Chapter 26 - His Master's Voice (Pt.2)

"Look, a news chopper!" Patamon cried, looking up at the sky, "Maybe it's another high speed chase." He and Gatomon looked hopefully up at the two humans, but both TK and Azukia continued staring morosely at the ground. Nyamon sighed.
"I really wish we had more of a clue as to where she went." TK moaned.
"Well, what did she say?" Patamon asked.
"The beach. She kept saying something about the beach. Oh, we'll never find her!"
"TK, don't be such a scardey cat." Gatomon groaned, "Kari is one tough kid. We have to believe that she can take care of herself until we find her. I know Azukia babies her lot, but Kari is a lot stronger that she leads people to believe."
"That's right!" Nyamon encouraged, nuzzling Azukia's face, "It'll be okay."
"You're right, Gatomon." TK said, "Thanks."
"Yeah. You, too, Nyamon." Azukia said, nuzzling her friend back, "Come on! Let's keep looking for her."

Kari was now walking inside the tunnel. It was dark. The only light came from the end of the tunnel that she had come through at it was fading quickly as she walked forward.
"Hello?...Is anybody in here?" Kari called, "Echo! Coming in here has got to be the worst idea I've ever had. I must be out of my mind."
"Kaaaariii..." A voice moaned from down the tunnel. Kari froze, staring straight ahead, "Karrrrii...Karrrriiii..." Other voices joined the first and her name bounced and echoed off the walls, "Heeeeeelp usss."
"Get back!" Kari shouted as several sets of red eyes appeared on the ground near her feet, "I play a lot of soccor!....So I know how to kick!"
"Heeeelpp uusssss..." Groaned one of the things at her feet, a black shape rising from the pile of undistinguishabe creatures.
"What do you want from me?" Kari asked frantically, legs shaking.

"I don't care what TK says, I know Kari's in the Digital World and I'm gonna save her instead of digging up clams on that stupid sandy beach." Davis announced, making his way to the computer.
"I'm coming to." Davis turned around and saw Ashley standing behind him, looking nervous but determined.
"Okay..." Davis said, a bit taken a back, "So here we come Kari. Digiport Open!" Their digivices made strange sounds.
"I just changed the batteries..." Ashley said quietly, shaking her ice blue one up and down.
"Digi-port OPEN!" Davis tried again. Nothing happened. He put his head on the desk and grumbled.

"You guys don't look too good." Kari said, one hand over her mouth. As if to proove her point, one of the things fell over on its side, groaning, "So what are you? Are you digimon?"
"Digi...mon..." One of them moaned, reaching towards Kari, "I don't know if...we're digimon. But I...know we're...Scubamon. We have big...flippers for swimming in the ocean."
"We have no idea how we got down here." Another one said tiredly, "Or how long we've been in this awful place."
"You poor things." Kari said sadly, "What happened to you?"
"We don't remember. One day we were serving our under sea master and the next minute we were here and we feel terrible."
"This is awful. Who would do something like this?" Kari asked, "Why not go back to the ocean?"
"I wish that we could." One Scubamon said, lifting its arm up. Several blue-black rings spiraled around it," A dark man came and put these Dark Spirals on our arms that stole our strenght and made us all his slaves."
"The Digimon Emperor."
"That's why we summoned you. You are our only hope."
"Huh?"
"You have to help us. You are very powerful. Enough to free us from the Dark Spirals. We used the last of our strenght to get you here. Please help us return to the ocean where we can serve our master."
"I don't know what I could possibly do to help."
"Heeelp." The Scubamon began to moan again stretching trembling hands towards Kari as a plea. Kari took a few steps forward and bent down to the level of the Scubamon.
"Okay, I'll try." Kari said. She wrapped her fingers around the Dark Spiral around one of the outstretched arms, "I just don't think I'm strong enough." She struggled to rip it off, shaking her head in frustration. Just when she was about to give up, a purple light burst from the Scubamon's wrist.
And then the tunnel started to cave in. Kari stood up, mouth agape.
"Come everybody, we've got to go! The tunnel is about to fall apart!" She shouted. The Scubamon wearily got to their feet. They swarmed out the door directly in front of Kari, who paused to cough once they got outside. A screech from about caused to her look up. One of the Emperor's dragons was soaring over head.
"That creature is a servant of the Dark One who put these Spirals on us." A Scubamon informed Kari.
"The Digimon Emperor." Kari growled. The Dragon turned around and flew straight at the girl, exhaling a purple cloud that caused the suddenly inert Scubamon to flee, "We're sitting ducks here! And I can't fight without my friends."

"Kari!" TK shouted.
"Kari!" Azukia shouted, "Kariii!"
"It's official." Gatomon said, "I think they both went crazy." Nyamon sighed and looked down at the ground. Patamon made a sad beeping sound and flew to the edge of the land where they were sitting, joining the pair in their search.
"Why aren't you helping, Nyamon?" Gatomon asked. Nyamon just shook her head and didn't answer.

"I feel so helpless." Kari said, sounding on the edge of tears, "My brother would know what to do. And Azukia would be upset if I didn't include her in that, too."
Images of her friends flashed before her eyes.
"Tai...Azukia...Gatomon....The National Gaurd!"

They were still shouting. Even Gatomon and Nyamon had joined in. And something really weird happened:
A purple light burst into the sky and and washed-out version of Kari could be seen through it, holding her arms out imploringly.
"TK!" Kari called, "Azukia!"
"It's her!" TK gasped. He leapt off the edge of the bridge.
"Kari!" Azukia shouted, doing the same.
"TK, wait!" Patamon cried, flying towards the light.
"What the heck. I've got 9 lives." Gatomon said. Nyamon watched them fly off and then did the closest thing she could do to a shrug without having any shoulders.
"If you can't beat them, join them." And she too soared off after Kari.
There was a rush of strange colors and wind and then the five of them crashed to the now grey-green earth.
"TK, promise me we will never do that ever again." Gatomon said as they all looked around to see where they were.
"TK! Azukia! Gatomon!" Kari was running along the edge of the cliff they were sitting on, waving.
"There she is!" TK exclaimed, pointing.
"Hey guys, I'm right down here!"
"Kari- DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" Azukia shouted, waving her fist in the air, "YOU GAVE ME A FREAKING HEART ATTACK!" Kari laughed.
"I'll try not to. Believe me."
"Stay right there!" TK called down to her, "We're coming down!" And then the dragon came. It growled as it flew towards the group.
"Time to go Patamon."
"You, too, Nekomon." Azukia said with a smirk at her now Rookie-form partner.
"Right!" Both digimon nodded.
"Digi-Armor Energize!"
"Patamon Armor Digivolve to...Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!"
"Nekomon Armor Digivolve to...Nigeriamon, the Tigress of Harmony!" Both kids boarded their now larger digimon. Nigeriamon and Azukia went for Kari to protect her, while Pegasusmon and TK flew towards the dragon.
The dragon opened its jaws and snapped at the duo who managed to dodge it fairly easily. It made a U-turn and shot out two blasts of its purple smoke, one of which nearly hit TK and Pegasusmon.
"Pegasusmon!" TK shouted as he watched the purple cloud explode on the beach behind them, "That was too close!"
"Wind Mane!" Pegasusmon cried, shooting out needles of his yellow-orange mane.
Kari, meanwhile, was on the shore with the Scubamon. Nigeriamon and Azukia finally ran up, Gatomon riding on Nigeriamon as well. They skidded to a halt and Gatomon leapt off.
"Quick, Kari! I have to Armor Digivolve right now!"
"But...I don't have my D-Terminal." (A/N: D-Terminal. Straw thought they were D-3s!)
"Nigeriamon, can you help him?"
"I wish I could, but I don't have wings. I'm sedentary." Nigeriamon said, "I can't help with an air battle."
"We're toast." Gatomon said.
"I don't know how much longer TK can keep that up." Azukia said in a worried tone.
The dragon was chasing Pegasusmon as he and TK looped around in the air. Gatomon gulped as TK turned to look and shouted at Pegasusmon, "He's on our tail!"
"Pegasusmon!" Gatomon cried, running as fast as she could along the cliff. When Pegasusmon came close enough, she leapt onto his back as they escaped another barrage of purple smoke, "Pegasusmon, the Control Spire! You've got to take it out! Then I could Digivolve!"
"Here goes nothing." Pegasusmon said in his deep voice. He turned around and headed straight for the Spire, which was, in fact, the light house, "Aqua Steed!" The green light hit the Spire and it crumbled, falling into the ocean.
"Nice going!" TK cheered. A purple light burst through the clouds and Gatomon leapt towards it without warning.
"Gatomon digivolve to...Angewomon!"
"Angewomon!" Kari called from below, looking at the glittering Angel Woman Gatomon had transformed into. Azukia waved.
"Long time no see." Angewoman smiled and then twisted her head as the dragon flew towards her.
"Keep Kari safe." Angewomon directed Azukia and Nigeriamon. Azukia gave her the thumbs up.
"Of course." Nigeriamon said with a nod.
"Aqua Steed!" The green light shot out of Pegasusmon's forehead.
"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon waved her arms in two short lines, causing two bright pink lights to form a bow. The horizontal line shot at the dragon, who roared in rage and then disentegrated.
"Nice job!" TK called to Angewomon, "This battle is just a day at the beach!"
Angewomon floated down to Kari's level, hovering slightly above the waves. Kari looked up at her digimon.
"Angewomon, you've got to help them." Kari said. Angewomon said nothing, but opened up her hands. A light pink light came out of them and enveloped the Scubamon. The Dark Spirals fell to the ground with a clang and the Scubamons' eyes went back to normal. Kari laughed but then both she and Azukia gasped as the Scubamon began to distort and become shadowy again.
"Much better." Said one of the now much larger shadowy shapes and it rose to its feet.
"Now that's what I'd call a red-eye reduction." Agreed another, standing up. They began to move towards Kari.
"Kari! Get out of there!" Azukia shouted as she and Nigeriamon were blocked by the creatures.
"Hey, you guys asked for my help and I gave it to you." Kari pointed out, backing up as far as she could, "Now what do you want?" One grabbed her arm, "Ah! Don't hurt me!"
"Let her go you creeps!" Azukia shouted, trying to push her way through with Nekomon.
"Kari, hold on!" TK shouted as he and Patamon rushed down the beach."
"Come with us, child, you'll be our new queen." Droned the figure grasping her arm, "We need you."
"I trusted you guys!" Kari shouted, struggling to get free, "You lied to me!" A pink lightening bolt shot at the shadows, causing them to jump away and release Kari. They all looked up to see Angewoman, glaring down at them and pointing imperiously at them.
"We thought you'd love to be our queen." The Shadows said as they backed away and faded into the sea, "With your powers you could lead us in the battle against our undersea master. I guess we were wrong. But beware, child. Our master can sense your power, too."
Kari stared after them. TK and Azukia walked up and stood on either side of her.
"I want to go home." Kari said wearily. TK placed one hand on her shoulder.
"It could be worse. We could be scraping gum at school." Kari looked at him and smiled. Azukia wrapped her arms around Kari in a hug and Kari smiled at her, too. And with that, TK got on Pegasusmon, allowing Azukia and Nekomon to ride behind him, and Kari clambored on to Angewomon's shoulders.
"Last one home is a rotten Digi-Egg!" TK called as they made their way towards the light in the sky.
"Thanks for coming after me guys." Kari said, arms wrapped around her digimon, "I really appreciate it."
"It's no big deal." TK said, "I know you'd do the same for me."
"And me!" Azukia said with a laugh.
"Hey, TK," Kari said, "Remember this morning when you cared for me? What did you mean by that?" Azukia grinned wolfishly and was about to answer for him, but TK elbowed her in the rubs.
"Ow!"
"Huh?" TK said, "Oh, well, you know. It was just...stuff." Azukia snorted, but didn't say anything.
"Well, you know what? I care for you, too."
"Hey, what about me?" Azukia asked adamantly.
"I love you, too, Azukia. That goes without saying."
"Darn straight."

Back in the Digital World, a massive dark shape was rising from the water. Its red eyes gleamed evilly as it cast its gaze around its domain.

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