enough, stumbled upon an area riddled with.. signs? They were warning signs, and certainly didn't help with Sora's growing uncertainty about everything in general.

She hadn't had any idea why she had come to this other world, but she didn't really like it. She wanted to be home, with her mom, playing soccer. Though at the same time, she was kinda enjoying her time aWAY from her mother. She was overbearing and strict, and Sora just didn't vibe with those type of people.

But she was still her mom. Why didn't she miss her enough?

She shook her head, snapping out of her thoughts, as she decided to point out the increasing amount of signs that she was noticing.

"Hey, guys, there's a whole lot of these signs.."

Joe shook, hugging Gomamon in fear and sticking by the others, of course scared to be even an inch away from them.

"This is definitely unsafe." He said, poor Gomamon being squished in his scared, tight grip.

"It's unsafe how tight you're holding me too, Joe, I'm gonna suffocate.." He mumbled out. Joe said a soft 'sorry' before loosening his grip. Gomamon nodded contently. "Thanks, Joe."

Overhead, they all heard a loud rumble, looking up at the sky.

"Prodigious! I was concocting a theory that aliens somehow had to do something with this. I knew I had to be right. I can't believe I nearly--"

"--ALIENS!"

Izzy grumbled as Joe cut him off. Tai spoke up after, Sora listening although still looking up at what she personally thought was a gear rather than an alien spaceship.

"That's weird."

He said simply, Matt scoffing at his stupidity. Sora hoped Matt was okay after yesterday, but he seemed.. relatively fine? Maybe it was just the adrenaline and shock of the fact that he nearly died. It worried Sora and made her upset that she couldn't help him in any better way.

"Well, *duh* it's weird." He rolled his eyes, then addressed TK. "Takeru, stay close to me." Sora noticed Matt being even extra overprotective over TK since yesterday, though. The only noticeable thing. She felt useless that she couldn't notice anything else. At least, not something she deemed useful and helpful enough.

TK moved in closer to his little brother, scared of anything bad that might happen this time!

"It looks like a gear." Sora pointed out. "Like someone flung a gear like a boomerang. It's probably.. not important?" She hoped.

Izzy started to write down the phenomena in his notebook, drawing it before it left their line of sight. Tai relaxed a bit, before shrugging.

"If it's dangerous, we'll find out soon enough. Let's keep going!"

"Keep going?! No! We can't! If it's DANGEROUS then we need to be sure we're safe first! Or- or we need to hide until we're SURE nothing can hurt us!"

"Joe, stop being a scaredy cat, dude. Waiting it out's just not gonna work in our favor anyways, probably."

Joe whined. "I refuse!" He crossed his arms, looking away from them as a way to hold his ground. Sora felt bad. She wished she could ease his fears, but.. it seemed pretty impossible. Sora had her own fears too, but couldn't imagine being as shackled by them as Joe was.

Everyone started walking off without Joe. "Joe, we're going.." Sora warned him. Joe yelped and ran off with the rest. Sora watched them go, just watching for a moment.

"Sora, you okay?" She heard Byomon ask. Oh! Byomon! She nearly forgot Byomon was there. Byomon hadn't been speaking so often.

Sora smiled softly, looking down at Byomon. "Yeah, I'm fine, Byomon. Thanks for asking." After a moment of slightly awkward silence, she kept speaking. "Uhm. *You* okay?"

Byomon chirped happily as she flew up a bit, reaching Sora's height. "I'm doing great, Sora! I get to hang out with you!"

Well, that just warmed Sora's heart. She loved this little thing.

"Haha. Yeah"

She wished she had enough words to properly show her appreciation for the digimon, but she just was not sure how.

"Let's keep going along then, Sora! We don't want them to leave us."

Sora nodded, and they ran along to catch up with the rest.

"We need to see if we can find any intelligent life here in this world if you all want a chance to get home." Izzy pondered to himself, searching around the area. 'You guys?' Why did Izzy say 'you guys?' Before she could question that, she heard Byomon speak up.

"Are you saying that you think we're not smart? We're plenty smart!" Byomon urged in defense. Sora sighed, and Izzy shook his head, frustrated at Byomon's incompetence. "That's not what I'm saying, Byomon, don't be stupid. I'm saying that we need to find another human if you want to go home."

Byomon huffed, but dropped it.

"C'mon, folks, we don't want to be stuck in the forest if we can help it." Matt spoke. Izzy sighed and continued walking.

"I wish I was stuck in a *mall* instead" Mimi groaned. Sora chuckled under her breath. She loved Mimi. She was easy to read and too self centered to ever really notice Sora's mistakes when she spoke or walked or did anything stupid.

"Yeah, yeah, I know Mimi. We'll get home soon, I promise."

"I wanna go home nooooowwww" She whined, huffing again.

"We can't if we get stuck here!"

Mimi mumbled mindless curses to herself as they finally continued to walk. Soon, they stumbled upon a beautiful, large clearing in the forest. It was beautiful, Sora had to admit that. This world's vegetation was lush and beautiful, and made it smell pretty nice. This clearing was full of green, fluffy, grass and the most beautiful flowers Sora has ever laid her eyes upon. She wished she could bring them home. Her mom would love these flowers.

The sunlight that shown down on them was suddenly blocked, if only for a moment. They all looked up. TK went closer to his brother.

"It's that thingie again.." he said, quietly and scared.

"It's heading for that mountain." Matt pointed to it, it having just landed (crashed) into the mountain.

"The aliens are coming to get us!" Izzy was ecstatic at that. "We have to go meet them. Get on their good side."

"Izzy, I'm not sure if that's a good idea.." Tentomon started, but Izzy was already jogging over to the gear. Tentomon looked back and forth from the group to Izzy, before sighing. "I'll make sure he's safe." He said, before following Izzy up the intimidating mountain.

"Be safe!" Sora called out, Tai scoffing to himself, though. "He's so smart yet so stupid.."

The rest decided to go AROUND the mountain. Figured it'd strain their legs much less. Then, they stumbled upon.. a desert?

"I think I learned about this type of thing in school." Joe said, clearly happy that he had an idea of something going on. "Rain shadow, I think it's called. Where the mountain facing the water side is lush and the side not is desert-y."

Oh. Sora thought that was a pretty cool fact.

They kept walking for a bit, Sora missing the beautiful flat fields she had seen a minute ago. This desert seemed like it'd go on forever.. she was exhausted, and the air was dry so she wasn't sweating. Though she felt that even sweating would've been better then having this heat stuck inside her. Uuuugh...

"This heat is RUINING my complexion." Mimi whined. "And I am NOT wearing the right shoes for this." She was mostly talking to herself, but Sora heard her.

Joe was holding a clearly dehydrated Gomamon, trying to fan him with his hands to cool him down. "Is that really all you're worried about, Mimi?" He asked, clearly judging her.

"So? What about it? I think it's perfectly fine to worry about! I look TERRIBLE!" Mimi hummed.

"I don't think so. You look pretty." He retorted. Both went silent after that.

Tai started humming under his breath. He didn't seem affected by the heat. Matt, on the other hand, was clearly trying not to SEEM like it affected it-- but it definitely did. It was hot and Sora didn't see the point in pretending it wasn't. Sora didn't understand Matt, though she thought that that was pretty interesting.

Mimi eventually got sick of the silence. Sora noticed she did that often.

"Hey, remember those phone booths? And the streetcar?"

Tai stopped humming and looked back at Joe as he walked. "Yeah, what about 'em?"

Mimi shrugged, skipping instead of walking. "Nothing. Was just wondering if you remembered."

Joe stopped. "Nope."

He put a sleeping Gomamon down, threw his hands up in the air, and then yelled.

"HEEEELP!"

Matt turned to Joe, annoyed and confused. "Joe, why would you do that?! What if a monster heard you?!"

"I don't care anymore! I just want to be saved already! We're going crazy, I swear! Our brains are being completely and totally FRIED! How am I supposed to go back to school when my brain is DEEP FRIED AND TASTY"

Gomamon groaned, barely opening his eyes.

"Shuuuut up Joe I'm sleep.."

"No! You get up, tell us what's going on! Why are we here?! You HAVE to know SOMEthing! I want to go home! I want to be safe! We all do!"

He picked up Gomamon and shook him. Gomamon was too dizzy and tired to really process it.

"Quit it, Joe." Tai turned to him. "Obviously these guys don't know where we are, either."

"No, Tai! Maybe it's just Izzy's theories getting to me, but I swear he's right. We've been abducted by aliens! We're test subjects or something! I- I don't actually know what we are, but it can't be good!"

Matt sighed. "Takeru, stay here for a moment."

He went over to Joe and slapped him, right across the face. Ow. Looked like it hurt.

"The last thing we need right now is for you to start spewing insane theories, Joe. You want to get home? Then get your head in the right spot and start focusing on what we need to do. Which right now, is getting out of this place."

The slap certainly snapped Joe back into place. He put Gomamon down and sighed. "Sorry."

This world was weird. Sora didn't like it at all. She didn't know if it was just the fact that they had all managed to mysteriously get there somehow that was making everybody anxious and tense, or if there was something in the air that was making everything weird. But no matter what it was, she didn't like it. And she certainly hated this heat.

"We'll get somewhere less hot soon, Sora." Byomon said, smiling up at her partner.

"Just a bit more."

Sora smiled back. They continued walking.

Chapter Text

IZZY
Izzy was making his way up the treacherous mountain. Normally, he'd be exhausted, but the promise of an answer kept him going. He walked up silently, Tentomon making most of the noise.

"I don't think this is a great idea, Izzy."

He warned.

"We shouldn't split up. We'll get lost. How will you get home?"

"I'm not looking to get home."

Tentomon was silent for a moment at that.

"Why not?"

Izzy didn't respond.

They kept walking, up and up and up. Izzy only had questions on his mind, questions he wanted answered. And, though he didn't know quite yet *why,* he had the feeling that that black disc had an answer.

"I'm getting rather exhausted, Izzy.." Tentomon sighed.

"Then fly. Why aren't you flying?"

"I didn't think it was fair that you can't fly. So I decided to walk."

Izzy thought that was weird.

"Don't let me hold you back." Izzy responded. "If you're tired, then fly."

"My wings will get tired!"

"They *will*. They aren't now, though."

Tentomon sighed. "Aren't YOU tired then, at least? You barely slept last night! It doesn't make sense."

Izzy shrugged. They soon finally arrived to where they had seen the disc earlier. But.. it wasn't there? All that there was was a dent where it had landed. Izzy raised a brow and touched the dirt within the dent. "It's hot. The disc certainly fell here recently.. but where could it have--"

"Look!"

Izzy looked up to where Tentomon was pointing. In the distance, he noticed the disc. It was flying away.

"What?!"

And before he knew it, it went from being in the distance to being in the FAR distance. Huh? It could fly again, after crashing into the mountain? What kind of strong technology WAS this? Izzy could research this! It seemed interesting. Very interesting.

He noticed it hitting a different mountain. A mountain across a whole, huge desert. One Izzy would have to walk through. But he didn't mind. He walked on top of this whole mountain, what was a bit of heat?

"Let's go."

"What?! Izzy! You should at least let yourself sit for a moment!"

Izzy shook his head no.

"It might be trying to run away from us, for some reason. We can't let it get too far."

Chapter Text

SORA
It felt like they had been walking for hours, months, years. Obviously they hadn't, but it's really what it felt like. Sora wished she could have made this better for everyone. If she somehow brought water with her, this would've been at least a BIT less unbearable.. she felt like a terrible person.

Mimi was mostly just dragging her feet along. In a rare moment of charity, she lended Palmon her hat so that the poor little digimon wouldn't burn to death. Gomamon sat on Joe's head, sleeping again. Sora looked to Gabumon and had to wonder why it was still wearing that terribly hot looking fur. She could never, no matter the circumstances!
Tai and Agumon seemed to be the only ones who were fine-- it made sense, for Agumon at least, being seemingly a more fire inclined digimon. Sora had no idea how Tai was fine, though, but he was always a weird guy. Matt had TK on his shoulders, and Patamon sat itself on TK's head. Byomon perched herself on Sora's shoulder, and Sora couldn't say she wasn't jealous-- she wished she could just sit down and be taken to wherever it was they were heading instead of having to brave it all the way on feet.

"Maybe it'd just be a better idea if we turned around.." Joe had only really been saying 'what ifs' or trying to give up. Sora understood, but it wasn't the right idea, in her opinion.

"We gotta keep going." She said. "I'm sure we'll get somewhere soon. Plus, we can't just go back to the forest. I seriously think we were just running around in circles back there."

Matt nodded. "Oh, we definitely were."

"Guys shut up"

"Excus--"

"Shut up! Look!"

Tai pointed to.. water?! A small village?!

"Look! It can't be a mirage, is it? It's water! It's gotta be!"

Mimi squealed and suddenly was full of energy as she ran to the village. Palmon ran after Mimi.

"Mimi, wait for me! Don't go too fast!"

Tai followed after her, and Takeru behind him. Matt scoffed and walked over with them. Joe took a moment to process it before literally ZOOMING past them to the village. Sora had no idea he could run that fast!

They made it to the village. It was.. populated by tiny Yokomon!

"Byomon! Didn't you used to be a Yokomon?"

Byomon nodded and chirped, running to the Yokomon. Sora thought it was real sweet and cute.

"I'm so hungry I could eat an arm!"

Tai laughed, happy that they found shade. TK answered back.

"I'm so hungry I could eat BROCCOLI!"

Pff, he thought that was worse than eating an arm?

"What's a broccoli?" Patamon asked, to which TK responded with a fake barf. Patamon laughed at that.

Sora watched the Yokomon bombard Byomon with questions.

"What are you doing here?"
"When did you evolve?"
"I can't wait to evolve! How did you do it?"

Byomon motioned to Sora.

"I needed to protect Sora."

Sora was taken aback by that, but gave a small, shy wave to the Yokomon. They were certainly surprised by the existence of a HUMAN.

"Look how big they are!"
"What are they doing here?"
"Woah!"

Sora laughed, not sure how to answer all their questions and even if she should. They were so interested in her existence! She wasn't used to that whatsoever. Though she couldn't say she disliked it at all!

Byomon smiled and chirped as she went back onto Sora's shoulder. "Yeah, Sora is such a wonderful human! She's taught me so many things and I've grown so much with her!" Sora smiled sheepishly at Byomon's compliments.

"Well, I'm only able to survive in this world in the first place because of Byomon!" Sora replied. Byomon chirped. They all laughed together as they talked to the tiny Yokomon, having lots of fun, until..

"Alright, that's it, STOP!"

Everyone paused and looked at Patamon, who was standing on TK's head and trying to get everyone's attention. TK seemed pretty confused as well, looking up at his friend with an inquisitive look. The poor boy also seemed pretty nervous at the sudden attention at them, looking down shyly.

"TAKERU IS REALLY HUNGRY! LEAD US TO THE FOOD!"

Patamon's tummy rumbled.

"..AAAND I'm pretty hungry too"

The Yokomon were silent for a moment, before one started laughing a bit. The rest erupted into laughter after the first one. The first little one bounced closer to TK and Patamon, TK who took a few nervous steps backwards.

"We're willing to share our food!"

It said with a kind smile, jumping up again. The group and their digimon all seemed to get a lot happier at that. Especially Tai and Agumon!

"Oh, man! This is great! Thanks! I wonder what they eat. Maybe some cheeseburgers. I could go for a cheeseburger!"

Agumon joined in. "I have no idea what a cheeseburger is, but I do know what CHEESE is! And I sure could go for THAT, too! Or maybe some berries! And even meat! Oh, food, food, food!!!" Agumon jumped up, Tai looking towards him and jumping as well.

"Oh, we could have some lemonade! Or apple juice! Or some other sort of refreshing juice! It would be so great!" Joe smiled. "You hear that, Gomamon? You won't be dehydrated for too long!"

The Yokomon started to lead them to the center of the town, where there seemed to be the most beautiful and refreshing water fountain to have ever existed.

"Water!" TK and Mimi said in unison. Matt chuckled and they all went to the water fountain. Sora felt so relieved.. they found a safe place, at least for now. Though she couldn't lie and say that she didn't feel at least a bit useless for just coming and taking things, even though they really didn't deserve it. Especially from these sweet little Yokomon!

"Are you all sure this is okay..?" Sora asked, before even really getting too close to the fountain. "I don't want to just be coming in and taking from you all. Especially since you seem to be so hospitable."

"The water here is from a spring at Mihirashi Mountain!" One of the Yokomon stated. "We have the best water in the world because of it! We're always happy to share!"

That did relieve Sora at least a bit.

"Mount Mihirashi, huh" Matt inquired. "Where's that? I didn't notice a mountain on the way here."

One of the Yokomon indicated to the right of them, and they all looked. Woah. How didn't they notice that before?- It looked like a volcano!

"Woah, that's been right there this entire time!?" Tai seemed to have not noticed it as well. He was embarrassed by that, though, even if just a bit. "I mean. I totally noticed that! Anyways, that's totally a volcano, right?"

A Yokomon nodded. "Yes, but it hasn't erupted in years. We're more then safe here! We believe it's an extinct one!"

Sora looked down at the Yokomon, glad that they weren't in danger of any incoming eruptions, but as her gaze made it's way to them, she noticed Joe. He looked frozen in fear.

"Uhm.. Joe? You okay there?"

"Are.. are you sure that it's extinct..?"

They all looked at the volcano. Something big and red was falling from it, that's for sure. Oh Gd.

"Oh! It's some lava, isn't that so cool!" Mimi said innocently. Joe gasped at that.

"No! No, it's not cool!"

The fountain dried out, Gomamon and Gabumon (Who were chilling beside the water), looked very upset.

"Where's the water! It's too hot for this!" Gomamon whined, Gabumon nodding in agreement.

"That's the least of our worries!!!" Joe restated. Then, they saw.. Izzy? Running right at them? Well, hey, at least he came back.

"ITS A DIGIMON! ITS A LAVA DIGIMON! THE DISC WE SAW EARLIER PENETRATED IT'S ARM AND NOW IT'S REAL ANGRY!"

Sora gasped at Izzy's voice. He's never yelled, much less shown so much emotion!

"IT'S NAME IS MERAMON AND IT'S *HOT!* RUN!"

Tentomon didn't have to repeat himself. They all started to run, heading for an oddly conveniently placed abandoned ship somewhere nearby. Sora was making sure all the Yokomon were getting there safe. She heard the Meramon screaming and crying. It sounded like it was.. in pain? That scared her. Worried her? Scared? She wasn't sure. She just knew she didn't like it. After having helped all the Yokomon start towards the village, she noticed Byomon trying to get Izzy to follow them. He was now hiding behind a tree, taking notes on the Meramon.

"Izzy, this is dangerous! We have to go!"

"It's not as dangerous if we're hidden well enough. We cannot be hidden well enough if you keep speaking, though, Byomon."

That bothered Sora.

"Nope. C'mon, Izzy."

She didn't wait for any negotiations, taking Izzy by the hand and waiting for Byomon to come alone before running for the ship.

"But I have to--"

"--You have to make it out of this alive, Izzy, that's what you have to do!"

Soon, they made it to the others, hectically trying to help everyone get in. Matt was leading the way.

"Matt! Make sure Izzy goes inside. Me and Byomon will lead the Yokomon."

Matt sighed and nodded, before running into the ship with Izzy.

Sora ran over to Tai, expecting Byomon to follow her, and not realizing her Digimon partner was helping all the Yokomon at the top of the hill. "Right this way! Come in, come in." She tried to keep calm. Nobody could evacuate calmly if the evacuee wasn't calm herself. Tai, on the other hand, seemed to believe the opposite.

"If you wanna survive, GET IN! You can all fit! Just deal with it, don't complain!"

Sora scoffed.

"Tai, calm down. They're just gonna panic more that way."

He only rolled his eyes in response. No reasoning with this bastard.. She just tried to keep composed as she helped all the Yokomon in. Then, to make sure they had everyone, she looked up the hill.

Byomon was there, alone, pointing the lost Yokomon to where they needed to go.

Sora had to admit it was brave. And kind. And selfless. That Byomon would put herself in such danger, just to save a few Digimon.. but also, it was DANGEROUS. The Meramon would get to her first, and they'd have nowhere to run!

"Byomon! C'mon, you have to get down here!"

Byomon shook their head no. "I can't. I need to make sure all the Yokos make it in the ship, Sora! I can't let any of them get hurt!"

Sora nodded, trying to be kind and understanding, but she was scared. The last thing she wanted was for Byomon to get hurt, especially if it was from something that she could have helped stop.

"I know, Byomon, and I get that! But you can't help anyone if you're hurt, too!"

Sora might need to listen to her own advice once in a while. She brushed that fact off, though, as Byomon responded.

"I can't leave until everyone's safe, Sora! I'll be fine though. I promise you!"

Sora shook her head no. She'd have to get them herself. Like she had to get Izzy. Why were all these beings lowkey suicidal?? She shrugged that off too as she ran to Byomon.

"Sora, what-- no!" She heard Tai call out to her, but she knew he wouldn't stop her. He couldn't. He wasn't gonna die, no way, no how.

"Sora!" She didn't know who called her name. She made it up to Byomon, and helped her get all the Yokos in to the ship.

"Sora, you didn't have to--"

"Yes I did. I'm not leaving you here, not alone. Not if I can help it. Are there any other Yokomon?"

They looked around for a moment, before Sora noticed one. One about to be stomped on by the Meramon.

And it was as if her brain had stopped.

She ran right over to the small Yokomon, COMPLETELY ignoring every bit of herself crying and screaming in fear. She made it to the Yokomon just in time to pick it up and push it over to Byomon, hoping Byomon would lead it to the ship. But she wasn't in time to make it out of safety.

She heard a roar she could only describe as a cry for help. This Meramon was in *pain*, and she couldn't ignore it anymore.

"Are you--"

But before she could even think of starting her question, it was about to strike her. 

Chapter Text

BYOMON

Byomon didn't know much. It's not like she didn't know anything, but she just didn't always know much. She learned better by seeing or doing. But she's been a Yokomon for so long, and Yokomon just.. don't tend to be the seeing or doing types.

Then she finally met Sora.

She had been waiting for Sora for so long. As if she was literally MADE to meet her. And she thought that once she met her, then the void in their soul would disappear.

But no. It was different then that.

BETTER then that.

Sora didn't get scared-- she'd just do what she needed to do in order to protect her friends! And though Byomon thought she could be self sacrificing at times, she also thought she was so, so, SO admirable. She loved Sora! She immediately knew they were supposed to be best friends!

So their fear when Sora ran right to the Meramon to save the small Yoko was palpable. Though Byomon definitely appreciated it and thought she was SO brave for it, it absolutely petrified her.

Before she knew it, she ran to save Sora. Sora the savior needed some saving too, sometimes, and Byomon wanted to be the one to save her.

She wanted to be the one who did something. 

Chapter Text

SORA
Before Sora knew it, instead of being struck with a burning hand of fire and dying like she had expected, she had found herself instead.. fine.

Byomon was in Sora's face, one wing over their mouth and the other with some serious burns. Sora's face fell. Oh no. This was her fault.

Meramon was distracted now, but Sora didn't care much. She'd have checked on Byomon regardless. She ran right over to her little bird friend, tears in her eyes as she looked over Byomon's wing.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Byomon. This is all my fault. I should've been more careful. I- I shouldn't have put you in danger like this.. oh no, I'm so sorr--"

"Sora! No!"

Sora was caught off guard by Byomon's cutting her off. Especially by the pep in her voice. It was clear Byomon was trying to hide the pain of the burn, yet at the same time it felt like she was genuinely.. happy? Why? She was in pain.

"You helped that Yokomon. You put yourself in risk for it, and you didn't even seem to realize. You only wanted to protect the Yoko. It's not your fault for being a caring person!"

Sora didn't know how to respond to that. And she was glad that she didn't have to, as Meramon finally got back it's senses and turned to Sora and Byomon. Sora ran out of Meramon's way. She needed to find a plan..

She quickly mentally went over things she knew. And one of those things was sports.

Dodging from opponents trying to take the ball when playing soccer.. Sora wasn't the best at that, but she wasn't terrible by any means.

Meramon swung it's arm at her. Sora, holding Byomon, dodged it. Meramon swung the other arm. Sora dodged it again. She needed to lead it away from the Yokomon, so she started to walk backwards, away from the ship. She kept dodging as she walked backwards. She was trying to find any sign of water. If Meramon was burning (at least, more than normal) then she'd need to find a way to cool him off.

But she was in the middle of the desert! And it seemed the now dried out well was the only source of water around. She panicked at the realization, and the panic caught her off guard.

Meramon punched her stomach.

Sora managed to throw Byomon to the side and save her. If she hadn't, Byomon would've been hit square in the face; now it felt like her stomach was on fire. She hadn't even realized she was yelling from the pain. Was this what Meramon was feeling? Oh it was terrible. She kept yelling and yelling, before opening her eyes and being flashbanged by some odd, yet comforting light. She tried to look at where it was coming from, but was much too weak. Even in such tense moments she had to be weak. She felt useless again. Maybe it'd be better if she die--

"BYOMON, DIGIVOLVE TO.."

Sora noticed some of the other's Digimon, that were trying to fight the Meramon in her line of sight, stop and watch Byomon. Meramon was watching it too, seemingly in awe.

"BIRDRAMON!"

Birdramon? Huh? And what was that voice?! It was a new, different one. Were they about to be tackled by another digimon, too?! Oh no. Oh no, oh no! They couldn't handle another one!

Sora had no more time to panic about that before being picked up by a majestic, phoenix looking digimon with horrifying eyes. Although she should've been afraid, something in her knew.. this digimon didn't have any bad intentions.

She knew Birdramon.

Birdramon put her on the ship, next to her friends, some rushing towards her to help her. She didn't know who, and she almost didn't care who, either. She felt bad about that, but what was more important to her right now was Birdramon.

She watched as Birdramon picked up the Meramon, throwing it against a couple of trees. Those trees were set on fire immediately. Speaking of fire, Meramon quickly threw a ball of fire at the bird digimon, Obviously, though, since Birdramon was made primarily of fire, it didn't do much. Birdramon started flapping their wings towards the Meramon, making it hard for it to move any more forwards.

It derooted a tree. It derooted a tree and threw it at Birdramon.

"BIRDRAMON!"

"Sora, be careful!"

Her yelling hurt, but she thought it made some sort of difference. Although Birdramon was hit very hard from the tree, Sora's yelling gave her a bit more strength and hope. Sora watched as Birdramon picked up Meramon once more, and then proceeded to smash it into the ground. Once. Twice. Thrice. Four times. A bit too many times then need be...

Sora noticed the black gear come out of the Meramon. Seemed Izzy did too, as he yelled.

"The black gear! Look at that! It was *inside* the Digimon!"

Birdramon threw Meramon to the mountain one more time before devolving.

"Byomon!" Sora called out in happiness, proud of her friend. Though she wasn't sure she could hear it as her voice was so weak. That upset her for a moment, before she noticed Byomon turn around and right away start running to Sora. Even with their injured, burnt wing.

"Byomon!"

"Sora!"

"She did it!" TK said happily. Matt nodded. "She did, TK. We're safer then we thought."

Byomon finally managed to get on the ship and make it through the crowds, right away running to Sora and hugging her. Although Sora was in indescribable pain, she couldn't even try to not hug her back.

"Byomon, that was amazing!"

Byomon chirped happily, hugging Sora tighter.

"Be careful." Joe warned her "You're both in no shape to be hugging so tight! You need to take it easy!"

An hour later, all the Yokomon had managed to make it back to their village. The Meramon walked over to the group, who were walking to the village too after making sure every Yoko was okay. Mimi was supporting Sora.

"I'm so sorry." His voice was kind. And they didn't seem to be in pain anymore. "I couldn't control myself. I'm not sure what came over me."

Although Sora felt so bad about it, she did instinctively hide behind Mimi and Byomon. She didn't trust this guy fully yet, and every sudden movement they made had made her jump.

"Yeah, well, you could've just not done it." Tai said, rather ignorantly. Izzy shook his head at Tai's statement, muttering something underneath his mouth.

"No, don't listen to him!"  Takeru started. "It's okay! We know you didn't mean it! It was that black gear, right?" Sora had to wonder how TK seemed to be fine all of a sudden, especially after having seen him be so shaken at all the other fights.

Meramon nodded at TK's hypothesis. "I think you're right.." He put his hand behind it's head to scratch it. The movement made Sora yelp and jump, nearly making Mimi fall. "Careful, Sora." She chided gently. "I don't want to fall in this mud!"

Sora was quiet. The Meramon certainly noticed her actions, and took a step back. At least it didn't seem like this guy would try to hurt her again...

"Well, I better get going. I'll fix the well for you very quick, Yokomon. I'll be on my way now."

The Yokomon all bid him goodbye, and a few minutes later, the fountain was running again.

The group were allowed to spend the night! Most of the night, though, was Joe trying to make sure Sora was okay, and Izzy pestering her with questions. They were soon finally fed, and the water they drank certainly WAS the best in the world.

A bit later at night, Mimi and Sora slept in the same room. Their Digimon were sleeping on their own beds, and Mimi was fixing herself up in a mirror. Sora was laid in bed, staring at the ceiling and trying not to think about the events of today.

"This is crazy, huh!" Mimi said with a giggle. "At least finally now I have a bed."

Sora nodded. It was useless trying to have a real conversation with Mimi.. she loved Mimi, but sometimes she felt so. Distant.

"Yeah. Anyways, how's your tummy? I bet it must hurt after that big mean ugly guy hurt you."

Sora gave a weak laugh and nodded. "It hurts a lot. But I think Joe helped it a bit. It feels.. somewhat better now."

"Oh, Joe! He's so talented with that kind of stuff. It's so cool!" Sora suddenly wished she was good at medical things, too. She just nodded.

"He really is talented."

A moment of silence overcame them.

"So, uh, how are you, Mimi? It's been a bit scary, hasn't it."

Mimi laughed and then shook her head no. "Oh, no, not at all! It just reminds me of my favorite park's rollercoaster ride. Anyways, I'm going to bed now, so if you could be quiet I'd appreciate that! Okay, good night Sora! Sleep well, love you."

Sora was taken aback by all that. Though she should have just really been used to it. She heard Mimi sleeping soundly, and found herself staring at the ceiling for ages more before closing her eyes. And the first image being Meramon. She tried countering that with thoughts of Birdramon, and eventually that led her to fall asleep.

The worst sleep she's ever had. 

Chapter Text

Fire.
Fire everywhere.

Screaming.
Pain.
Lava.

Mountains.
Alone.
Fire.
Mom.
Love.
Lonely.

Fire.
Human.
Being.
Unsafe.
Mom.

Stomach.
Empty tummy.
Lack of food.
Mom.
Mom food.
Food made of mom.

Flowers.
Birds.
Fire.
Flowers on fire.
Birds on fire.
World on fire.

Ash.
Dust.
Girl.
Fire.
Girl on fire. 

Chapter Text

TAI

Tai groaned in boredom. He was sick of this! They HAD to have been walking for YEARS now or something. In circles, over and over again, trying to look for a way back that he.. wasn't sure they'd ever find. Not that that freaked him out or anything.

They kept walking. Everything felt more or less the same. Which bored Tai even more. If this place was like, magical or something, it should change! Be cool, be interesting! Even if that came at the price of a fight. He could fight!

"I feel like we've passed this way before." Sora mentioned, stopping as she looked around. Oh. Hmm. Maybe they just WERE walking in circles.

Tai heard Joe speak next, wanting to groan and tell him to shut up. He didn't pay attention to whatever he said, although he knew for a fact that it was annoying. He watched Agumon wander off a slight bit, probably looking for something to eat. Agumon seemed to really like food, and that was certainly something Tai could appreciate.

Agumon soon disappeared somewhere off into the near forest for food, so Tai look elsewhere, his gaze falling on Izzy. He was muttering something under his breath as he typed something on his computer, fingers moving rapidly and clearly incredibly focused on whatever it was he was trying to do. Tentomon looked as though they wanted to tell Izzy something, but didn't want to break his concentration. They also looked incredibly bored.

What could that guy be lookin' up or typing, anyways? There definitely wasn't any internet connection here. It just felt stupid to Tai. He walked over to Izzy.

"What are you doing?" He asked, leaning over the red head's shoulder, looking at his screen. All there was were lines upon lines of words and letters and numbers that just blurred together the longer Tai watched Izzy type. "You trying to email aliens or something?" He said with a scoff-laugh, thinking back to the theories Izzy made before that Tai thought were weird as hell.

Izzy didn't respond for a moment, trying to submit the code he was typing, though to no avail-- it just wasn't going through! And then the computer turned off. Izzy sighed in annoyance. "It crashed.." he mumbled, before trying to turn it on again.

"Let *me* take care of this."

Tai didn't wait for a response from Izzy before taking the computer and starting to hit it and shake it, thinking that maybe that might help. It helps when he's on his home computer, why not this one? Though he couldn't help but laugh a bit as Izzy yelped at the treatment of his computer. "Tai! What are you doing?!" He tried yanking his computer back, but he was too short. Tai shook it a bit more, right above Izzy, before he spared him mercy and gave him his computer back.

"I swear it's like you're a living piece of malfunctioning code sometimes!" Izzy cried, cradling his computer to keep it away from Tai.

Rolling his eyes at that, Tai crossed his arms and faced away from Izzy. "I don't see what the problem is, why do you have to be such a party pooper? I'm just playing around a bit."

"Tai, leave Izzy alone." Matt chimed in. He just ALWAYS had to butt in, didn't he?! And why was everyone arguing with him?? It's not like he did anything WRONG. Why was everyone being mean to him and yelling at him?! This was really starting to piss him off.

"Well, you can shut up, Matt. It's not like anyone's actually hurt by it! It was just a joke. Stop attacking me for everything I do! You too, Izzy, you don't gotta be.. like, a jerk or something, about it!"

He yelled, clenching his fists together. He swore if he was here any longer, these people would just make him go insane, nitpicking his every move. It was totally uncool!

Then he felt a hand on his arm, and a soft sigh.

"Tai.." It was Sora. "Calm down. They're not trying to be mean or anything, we're just... all trying to make it home, and when you mess with Izzy like that it makes it a bit hard." She said, before lifting her hand from Tai's arm. "sorry."

Tai was upset by all this, especially the fact that even SORA was going against him. Sora! "Fine, then, I'll never play around or anything ever again! Matter of fact, I won't even talk!"

Everyone groaned at that.

"Don't be childish, Tai.."

But naturally, since it was Matt who was speaking, Tai just ignored him. He wasn't being childish, he was just standing his ground.

There was silence as some of them watched Izzy type in his computer, getting it to reboot, and others (namely Mimi) just laying about and wishing they had food and a place to stay. Soon enough, Tai noticed Agumon coming back with some berries. Behind Agumon was a bit of a cliff, and from the bottom of the cliff was some.. smoke?

"Woah! Look at that!"

He pointed at Agumon, who pointed to themselves with a slightly nervous, but more curious expression.

"No, not you!"

He ran to the smoke.

"Tai, wait! What are you--"

Sora's words were drowned out, Tai only hearing Joe say something about his terrible attention span. He didn't really get that but whatever.

He looked at the source of the smoke, and saw what seemed to be the Utopia for someone like Izzy. It was a whole machine-like kingdom! Everything made of steel and robotic type stuff, it was totally bonkers. It felt as if they had walked into a whole new world. The buildings looked huge and intimidating. They were big, though not skyscraper big. The whole area was different shades of grey, even the ground having cement. It looked like a whole *manmade* city, complete with the biggest, tallest building right set in the middle.

"Let's go!" Tai called out to the others, wasting no time as he ran to the entrance immediately. "Wait for me!" Agumon yelled to him, stuffing the rest of the berries he was eating in his mouth before running after Tai.

Everyone (Tai assumes, as he doesn't look back behind him) follows him over, ooh-ing and awe-ing at Tai's amazing 'discovery.'

"Woah. A whole city.. this is new. Hopefully good." Matt said,  Joe yelping afterwards something like "Something new! That can't be good, what do you mean?! New means dangerous!"

Mimi gave a sad sigh, looking over at the steel gray town that lay in front of them. "It's so colorless, so lifeless.." Mimi whined, shaking her head. Palmon just gave a dead panned look at her. Tai didn't think Palmon liked Mimi that much.

Tai started to walk further in, but Sora grabbed the back of his shirt to stop him. "Tai, we better be careful. Joe's right, though I hate to admit it. This is something new and it seems all out of the blue.. everything here must be run by SOMEbody! Who knows if they're good or bad!"

He groaned, pushing her hand off him. "Oh, great, now even SORA's listening to you, Joe. This is why you should all stay quiet and just follow behind me. I'm sure that we'll be fine, and if someone's running this place then maybe we can ask them for some help. Lots of the Digidudes we've run into have been pretty cool! Like those Yokomon yesterday. And even that big firey guy, though he had a bit of a temper at first."

Sure, 'a bit of a temper' was an understatement, considering Meramon tried to KILL them, but... he didn't seem mean after they beat them!

Izzy walked over to the rest, Tai not even noticing that the boy was behind them. Izzy looked around quietly for a moment before speaking. "Don't be stupid, Tai."

...great.

"We can't trust anyone here. Plus, if my theory is right, the Meramon wasn't *inherently* evil. It was MADE to be evil. Almost like he went through some sort of messed up nature vs nurture experiment conducted by someone with very bad intentions. They must've put some sort of spirit or spell or something of evil in the black gear that might've been the reason he was attempting to kill us and the Yokomon. We can't say the same won't happen for whatever Digimon it might be that resides here."

Everyone just stared at Izzy for a moment.

"I think that's the most you've ever said." Tai broke the silence. "Too bad I don't really care!"

He moved on and continued exploring the electronic town, before he heard a small sniffling from behind him. He was gonna lose his mind if one more thing held him back. He just wanted to go, go, go, not stop every two seconds.

"Matt, I want to go home"

Takeru's voice was strained and quiet, holding Patamon like they were his lifesaver. It almost made Tai's heart hurt. It reminded him of his sister. But he wasn't gonna fall into that trap...

"Okay, fine, then." He turned around and pointed to TK, Matt and Joe. "You three seem to be the scared-est" and then he pointed to Mimi "And I don't want you coming with me, so you all stay here."

He then turned to Izzy, now putting his hands on his hips as he addressed the nerd. "And you're coming with me, since you probably know all about these.. electronic things. Sora, you come if you wanna, I don't care."

"I don't know who appointed you leader, Tai, but Joe is gonna do whatever he wants!

"Uhm, actually, no, Gomamon.. it's okay. I think he's got a good idea! I don't really want to leave anyways."

Gomamon just looked disappointed at that. Tai wasn't. He was proud that he was right in knowing Joe didn't want to come with. He knew everything!

"Well, unlike *Joe*, I don't want to be here any longer!" Mimi groaned. "There's gotta be SOMETHING in that place! At least some sort of a snack? Or someplace to sleep?? I don't know and I don't care! I just can't be in this same place any longer! I'm coming with you, even if the color scheme is just absolutely horrendous and makes me look terrible."

"Fine, then, come with us, Mimi. But I'm not helping you if you get in trouble."

"You're no good, Tai.." He scoffed. "Yeah, well, if we wanna survive, we're not gonna be worried with niceties."

Mimi huffed, and Tai turned to FINALLY start walking. Matt and TK didn't have any objections either, so they could finally go in this stupid place! Once he'd find the way home from there, they'd be thankful. They just needed to follow his lead. He knew what he was doing! Even if he hadn't been there before.

Tai confidently started walking through the steel kingdom, Agumon copying his manner of walking with a big smile on their face. Tai laughed. "See, guys? Agumon knows what I'm trying to say! You guys should be more like him."

Nobody said anything. He could hear them walking behind him though, so he knew they were still following him, but they were just quiet. He couldn't lie, that did bother him a bit. Only a slight bit, though. He remained quiet as they continued walking on. The tension was palpable, and he just wasn't sure why.

As they continued walking, they noticed these bronze robots that were.. well, static. They didn't move at all.

"Ugh. Just when I thought this place couldn't get any worse! Steel and bronze are not colors that should go together." Mimi declared. Palmon rolled their eyes.

"I thought you *wanted* more color in this place, Mimi. You're contradicting yourself."

"I don't know what contradict means, so no I'm not!"

Tai stifled to laugh at that. Gd, how could she be any dumber?!

"Contradicting yourself is this to say something opposite of something you said before, Mimi." Sora informed her, before looking down at Izzy, who was nose deep in his computer and whatever the hell it was that he was doing. "Right, Izzy?"

Izzy only gave a small huff and a nod as confirmation. His silence made the rest become silent as well, although Mimi couldn't go 5 steps without adding in some groan of contempt or a small complaint.

After a while of walking more, they stumbled across another bot. But this one was different.

Tai didn't like the look of this one. It was too.. humanoid, in a sense. It looked like a cyborg, but he swore that some human flesh was poking out of it. It looked uncomfortable. It's eyes were wide open, yet unblinking and unfeeling. "What is.. hey, Izzy's 'mon! You know all the digimon, who's this--"

Izzy and Tentomon were nowhere to be found.

"Seriously? Who wants to bet that Izzy just decided to go off on his own? Whatever!" Tai wasn't too worried about it. He hoped.

"Don't worry, Tai, I know this Digimon!" Agumon spoke up, walking over to the robotic being. Tai wanted to tell Agumon to get away from it. He wasn't getting a very good vibe from it.

"It's called Andromon. He's a REALLY powerful Digimon, at Ultimate level, so we better not start a fight against him. But he's friendly, so there's no need to worry about that!"

Mimi shuddered at looking at Andromon. Good, Tai wasn't the only one freaked out!

"He's so... he's so ugly!" She whined, scowling at it as if she was a cat. Really? That's why she didn't like it?

"Mimi, you're an idiot." Tai couldn't stop his words.

"Hey!" She started to fight back, before Sora gave a nervous laugh, standing between them.

"Guys, we already don't have Izzy here with us, the last thing we need to do is argue..." Mimi turned her head, with her snobby, snobby nose turned up in a classic spoiled-child sort of way. Tai just scoffed and looked down behind him.

"Okay.. well, I think we need to help him."

"What?!" Was Sora crazy??

"No! If he's so powerful, we've gotta leave him be so he can't hurt us!" He said incredulously, surprised at Sora's suggestion.

"He's not gonna hurt us. He's probably injured anyways!" Byomon pointed out. "I trust Sora, and you should too, Tai! I don't think he'll hurt us. Andromon's not known for being a violent or bad Digimon."

Tai scoffed at Byomon. "Shut up, what do you know? You're just some misshapen bird."

...

Yeah, that wasn't the right thing to say, even Tai himself knew that. Everyone went quiet at that, especially Byomon. Tai looked at Sora, hoping at least SHE'D grace him with mercy, but.. she refused to look at him.

"Fine!"

He started getting all the heavy steel off Andromon, then attempted to pull him out from under all the rubble. 

Chapter Text

IZZY
"This is prodigious, Tentomon."

Izzy couldn't tell if he was actually verbalizing his thoughts or just keeping them to himself, but he thought he was speaking.

"The machinery seems to move on its own!"

They entered a building that seemed to operate like some sort of assembly line. But what could it be making? Izzy didn't understand. It didn't look like it was really building anything in particular, moreso just putting things together before taking them apart again. The things it was making didn't even look like any kind of discernable tool.

After a bit more of analyzing the area, he noticed a lever. Walking up to it, he pulled it, and everything stopped. Including the lights going out.

"It's all connected. This must all be powered by some huge battery." He theorized. A battery! Good. A battery would be great for his now dead computer. Izzy didn't know why it was that his computer just wasn't working at all, besides the fact that it was dead, but being able to charge it would definitely be a good idea. He started to investigate the building, trying to see where it was all connected to. There were so many wires, some even going underground. If this was the digital world, was it all just powered by some sort of huge battery?

"I'm not sure about this, Izzy.." Izzy knew that voice to be the one of Tentomon, now. "We didn't even tell the others where we were going. Believe me, I'm interested to know why this place seems to be out of commission as well, but what if we encounter a bad Digimon? Or another Digimon controlled by one of those terrible black gears?"

Izzy had already thought of that. He didn't care too much, his focus was on why they were all in this world and how. He knew how to blend in and disappear. He could disappear with Digimon too, he was sure.

"Don't worry about it, Tentomon. Just help me find this battery. It could be incredibly beneficial for us."

Tentomon grumbled something under their breath that Izzy wasn't quite paying attention to, nor did he really care. Just like Tai didn't care for what he had to say earlier. He didn't like that that was Tai's response, but it just reminded him of why he decided not to speak. No one was smart enough to know what he was trying to convey, anyways. He was the only one who could understand.

Tentomon flew besides Izzy, and Izzy had the feeling Tentomon was watching over Izzy more than looking for the battery. That certainly irked him, but he wouldn't bring it up. He just didn't understand why Tentomon seemed to care about Izzy so much, especially when there were much more pressing matters to worry about.

What if this could help them get home? What if it couldn't. What if this was something important? What if it wasn't. What if it could give them at least some food, or a place to stay somehow? Well, realistically that wouldn't happen.

What if it was something he needed to find?

What if it was fate?

"Izzy? Izzy, yoohooo.. Digiworld to Izzy!"

Izzy blinked a few times, now realizing Tentomon was waving a claw(maybe a claw? He'd need to draw diagrams on this guy eventually) in front of his face.

"Oh. Sorry. Hm?"

"I found something!"

Izzy's eyes widened. So Tentomon WAS focusing on the objective! Good. Real good! And the focus led them to find something. This was perfect.

"Show me."

Tentomon led Izzy to this tall, dark grey cylinder. It almost looked just like the other foundations of the building, but this one was certainly thicker and seemed more slick. It looked like a battery.

Izzy stared at it for a few moments, trying to make some more observations about it where he could. It seemed rather.. straightforward, though. Just looked like a huge, oversized battery.

"This is definitely it." He heard Tentomon rambling something about how he found it and how he was so happy to have done so, but Izzy found himself not listening as he started to touch it. Then, the most unexpected thing happened.

He found a door! 

Chapter Text

TAKERU
TK.
Terrified TK, that's what he should be called.

He was afraid of practically everything in this other world, the only things he wasn't afraid of being Matt and Patamon.

How could he not be? He was only 8! Well, that was his excuse anyways. He had seen lots of other 8 year olds do lotsa things braver than he did. They could probably deal with this world. Why couldn't they have been here instead? They'd probably have liked it better.

But those were of course only half his thoughts. He couldn't deny the incredible amount of curiosity and interest he had in this world. It was wonderful! All the nice Digimon, especially Patamon, were so nice and cute! He also thought it just looked really pretty, more pretty than Earth.

He wished he could explore more of it, but.. he was practically tied to his brother. Not that he wanted that to change, of course! Matt protected him and he let himself be protected. He was afraid of getting hurt, that stuff was painful!

But it felt the more they were there, the less Matt even talked to him. Maybe he was getting sick of him. Maybe he was being an annoying bother.

It's not like he could stop, though! What was he supposed to do?! He really didn't know!

"TK? Are you okay?"

TK had been zoning out, sitting under a tree and staring at the sky. Patamon's voice had snapped him out of it. He  looked down at his Digifriend, giving him a small smile as he nodded.

"Don't lie to me!"

Takeru was silent at that. Patamon was a sassy little guy, that was for sure, but another thing for sure was the fact that they were also very observant.

TK shrugged, looking back up at the sky before speaking quietly. "I dunno. I guess I'm just a bit scared.. I really wasn't expecting Sora to get hurt. And I know she said she was okay, but I dunno.. I kept seeing her shake and jolt at anything. And she kept holding her tummy, too. I think she's still in pain."

Patamon was quiet at that, if only for a moment.

"Yeah. It really was kinda scary.."

TK wasn't expecting the little brave guinea pig looking creature to agree with him. That somehow both comforted and scared him more, at the same time.

"But Sora's strong!"

Patamon jumped up and flew, the pure determination on their face enough to crack a hopeful smile on TK's.

"And so are the rest of us! Sure, we're not.. the greatest team, but that's only for now! Mark my words, once we get everything and everyone all together, we're gonna be the greatest team in the world!!"

Takeru laughed and stood up in his excitement, shaking his hands as he agreed. Woo! Patamon was really good at making him happy!

"You're right! We just can't lose hope, cus we're gonna find a way to get home, and- and eat food! And I'll play with Matt some video games! And everyone will play with us too, and--"

He was cut off by arguing.

"Joe, could you please quit it?! Stop worrying about everything!"

Uh oh. Matt got sick of Joe. Matt got sick of everyone, eventually.. TK sat back down and hugged Patamon, who just scoffed and cuddled into him.

"I'm not *trying* to worry about everything! I'm just saying that it's scary!"

Joe argued back, scratching at his skin in nervousness.

"We shouldn't have split up! We have to go find them! We can't do this alone."

"We're not alone. We have you, me, and TK. And our Digimon!"

Joe shook his head.

"Yes, that's good, but it can't just be us. What if they find a way home and leave us behind?"

"They wouldn't. Sora probably wouldn't let them."

Joe scoffed. "Then what if they go home without a choice! We were just sucked into this world in the first place by the sky. Who's to say that won't happen with them, too?!"

"Joe, shut up!"

Matt yelled that last bit. Joe shut up.

"Just. Just let me think. Okay? I don't want TK getting hurt in there. And I don't want to go if we're not sure it'll be safe."

Oh.. it was TK's fault, huh. He felt infinitely more guilty.

"It-it's okay, Matt--" He tried to start, but Matt wasn't having it. He shot him a glare.

"I'm gonna go sit by that lake. Leave me alone."

Matt left. He wasn't out of eyesight, thank goodness, but he wasn't near TK. That made him nervous.

He watched as Gomamon exited the lake Matt sat near, and went by Joe. Joe stared at Matt for a moment before walking over to TK, and sitting down under the tree with him.

"I'm sorry, TK. I- I just.. I get so nervous! I mean, I don't want to die! And with all these monsters, I just feel like it's a real big possibility! But I don't want to die this way! I've never even-- even finished my geometry class! Or.. I dunno, kissed a girl! How am I supposed to be okay with the fact that this place is perilous?!"

That was a lot. TK gulped. He didn't want to die, either.

Joe must've noticed the fearful look on TK's face, as he relented. He sighed and was quiet for a moment.

"Sorry, TK. We're not gonna die. I guess I just keep letting my fear get ahead of me."

Gomamon jumped onto Joe's lap, making him yelp for a moment, before he started to pet his little Digifriend.

"Don't worry, Joe, TK! We're here to help protect you!"

The seal Digimon stated, before Patamon joined in.

"Yeah, exactly! We'll beat up anyone who even thinks of hurting you guys. We can be vicious when we wanna be, y'know!"

TK laughed. Yeah, he figured that out when he first saw Tokomon's scary teeth!

Gomamon then spoke again. "Yeah, we'll just go with the flow, and we'll be fine. I have a feeling that things are gonna be A-OK, though, and my feelings are never wrong!"

Joe rolled his eyes and picked up Gomamon, them squishing like a little stuffed animal in Joe's grasp.

"Hah! Your feelings are always right? As if! Back when we were at that trolley cart you said you were convinced things were gonna be fine, then BOOM! Matt gets abducted by that petrifying Seadramon!"

He laughed. TK's never seen Joe like that. So.. silly?

Gomamon rolled his eyes playfully, then kicked it's legs back and forth as Joe held him up.

"Ok, ok, that was only one time though! I'm right every other time."

They all laughed at that, TK finally calming down a bit. He was still really really really afraid of this world, but having fun like this.. made it a bit better

Chapter Text

SORA

'This big thing's terrifying!!' Were Sora's thoughts. 'It's huge! And those eyes.. there's something off about them.'

And yes, of course she felt terrible about feeling that way. This poor 'mon was stuck and probably injured, and yet here she was... judging it. But some bit of her couldn't help being even a bit afraid, especially after that interaction with Meramon. These guys could be *wicked* powerful if they really tried to be, and her body still hurt from Meramon's punch.

"Hm. It's not moving. Maybe it just needs a jump start.."

Tai was about to hit the Digimon, before Sora yelped and stopped him. Ahh!!! He couldn't HIT this guy!! He was probably powerful, and who knows how he'd react to that!!?

"Tai, be careful! That- That's not a good idea."

Tai scoffed and yanked his hand away from Sora, muttering something about how she kept trying to hold him back. Oh. She just kept messing up...

But before she could overthink that even more, they heard a loud *CLANG!*

"There you go, Tai!"

Everyone looked down at Agumon, who had... just hit Andromon.

Sora yelped and took Mimi's hand, pushing them both away from Andromon. Mimi was giggling, and Sora just couldn't understand why. Didn't she understand the possible danger present?

"Heheh! That was pretty sneaky, Agumon." She said, with a small scoff. "Hopefully that guy's not too mad." Referring to Andromon.

Sora glanced at Byomon, who glanced back at her nervously, both incredibly unsure. Then, they turned to Andromon. He was moving.

"I knew it'd work. See? I just don't understand why you guys don't trust me."

If Sora had all the confidence in the world, she'd say they don't trust Tai because he's stupid, rash, and acts without thinking. If Sora had all the confidence, and if she had no guilt. Unfortunately, guilt kept her down, and just thinking of what she wanted to say to him made her feel just terrible. Absolutely terrible. She wished she could just apologize for her brain, even though he couldn't even hear her thoughts.

Pushing those thoughts away once again, she walked over to Andromon. Sure, she was absolutely, fully and truly petrified, but.. if Byomon said he was friendly, she'd believe her. Plus, maybe getting rid of her fear of the big Digimon would mean she'd be less afraid of future Digimon! Yeah. Yeah, this guy.. he couldn't hurt her! Right?

"Andromon? Are you okay?" She leaned down to his level, the movement causing a sharp pain in her stomach.

Before she knew it, she was being held upside down.

"Sora!" Who said that? Byomon? Palmon? Mimi? Some female voice. Sora couldn't tell. She was more focused on her panic.

Sora felt herself shake as Andromon twitched and glitched. They seemed.. unstable. Weird. If Byomon said he was so friendly, why were they acting this way now??

"Spiral Twister!"

"Pepper Breath!"

"Poison Ivy!"

The three Digidudes attacked Andromon, definitely not making him any happier. Andromon dropped Sora and, in one fellow swoop, knocked all of them down.

Mimi gasped. "Excuse me, sir, that's incredibly rude!!" She said, her voice full with indignation and offense. Sora shook her head, quickly getting up. "I don't think he cares much, Mimi. C'mon, guys, we gotta go!"

Tai scoffed and picked up Agumon, not waiting for the others as he started to run away. That JERK! Just leaving them all alone?

Sora lamented on her thoughts immediately, turning her attention to Mimi as she helped Mimi up (and Byomon helped Palmon). The two girls followed after Tai, Andromon taking a second to process. The bot-mon was probably only starting up, and wasn't fast as it could be.

And if that wasn't fast as it could be, then Sora was afraid to see its true potential. 

Chapter Text

TENTOMON

Tentomon had just finished rambling on about finding the battery, when they noticed Izzy fixated on some part of the battery. Tentomon realized that he wasn't listening, and sighed before following behind him.

"What's that?" They inquired.

Izzy took a millenia to respond, although Tentomon was starting to realize that that was normal for the boy. After some time, Tentomon realized Izzy wasn't going to even respond, and instead they watched as he.. opened a door to inside the battery?

Hm. Being a citizen of this world didn't make it any less confusing! But that's what Tentomon loved about it. So many things to inspect and learn! And he noticed that in Izzy, too, although Izzy was.. much more quiet and to himself about it. Tentomon wondered why. Izzy was an enigma in himself.

The two entered the battery through the door, and inside was.. well, beautiful, for lack of better term.

Yellow- Pink- Blue- Green- the colors faded into each other, like watercolors or blood in water. The walls, made of these colors, didn't look like they should be solid, but they were. They kept moving, and it honestly did make Tentomon a bit dizzy in the process. But more than that, there was.. writing on the walls?

Some symbols he could understand, some seemed different, all jumbled up together.

"What do you think this could be, Izzy?" Tentomon asked, after realizing how quiet the two were in observation.

Izzy was quiet again for a bit. It was starting to irk Tentomon a bit. Why wouldn't he speak? But, he knew to be patient, and he knew that Izzy had to have some sort of objective with his silence. Right?

"Some sort of program." Oh! Tentomon was shocked when he finally spoke, attention on the boy immediately. "A very... complicated one, indeed."

"What does that entail?" questioned Tentomon, looking at Izzy who was looking at the symbols. Then, Izzy took out his marker, and completed one of the symbols which seemed to have been 'broken'. They heard the noises of the machines outside them working again. "It seems as though when I pulled that lever earlier, it somehow affected this battery. Maybe overworked it? Forced it to break? I'm unsure. But with changing and customizing these letters, it seems as though I can.. *alter the code* in some way? Prodigious.."

Tentomon enjoyed it when Izzy spoke about what he observed. They found his mind to be more than brilliant, and his words forced Tentomon to change the way he initially thought of something. He hadn't even realized the letters on the walls were something possible to change!

"I wonder if it's possible for me to be able to change the program entirely. Although I am unsure how it would affect the world, or at least what is around us." Izzy mumbled to himself. He was quiet, Tentomon had to really strain his ears to hear him. "What was that, Izzy?"

"It produces a current." Izzy finally turned his attention to Tentomon, seemingly excited to explain what he was thinking. "As do most batteries. However, most batteries generate their current based on acidic reactions, and chemicals. This one, on the other hand, produces it's current on it's OWN. As if it is a living being of sorts."

Tentomon blinked a few times. He got it, but... he didn't really get it. "...Oh? And what does that.. mean?"

Izzy stared at Tentomon for a second, before giving a small.. smile? Smirk? Oh! How swell! Tentomon hadn't seen that expression on him before!

"It means that it powers itself, and the power could be used for something very important. Such as getting us out of here!"

Izzy said, before opening his computer, which suddenly seemed to be at full power again. He started typing something in it, typing vigorously away, with the newfound motivation of a child who's gotten into a new hobby.

Tentomon was curious, as well as amazed at how easily Izzy seemed to figure that out, but.. why did Izzy- as well as the other humans- want to leave them so much? Weren't they born with the same longing to meet the Digimon, as the Digimon were born with the longing to meet them? It didn't seem so. What an upsetting feeling.

Tentomon silently watched for a minute, before their own curiosity- and boredom- led them to talk to Izzy some more... maybe, just maybe, to uncover the secrets of the boy at least a bit more. Understand why he seems always so.. alone.

"I admire the way you keep working, while your friends are having fun"

He said, a bit of sarcasm in their voice. Tentomon really did wish that Izzy wouldn't spend all his time alone. He thought maybe making a good, close connection or two might be beneficial for him!

"Don't you ever feel.. lonely?"

Izzy almost paused to give him a confused stare, Tentomon noticed, but the boy seemed too enthralled in whatever it was that he was click-click-clacking away at in that computer.

"Well, not at all." He said, pretty straightforwardly. How curious.

"So you'd rather spend your time more with code and puzzles, rather than people. Hm." But weren't people their own puzzles, in their own way? Tentomon would say that. They weren't used to people, maybe they were straightforward and easy to understand. Though he doubted that.. he just didn't want to seem stupid, especially not to Izzy.

Izzy paused typing for a moment, looking at Tentomon. "I mean.. yes. Why?" He shrugged, looking back at his computer. "What could be more fun than figuring out a code nobody else can? I'm smart, I might as well put that to use, no?"

If Tentomon had a human's face and could frown, they probably would be doing that right now. Did he really think of staying glued to a computer all day was really so fun..? They weren't one to judge, but a bit of Izzy's use of the computer seemed.. excessive. Obsessive? Unhealthy. He suggested some other fun things. "Relaxing on a beach, exploring a forest, talking with friends.. I can think of a ton more things funner than that!"

"More fun" Corrected Izzy. Were Tentomon's words even getting through to him? "Anyways, I just want to figure out how we all got here. Were we chosen for something? Why us? How come? What really even IS this place? What are you Digimon? Are my many theories correct? There are so many questions, and I believe they all require solving."

That certainly frustrated Tentomon, if just a bit. "Theories? About what, about us? Digimon? I don't see what theories there could be. I am who I am, I'm not hiding anything.. maybe if you just got to know us more, and talk to us, your theories would be easily solved."

Izzy looked confused. Very. Something Tentomon wasn't used to seeing on his face, at least not a confusion so genuine. Why would Izzy be so confused? Tentomon thought it was quite a straightforward concept. They were as they appeared.

"Izzy, I just don't understand all this confusion as to who you are, or as to who we are. It isn't always something to ponder about. Sometimes, it's as simple as it seems. Why do you have so much confusion about it?"

Izzy stared at Tentomon. Well, that's what it looked like- but it felt more that he was looking right beYOND Tentomon. Right beyond everything. His brows furrowed, and Tentomon realized that maybe they had said something wrong? Maybe his questioning was too much? Oh dear, oh dear.

"Izzy? Iiiizzy. Digiworld to Izzy? Izzy!"

Izzy gave a small yelp as he returned back to reality. "I- sorry. What was that?"

Now Tentomon was worried. What was it that they said that made Izzy react like that? "You were off in another world." He said, voice full of concern and curiosity.

Izzy looked away, almost embarrassed? Oh, yet another thing Tentomon just couldn't understand about the boy. And he could already tell Izzy wouldn't tell him what was going on either... their worry only continued to grow. 

Chapter Text

IZZY

That night.
Izzy hadn't thought of it in ages.

His parents talking in the living room.
All he wanted was some water.

He had been feeling dead for weeks, then. No, no, more than dead. More akin to a ghost.
It's not something he wasn't used to, but the feeling certainly had lasted for a lot longer that time.

He heard his parents talking.
They were talking about him, there was no question about it.

The TV was illuminated, something was playing, but the volume was low. Nobody was watching it. Why was it on? Just to satisfy the otherwise terrifying quietness in the room?
Did it even matter why?
All Izzy knew was that the light served to darken his parent's faces in shadows, making them feel more like strangers than they ever had before.

He knew he was different than them. Yes, he could see it, but it was also him as a person himself.

He was different from everyone.

He knew everything. He was smart, smarter than anyone could've possibly taught him to be.
He was focused. He focused on what he found was important for himself. On what he deemed worth it.
He had his own way of doing things. A way nobody could ever begin to understand, because he couldn't understand either.

He was an alien in his own skin. His own sorry excuse for a skin, one he wanted so desperately to claw out of.

And that night only seemed to solidify that theory.

"Truth.." his mother's words were blurred by the hands of time. "...shock.." and so were his father's. Yet he didn't even need to understand what they were saying to know their point.

He didn't belong to them.

And it was unlikely that he belonged to anyone.

[...]

Coming back to reality (that is, if the Digital World even counted as 'reality') and clearing his throat, Izzy quickly changed the subject. "My computer.." He looked at his computer screen, Tentomon looking with him. Izzy's code was flying around the screen. Not something he knew to be very.. normal, at all.

"I don't know if I trust this." Tentomon raised his concern, though Izzy didn't care much for concern. "Don't you feel it too? We need to go help our friends. C'mon, Izzy, let's go."

"No, I need to figure this out." Izzy's voice sounded more harsh than he had intended, but he didn't mean to.. he was sure Tentomon could understand that! Right? Doesn't matter. He tried typing something else onto his computer, but nothing worked. Then he heard a small chime, the chime of his Digivice.

"My Digivice has been activated.."

Chapter Text

TAI

Tai's body was moving on it's own, his own brain too caught up in the adrenaline of escaping Andromon and needing to survive. He hadn't even realized he left behind Sora, Mimi, Agumon, and the other two Digimon.. he just needed to run, to go.

He was muttering under his breath. Something about not being fast enough. Something about always being the worst at everything he did. What? He couldn't help it! It felt like if he made one wrong move, he was going to die. He didn't know if he was fast enough.

As he kept running, though, the distinct running footsteps he could hear before had.. disappeared. He had gone too far- completely left the others behind.

And just like that

He froze.

What if Andromon got to them? Sora was in no condition to run, especially not after getting so hurt by that fire-mon thing from before.. Mimi probably was too lazy to even run on her own, and Agumon was short! He couldn't go so fast!

He was leaving them behind. Just like he had left Kari on so many other occasions..

Kari.. his younger sister. He missed her like a phantom limb. The two weren't always the closest, but at the same time, they were siblings-- she was his little sister! She meant a lot to him, and yet he never knew quite how to.. articulate that.

And that was another reason he absolutely could not die.

He didn't want to die without being able to learn how to use his words and show his genuine gratitude for her. Kari was an oddball, always somewhat in her own world.. but she was incredibly kind, as well. She showed a compassion for others, in such a way that it just seemed like second nature. A compassion Tai felt he would never have.

Especially not leaving the others behind like this.

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he took a moment to gather up the courage.. before he ran back to where Andromon was.

"SORA!!! MIMI!!! AGUMON!!! uh.. SORA AND MIMI'S DIGIMON!!!"

Was yelling in this place a good idea? Oh, absolutely not- Andromon would find him easily. He just didn't know what else to do..

After a few seconds more of running, he noticed Mimi and Sora hiding behind a wall, the three Digimon stationed slightly in front of them (though still behind the wall), ready to fight. Admirable little critters..

"Tai! SHH!"

Tai blinked in surprise at Sora suddenly shushing him. She'd never do that! But then again, she looked.. downright terrified. Especially compared to Mimi, who didn't seem to know what was going on. As if she even had the mental capacity to know.

But he didn't like Sora's fear.. it almost scared him, himself. Key word? Almost.

"Agumon, come on.."

Agumon tilted their head, watching Tai go away from behind the wall.

"Tai, what are you--"

Before Sora could continue, Tai screamed.

"HEY, ANDROMON! COME FIGHT ME!"

...

A chilly quietness fell over the place. Tai looked over to see Agumon, who was looking at Tai as if he was crazy.. Tai smirked at that. "Hey, don't be so afraid, little guy. Just evolve into that big guy, beat him the hell up, and boom! We'll be fine."

Agumon was about to speak, Tai didn't know/care about what, before the loud, earthquake-like noises of the big Digimon's footsteps started after them.

"SPIRAL SWORD!"

Tai noticed the Digimon pick it's hand up.

"Agumon, now would be a good time to evolve!"

Andromon's arm started twirling in some sort of manic, fast circle, becoming the shape of some incredibly sharp blade, about to be released- the sheer power in which the blade was being produced would probably be enough to behead some unlucky person/Digimon in the way.

"C'mon, Agumon.."

Agumon gulped. "I don't think I can, I have no energy!"

Uh oh.

Andromon, in a quick swipe, threw the sword in their direction.

"..."

"AHH!-"

Tai picked up Agumon, getting out of the way of the sword, and running in place in front of Mimi and Sora. "LET'S GO LET'S GO!!!"

Mimi giggled as Sora quickly swiped up her Digimon, and Palmon's for good measure since Mimi definitely wouldn't, and they all started to run.

[...]

They ran through the halls for a good 5 minutes at that point, everything looking the exact same. There was an exit, right?? There had to be! Tai wasn't gonna die like this-- he.. he wasn't gonna die at all, not if he could help it!

"You should've just evolved, Agumon.." He muttered quietly, but loud enough for Agumon to hear. (Un?)fortunately he couldn't hear the little guy's response. Didn't matter!

They kept running, this place feeling like a school or a prison (what's the difference, anyways?) before Sora called out "This way!"

She started running towards a light. An exit! They ran towards the light, hoping that it was indeed an exit, and Tai found himself hoping as well that once he'd left the building, the light would turn into his sister, and it would turn out like she was somehow putting through some big joke.

Naturally that didn't happen- that wasn't how things normally happened, sadly. Instead, they found themselves on a rickety, metal bridge.

"SPIRAL SWORD!"

They jumped off either side, holding onto the floor of the bridge to be the only thing keeping them up, as the spiral sword initiated by Andromon obliterated anything in it's path.

Andromon was right there.. it was fast.

In a frenzied hurry, Tai looked around frantically, hoping to see if he could find some way.. out. Something to help him save them.

"Look!" Tai heard Agumon exclaim, turning to look at his friend before noticing the Digimon point to what seemed to be a control panel with some levers. Perfect!!

Tai jumped off the bridge completely-- it wasn't too high from the ground-- hearing some sort of gasp of worry, presumably from Sora. What a worrywart.. doesn't matter. Anyways, he quickly started operating the levers. Oh! They connected to this huge moving hook thingie majig!

Tai quickly got the hang of using the lever, before positioning it right behind Andromon, who was now looking for the team-- clearly unable to notice they were dangling off the bridge right below them. What a chump!

He quickly made the hook catch the back of Andromon, as if he was fishing, and lifted the thing so that they couldn't touch the ground. He jumped back up onto the bridge, helping Sora and Mimi up, before they started running again-- hopefully being able to cover more ground and get away even farther now that he was stuck.

Soon, Mimi pointed out a door.. something about not liking the color. But whatever she was saying, they went through it-- and emerged onto the roof. This was.. not good. The opposite of perfect. Or prodigious, as Izzy would sa--

IZZY. HE FORGOT ABOUT IZZY. 

Chapter Text

IZZY

Tentomon was glowing and screaming in pain. Hm.. what a curiosity. It had to be connected to his computer, right? When his code was acting up, so did his DigiVice, and then so did Tentomon.. they were all connected. This world was just a series of bits and pieces, many wires connected together.. if he collected all the bits, then he'd find the answers he was looking for.

But not right now. Right now, Tentomon was screaming. And it was quite annoying. Seemed as though whatever was happening hurt the Digimon.. but Izzy didn't want to turn off the program! This could be a monumentous event! What's the worst that could happen, anyways?

"Calm down, Tentomon. I don't think this is going to kill you." In reality, Izzy wasn't sure if it was fatal or not-- though he didn't really care. No matter what, it'd be a scientific breakthrough, seeing what this code did now, and what it COULD do with further refining.

But Tentomon wouldn't let up.

"It burns! I feel it through my skin, in my bones and guts!"

Izzy didn't need the visual.. sigh. "Fine, if you're being annoying about this.."

He reluctantly turned off the computer. He mentally stored the code somewhere in his mind to try out another time. Hopefully he'd remember it. But for now, he was done here.

"Well, let's go find the others, then."

Tentomon didn't answer. Did the code really affect them that much? No, couldn't be. They seemed to return just the same as they had. Physically, at least.

"Tentomon?"

Izzy could observe the small Digimon shaking a slight bit. He sighed once more, before picking it up and casually walking through the building. Tentomon didn't say a word... good! Good. It was finally quiet now... that's.. that's definitely what Izzy wanted, yes.

Walking through the halls, Izzy noticed.. well, walls that were broken in. Recently, too, it seemed. The other camp members were likely that way, then. He followed the debris. He stumbled upon a metal bridge, and with looking up, he could notice Andromon.

"Hm. Look at that.."

Andromon seemed to pause at his voice, turning their head to look at him. Izzy only observed. Andromon picked up it's arm, and started to detach itself from the hook. It took a few tries, but it managed.

"Izzy, we should go.."

Oh, so now Tentomon was talking..

"No, I'd like to research this Digimon."

Tentomon shook their head, and then pointed to the back of Andromon's leg-- human flesh, oddly enough, poked out from the otherwise robotic shell. In the leg, was a gash. Clearly one a black gear had flown into, similar to that of Meramon's. "It's got the black gear. He's dangerous."

Andromon, now out of the constraints of the hook, started menacingly walking towards Izzy. Izzy tensed up, but didn't let out any other signs of being afraid.. he didn't know what to do, though.

Then, from the sky, came Birdramon-- wasn't that Sora's Digimon's evolution? Izzy looked up. Tai, Sora and Mimi-- as well as their Digimon companions-- were on the roof. It seemed Sora was trying to help Izzy.

"Izzy! Get up here, go through the halls, up the stairs and to the brown door!" Sora called out, Mimi quickly adding "the ugly brown door." after her words.

But Izzy didn't respond. He simply looked back down at the fight happening in front of him, holding Tentomon who clearly wanted out, observing the fight.

He wasn't too worried about getting hurt. He only wanted to inspect the fight.

Andromon took Birdramon by the neck, then threw them to the wall with a loud THUD.

"Izzy??"

Sora seemed to really want Izzy to leave. Izzy didn't understand why, didn't she see he was safe? Tentomon also seemed to be worried. Or just scared?

"Izzy, I-I don't find this very.. helpful. In fact, it's rather detrimental to be right in a battle zone."

"They're focused on each other right now. And I only want to observe their fighting styles, and see how different Digimon interact. Trust me, Tentomon. I am smart enough to do this."

"I don't doubt your knowledge. I doubt your safety and self preservation."

Izzy didn't respond to that. Half due to the fact that he was more preoccupied with Andromon now having Birdramon on the ground, and threatening to rip her wing off, and the other half due to the fact that he didn't know how to respond to Tentomon.

Didn't matter, though. Izzy heard a loud RIIIIP, and his suspicions were confirmed.

Birdramon wasn't going to win this fight.

Izzy sat down. Tentomon freed himself of his grip, and started to fly to the others on the roof who were watching in horror at what was going on. Izzy took out his computer, and started to input the code again. He had no idea why, but he was sure this would be imperative in helping Tentomon evolve, and therefore solidify their victory.

It took him no less then a minute, and Tentomon-- who was nearly at the roof-- fell down rapidly right to the ground. They were glowing in every crevice of their body, convulsing as if a demon was trying to escape right out of them. Then, their WHOLE body started to glow, as well as Izzy's DigiVice.

And Izzy was suddenly consumed by dread.

Growing bigger and bigger, wings expanding and a helmet now in place. Teeth long, vicious and hungry. From the fashionable red to a cool, uncaring blue.. Tentomon evolved.

"It's Kabuterimon!" He heard Palmon exclaim. Kabuterimon, huh..

And Izzy thought it was done there. Oh, how sorely he was mistaken.

Kabuterimon started glowing *again,* and that's when Izzy knew something was REALLY wrong. None of the other Digimon had been growing so fast. And this was something Tentomon had already expressed hurt them..

Kabuterimon crunched up into a ball of light- but the light wasn't the sun-colored, safe light as it was before. No, now it was.. corrupted, in a sense. All sorts of different colors, all of which did nothing but clash.

The first thing materialized from the lights were pincers. Horrible, horrible pincers. Sharp as razors and intimidating as Hell. The rest of the Digimon's body materialized quickly- black and orange wings, a total of 6 legs, big enough to block out the sun from Izzy's view, and with the most dead, uncaring red eyes Izzy had ever seen before.

"Izzy, c'mon.. we have to go, quick."

Izzy yelped, hearing Sora's voice behind him and feeling her grabbing his shoulder. He hadn't even noticed her come down.

Typically, he'd refuse- wanting to stay and see what the hell was going on, but..

He was afraid.

Really, really afraid.

Whatever Tentomon had just evolved into.. it wasn't Tentomon. It was something sinister. Izzy saw it's pincers cut through the air, cutting through the universe itself. Even Andromon seemed to stiffen in it's presence. Izzy followed Sora, the two running to the roof, where he hoped it would be safe to watch the fight... though, surprisngly, he didn't even know if he wanted to-- even if it was to learn and observe more about the Digimon.

Just looking at this Digimon induced doom and terror within him.

"What.. what is it..?"

"GranKuwagamon."

Mimi's partner, Palmon, answered that one.

Izzy watched GranKuwagamon fight, easily able to pick Andromon up and tear away at it's flesh. Agumon and Palmon hid away from it, behind the humans. Izzy could notice even Birdramon seemed more afraid of his Digimon over Andromon.

It ripped Andromon's leg off. The gear dissipated, flying away from the leg. Andromon seemed.. normal, now. But that didn't matter. GranKuwagamon didn't care. It threw Andromon across the bridge, it landing heavily against the wall. Without any worry, it pushed Birdramon out of the way to focus on Andromon. It continuously banged it's head against the robot Digimon.

It went at it for what felt like years until it finally devolved.

Right back into Motimon.

Izzy's knees went limp and he fell onto the ground

He messed up, big time.

Chapter Text

SORA

Sora wasn't sure how they had ended up in the sewers, but that they sure did. The grounds were grimy and wet and there was some.. odd pink stains on the ground? Ugh, whatever that meant. There were drops of water falling from the sky, landing on everybody. Real disgusting, that's for sure. She could hear Patamon and TK singing together. They didn't sound too good, but... as long as it made them happy?

"Lalalaaaa" Patamon started, TK laughing with them. Sora noticed how tired the poor boy looked.. he didn't deserve to be here, he deserved to be safe at home. They kept singing. Matt chuckled slightly at his brother, TK trying to get him to sing with him. Matt was, naturally, too prideful to do so. But Tai sang with them! And then Mimi, who in Sora's opinion, had a real good voice. Izzy wasn't singing at all. Barely talking. Same with his Digimon, who was now Motimon.. the two didn't even look at each other, Motimon sticking next to Sora, being the quietest that the Digimon had been in a bit.

It made Sora nervous. Just what happened in general... She had to admit that she was a bit mad at Izzy for pushing the poor Digimon so much, and especially for not escaping Andromon when she had warned him to.

What made her nerves worse was the singing. What if some scary, disgusting, mean sewer Digimon heard them and attacked them? Alright, no, calling it disgusting was mean. Well attacking them was mean, too! Whatever, it didn't matter. That wasn't the main reason she didn't like the singing.

It reminded her of her mom.

Sora and her mother were not.. close. Far from it. Her mother always yelled at her or pushed her to do something or got mad at her, and Sora, being Sora, always had to stupidly yell back at her. Sora always felt bad about it, but at the same time, she didn't want her mother to be calling her stupid. It made her feel bad. Real bad. When her mother sang, though, Sora knew that meant she was happy. She was never particularly loud about it, only really just humming, but it was always a good sign. Sora would hum with her, and it was Sora's definition of peace.

The others kept singing. Sora felt tears well up in her eyes. She wouldn't cry, she refused! Everyone seemed, even if a bit, finally happy and content. She couldn't ruin that for them. She wouldn't... she didn't want to be so selfish.

"Sora, come on! Sing!"

Mimi's intentions were good, but all they did were show Sora that she truly was selfish. She couldn't stop herself before she started to cry. She sniffled and hiccuped and tried to hide her face. She hated crying, she hated it, especially in front of other people. She hated it. They stopped and turned to her and STARED. Well, she assumed so, anyways. She was hiding her face so she couldn't see them, but she just KNEW they were staring. Everyone was staring. She was being selfish again. Why couldn't she ever shut up? She wished she was mute or that nobody was near her. Why did she have to cry??

"Sora.. what's wrong?"

TK's voice was soft. Worried. Scared. She made him scared.

She tried to shut herself up, flicking her wrist a few times until it went red, scratching herself once. She didn't really notice she was doing it. Her tummy hurt more than her wrist, anyways.

"I-I just.."

She tried to shut herself up more. She felt some soft feathers hug around her leg... she looked down. Biyomon. The feel of the bird-mon made her feel.. better, if just a bit. More connected to real life. She sniffled, shrugging, before she tried to explain.

"My.. my mom and I.."

She laughed while crying, trying to minimize her situation. She probably looked like such an absolute drama queen. She always made everything about herself. God, why couldn't she ever just shut the hell up?

"We used to sing with each other all the time. Well, hum."

Everybody was silent at that. Oh God they probably hated her. They probably thought she was so stupid and weird and cringe and they probably hated her. She shut up immediately.

Then she felt another hug. She looked down and saw the eye-aching green of TK's hat. Who in the hell thought it was a good idea for anyone to wear that horrible shade of green?? Bad fashion choices aside..

"I miss home also! I miss my video games.."

She cracked a smile at that. He was so genuine about it, too. How sweet.

"What are video games, TK?"

TK let go of Sora, eyes glistening as he started to explain them to Patamon the best that he could. "Video games are these super cool fun games you can play on your TV!"

"What's.. a TV?"

"Uhh--"

"I miss my clothes!" Interjected Mimi, before TK could think of how to explain a television. "I've worn the same things for like 15 thousand days now. And it's too hot for this dress! I should've worn a summer dress, at least.. maybe my cute pink one!" Sora blinked a few times, tilting her head with a raised brow. "Aren't you already wearing a cute pink dress, Sora?"

"A cuter one!!!"

Sora laughed. "Alright, alright, got it, calm down.."

Mimi huffed. Tai spoke next. "I miss soccer." Soccer? Sora sighed and gave a small chuckle at that. "Oh! You told me about soccer, Tai!" Said Agumon. "I like soccer too. We can play that game here too!"

Tai thought for a moment about that. "Oh. I guess that's true. So I don't miss soccer, I miss.."

...

"I don't miss anything!"

How underwhelming.. Sora sighed, typical, stupid Tai. Matt seemed to have shared a similar sentiment, hitting Tai on the head. "Stupid. Not even your sister?"

Tai huffed. "Don't call me stupid! And.. well, whatever!"

Matt shook his head, then crossed his arms. "I miss barbecue. With my mom."

"Barbecue?" Gabumon asked. The other Digimon seemed interested as well.

"It's like.. food being cooked, but like, yummier?" He said with a shrug. Hah, that was one way to describe it! Sora didn't eat barbecue often, but when she did.. yummmmm

The Digimon all seemed to like the idea of BBQ as well. "That sounds delicious, Matt! What kinds of foods?"

"Uh." He thought for a moment. "Well, I guess you could theoretically just barbecue anything. Typically, though, we barbecue vegetables or meat or fish."

All the 'mons besides Gomamon seemed to love the idea of that. Sora noticed Biyomon chirping contently at the idea of that, and she laughed. Gomamon shuddered. "Joe, you don't like to eat cooked fish, do you?"

Joe, who had been particularly quiet, shrugged. "I'm probably allergic to fish anyways." Gomamon nodded approvingly. "That's my friend! Anyways, what do YOU miss, Joe?"

Joe shrugged. "Well.. not much. It's all rather.. scary. I guess.. uh.. school?"

"Boo!" Tai chimed in, the suddenness making Sora chuckle. "Boooring!"

"Tai, don't be mean to Joe!"

Joe immediately tried to defend himself. "I only like how constant it is! Same thing everyday.. nothing to worry about." When that didn't seem to work, he scrambled for something else. "I also miss.. uh, my brother? Yeah! I miss him too, I guess."

Mimi laughed at that. "You guess? Be more sure, Joe!"

He sighed. "Everything I do is wrong to you guys.." Sora could sympathize with that, but she found herself laughing a bit. "Oh, no, Joe.."

They all laughed at Joe for a second, him giving up on fighting, before TK went "Oh!"

They all looked at him.

"Izzy! What do you miss?"

Izzy looked at them all, both confused and surprised. Ah!! Sora didn't even notice he was there.

"Uh. Nothing."

He went right back to his computer... Sora frowned at that. Everybody else shut up, Izzy having shut it all down, even if unknowingly. She looked to Motimon, to see the Digimon's reaction to his words. They were lagging behind a bit, zoning out and staring at the sewer water. Sora slowed down, going to walk beside them.

"Hey, Motimon, you okay?"

Motimon looked up at Sora, an adorable face, now adorned with a very, very sad expression. Almost empty. That worried Sora.

He nodded, silently.

"Did you get hurt from the fight? I'm sorry. I should've asked earlier."

Motimon took a second to respond. It shrugged. "A bit, but.. feels better now."

Sora smiled. "Good." She kneeled down. "You're small. Want me to carry you? It might be easier."

Motimon hesitated for a moment, thinking. Then it nodded. She smiled wider. She was glad he trusted her for that. She picked him up.

"Let's go."