Chapter 29 - Big Trouble in Litte Edo (Pt.1)

"Those kids can forget this area. It's all your's, boss." Wormon said. The Digimon Emperor chuckled as they soared over a temple-style building, the Skydramon casting a large shadow on the ground below.

"Hold on, Demiveemon, I still have to clean the dirt off your toenails!" Davis laughed and Demiveemmon giggled, "What were you doing, tap dancing in a frying pan?"
The two boys were taking a bath together, and pink suds were overflowing out of the tub. Davis picked the writhing digimon up. Demiveemon was laughing so hard he couldn't keep still.
"Hold still for a second, will ya?" Davis asked. Demiveemon struggled to do so for about two seconds and then burst out laughing again.
"I can't! It tickles!"
"At least let me wash underneath your armpits. You don't want to stink, do you?"
"Not under my arms; that's worse! Can't I just be stinky?"
"No way! All my girlfriends will think that stink is coming from me!" And then they were laughing and shouting and wrestling racously.
Outside, Davis' sister was in her pajamas with a towel on her head, drinking a glass of water. Hearing the chaos that was insuing in the bathroom, she curiously turned around and looked at the door. Her parents were laughing too hard at something on the TV to pay attention.
"It could be just my imagination," June said, "But I think my family has gone nuts."

Poromon and Yolei were crouched on the floor watching TV. As Yolei hugged her pillow to her chest, the news came on.
"And now for a news update," Said the anchor man, "Kenneth Ichijouji, boy genius, reported missing for the past two months has still not been found. Police believe he plotted his own disappearance, but are continuing their investigation even though they have not had any leads."
The TV went back to showing two men sword fighting on top of a roof. Suddenly, the TV turned off. Yolei turned around angrily.
"Dad! I was watching that!"
"Dads have dibs on the remote, espically when it's your bed time." Her dad answered. Yolei growled as she stood up. Just then, a boy with orange-ish buzzed hair and glasses walked backwards into the room while blow drying is hair and tripped backwards over Poromon.
"Pick up your toys." The boy told Yolei, "I almost fell on my butt!" Yolei muttered vehemently under her breath as she picked up Poromon, who was no motionless and pretending to be a stuffed animal, and stomped out of the room.
"Okay...almost done." Ashley said. She was laying flat across her bed, wearing her usual ice blue flannel pajamas, with a sketch board in front of her. Puppymon was sitting as still as she possibly could. Ashley glanced up, made another mark on her pad, and then sat up with a sigh.
Puppymon lifted one of her large, floppy ears and said, "Ya done?" Ashley nodded, "Lemme see! Lemme see!" Puppymon scrambled up onto the bed next to her partner. Ashley giggled and flipped the artist pad back over.
"Here you go." Puppymon's blue eyes widened. On the page in front of her was an incredibly realistic picture of her.
"Wow. You're such an awesome artist, Ashley." Puppymon said. Ashley turned pink with pleasure.
"Thanks. You really like it?"
"Of course! It's almost as good as those drawings of Davis you've got!"
"What?!" Ashley nearly shouted, turning bright red and hugging her sketch book to her chest, "How did you know about those?!"
"I looked at your sketches while you were asleep once." Puppymon answered, wagging her tail, "Do you like him?"
"Would you look at the time?" Ashley said quickly, leaning back in bed, "Time to go to sleep!" And with that, she flicked off the lights and refused to discuss the matter any further with her Digimon. The rest of the team followed suit minutes later.

"Wake up! We've got big trouble! You better believe it!" A Gekomon was running a full tilt through the street, shouting at the top of his lungs, "And it's really a doozy!" He continued to shout frienzied warnings as he ran.
In a snug room off to the side, a tremendous frog digimon the color of a tomato with two tubas wrapped around it's neck was snoozing, but wouldn't be for long.
The Gekomon from before slid the door open with a bang and shouted as moved into the room. Although he didn't even reach the top of the other Digimon's face, he continued to shout and beat on its cheek until it turned one yellow eye on him.
"The Digimon Emperor put up a Control Spire!" The Gekomon informed him, his words rushed almost too much to be understood.
"WHAT?!" The red digimon exclaimed, throwing of his covers and reaching for a purple rope, "NO WAY!" He tugged the rope and the platform underneath him began to rise.
"Hey! Wait for me!" The Gekomon cried, scrambling to stay perched on the edge. Two pannels in the ceiling parted and the red digimon got a good look at the black obelisk towering in the distinance.
"Gadzooks! This is horrible! The Digimon Emperor has his hot little mitts on my territory!"
"We gotta do something or we're gonna be slaves for the rest of our lives!" The Gekomon sobbed.
"Facing him is like a bigalow going up against a tuba! Oh, I'm too tired for this."
On the far side of the Dark Ring, a group of small, mushroom-like Digimon shrieked and stared in horror as large amounts of Dark Rings began spewing off the top of the Control Spire and floating their way. A flower-like digimon clutching a mandolin shrieked.

"Good morning class." Yolei's teacher droned as the students filed in and sat in their appropriate desks, "Today I would like you to help me welcome a new student here at our school: Ashlee Willows"
Yolei looked up, more out of habit then of actual curiousity. Standing nervously at the front of the room was a girl with her brown, blue-tipped hair done up in a ponytail. Her green eyes were not looking at the people staring at her, but at the floor.
Ashlee was wearing blue denim jacket over a white string shirt that was embalzoned with a black star. A black choker was wrapped around her neck and she was wearing black shorts underneath her short purple shirt. Her black socks stuck out several inches from her tall brown boots.
"Ashlee Willows?" Called a voice from one of the male students, "As in the heir to Willows Incorporated?" Ashlee winced. She would have given anything in the entire world for him to not say that.
A murmur ran through the room. Yolei rolled her amber eyes. Just some stuck up rich girl. She wasn't worth her time. She went back to doodling hearts around the "Ken and Yolei Ichijouji"s she had written on her spiral.
"Okay, class." The teacher said half-heartedly, "Miss Willows, if you'll please take your steat?" Ashleey gulped and began to walk down the isles. The eyes that met hers were stern. She could already tell they were the ones who thought she was a spoiled brat. The few faces with eager smiles were owned by people who admired her parents' money, the ones that thought she could them things.
So she took an empty seat far in the back, waiting for the bell to ring.

Ashlee sighed as the bell rang and the kids headed out of class. The girl with large glasses that had glared at her at the beginning of class had rushed out as quickly as she could. Ashlee wondered what the hurry was.
Of course no one had spoken to her. But she was used to it. She stood up and walked out of the now empty classroom. Since she didn't want to go straight home to her empty house, she had decided to join a club. The weekend before she had started at her new school, she had looked up the different clubs offered and decided that she might as well try computer club.
Ashlee made her way to the school office, not bothering to take her stuff out of her locker. When she made it into the glass walled room, the receptionist was too busy to tell her where the computer club met, so she sat down on one of the beige chairs and looked at her feet, trying her hardest not to let the tears come through.

"Come on, guys, we're gonna be late!" Emi shouted behind her to Kari and TK who were trailing behind. Kari sped up a bit and rounded the corner right behind Emi. TK, however, had stopped.
There was a girl he didn't recognize in the offices. She was staring at her feet and he could see that her shoulders were shaking with the effort not to cry. He wondered what was wrong and made to go in and ask, but was interrupted when Emi poked her head around the corner.
"Coming?" She asked pointedly. TK looked back at the girl, who still hadn't noticed him. He blinked and then followed his sister to the computer room.

"It's about time, Davis." Yolei snapped as the maroon-haired boy walked into the computer room. The rest of the group was standing in a circle, discussing their next mood.
"I'm getting worried." TK said, "The Digimon Emperor is taking over more and more places."
"I know one thing." Kari said, pointing pointedly, "He isn't afraid of us or he wouldn't keep fighting us after losing so many battles."
"That's one mistake he's soon going to regret." Tara said, green eyes narrowing.
"Look!" Yolei called after she had moved to the computer, "TK was right. We better take the spin out of his wheels- and fast." The screen was now almost entirely covered in the little black squares. Davis leaned over Yolei's shoulder to get a better look.
"Well, I'm all for that." He said, "I'm not going to let a braniac get the best of us."
"Yeah, he's planning something big. I can feel it." Cody piped up.
"It just doesn't make sense." Emi said, shaking her head.
"What doesn't make sense?" Ashley asked.
"We have so many more people than him. And we still keep losing."
"We aren't losing." Ashi said, "We've won most of the fights.
"What we need to win is the war, not just the battles." Tara pointed out.
"Should we get more people?" Ashi suggested.
"We can't control who and how many people get digivices." Emi said, "What we've got is what we've got."
"If I was an evil genius, what would I do?" Davis asked.
"We'll never know the answer to that question." Emi said with an exageratted sigh. Tara snickered.
"He may have the brains, but we have the brawn!" TK cried, "We at least have to try to get one of those areas back from him!" The team nodded their agreement.
As usual, they got up and stood in a line with their digivices turned towards the screen.
"We're gonna teach that loser a lesson!" Tara said with a grin that didn't really match the subject matter of her sentence, "Digi-Port Open!"
"Hey guys!" Azukia's voice suddenly came from the open door way, "You'll never guess who I found at school today!"
Six heads whipped around and saw a girl standing next to Azukia. Amid a massive amount of splutters, they shoved their digivices away and tried to look innocent.
"Azukia!" Ashi cried, "This is private!"
"Oh, right!" Azukia said, rolling her bright green eyes, "Because I am seriously that stupid. It's okay. She's a Digi-Destined, too."
Tara stared at the girl standing next to Azukia wearing a matching boxy green and white school uniform. There was something familiar about her shoulder length pink hair and sapphire blue eyes. Then it hit her.
"Casey!" Tara shouted with a grin. Emi, Kari, and TK had recognize her, too. Casey and Azukia walked into the room and the four of the others gathered around them.
"Good to see you again, too, Tara." Casey said, "Or should I say "remember you again?"
"So you're back from your intership in France?" Emi asked. Casey nodded.
"Yeah, just got back yesterday. Azukia and I found each other at school and she filled me in on what's going on the Digital World. I can't believe everyone else has gotten to go but me!"
"We were just about go to the Digital World." TK offered, "Do you want to come with us?"
"Of course!" Casey said with the biggest smile yet, "I haven't seen Houndmon in ages!"
"Great, so it's settled!" Kari said and turned around to see Ashi, Cody, Ashley, Davis, and Yolei standing together and looking confused, "Guys, this is Casey Duquette. She went with us on the last adventure."
"She's Mimi's cousin." Emi offered.
"Casey, this is Yolei, Ashley, Cody, Ashi, and Davis." Tara said, gesturing to each one in turn.
"It's nice to meet you all." Casey said, "Mimi told me a lot about you guys."
"Really?" Davis asked, "Did she tell you about my amazing skills and rugged good looks?"
"Um...no. But she definetly mentioned you last time I spoke with her."
"Hey guys," Azukia said from where she was bent over the computer, "You ready to go?"
"Yep." Was the general chorus. Once again, they all get into line with their Digivices facing the screen, Casey's the only one that still took on the appearance of the old style Digivices.
"Digi-Port Op-"
"Hey, is this where the computer club meets?" There was again the scramble to hid all evidence of what they were really doing.
"Oh, hey!" Yolei said when she saw Ashlee standing in the door way, "You're that snobby rich girl." Ashlee paused for a moment, wondering if saying that she wasn't snobby would sound inherently snobby. So instead, she sighed.
"Look, I just want to join the computer club. Is this the computer club or not?"
"Yes, this is computer club." Tara said slowly, looking at Azukia to see if she knew what to do.
"But we don't have any room for any more members, so you'll have to leave." Yolei said firmly.
"But the lady at the front desk said you guys were still accepting members." Ashlee said.
"Yeah, well, we aren't." Yolei said curtly.
"Yolei, stop being so mean." Ashi said, hazel eyes wide.
"Come on." Ashlee said, not in a pleading tone, but in a sceptical one, "You have two high schoolers here. They shouldn't count towards the member quotia."
"Look, I don't have any control over it." Yolei said with a sigh, "You have to have one of these to join."
Yolei held out her hand, showing Ashlee and gleaming white object with dark red grips around the side. Ashlee set her mouth in a straight line and glared straight into Yolei's eyes.
"Fine. I get it. I'm leaving." She turned and walked from the room, angry tears stinging her eyes. As she went to go sit on a bench and wait until she could go home, she clearly heard Yolei say:
"Well, we wouldn't want her anyway."
Back in the computer room, Ashi was twiddling her fingers and wondering if she should speak up and tell Yolei that she could have been more polite. But deep inside, Ashi knew that Yolei was right. They couldn't risk any one that didn't have a digivice around. They could alert the teachers to what they were doing and then how would they get to the Digital World?
"Okay, for real now. Let's go." Azukia said, looking through narrowed green eyes. She apparently hadn't appreciated Yolei's behavior either. But it was, after all, Yolei, so she was forgiven.
"Right." They nodded and turned towards the screen, when two different colored blots of light suddenly exlpoded from the screen.
"Man, we are never get to the Digital World." Emi said with a hint of frustration in her voice. At that exact moment, Casey dropped her digivice as if it had burned her and let out a shriek. The rest of the group whipped around to see what she was screaming at.
And there it was, sitting on the keyboard in front of her. Casey's digivice was no longer the old, metalic style. Resting on the now slightly dented keyboard was new one. It had red grippers but was pink where the rest of the group's was white.
"Casey!" Azukia squealed, throwing her arms around her friend, "That means you get a digi-egg, too! You're one of us!" Casey picked up her digivice and admired its new form. She looked at Azukia inquireingly.
"You mean this didn't happen to anyone else?" She asked.
"Well, it happened to me, TK, Kari, and Emi." Azukia said, "And Tara get her new one right off the bat, seeing as her old one was destroyed. But no, one else got a new one when they came." The group oo'ed and ah'd over Casey's new digivice, but TK was busy watched the other stream of light.
The blue light, at this point, went rocketing out of the room and around the corner. TK remember that last time this had happened, they had ended up with Ashi, Cody, and Yolei becoming members. So, he concluded, the light was probably a digivice.
"Be right back!" He called to the group, who weren't even paying attention. He ran outside of the computer room but there was no sign of the light. And there was nobody around except for
"Ashlee?" The girl who had recently been kicked out of their room was sitting on the bench a few feet away and was staring at something in her hands. At the sound of his voice, she looked up.
"What does this mean?" She asked, holding up a digivice. True to the blast of light that had shot into her hands, the colored places on the sides were Ocean Blue. TK smiled at her.
"It means...you're one of us." Ashlee stared at for a minute and then suddenly stood up.
"Oh, so NOW I'm good enough to be in your little club?" She asked hotly, not paying attention to TK's taken aback expression.
"Look, I'm sorry about Yolei." He said, "She's just...well, you saw how she is. But she's a really great person, once you get to know her."
"And I suppose now that I have one of these little..." Ashlee stalled for a moment, not having any clue what the thing in her hand was, "PEDOMETERS that I have to get to know her?"
"No." TK said slowly, lowering Ashlee's fist. She hadn't realized that she'd balled them up and had them at chest level until he did so, "But you should at least come to the Digital World once before you decide."
"The what?" Ashlee asked. She was beginning to think the boy in front of her, and the rest of the computer club, was insane. They had probably, she decided, spent a bit too much time on one game and now couldn't get their minds off of it.
"The Digital World." TK repeated as if Ashlee were the one crazy and not him, "People who get...well, they're digivices, not pedometers...are Digi-Destined. That means you can go to the Digital World through a special portal and you have a special partner called a Digimon."
There was an awkward silence that followed this statement. Ashlee stared at TK and TK stared right back. She heaved a sigh.
"Fine. I'll humor you. Take me to this "Digital World"."
"Great!" TK grinned and grabbed her by the wrist and dragged Ashlee to the computer room.
"What's SHE doing here?" Yolei asked. Ashlee growled.
"She's a Digi-Destined, too." TK said calmly.
"Wha?" Was the collective gasp that went around the room.
"When Casey's digivice changed, a light popped out of the computer like when Tara, Ashi, Yolei, and Cody got their digivices. I followed it and it became her digivice."
"Fine. Whatever." Yolei said. She turned to the computer and cried, "Digi-Port Open!" Right before Ashlee's eyes, Yolei disappeared into the computer. Doing the same, all of them were gone except for TK.
"Er..." Ashlee began, unsure of how to follow.
"It's okay." TK said encouraginly, "You just hold your Digivice up to the computer, like this." He showed her and she mimiced his movements. Ashlee noticed that his was green, most certainly not the same color as her own, "Great. And now you just say, "Digi-Port Open!"" He disappeared. Mili-seconds later, she repeated the same thing and swooped inside the computer.

They landed in a small town styled like Fudal Japan. There was a small river with a miniscule bridge running across it going through the town. Ashlee looked around, completely amazed. Who knew there was an entire world inside a computer?
"Pretty cool, huh?" Ashlee turned to see the gold-blonde haired girl with flame shaped pig-tails speaking to her, "I'm Emi, TK's twin sister. You've already met TK."
"Nice to meet you." Ashlee said, taking Emi's out-stretched hand, "I'm Ashlee."
"You've already met Yolei, too." Emi said. Yolei was pointedly ignoring Ashlee, but Ashlee could see that Yolei had a strange hawk-like creature standing next to her. Emi had a red lion creature with flame coming out of a metal outlined hole on its forehead.
"What are those things?" Ashlee asked. It was Kari who answered.
"These are our digimon." She gestured down at the white cat next to her, "Gatomon is my partner and Emi has Coronamon. I'm Kari, by the way."
"Hi Kari." Ashlee said politely, "So do I get a Digimon?"
"You should." TK said, joining the group, "But you'll have to find its Digi-Egg first."
"Digi...whatnow?" Ashlee said. This time, a boy with frizzy red hair walked up to her.
"A Digi-Egg. It's what allows our Digimon to digivolve when a Control Spire is around."
"Okay. What's a Control Spire? And who are you?"
"I'm Davis."
"And a Control Spire is what the Digimon Emperor uses to control other Digimon and make them his slaves. I'm Ashley." A blonde girl with a black headband explained, "And this is Puppymon." Ashley held up her digimon, an ice-blue floppy eared puppy.
"Okay guys, hold on." One of the high schoolers walked up. She had knee-length red hair with copper streaks, "We don't want to give Ashlee an overload."
"Thanks." Ashlee said weakly, her head spinning with all she had been told in the space of 10 minutes.
"I'm Azukia, Ashley's older sister. And this is Nekomon."
"I'm Casey." The pink-haired high-schooler said brightly. Ashlee noticed that Casey didn't have a Digimon.
"Are you new, too?" Ashlee asked, "You don't have a Digimon."
"No, I've actually been a Digi-Destined for years." Casey said, "But I haven't been here in a few years, so Houndmon isn't with me."
"Oh." Ashlee said, as if it had made sense to her.
"Hello, Ashlee." Ashlee looked down to see a younger boy with buzzed hair and bright yellow armadillo sitting next to him, "My name is Cody. This is Armadillomon. And this is Ashi." Cody had gesture towards a girl with a blue and yellow ski-cap on who was staring shyly at the ground. Ashi's digimon was a pink and white wolf-ish creature with large feathery wings.
"I'm Rikumon!" The creature said.
"And last but not least," Said a girl with a spikey halo of short black hair, "I'm Tara and this is Canimon!"
"Hi!" Canimon cheered.
"So you're Ashlee, huh?" Davis asked.
"Yeah." Ashlee said.
"Two Ashlies..." He muttered, "That's going to be a problem."
"Why?" The blonde Ashley asked.
"Well, I'm not going to say "Ashley-with-a-y and Ashlee-with-an-e to distinguish you two whenever I'm talking."
"No worries." Azukia said, "Ashley is short for Ashlyn."
"Okay, so Ashley-with-a-y will be Ashlyn now." Davis said.
"But...I was here first." Ashlyn said quietly.
"I'm sorry." Ashlee said apologetically.
"It's okay." Ashlyn sighed, "I guess you can't help it if we have the same name."
"Well now that everyone has met each other," Yolei said peevishly, "Can we please get a move on?"
"This place is making my whiskers twitch." Gatomon agreed.
"And I want to find Houndmon!" Casey said, giving an excited little hop.
"This place is weird." Armadillomon remarked.
"Not to mention old..." Patamon said.
"It's reminiscant of the samuri era of Japan." Hawkmon observed.
"It could be a film set from an old TV show." Kari suggested.
"My dad watched one of those last night." Yolei said.
"So...what?" Azukia said, "We're suggesting that we somehow ended up somwhere that isn't the Digital World?"
"CASEY!" Something shouted, followed a few seconds later by Casey falling flat on the ground, "Casey! Caseycaseycaseycasey!"
"Houndmon!" Casey sat up and wrapped her arms around a brown Gatomon sized blood hound Digimon, "Ooo, I missed you so much!"
"Same here!" Houndmon said. Casey stood up and Houndmon waved a red, purpled striped glove at Gatomon. Houndmon winked, "Nice to see you again, Kitty." Gatomon hissed.
"Now you know how I feel with that brute in my house all the time." Nekomon said sympathetically. Puppymon, however, seemed to feel differently.
"Finally!" She cried, rushing up to Houndmon, "I am so sick of being surrounded by cats!"
"So that's Casey's Digimon?" Ashlee asked for clarification. Emi nodded. Ashlee couldn't help but get a small tingle of excitement at the thought of getting a digimon of her own. The entire group seemed to be good friends with their's.
"We were talking about whether or not we were in the Digital World." Davis reminded the group.
"I think it's definitly the Digital World." Cody said. He pointed towards the horizon, "See that?"
"It's a Control Spire!" TK gasped, "That's a sure sign!"
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Casey cried, "We need to destroy it, right?"
"Right!" Azukia said with a nod, "Let's go." Just as they were headed towards it, though, every digivice began to beep. In a flash, Ashlyn had taken her's out.
"I'm getting three digi-egg readings!"
"But they're really far apart..." Emi said with a frown, "And we still have to get that Control Spire."
"I wonder who they're for?" Azukia said.
"Well..." Ashi said, speaking quietly for the first time in front of Ashlee, "One is for Ashlee, since she still doesn't have her digimon. The next one is probably for Casey and Houndmon."
"I guess we can't know who the other one is for...or which one is which." Cody said.
"Canimon and I have got this one!" Tara shouted, and before anyone could blink an eye, she and Canimon had disappeared.
"Wait! Someone needs to come...with...you..." Azukia called out, although there was no one there, "We need to split up." She directed the rest of the group.
"I'll go after Tara." Emi volunteered. Azukia nodded.
"Then you should probably leave now."
"Right!" Coronamon said. The pair vanished just as quickly as Tara had.
"Okay...so...who's got the middle to the north?"
"I'll go." TK said, "And Ashlee can come with me. Maybe it's her egg." Ashlee blinked. TK might be crazy, but at least he was a nice crazy person.
"And that just leaves Casey and the west egg. I'll go with her." Azukia finished, "The rest of you go destroy the Control Spire."
"Okay!" Everyone nodded.
"Come on, it's this way." TK said, heading off in a different direction. Ashlee paused and then followed him. Azukia and Casey headed off on their seperate way, Nekomon and Houndmon following them.
That left Davis, Ashlyn, Yolei, Cody, Kari and Ashi behind. They stared around at their new surroudings. Several somethings growled.
"What was that?" Ashi cried, getting a step closer to Cody. The group was surrounded by red eyes.
"Red eyes give me the creeps!" Yolei said, as a group of Mushroom like digimon with a distinctly evil glow around their eyes poked their heads around a corner. Several floramon with red eyes could be seen glowering from underneath the bridge.
"This doesn't look good." Ashlyn said. She and Davis edged closer to each other.
"What are they waiting for?" Davis demanded, "They've already got us surrounded." A dust cloud blew in front of them and, as if it was a signal, all of the Digimon rushed from their hiding places and formed a solid wall around the Digi-Destined, "Me and my big mouth..."
"We're Floramon!" Cried one of the flower digimon, "We may look like flowers, but watch out! Our pollen rain will make hay fever look like a walk in the roses!"
"We're Mushroomon!" said one of the mushroom digimon, "Don't put us in your veggie omlette! We may be cute as buttons, but our fungus crusher will leave you scratching your head!"
Both groups of digimon began their attacks, sending volleys of small mushrooms and pollen at the group. Screaming and panting, they tried to run away.
"V-Chop!" Veemon shouted, plowing through a group of them.
"You're no match for me, Gatomon!" A floramon shouted as she rushed at Gatomon.
"Oh yeah? Cat's Eye Hypnotism!" Gatomon's eyes glowed pink and the Floramon froze. The shower of pollen it had sent into the air fell on it and the Floramon lay on the ground and went to sleep.
"Fungus Crusher!" A Mushroomon was running alongside Hawkmon, who destroyed the mushrooms flying at him with a Hawk Beam attack. Hawkmon smiled confidently at the aghast mushroomon who ran away, crying, "I'm not getting fried!"
Puppymon and Rikumon found themselves swarmed by the majority of the Mushroommon and Floramon.
"Iccy Beam!" Puppymon cried as the golden tag on her color began to glow bright blue. It then shot out an ice-blue beam that hit half of the digimon around her. They blinked and growled from underneath their icy prisons.
"Pheonix Blade!" Rikumon growled at her half the enemies. A Pheonix shaped blast of fire errupted from her tail flame and soared at the digimon. Scorched and still on fire, they ran off screaming.
"Wah!" Hawkmon cried as several shuriken sailed at him, Rikumon, and Puppymon, "Who did that?!"
"Over there!" Rikumon said, pointing with her muzzle. A stripe of what had looked like bark peeled itself off a tree.
"We should have known!" Puppymon snarled, "That dart belongs to Ninjamon. He'll attack at the most inappropriate moment. He's a very vulgar digimon if you ask me!"
The small round ninja digimon jumped off its tree branch and landed on the room in front of the trio.
"Ha!" It cried in an annoyingly nasal voice, "So I managed to miss you this time! So what? That was just practice. But this time I'm gonna get some feathers!"

"Tara! Taaaaaaraaa!" Emi still hadn't managed to find her friend in the dense bamboo forest that she had ran into. She and Coronamon were calling out, hoping Tara would find them before they found the digi-egg.
"Canimon!" Coronamon called, cupping his paws around his mouth, "Meh. We're never gonna find them. Let's just go back and help destroy the Control Spire."
"We said we were going to help Tara and that's just what we're going to do." Emi said, pushing yet another green stalk of bamboo out the way.
"Emi! Over here!" Emi's head snapped up and she saw Tara, grinning and waving, a few feet away.
"You knew I was looking for you?" Emi demanded as she walked up. Tara laughed.
"Heck yeah. You're really loud, you know?" She laughed and Emi grimaced.
"Why didn't you call out?"
"You have to work for some things, Emi." was the answer, "Besides, it's not like the egg was that hard to find."
"You mean you found it?"
"Yup!" Canimon said, "Down there!" They followed Canimon's pointing finger and saw a digi-egg at the bottom of a crevice.
"I can't tell what sign it is from here." Tara said with a shrug, "So Canimon and I are going to go look."
"I don't think that's a great idea." Coronamon chimed in.
"Why not?" Canimon asked, sounding affronted.
"Look at the sides! It's a miracle this stupid crack in the ground hasn't caved in."
"Whatevs." Tara said with a wink, "They wouldn't put a Digi-Egg where it was dangerous. We'll be right back!" Without waiting to listen to Coronamon and Emi's protests, they clambered into the crack. Emi gulped.
"So...what's the sign on it?" Emi called, but quietly, not wanting to cause a land-slide.
"I dunno!" Tara shouted back.
"Watch out!" Emi shouted. Tara whirled around and saw the massive Flymon from one of their previous adventures flying at her. Before Canimon could even launch a Tornado Strike attack, the creature was upon them.
"Sky Fire!" Coronamon had Armor Digivolved, but not soon enough. Without thinking, Tara grabbed the metallic Digi-Egg and dove into a cave in the side of the crevice. She heard Emi's screams mix with her own as a shower of rocks tumbled onto her legs and over the only way out of the cave.

"OKay, so what are we looking for again?" Ashlee asked. She and TK were picking their way across and grey cliff wall and scanning the area.
"A Digi-Egg." TK responded, "Because of the Control Spires, our digimon can't digivolve normally. But the eggs allow them to Armor Digivolve."
"And who is putting up the Control Spires?" Ashlee asked, instead of trying to confuse herself with further questions about "digivolving".
"The Digimon Emperor."
"So he's a Digimon? And evil one."
"No, actually." TK said as he heaved himself onto a ledge on the cliff and reached and arm out for her to grab onto, "He's a kid, same as us."
"Does he go to our school?!" Ashlee asked as she grabbed it.
"No. You know that genius kid that disappeared a while back?"
"Ken Ichijouji?"
"Yeah. He's the Emperor."
"No way!"
"Way." TK chuckled, "This one is a lot harder to find then I thought."
"Well...what do Digi-Eggs look like?"
"Um...Eggs?" TK suggested. Ashlee snorted with amusement, causing TK to turn and look at her.
"Hey!" Patamon called from where he was flying above them, "I think I see it!"
"Really?" TK asked, covering his blue eyes with his hand so he could look up at his digimon, "Where?"
"Just ahead, on a cliff ledge!"
"Come on!" TK said to Ashlee. He rushed forward and the brunette followed him. Things were moving very fast.
When the pair pushed through the over-growth, an enormous cliff wall, much larger than the cliff they had clambered over before, was sitting in front of them.
"Is that it?" Ashlee asked, pointing to a shining something high up on a very thin ledge.
"I think so." TK said excitedly.
"But how do we get up there?"
"Duh!" Patamon giggled, "I can fly." Ashlee eyed the orange digimon doubtfully.
"I doubt you can take TK and I all the way up there."
"Don't worry." TK assured her, "We can take care of it. Ready, Patamon?"
"Yup!"
"Digi-Armor Energize!"
"Patamon Armor Digivolve to...Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!"
Ashlee gaped. Where Patamon had stood only moments before was a large golden flying horse.
"All of our Digimon do this." TK explained, climbing up on to Pegasusmon's back. He blinked expectanctly at her, "Well? You coming?"
"Are you sure it's safe?" Ashlee asked nervously.
"Of course!" TK said. Ashlee eyed Pegasusmon for another minute and then carefully climbed atop him.
"Here we go!" Pegasusmon said in his deep voice. And they were flying- really flying.

"Luckily, I don't think the Digi-Egg we're after is too far away." Azukia said perkly as she and Casey walked through a small area that was clearly some sort of farm for the nearby town.
"And you said Digi-Eggs allow our Digimon to Digivolve even though the Control Spire is up?" Casey asked. Houndmon was trotting excitedly by her feet while Nekomon, still upset at the recent addition of another dog into their group, was walking haughtily next to Azukia's legs.
"Yeah. And Ashlee should get her Digimon when she finds hers."
"That sounds like a lot more work then what we had to go through." Casey remarked, sapphire eyes wandering around as she searched for an egg like object in the field, "Our digimon just found us."
"Found it!" Azukia shouted. Casey and Houndmon looked down.
"And it has the Crest of Loyalty on it!" Houndmon exclaimed, "It has to be your's Casey."
"Don't be too sure." Azukia warned, "Davis has the Digi-Eggs of Courage and Friendship. Yolei has Sincerity and Love. Finally, Cody has Knowledge. It could be Ashlee's or even Tara or Cody's second Digi-Egg."
"Really?" Casey asked, already knelt down next to the egg.
"Ashlyn even has a Digi-Egg of Harmony."
"Woah. That's crazy. So should I try to pick it up."
"Of course!" Azukia cried, "Just don't assume it's your's." Casey shrugged.
"Here we go!"
"Go Casey go!" Houndmon cheered. With a single heave, the Digi-Egg popped out of the ground.
"Well what do you know?" Azukia said, impressed, "It was your's afterall."
"Now what do I do?" Casey asked, holding the Digi-egg in the palm of one hand.
"Azukia!" Nekomon cried. The red stone in her forehead was gleaming, "The group's in trouble!"
"We need to get there- fast!"
"How?" Casey asked, still clutching her Digi-Egg.
"Like this! Digi-Armor Energize!"
"Nekomon Armor Digivolve to...Nigeriamon, the Tigress of Harmony!" Casey stared. Nekomon was now an enormous tiger encased in golden armor.
"Nifty! Can Houndmon do that?"
"Just shout Digi-Armor energize!" Azukia called back as she climbed onto the saddle on Nigeriamon's back.
"Digi-Armoer Energize!"
"Houndmon Armor Digivolve to...Gargoylemon, the Gargoyle of Loyalty."
"Whoah." Was all Casey had to say. Houndmonw as no longer Houndmon. In her place was a large four legged digimon with an armored chest-plate and shoulder pads. Her two front legs had boots on them and there was an eye-less mask covering her now human shaped face. Both the mask and the boots had three large spikes stiking out of them. Horns curved from the side of Gargoylemon's head and gargoyle-like wings had sprouted out of her back. A small hourse like mane was blowing in the wind and she had a spiked collar around her neck and two spiked bracelettes around her back ankles.
"Well what are you waiting for?" Gargoylemon said, "Hop on!"

"If you think you're the top ninja, think again!"
"Huh?" Ninjamon looked around, still holding his shuriken in one hand. Yolei and Ashi were leaning against a wall a few feet away.
"I'm sorry to tell you, but you're number two on the food-chain!" Yolei finished, sticking a number two in the air.
"You're outnumbered AND outclassed!" Ashi cried.
"Come on, what sort of bird-brain calls himself number one?" Ninjamon demanded, "And it's not like that flying kangaroo is going to do anything!"
"I'm afraid she's right." Hawkmon chuckled.
"But we can prove it right here and now!" Rikumon snarled.
"Try them and see!" Yolei said, "Digi-Armor Energize!" Ashi cried it out at the same time Yolei did.
"Hawkmon Armor Digivolve to...Shurimon, the Samurai of Sincerity!"
"Rikumon Armor Digivolve to...Kiswanimon, the Blades of Belief!"
"Eep!" Ninjamon squealed as Shurimon sent one of his long arms that ended in a shuriken at him. He had to fly out of the way as Kiswanimon tried to attack him as well.
"Lunar Eclipse!" Kiswanimon sent an enormous black crescent moon shaped blade flying at the pest.
"I'll leave this in your very capable hands!" Puppymon said, saluting the pair with an ear, "I've gotta go find Ashley!" She sprinted off.
"I gotta admit, that's some pretty fancy work." Ninjamon said, "But I'm not afraid of either of you!"
"Wanna see some more?" Shurimon inquired.
"How about this?!" Ninjamon leapt into the air, and was soon followed by Shurimon and Kiswanimon. The three began a complicated dance as they attacked and avoided being attacked.
"GO SHURIMON!" Yolei cheered, "You're better than the movie!"
"You can do it, Kiswanimon! I believe in you!" Ashi called.
"Oop." Yolei said. Ashi looked back down. The opening out into the street was packed with hostile Floramon and Mushroomon.
"Fungus Cruncher!"
"Rain of Pollen!"
All of the Digi-Destined were in trouble. Their digimon were trying their hardest to fight off the growing horde, but they were being overwhelmed quickly.
"They're under his spell!" Gatomon said as she attacked one that was nearing Kari.
"There are so many of them!" Kari shouted, "How can we keep up?"
"Somebody help!" Yolei and Ashi cried as they continued their run. The group looked up to see them coming.
"Uh-Oh." Puppymon said. Seeing the two girls and the stampeded of digimon, they took off running.
"Quick, you can hide in here!" Came a voice. Ashlyn looked down an alleyway to see a Gekomon with his head sticking out of a covered hole in the ground.
"Gekomon?" She asked.
"Hurry it up, before they find you!"
"We have to go down!" Ashlyn called to the rest of the group. Soon Ashlyn was helping Kairi down the hole while Cody clambered down the ladder.
"A manhole cover?" Davis asked from where he was crouched near the hole, "I wasn't aware they had those in ancient Japan."
"You've got to realize this is the Digital World." Cody told him, "Anything can happen here."
"Who cares?!" Yolei roared, "We've got to get moving! Hurry it up, Shurimon!" Ashi was looking at her own wolf-like digimon with an expression of concern.
The three digimon were still locked together in battle, the sound of metal clanging together every few seconds.
"Come on!" Yolei presisted, "We've got a schedule to keep!"
"Sorry, but duty calls." Shurimon said, as he used the shuriken feet to hover away.
"See ya!" Kiswanimon said, leaping of the tiled roof.
"We'll meet again." Ninjamon said with a smirk as he sheathed his katana.

Pegasusmon had deposited them on the ledge that held the Digi-Egg. TK was currently bent over it, examining it closely.
Like TK had said, it was egg-shaped, but that was where the resemblance to an egg ended. It was a bright silver in color and appeared to be made of several plates of armor. On it was engraved a dark purple...something. Ashlee really couldn't tell.
"Well?" She asked. TK jumped as if he had completely forgotten that Ashlee was there.
"It's definitely not a sign I know of."
"Then it's mine?"
"Well, we can't know that for certain. It could be anyone's second digi-egg, it might be Casey's Digi-Egg. But it could be your's."
"Alrighty..." Ashlee said trailing off. TK and Ashlee stared at each other.
"To find out, you see if you can pick it up." TK explained after a moment's pause.
"Oh!" Ashlee cried, "Okay!" She walked as quickly as was possible without losing her balance and sailing off the cliff. She still thought TK was crazy (and, in turn, everyone else in the computer club), but she might as well play along. Bending down, she cupped her hands around the large egg and carefully picked it up.
"Well...that was easy."
"Look!" TK exclaimed, pointing to where Ashlee had turned her back on where she had picked up her Digi-Egg. Wondering what was going on, she turned around. A bright ciricle of ocean blue light was hovering a few inches above the ground where the metal egg had been laying. And trotting out of it was:
"Hi! I'm Airamon!" The thing said in a chipper femine voice. Airamon went up to Ashlee's knees, standing gracefully on it's long blue legs. She had a blue orb for a tail that had a large white tuft of fur ending in a fringe of blue sticking out of it. Her ears looked exactly like her tail in miniture, except that they seemed to come out of two blue star shapes instead of an orb. She had a blue mane around her neck, blue eyes, and a blue gem on her forehead.
"Hello." Ashlee said. Airamon's blue eyes found the egg that Ashlee was still clutching in one hand. Airamon gasped, ears twitching excitedly.
"You pulled out of my Digi-Egg of Acceptance! That means you're my partner!"
"It does?" Ashlee asked.
"Yeah!" Airamon said. Ashlee bent down and Airamon rushed into her arms.
"Wow." Ashlee said quietly.
"TK!" Pegasusmon called from where he was soaring in circles over them, "I think we had better get back to the group."
"Right!" TK shouted back, giving his partner the thumbs up, "You guys ready to go?"
"Sure!" Airamon said, jumping nimbly forward. Pegasusmon soared down and TK climbed on.
"How do you...?" Ashlee began, but Airamon intterupted.
"Get on and then I'll jump in your lap." Ashlee did as she was told. Airamon easily bounded from the ground to Ashlee and as Pegasusmon flew off again, Ashlee buried her face into Airamon's soft fur.

"Tara?" Emi shouted, "Tara?!" The piled of rocks in front of the blonde girl made her look absolutely miniscule. Her voice shaking with panic, Emi began to dig at the boulders with her hands.
Was Tara really gone?

"On behalf of the Gekomon, we thank you from the bottom of our horns." The hole in the ground had led the Digi-Destined to a large pagota full of Gekomon. And an enormous something that looked rather like a tomato with tubas wrapped around its neck. They were sitting on the floor, their digimon laying around them, and wondering where the heck everyone had gone off to find Digi-egg had got to, "If you all hadn't come through for us, we'd all still be servants of the Digimon Emperor."
"Sorry we're late!" Came a voice from the back of the room. Every head in the room turned to see Azukia pushing the paper door open and striding into the room.
"Hey, Kia-Chan." Kari said with a smile as the older girl settled down next to her, Casey on her other side, "Did you guys find the Digi-Egg?"
"Uh-huh." Casey answered and Houndmon and Gatomon started glowering at each other.
"So, who's was it?" Davis demanded impatiently.
"Houndmon's." Casey said proudly.
"Gargoylemon." Houndmon stated before anyone else could ask. One of the Gekomon sitting on the edge of the room leaned forward.
"We appreciate what you did for us; you saved our lives!"
"Yeah!" piped up one of the Otoumon.
"You guys sure are a lot nicer than the last time I saw you." Yolei commented with a smile, "You sure were evil. Not that I'm blaming you. I'd be pretty mean, too, if I had a Dark Ring around me. But that's all over with now. We're friends now."
"Tell me," Casey said as the rest of the group closed around them. She knew the Gekomon abd Otoumon well. Afterall, they were absolutely obessesed with her cousins. Well, them and few other Digimon, "This is where you guys are living- down here under the ground?"
"I'm afraid that's so. It's the only place left that is safe!" The Gekomon explained.
"Can you guys give the inside scoop on where the Digimon Emperor is hiding these days?" Veemon asked.
"Haven't seen his face around here yet."
"Yeah, he's incognito!" The Otoumon squealed, "Those Dark Rings just swooped in here and brainwashed everyone in sight!"
"That means the Digimon Emperor knows where you are." Armadillomon said, wagging is golden tail.
"And that means he can find you again." Rikumon said gravely. The Gekomon and Otoumon began to cry.
"We don't want to be the Digimon Emperor's slaves again, that was way too awful!" The main Gekomon sniffed. He and the Otoumon beside him burst in to tears, "Do you have any ideas?" the Gekomon sobbed to the larger digimon sitting on the stage.
"That's simple my little friend!" The red digimon boomed. The other digimon stopped crying to stare up at him.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Mmmm...mm-mm-mm...mmmm..." the large digimon grumbled, his face spasming as if it were quite an effort to force himself to think, "Well...mmmm....mm-mm-mm...mmmmmm...mm...We sleep!" He declared and promptly crashed on to his side with his eyes closed.
"That'll help." Gatomon said sarcastically.

In about an hour, the large digimon was in his room, asleep. TK and Ashlee had returned and Ariamon had been introduced to the rest of the gang. Tara and Emi had still not returned and neither of them were replying to any of the e-mails sent to them via their communicators.
Shogungekomon was asleep in his room, snoring deeply. Without a sound, Ninjamon flipped into the room and landed quietly on the floor with a soft snicker.
"I'm sorry, but snoozing on the job is counter productive." Ninjamon giggled. And with that, he clamped a dark spiral down on Shogungekomon.
He awoke with an almighty roar, eyes bright red and gleaming.
"He's your's, master." Ninjamon said as he watched from the air duct.

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