Modred and Excalibur: A Digi-Invasion
Digimon Fanfic / Written 2/11/01 / Rated PG
Digimon © Akimoshi Hongo

The title is... an inside joke for myself. See, the whole thing (it's about 89 pages in Word) lived on my Zip drive in high school while we spent time in the computer labs writing reports for British Literature x) So I named the file "modredandexcalibur" so that it wouldn't look like I was procrastinating on my stuff at school and also so that if my parents were to view the most recent used files on the computer, they would see that one of them was "modredandexcalibur" not "digimonfanfic" xD *terrible* It takes place in Davis, T.K. and Kari's senior year of high school. Beware, it's really MarySuey, but I had a lot of fun writing it and still have a lot of fun reading it x)

Chapter 1
The New Girls in Town		 Chapter 2
Ice and Purple Fur		 Chapter 3
The Silent Vow		 Chapter 4
Reflections and Hang Time		 Chapter 5
Cute Confessions
Chapter 6
Double Switch		 Chapter 7
A Walk in the Park		 Chapter 8
Work in Progress		 Chapter 9
The Road Home		 Chapter 10
Thus School Starts
Chapter 11
Jumpy


Chapter One - The New Girls in Town

 "Jessi, wake up!" said Katriena as she shook her friend. "We're here."

"Huh?" said the girl as she woke up and shook her head.

"You slept almost all the way here, you dolt." said her sister Shannon. "We land in Tokyo in about five minutes."

Jessi yawned and stretched in the plane seat. "What a nice nap. But it seems like only ten minutes ago we were saying 'good-bye' to everyone."

The girls were traveling to Japan as foreign exchange students. They had left from Denver for a non-stop flight to Tokyo that morning. They met their Japanese exchange sisters that morning in the terminal. Katriena, Jessi, and Shannon were trading places with three Japanese girls named Sora, Mimi, and Kari.

They spent about two hours with the girls before their plane left. They became close friends and learned about their awaiting families. Jessi, Kari, and Katriena were all seniors while Shannon was a junior and Mimi and Sora were planning on attending a local college while they were in America.

Jessi would be staying with Kari's family. She found out that Kari had an older brother, Tai, but he was rarely ever home because he was in college. Shannon would be staying with Sora's mom. Sora didn't have any siblings or a father, and Shannon was excited to get away from a big family setting.

Kari and Sora would be staying with Jessi and Shannon's family. Jessi and Shannon had warned them to look out for their younger sisters who were twins and in the eighth grade. They hoped the twins wouldn't give the new girls any trouble.

Katriena and Mimi would be switching places. Katriena would be staying with Mimi's mom, dad, and younger brother, and Mimi would be staying with Katriena's parents.

"I'm kinda nervous, aren't you guys?" asked Shannon. "I mean, living in Japan for a whole year!"

"I'm excited!" said Jessi. "All I know is things are going to be very different from now on!"


"What are you girls doing?" said a voice when they emerged into the lobby of the airport. "Let's go get your bags and get moving!"

The girls looked over to see their host families waving at them. They walked over and introduced themselves.

"Well," said Mimi's dad as he lifted Katriena's suitcase, "We figured we'd all spend the first night in a hotel. That way you girls don't have to be split up on your first night in Japan and we can all get to know each other."

"Wow!" they all said. "That sounds like a good idea!"


The three families would be staying in three adjacent rooms for the night and then they would all depart for their houses the next day. They all immediately started getting settled. The parents decided they would go and explore "what the hotel had to offer" so the girls could arrange their things.

"Oh yeah!" said Shannon as she looked through her suitcase, "I forgot I had put some things in Jessi's bag. I'd better go get them." She left her stuff and walked over to Jessi's room to claim her belongings.


Katriena looked out her door just in time to see Shannon go into Jessi's room. "What's going on in there?" she wondered as she left her room and headed to Jessi's.


"Jessi, can I get my stuff?" asked Shannon when she walked in.

"Sure." said Jessi. "But first you have to help me set up this computer."

"Hey guys." said Katriena as she walked in.

"Hey, Katriena. Wanna help us?"

"What are you doing?"

Jessi pulled the portable computer out of a bag, "It's my host father's. He asked me to set it up for him while they were taking their tour."

"What do you want me to do?" asked Katriena.

"Would you crawl under there and plug in the modem?"

"Like this?" asked Katriena as the computer screen lit up a light blue.

"That's the freakiest thing I've ever seen." proclaimed Shannon as she stared in terror at the computer. The screen was now glowing a light blue and there were three strange devices sitting next to it.

"Oh no!" said Jessi as she picked up a device. "This must have fallen out of the main part! I'd better find a way to plug it back in!" She had just picked up the device when a strange email popped up on the screen. "Hey look!" she rejoiced. "It's working!"

"The email is addressed to all of us." said Katriena as she mused at the screen. "How odd that someone would know we were all together."

"Email is email." said Jessi. "It's nothing freaky. I'll bet it's a joke list or an advertisement or something." She clicked to open it. This is what it said:

Hi Girls!
Sorry if I frightened you. I was wondering if you could be of help. I just found you and I need you to come here immediately. Something's happening here and we need your help to fix it. Thanks a bunch. See you soon.


"That makes no sense at all!" said Jessi as she scrolled back up to the beginning of the email. "Who wants our help, where are they, and how do we get there?"

"Hey!" said Shannon as she held the green device. "My thing is glowing!"

"So is mine!" said Katriena as she noticed all of the devices were glowing.

"Look at the screen!" said Jessi. A strange program had automatically opened. It looked like a small TV with a lot of buttons on the side.

"What does that do?" asked Shannon as she leaned in for a closer look. Right then the light on the screen grew so bright it was unbearable! All of the girls covered their eyes in pain.

"What's happening!?" yelled Katriena as the light began to fade.


"Ahhhhhh!" The minute Jessi had opened her eyes she had realized she was not in the hotel room. As a matter of fact, she was falling from the sky into a forest and she was screaming the entire way down. She was silenced when she landed in a bush on the edge of the forest. "Where am I?" she asked as she scrambled out of the bush and started picking branches off of her. "And what was that strange light?" She was just picking off the last one when she heard a low growl behind her. "What was that?"

She slowly turned around to come face to face with a giant monster. It looked like a mix between a triceratops and an elephant and it looked like it was plated with steel. She didn't even stop to think, she just turned and ran screaming all the way, "Monster!! Somebody help me! AHHHHH!"

The beast just jumped right after her and began its pursuit. Jessi was running as fast as she could but the monster was still on her tail. She dove behind a tree to hide. She pressed herself as close to the tree as possible so she wouldn't be spotted and held her breath. She could hear the monster walking around in that area. It was right behind her, she could hear it breathing and sniffing out its prey. She leaned up closer and prayed it wouldn't see her.

All of the sudden a boy jumped out of the bushes yelled, "Look out!" He tackled her and they both flew out of the way and hit the ground just as the tree Jessi was leaning against was blown up by a strange attack.

The boy scrambled to his feet and watched as a giant blue monster in red and yellow armor jumped out at the big monster. It tackled the elephant-like monster and then punched it with a fire attack. The elephant monster whimpered and ran off like a scared puppy.

Jessi was sitting up with a far off look on her face. Had she just witnessed what she thought she had? The boy leaned in front of her to get her attention. She jumped back and looked at the boy in front of her. He was tall, and good-looking. He had a pair of goggles on his forehead and he had the wildest hair-do she had ever seen.

"Am I dead?" was all she could manage to say. "What is this, the Twilight Zone?"

He smiled and held her out a gloved hand. "I'm Davis."

Jessi fearfully took his hand and he helped her up. "I'm Jessi."

A strange-looking, small blue creature approached them and stared at Jessi. "Who's this, Davis?" It asked.

Jessi looked at it with huge eyes. "Tell me that thing didn't just talk."

The blue creature squinted its eyes and moved closer for a better look at her. "Stick with Kari, Davis. This one isn't worth it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Jessi and Davis at the same time.

"Veemon, try having some manners, buddy." said Davis as he whacked the monster on the side of the head.

"Okay, this makes no sense." said Jessi as she turned around and started walking away. "I'm in a strange place filled with rude monsters and strange people (if they even are people). How do I get out of here?" She started walking away when the small device fell out of her pocket. Davis and the creature he called Veemon both gasped.

"Davis, is that what I think it is?" asked Veemon in reference to the strange device.

"Where did you find that?" Davis asked Jessi.

"It fell out of my host father's computer when we received a weird email, and then the computer went berserk and I was zapped here." said Jessi in an annoyed tone.

"Okay." sighed Davis. "Don't panic, I'll just email everyone and let them know what I've found."

"You do that." Jessi implied as she picked the item up and started walking away. "Good-bye, thanks for your help (although I'll be bruised until the next century thanks to that fall...)."

"Wait!" yelled Veemon as he ran in front of her and put his arms out to the sides to block her. "You need to come with us."

"What's this?" she asked in an annoyed tone. "I thought I wasn't worth it."

"A new Digidestined is more than worth it." said Davis as he finished typing on his computer. "I'm afraid I can't let you leave until I know why you're here."


"Ahhhh!" screamed Shannon as she found herself falling towards an ocean. The computer had released a bright light and the next thing she knew she was falling uncontrollably.

She hit the water at full impact and quickly surfaced, "Help me! Somebody help me!" she yelled as she treaded water. "These waters are probably shark infested." she whined to herself. "HELP!"

Overhead a person heard her cry. "Look down there, Pegasusmon! Let's go in for a closer look!"

Shannon saw a figure approaching and yelled again, "Over here! Help me, please!"

The figure drew nearer and then hovered over the water. It was a boy on a strange flying horse. The boy appeared to be wearing a bucket hat. Shannon immediately began to worry about her sanity as the boy told her to climb on.

"How can I be sure to trust you?" she asked him. "You're a strange boy in a strange place with a strange animal."

"It looks like you don't have any other choice, do you?" the boy smiled as he offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her out of the water onto his giant horse.

Shannon looked at her clothes and frowned when she saw how wet and ruined they were. "So where did you come from?" asked the boy as he maneuvered the horse to start climbing back into the sky.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "It all doesn't make sense. One minute I'm in the hotel reading a strange email, and the next I'm riding on a big horse with wings."

"A strange email?" asked the boy. "That's odd."

"What did the email say?" asked the horse.

Shannon froze and then looked at the boy "Is it just me, or did I hear this thing talk?"

The boy laughed. "I guess we never properly introduced ourselves. My name is T.K. and this is my Digimon, Pegasusmon."

"I'm Shannon." she said. "So what exactly is a Digimon?"

"A Digimon is a Digital Monster. They live in the Digital World but can also travel back and forth between the human world and their world."

"That makes sense." she said sarcastically.

"Tell me how you got here." said T.K. as they continued flying over the ocean.


"Ahhhhh!" screamed Katriena as she fell from the sky. All of the sudden something hard broke her fall. "Ouch!" she whined as she rubbed her behind.

"It's about time you showed up." said a voice behind her.

Her face grew confused and then she noticed her surroundings. She was flying over a forest on top of a giant bug with a boy, a computer, and a strange looking blob.

"Ahhh!" she stepped back in horror and fell off of the bug. It swooped down and caught her before she had fallen very far and held her in its hands as they continued to fly along.

The boy on top of the bug stopped his typing and looked down at her. "Nice to meet you, my name's Izzy."

Katriena, who was not yet over the fear of being held by an ugly giant bug, was unusually tongue-tied, "Wha... wha... what am I doing here?"

Izzy laughed heartily as he moved back up to the top of the bug where she could still hear his voice, but couldn't see him. "Didn't you read my email? I sent for you and your friends to come help us out. You sure picked a good time to come dropping in."

The strange blob looked over at her and smiled. "Hi, Katriena!" It said. "Izzy and I just met a little while ago and he sent for you and now you're here!"

Katriena started flailing her arms and screaming "Talking monsters! And they know my name!"

"I was afraid this would happen..." said Izzy, "Hold her tight, Kabuterimon! Just hang on Katriena, we'll land in a short one and then you'll be safe."

"Safe!?" she freaked. "Who's gonna save me from YOU?"


Jessi glared at Davis and Veemon. She had tried to get away from them so she could find a way to get out of this strange world, but they wouldn't let her and they finally ended up tying her to a tree. "You'll both pay for this! When I get out of here, you're both gonna get it!"

"Hey, Davis? Can I 'Vee-head butt' her a couple times to get her to shut-up?"

Davis smiled at the idea but then continued to concentrate on his computer. "No one's written back yet. We should all be here in the Digital World. I wonder why no one's picking up." He said as he folded it up again and put it in his pocket.

"Great!" said Jessi. "Now you can let me go!"

"Not quite." He said as he looked at his prisoner. "We can't have you running all over the place or getting killed until we know what you're here for."

"So I'm a stranger to your 'Digiworld' or whatever you called it. I can survive on my own! I don't need you and your ugly little friend keeping me here when I could be finding a way out!"

"Calm down!" said Davis as he checked his instrument that he had called a Digivice. "We'll get you outta here in no time."

"I'll bet." she said. "What is my host dad gonna say when he comes back to the room to find his computer broken and his host daughter gone? Are you gonna cover me then? Are you going to explain to him how you kidnapped and tied an innocent girl to a tree just to make her miserable."

"You know, Davis," said Veemon looking a little annoyed, "My offer still stands."

"Don't worry." said Davis. "We'll have you back in no time!"

Jessi's eyes widened. "You can send me back? Why didn't you say so?" she got a mischievous look on her face and then continued, "That's so great, see, cause I gotta use the little girl's room. Would you mind showing me where it is?"

Davis and Veemon both blushed and Veemon untied her. Jessi stood up, wiped her behind free of debris, turned and ran as fast as she could.

"Hey! Wait!" Yelled Davis as he grabbed his stuff and started running after her. "Where do you think you're going? You could get killed!"

Jessi turned around and stuck her tongue out. "I'm a big girl! I can take care of my...." With that she ran right into something hard. She fell back and landed on her behind. "Ouch! Hey! What's the big idea?" Then she saw what she had run into. It was a tall dark dinosaur. Jessi screamed "Monster!" and tried to get up to run away but it grabbed her tightly.

Davis and Veemon ran up to where the monster was. Jessi was terrified, "Davis, help me, PLEASE! I promise I won't run away again, just PLEASE get me out of here."

Davis turned to Veemon and said, "You know what you gotta do."

Veemon gave Davis a looks that said 'Do I have to?' but then nodded his head as Davis shouted "Digi Armor Energize!"

Jessi was practically in tears as the monster gripped her tightly but what she saw amazed her. Veemon was changing. Right before her eyes he was changing form. He had changed into something that looked like a dog with black armor and a blade on his snout.

"Now go get him, Raidramon!"

Veemon lunged at the Tyrannosaur and hit it in the muzzle. The monster roared about the blow and gripped Jessi even tighter. She squealed in pain and struggled to catch a breath.

Veemon shot an attack at it and it dropped her. She coughed to catch her breath and rubbed her neck where the monster had been pressuring it. She saw the black Veemon get hit by the monster's now free hand. He flew into a tree and looked terribly hurt.

Davis was yelling encouragement at him, "Come on Raidramon, get up! You can do it, I know you can!"

Raidramon shakily stood to his feet and flew at the monster again. He fired another attack, this one bigger than the first, and the monster fell to the ground. It slowly sat up and crawled away.

Davis ran over to where Veemon was lying on the ground as his little form. "Veemon!" he said as he scooped him up in his arms. "That was a good fight, little buddy. I'm proud of you!" Veemon opened his eyes and smiled a weak smile at his friend.

"Thanks, Davis."


Shannon and T.K. had talked all during their long flight on Pegasusmon. T.K. told Shannon all about the Digital World and how he came to know about it.

When T.K. was eight years old he went to camp with his brother. The weather started acting strangely and when seven digivices fell from the sky, he, his brother Matt, Tai, Sora, Mimi, Joe, and Izzy were all transported to the Digital World. There they met the in-training forms of their current digimon and with the help of their digivices, the Digimon were able to digivolve into stronger forms. Later on Kari joined the troupe as the eighth Digidestined and they learned how to use their crests to make their digimon digivolve into ultimate forms. Kari and T.K.'s digimon were able to help Gabumon and Agumon "morph digivolve" into even stronger forms. They defeated many evil digimon and eventually things were back to normal in the Digiworld. Their parents found out about the Digiworld when things went haywire between the two worlds, but they didn't mind as long as visits didn't interfere with their studies. During that time, the Internet was taken over by a bad Digimon and they had to stop that Digimon. It didn't take long, but it really had them worried.

Three years later things started acting up again in the digital world except this time it was all because of a Digidestined gone bad. His name was Ken and after trying to rule the Digiworld and enslave all Digimon, he was healed by his loyal Digimon, Wormmon, and joined the good Digidestined. It was during that time that they learned that they could use special Digi-eggs to make their Digimon "Armor Digivolve". Then another evil Digimon attacked and they leaned how to DNA Digivolve. That was when two Digimon combined to form an Ultimate level Digimon.

Lately the Digidestined had been getting signals of strange things happening in the Digiworld. They had since split up but remained in contact. They all agreed to go back to the Digiworld to find out what was happening. He said that right now all of them should be here looking for answers.

The friends had been scattered all over the globe when they promised to come back and find out what was happening. Sora and Mimi were going to be studying at a college in America that year. Joe was already there attending Med. School, and Kari was going to be there for her senior year. Tai and Matt went to the same college near Tokyo. They had become best friends and were even roommates. Izzy was attending a college in another part of Japan that specialized in computers, and Yolei was going there also. Ken had been accepted into one of the most elite schools in the world. T.K., Davis, and Cody all went to the same high school. T.K. and Davis were both seniors and Cody was a sophomore. T.K. and Davis used to not get along, but now they were best friends.

This was all unfamiliar to Shannon but it made perfect sense. T.K. was really nice and she couldn't wait to meet all of the other Digidestined. She found it a strange coincidence that her foreign exchange sisters all happened to be Digidestined, but T.K. saw it as a sign.

Shannon was asking questions and T.K. was answering when they heard a small cry.

"What was that?" asked Pegasusmon as he continued to sail gracefully through the air.

"I don't know." said T.K., "But we'd better check it out just in case."

Just then Shannon spotted something off in the horizon. "What's that?" she asked pointing towards the object. Pegasusmon changed course and flew towards it.

When they got closer they saw what it was. A strange little green bird was being chased and fired at by a larger and much more scary Digimon.

"How terrible!" said Shannon. "We have to help it!"

"Come on, Pegasusmon!"

Pegasusmon swooped down on the bigger bird and hit it in the side. It roared in pain and turned to glare at its three attackers. Then it shot an attack at them. Pegasusmon ducked out of the way and flew up higher.

This was all very intense for Shannon who was holding onto Pegasusmon as tightly as possible.

Pegasusmon called on his Star Shower and hit the bigger digimon. The sound of shattering glass rung through the sky and the bigger Digimon fell from the sky into the ocean.

The little green bird looked injured and Pegasusmon flew over to it. The bird had a glazed look in its eyes. "Don't... lose... hope." It said before it lost consciousness and began to fall.

"Hang on everybody!" commanded Pegasusmon as he dove after the little bird. He was planning to intersect it as it fell and yelled "Shannon, listen to me, I need you to catch it!".

Shannon stood up on top of Pegasusmon, struggled to keep her balance, and caught the bird in her arms. It looked famished. Shannon's heart went out to the poor thing. It looked as though someone had been trying to kill it and the bigger Digimon was merely a pawn in finishing it off.

As soon as the bird landed in her arms, Shannon's digivice began to glow. She wobbled, "What's happening, T.K.?"

"Hmmmm." He said as he looked thoughtfully at her. "It seems as though you've found a new friend."

"You mean...?"

"Yep. I'm pretty sure that one's yours."


Chapter Two - Ice and Purple Fur

 Kabuterimon landed on a beach and released Katriena from his grasp. By now she had figured out that Izzy, Kabuterimon, and the strange blob wouldn't hurt her. She stretched out and waited until Izzy was down before she spoke.

"Can someone tell me what's going on he...."

Just then the "blob" pounced on her and she lost her balance. "Ahhh!" she screamed as she fell over along with the little purple thing.

Izzy crossed his arms across his chest. "Satimon, calm down! You don't want to scare her away, do you?"

The little purple fluffball slid off of Katriena and bowed its head in shame. "I'm sorry, Izzy, I just was so... I thought I'd never... I've waited so long..."

"I know. You're forgiven."

Katriena pointed at what Izzy had called Satimon and looked at him.

"That," said Izzy, "Is Satimon. Your Digimon."

"My Digimon?" she asked. "What does that mean?"

"I'll show you." He said. "Kabuterimon?"

With that, Kabuterimon began to shrink. Katriena just sat there dumbfounded as she watched him de-evolve.

When he was finished he became a little strange bug that resembled both a fly and a ladybug. He looked over at her and said, "Hi! I'm Tentomon. I evolve into Kabuterimon (which is how you saw me before). I am Izzy's Digimon."

"I don't get it." she said. "What exactly are Digimon and where am I?"

Izzy spoke up. "Digimon are little animals that live in the Digital World which is where we are right now. You have come here along with your friends to help me and some other people save this place."

"How did you know about my friends?" she asked.

"Easy." He said. "I found Satimon on the brink of death the other day. She had lost all memory of everything that had happened to her, but I found her in time to save her life. When she was better she only remembered one thing and that was that she had a Digidestined that would someday come to be her friend. She had been waiting for the one that would allow her to digivolve for her years. I figured it would be best if we had this new Digidestined here immediately to help us solve the mystery of the strange occurrences here lately."

"Wow." said Katriena. "How did you find me? And what about my friends?"

"Ken and I created a computer program about four or five years ago that would track Digidestined so we could get a hold of them before they did terrible things to themselves. I re-uploaded that program and started a search for you. I couldn't find you until not to long ago, but when I did, I saw you had two others with you!"

"Jessi, Shannon, and I are all Digidestined?"

"I guess so." He smiled. "I sent you your Digivices and then the email. Hopefully you all got here safely."

"Yeah." she said as it began to make a little sense.

"I hope you still have your Digivice with you. Do you?" he asked.

Katriena pulled a red digivice from her pocket. "You mean this?"

"Precisely."

It began to glow and Katriena winced and held it away from her.

"Don't be afraid of it, Katriena." said Tentomon.

Satimon looked at Izzy with tears in her eyes. "Izzy!" she said as they began to fall, "This can only mean..."

Izzy smiled and nodded. With that Satimon started to grow. When the light faded, she was totally different than before. She was much bigger, but still as furry. She had dark purple ears and the same big red eyes. She had a little tail like that of a rabbit and she looked overjoyed. She looked over at Izzy who smiled back at her.

Then she looked at Katriena who was still standing holding her digivice. She burst into tears of happiness and ran over to Katriena to hug her. "I've waited for this all my life!" she cried into Katriena's arms. "Thank you so much! I knew you would come to me sometime or another. I never stopped believing!"

"You two do your bonding thing and I'll email the others." said Izzy as he began to type away. Katriena held her new Digimon, Velvemon and just let it cry in her arms. She had no idea what was happening, but she was sure she had just made a few new friends.


Jessi sat in terrible guilt as she watched Davis hold his little Veemon like a baby. She stood up and approached him. "Look, Davis, I'm really sorry." She said. "I never meant for anyone to get hurt. Especially Veemon."

"Don't worry about it." said Davis. "He'll be better in no time. But just to give him time to rest we'd better go find a cave or someplace to hide."

They spotted a cave and went to go rest inside. Davis was right; it wasn't long before Veemon was his old, lovable self once again.

Jessi was fascinated at how Veemon could evolve into different things using different eggs and Davis explained to her how Digimon work. He also told her about the other Digidestined and how a few days ago things had started acting up in the Digiworld so all of the Digidestined had come to investigate.

Jessi found it hard to believe that she was one of the legendary Digidestined but Davis said the digivice was all the proof he needed to know that she was. When she told him about the email she and her friends had received there was no doubt in his mind. He wondered where the email had come from when he looked at his mini computer. He was receiving a lengthy email from Izzy.

"Hey guys, check it out!"

Hey everyone!
I just thought I'd like to inform you all about the new Digidestined I discovered. Hopefully all of them have been accounted for. Three girls have come to help us with our quest. So far one is with me and the other is with Davis. If you have seen the other, please tell me immediately. If we all could meet here at the beach by tomorrow we can have a meeting to discuss any new discoveries. Ken and I will continue to analyze the situation to see if we can find out what's going on and we can tell you what we discover tomorrow. Hope to see you then.

"Well," said Davis in an annoyed tone, "Looks like Izzy finally read my email."

"That's just like it!" said Jessi. "That's like the email I got on the computer!"

"So Izzy sent you guys that email." said Davis. "He'll sure have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow!"

"What are we going to do until then?" asked Jessi when she saw night was beginning to fall.

"I guess we could stay the night in this cave." said Veemon as he found a rock and used it as a pillow.

Jessi made a face and then announced that she was going to head further back in the cave and sleep in there.

Davis made no objections because he knew it would be best to have Veemon guarding the entrance.

Jessi walked and walked. It wasn't very dark in the cave and she had no problem walking around. She finally found a nice place to sleep so she sat down and leaned against the wall.

"It sure is dark." she thought as she shuddered. But then she saw something. It was a blue light coming from further down the hall. Jessi wondered what it could be so she stood up walked cautiously in that direction. She entered a small circular room that was filled with a strange blue light. She could feel a magical presence and it felt very soothing.

It looked as though the entire shrine was made of ice but it wasn't cold at all. Jessi touched the walls of the cave and it felt like glass. The blue light was bouncing off everything and radiating around the room. She looked for the source of the light and found a small blue round object that looked like it was made of diamonds with a blade coming out of it.

"How beautiful." she stared at it and marveled at its beauty. "It must be a meteor or something." she thought as she approached it. "Maybe I could stay the night in this strange room."

As she got closer she noticed something on the front of it. It was a dark blue symbol. It looked like a sun and a heart. "How odd." she thought as she looked at it. She couldn't resist. Something was drawing her to it. She HAD to pick it up and get a closer look.

She bent over and put her hands on it to pick it up. It seemed like it was really wrenched into the ground, but all it needed was a little tug. It popped right out and she got a closer look. "It almost looks like the Digieggs Davis mentioned."

All of the sudden a fountain started spraying into the air. "The egg must have been lodged in the way of the small fountain." she thought as she stepped away from the spray.

A small figure started forming in the mist. Jessi stared at it with fear but she couldn't tear herself away from it. The figure continued to grow and the water continued to flow. Then the figure jumped out of the fountain towards Jessi.

Jessi screamed and jumped back. It was a strange little creature that looked a lot like Veemon. In fact, it WAS a Veemon. It was yellow and it had dark blue eyes. It looked at her and smiled.

"I've been waiting a long time to meet you, Jessi."

Jessi stared at it, "Are you a... Veemon?"

It started wandering around the room examining the surroundings. "I'm a female form of Veemon. My official name is Veemon but sometimes people call me Feemon so as not to get the two mixed up."

Jessi couldn't believe what was happening.

"You released me by pulling the Double Digiegg of Courage and Love! Now you and I get to be together forever!" It started dancing around her saying "Yay, yay, now I can be free-e!"

The Jessi heard something outside the room. She clamored over to the fountain and tried putting the egg back in but it was too late, Davis and Veemon emerged into the room.

"What happened, Jessi? We heard you scream!"

Jessi turned around and tried to look innocent. "I didn't do it, I swear!"

Davis saw the strange ice room with a fountain in the center and a strange yellow Digimon dancing around.

"What is that, Veemon?"

Veemon looked at it and began to analyze, but stumbled back with a surprised look on his face.

"What is it, Veemon? What is that thing?"

Veemon's mouth quivered. "It's a female Veemon."

"No way!" said Davis as he looked at Jessi. "What happened?"

Jessi was caught. "I found a really pretty ice egg and when I picked it up the fountain sprouted up and that thing came out at me. It knew my name and it said I had released it."

Davis slapped his forehead. "I don't believe it!"

The water died down and the female Veemon saw Davis and his Veemon. "Wow!" she said as she bounded over to them. "It's another Digidestined and another Veemon! Just like us, Jessi."

"Wait a minute!" said Jessi in a panic. "What do you mean us???"


That night Katriena lay out on the beach. It felt nice, the sea breeze in her hair, the fur of a strange animal in her nose. Velvemon had taken an immediate liking to her. Katriena liked it, though. She was a loud, outrageous, silly, rambunctious little critter and it reminded her of herself. She was just drifting off to sleep when she heard the flapping of wings and someone yelling to Izzy. She looked up into the sky to see a giant firebird with a girl sitting on its foot.

"Izzy! I thought I'd come here early for our little rendezvous."

"Hey, Sora!" said Izzy as he greeted her, "It's been a long time."

Katriena left her little creature to sleep and walked over to meet the girl. Izzy spotted her and started to introduce them but he was interrupted by Sora.

"Katriena? Is this the same Katriena I met the other day?"

"It is!" said Katriena as she gave Sora a hug. "I guess it's a small world."

Izzy looked confused and Sora explained, "Katriena is one of my American foreign exchange sisters! She's going to be staying in Japan the next year with Mimi's parents."

"Oh." said Izzy. "That's amazing."

Katriena saw the big bird shrink into a small pink one and start talking with Tentomon. She figured it was Sora's Digimon and wondered what its name was.

"Anyway, Sora," said Izzy. "I was surprised Tai wasn't with you when you arrived."

Sora blushed and scratched her head.

"Is this the same Tai that's Kari's sister?" asked Katriena.

"Yeah." said Sora in a sigh.

"Is Kari a Digidestined too?" asked Katriena again.

"And so is Mimi."

"Wow. Who woulda thought?"

"I came to the Digiworld as soon as I arrived in America." said Sora. "You know Tai couldn't have been with me! He's attending college in Japan!"

Izzy's face narrowed and he shot a teasing glance at her, "I'll bet as soon as you got here you started looking for him, am I right?"

Sora's face changed bright red and she smiled, "What would make you think that?"

Katriena smacked Izzy on the side of the head. "Leave her alone. Can't you tell the poor girl's helplessly in love?"

They all laughed and then Izzy got serious. "Sora, tell me, did Tai 'pop the question' before you left for America?"

Sora's face grew sad, "No, I don't think he's ready yet. Plus the fact that we'll be separated for a year doesn't help the matter." Then she got a suspicious look on her face, "Why, do you know anything, Izzy?"

It was Izzy's turn to blush as he stepped back and waved his arms in defense, "Ov... of course not, Sora! Whe... where would you get an idea like that."

The girls laughed and then they talked some more before calling it a night.


T.K. and Shannon were looking for a good place to spend the night when they saw a giant cactus with orange hair towering over a distant forest.

"Hey look!" said T.K. as he pointed it out to Pegasusmon. "Let's go hang out with Mimi!"

"That giant cactus is Mimi's?" asked Shannon. "It's so cute!"

"Girls." sighed T.K. as they lowered down into the forest.

When they landed Pegasusmon de-evolved and turned into an adorable little pig thing with wings for ears. Shannon cooed at it and T.K. said it was Patamon. She ran over and gave it a hug. "Thanks for helping me today!" she said.

Patamon smiled. He had decided he liked Shannon from the minute they saw her. He looked over at T.K., who had found Mimi and was talking to her, "T.K.? I'm going to sleep with Shannon tonight!"

T.K. rolled his eyes and continued talking. Patamon looked at Shannon and softened his voice. "I think he's jealous 'cause he didn't get a hug too."

Shannon felt her face flush and she went to go check on the little bird. She had laid it in a soft bush and had covered it with some leaves to keep it warm. There was something about that bird that gave her a special feeling she couldn't quite explain. It was a feeling of unusual remembrance. Like she had seen it before in another life or something. She decided to stop thinking about such things before she blew a circuit.

She left it to go over and talk with Mimi and T.K. Patamon flew onto her shoulder for a ride. As she approached them she saw T.K. blush and instantly start typing away on his computer. Mimi rolled her eyes.

"You're still the little kid I remember! I can't believe you didn't think to tell anyone of us about Shannon the minute you found her! You didn't even check your email!? Izzy's been thinking she's out there all alone!"

T.K. looked ashamedly embarrassed as he blurted out excuses. Shannon had stopped approaching them to watch in amusement. It was funny. She had been with T.K. for a large portion of the day and this was a side of him she hadn't seen. He was vulnerable, silly, and almost cute to watch.

"What am I thinking!?" she asked herself as she shook her head to rid it of her thoughts. "I had better not be going there! I'm in the Digital World to help solve problems, not sit here staring at T.K. just because he's nice and cute and..."

Patamon looked over at Shannon. She had stopped walking and then shook her head. "I wonder... ." he thought as he looked up at T.K. who looked unusually embarrassed. Then Patamon smiled a big smile. "Humans. I'll never understand them."

T.K. was typing as fast as possible. He hoped Shannon had not seen or heard Mimi make such a fool out of him. She was a nice girl and he liked her. She was nice, conservative, caring, pretty... .

"What am I thinking?" he shook his head and continued to type. "Why am I making such a big deal out of this, anyway? And why am I still blushing?"


Jessi and Davis had both moved to the front hallway of the cave to analyze the situation with the new Veemon.

She smiled and skipped behind them as they walked. Jessi found the commitment to a Digimon a little more than she was ready for. Especially with this one who had been giddy since the moment she was released.

Feemon stopped skipping and ran up to Veemon to link arms with him. "I can't believe it!" she said, "Another Veemon! Isn't this the coolest?"

Veemon blushed and seemed to shrink in place. Davis laughed and winked at him, which made Veemon attack Davis to defend his honor. Both Jessi and Feemon watched in amusement as the two boys playfully dueled it out on the rocky floor.

Feemon looked at Jessi, "Was it something I said?"

Jessi smiled and suggested she didn't get too friendly with Veemon too fast.

Just then a flash of lightning lit outside the cave and they saw two big scary eyes looming in at them. Jessi stepped back and almost tripped on the boys who were sitting on the floor, covered in dirt and gasping for air.

Feemon stepped forward and rubbed her hands together, "Don't worry, guys, I can take it."

"She's so brave!" thought Jessi as she quivered. "It might not be bad having her around!"

With that a little white cat jumped in and landed on top of her, pinning her to the ground. Feemon started squirming with her eyes closed shouting "Help me, help me!!! I can't get it off!"

Jessi, Davis and Veemon all started to chuckle and she opened her eyes to see a little cat staring at her. She instantly got defensive when she realized they were laughing at her and she shoved the cat off and began to pout. "Well, it's heavier than it looks."

They were all laughing out loud now and Davis mentioned to Jessi that a Veemon's biggest asset is its pride.

Then Veemon got defensive and challenged Davis to another rumble. Davis just laughed harder and said, "See what I mean??"

By now Jessi was practically in tears, she was laughing so hard. The cat was laughing too. They all died down to wipe their eyes and catch their breath when a girl walked in. It was Kari! She was soaked, too! Her hair was tangled and all messed up and she looked like a drowned cat.

Davis stood up and welcomed her to their humble hideout. She squeezed the water out of her hair and then realized that Jessi was there.

"Jessi?" she asked as she approached the girl. "No way!"

"Way." said Jessi as she took one look at Kari and stepped back. "Let's save the greeting hugs for when you're dry."

Davis looked from one to another and then asked for an explanation. Kari explained how the girls had switched places and how Jessi would be attending school with Davis this year.

Davis still seemed in the dark but he didn't ask any more questions. Kari then explained how she and Gatomon thought they'd hide in this cave for the night to stay out of the rain.

Jessi took one look at Gatomon and introduced herself. "Those are some nice gloves you have there." she said in a playful tone.

"Hey, It's not like I get to choose my wardrobe." said Gatomon with a smile. "I'm stuck wearing the same coat all year round!"

Jessi turned to her Veemon. "I believe you two have already met."

Feemon grumbled a hello and still sat there pouting with her arms crossed.

Davis debriefed Kari on how they had come across Feemon and Jessi showed her the egg.

"Hmm, a Double Digiegg." said Kari. "It looks like a mix between Love and Courage."

"Well," said Jessi with a big yawn. "Can we save figuring that out for tomorrow? I'm really tired and I'd like to go to sleep so I can go back to Japan tomorrow."

They all scattered out in the small hallway and got as comfortable as they could before they fell asleep.


Katriena woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. "What am I supposed to do?" she wondered. "It's not like the Digital World has Port-A-Potties."

She decided to find a nice (and well-hidden) bush. She found a circle of bushes and moved into the center to do her business. Just as she was finished relieving herself, she heard something. She ducked so she wouldn't be seen.

Someone was coming. It was a giant wolf! She held her breath so it wouldn't notice her. It looked like it was very hungry.

Then the wolf caught a scent of something in the air. It crouched and growled in a low tone. Katriena shrunk in her place.

With one swipe of the wolf's giant paw the bush she was hiding behind was gone. She looked at the wolf and fell to her knees.

"PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!" then she put her head in her hands and began to sob.

She heard a laugh as someone stood up on the wolf's back. "Don't worry. Garurumon doesn't eat humans as far as I know of."

Katriena stood up. "Who's there?"

The boy jumped off of the wolf and she could see his silhouette in the moonlight. His hair had that messy-stylish look and he was tall. He was probably older than she was. "My name's Matt." He said. "I'm assuming you're one of the new Digidestined. But what are you doing out all alone in the dark?"

Katriena could feel her face turn red and felt lucky it was so dark. "Oh, just goin' for a stroll."

"Yeah." said Matt, "I used to wander off a lot also. So tell me, are we close to the camp out?"

"Uh, it's right over that way." said Katriena. "You can follow me."

She led the boy and the now smaller Digimon back to the beach. The fire Sora had started was still burning so she and Matt gathered around it. Now they could each see each other. She could see the Digimon too; it was like a yellow dog with a blue striped fur coat and a horn on its head. It was really weird looking, but it was cute in its own sort of way.

The Digimon introduced itself as Gabumon. He was very polite. Matt asked Katriena questions of how she had gotten there and they talked all about the Digital World and its inhabitants long into the night.


Shannon stirred in her sleep. She was having trouble sleeping that night. She kept having dreams about monster computers eating her, monster Digimon eating her, or monster Digimon eating her strange little bird. All in all, she figured she must be hungry.

She rolled over and saw someone walking around. It was someone with really big hair and a lizard walking on two feet. They were tiptoeing so they wouldn't wake anyone up and one was "Shhhh-ing" the other.

She found it amusing to watch them. They tip toed all the way across the clearing they were in, tripping on things; one of them even sneezed once. At one point the boy stopped moving and the lizard ran into him and they both landed in a twisted pile on the ground.

"Why'd you stop, Tai?" one loudly whispered. "And will you take your foot out of my eye?"

"I almost stepped on Mimi." Replied the other. "And my arm is twisted in a way not logical to the human anatomy."

"OW!" the lizard almost yelled.

"What?" asked the boy's voice, "What is it?"

"I rolled on something!" said the lizard's voice in pain. "Togemon's shedding again."

Shannon called out to them, "You know, if you're that loud, you're bound to wake someone up."

They both untangled themselves and walked over to her. The boy scratched his head, "Sorry if we woke you. Are you one of the new Digidestined?"

"I'm Shannon." she said as she sat up.

"I'm Tai and this is Agumon." said the boy. "We were just looking for a place to stay the night, and..."

Agumon interrupted, "Tai was looking for Sora. He thought she might be here with you guys, but I guess she isn't. Have you seen her?"

"Not since yesterday." said Shannon. "But we'll all be together tomorrow, why don't you just rest here for the night?"

"Yeah." said Agumon. "My feet are tired and I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry!" said Tai. "Okay, we'll stay the night here, but don't be surprised if we leave early in the morning!"


Chapter Three - The Silent Vow

 Kari was the first to wake up. She had slept well, but she was always an early riser. She quickly realized she wasn't the only one awake.

"Joe! When did you get here?" No reply, "Joe?" "SHHH!" he said. "You'll wake the others! They both have a long day ahead of them, especially Jessi."

"But how did you know Je... wait, I'm not even going to ask."

Gatomon walked over to Kari and rubbed her eyes. "What smells?"

Joe frowned. "Okay, so I'm not a gourmet chef. I'm just cooking some fish Gomamon caught this morning."

"I never said you needed to be..." started Kari.

"Okay I admit it!" interrupted Joe. "I've been living on McDonalds and Pizza Hut for the last few months! So sue me! I don't have time to cook or even worry about my hygiene. I have to study! This Med. School stuff is hard work!"

Kari just stared at him. "Joe, are sure you got enough sleep last night? Why don't I finish breakfast and you can take a nap."

"I'm fine." said Joe. "Why? Do I appear incoherent?"

"Just do as she says." said Gatomon. "Then you can take a shower. Phewie!"

Gomamon snickered and Gatomon turned to him. "How long has he been like this?"

Gomamon shook his head in sorrow, "A looong time. And I have to live with him."

"What do you want us to do?" asked Kari. "Take a moment of silence? Here, you can help me with breakfast."

Inside the cave Jessi heard someone walking around. "Can't I sleep for a little longer?" she asked herself as she opened her eyes just in time to see someone step on her Veemon's foot.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" her Veemon sprung awake and started wailing. "My foot, my foot, I'll never be able to walk again! Jessi, you must go on without me! Go save the Digital World and triumph over evil and *cough* avenge my death!"

By now Gatomon and Gomamon were staring in amusement and the person who had stepped on Feemon was deaf.

"Oh, brother!" said Jessi as she grabbed her Veemon and started examining her foot. "Must you always be so melodramatic?"

Joe kneeled down and apologized. "I'm extremely sorry. Here, let me look at it."

"I don't think so!" said Feemon. "You're probably a murder disguised as a kid. Murderermon, Murderermon!"

Jessi, who has very little patience, was starting to get veeeery annoyed. "ALL RIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH!!!"

Everyone shut up except for Davis who was still down the hall snoring away like a bullhorn. Veemon had entered that part of the cave sometime during the eruption.

"Just let the man examine your foot so we can all go back to sleep!" said Jessi. Feemon began to pout and let Joe examine her foot.

Kari walked in, "Would you guys be quiet? It sounds like forty different radios all on different channels!"

Jessi crossed her arms across her chest, "Feemon's over-reacting and this guy is helping her feel better."

"Well, that's good." said Kari. "Joe should take care of you in no time, Feemon. He's a doctor."

Joe blushed. "Well, not yet. I'm still in school. I'm just an in-training doctor."

"That's some achievement." said Jessi.

Feemon looked uncomfortable but let Joe continue.

"Breakfast is ready." said Kari. "So whenever anyone's..."

Veemon raced up to her and held her leg. "Kari, I love you! You know what a Digimon needs! Davis never feeds me. Okay, he never feeds me enough, but you understand, don't you Kari?"

Everyone just laughed and was glad Davis hadn't been awake to hear that.


Shannon woke up the next morning and checked on her bird. It had slept the whole night and looked like it hadn't stirred at all. T.K. said they could have Joe look at it when they all got to Izzy's campsite.

She stood up and looked around. Patamon was lying next to T.K. who was awake and leaning against a tree. Mimi was looking in a portable mirror and doing her hair. But wait! What was that? Tai was still there and he was lying smack dab in the middle of the clearing. He was lying flat on his back with his arms and legs spread in every direction and he was snoring quietly. Agumon was lying on his stomach and there was a little bubble coming out of his nose.

"So much for leaving early." she thought as she walked over to T.K. "When are we going to leave for the beach? I'd really like to get there and meet up with everyone and my sister."

T.K. looked over at Mimi and said in an annoyed tone, "Mimi? Are you finished yet? You've been doing that for over an hour."

"I can't leave without putting on my make-up!" she said as if she expected him to know that.

Palmon put her hands on her hips and addressed him also, "Geez, T.K. give the girl a few minutes, will you?"

"Fine!" he said. "In the meantime I'll attempt to wake up our fearless leader."

T.K. stood up and walked over to Tai. He shook Tai gently and said "Hey, Tai, wake up, bro. We're gonna leave for the beach."

Neither Tai nor Agumon responded. "I was afraid of this." He said as he bent over and cupped his hands over his mouth next to Tai's ear. "HAY, TAI!!! LET'S GO!!"

Both Tai and Agumon flew up and tackled T.K. He fell to the ground as he was pinned by the both of them.

Tai blinked his eyes a couple of times and said, "Where am I?"

Agumon looked at Tai, "We're in the Digiworld again, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" he said. "What woke us up?"

A muffled "I did." came out from under them. They looked down to reveal poor T.K., smashed into the ground and beat up. He even had a slightly black eye.

Mimi had stopped doing her make up and was doing her best to suppress laughing out loud. Shannon was watching with wide eyes. She didn't know what to think.

They both scrambled off of him and helped him up.

"I'm so sorry, T.K.!"

"Where does it hurt?"

"What can I do for you?"

"Are you O.K."

"Man, I am so sorry."

"It's okay." said T.K. as he wobbled to get his balance. "I shouldn't have woken you guys up. Or I should have used a bullhorn from at least twenty feet away."

Everyone laughed when they saw he was back to normal and Patamon flew over to him. "Gee, T.K. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." He said. "Come on. Let's go to the beach."

"But wait!" said Shannon as she ran back over to the bird. "What am I supposed to do about her?"

"Hmmm." said T.K., "We can ride on Pegasusmon. Come on, let's go!"


Jessi, Kari and Joe were all ready to go and Davis was still half-asleep. "Come on, Davis." whined Kari, "I want to go!"

Davis scratched his back and messed his hair back into place, "How am I supposed to last without my morning coffee?"

"Hey." said Jessi as she put her hands on her hips, "I did it, and you can too. Come on, big boy, let's get moving."

Davis glared at them and put his goggles back on his head. "All right, I'm ready."

"Oh, and Davis?" said Jessi.

"Yeah?"

"Try sleeping on your side tomorrow. It's hard for me to sleep when it sounds like I'm sleeping next to a dying hippo."


When Pegasusmon landed on the beach, Matt walked over to greet his brother and saw T.K. had a black eye. Being the over-protective brother he is, he demanded to know who had done that to him. Tai and Agumon looked sheepish and snuck out onto the beach.

"Aw, it's nothing, Matt." said T.K. as he hopped down off of Pegasusmon and helped Shannon down. "It was just a kid at school. But don't worry, he was expelled."

"He better have been." said Matt as he cracked his knuckles. "I didn't want to have to come back to Tokyo to knock some kid's lights out!"

Davis, Kari, Jessi, and Joe arrived shortly after and everyone was introduced.

"Wait a minute!" said Joe as he quickly produced a head count. "We're missing three."

Just as he said that a girl and two boys burst out of the forest and stumbled into the sand. Three very weak in-training Digimon were with them.

"Oh no!" said Sora as she ran over to them. "Ken, Cody, and Yolei! They all look terrible!"

Joe ran over to check pulses and confirmed they were all right. Everyone got some water to splash on their faces and they were all revived. Their clothes looked as though they had been ripped and burned. They all looked terrible, with small cuts and bruises. The Digimon all looked like they had no strength left.

"What happened?" asked Kari as she helped Yolei sit upright and fed her some rice cakes that she had in her little bag.

Ken was the first to speak. He was clutching his little green Digimon tightly like he would never let it go again and frowned as he spoke.

"We barely got away. We had all found each other when we arrived in the Digital World and we were strolling along when we were abducted by a group of evil Digimon."

Cody continued, "They didn't have dark gears, or dark rings or anything that we could see of, so we didn't know what to do. They took us to their leader who introduced himself as Delusimon. He said they were a force of Digimon who were setting out to destroy us to take control of the Digiworld!"

"Destroy the Digidestined?" asked Izzy. "We've never wronged anybody! We're the heroes here."

"That's not all." said Yolei. "They tore us to pieces! They tried to kill our Digimon and us. They offered for our Digimon to join them, but they were too loyal for their own good. It turned into an all out battle and we were lucky to get away without a single life being spared. Our digievolutions didn't seem very strong against these enemies and we had lost before we had even started."

"That's terrible!" said Katriena. "We can't have people treating the Digidestined like that!"

Shannon's bird stirred in her arms. Shannon gasped and everyone looked as it awoke. It slowly opened its eyes and then gasped in fright.

"It's okay." said Shannon as she attempted to calm it. "We aren't going to hurt you!"

It let out a long sigh and then drew a deep pained breath. "Are... are you the ones who saved me back there?"

"Yes." said T.K., "That was us."

She slowly closed her eyes and then opened them again. "Are you the Digidestined?"

"That's us." said Davis.

She looked up to the sky and said, "You must be the compassionate Digidestined that would come for me someday."

Shannon looked confused as she cradled the bird like a baby. "Who, me?"

"You hold the power that allowed me to digivolve and escape the Dark Fortress."

"Wait a minute." said Tai to Shannon. "You were at the Dark Fortress?"

"No!" said Shannon. "I don't even know what that is!"

"Come to think of it..." said Tai, "Neither do I."

"They had me captive there. That's their hideout. I... was not alone." The bird continued. She was having trouble remembering. The blows she had taken on her escape must have harmed her memory.

"There was a loud disruption and a green light filled the room and I digivolved. I don't know why or how, but I figured my... Digidestined had come into this world. I was able to fly out of there but one of them was chasing me. They shot at me but my wings were new and I was having trouble maneuvering. I was saved by someone and that's the last thing I remember."

Izzy looked thoughtful. "When I found Satimon, I presumed she was dead. It appeared as though she had been chased and attacked too."

"Do you remember, Velvemon?" asked Katriena as she kneeled to look at her Digimon.

"No." she said. "All I remember is Izzy. He saved my life and then I found my Digidestined and was able to digivolve." she hugged Katriena and Katriena looked up at Izzy who was putting pieces together.

Ken looked thoughtful. "Suppose these two Digimon were together in the Fortress. Why wasn't the purple one able to Digivolve?"

"It's easy." said Yolei. "Digimon need power to Digivolve. It sounds as though the little purple one was beat up and abused before the arrival of the new Digidestined. Therefore, she wouldn't have any power. The bird, on the other hand, was just being held prisoner. They hadn't actually touched it so it had all of its power. When the new Digidestined arrived, it used its power to Digivolve and escape."

"Well done." said Izzy with a smile as he patted Yolei on the back. "I'm making a logical thinker of you!"

"What is your name?" Shannon asked the bird as it was slowly regaining strength.

"Plumon." It said. "What is yours?"

"Shannon." she said as the bird took a good look at her.

"Yep." it said. "You're everything I expected you to be."


"Things are making sense." said Izzy later that day when everyone was back to normal. Ken, Cody, and Yolei were all fine and Plumon seemed okay too. "Some 'Evil Digiforce' wants to control the Digiworld so they're trying to kill us off. They found out about Plumon and Velvemon and tried to have them eliminated. Tentomon, what can you tell me about this Delusimon character?"

Tentomon shook his head. "For once, Izzy, I am at a loss. I have never heard of him before. It must be a new species"

"New species." Izzy repeated.

Tai walked up to Izzy, "What's up, Izzy? Any ideas of what to do about this?"

"I'm sorry, Tai, I haven't a clue." said Izzy. "We can't just bombard in there and vaporize them all."

"Why?"

"Well, for one, we don't know where the place is."

"Good point."

"We also need to exactly what it is they want, and if we did try to fight them, it sounds as though our Digimon are useless!"

"Hmmm." Tai pondered as he began to think. "I guess whatever we're going to do we can start out by getting on the move. If these people are after us, we're just sitting ducks here."

"I vote with Tai!" said Tentomon.

"Okay." said Izzy. "We can extend further into this island and see if any Digimon have any information for us about this Evil Digiforce and what they want with our Digimon and us."

Everyone started to head out. They had decided to look for friendly Digimon with information on the uprising Digiforce.

They hadn't gone far when they found a Blossommon bathing in the sun. They asked it if it had heard anything.

"All I know is that the Digiforce says they want to take over the Digiworld and they need control over the Digidestined to do it. I don't know how they plan on doing that, but it sounds dangerous to me. I'm just going to remain neutral here so I don't get hurt."

They thanked him for his help and continued on. They met many more Digimon but none of them had any new information.

It wasn't long before night began to set again. Jessi started to whine, "You guys, I really don't want to stay the night here again. Can't we go back to the real world now? Your parents are probably worried to death, Tai and Kari. They probably have no idea where I am."

"But Jessi," said Kari, "Time here passes while time there stands still. They won't even know you're gone."

"But..."

"Come on, Jessi." said Davis in a mocking tone. "Be a big girl."

Jessi glared at him, "Ooh, you'd better watch it. Besides, who can blame me? I had trouble sleeping last night, no thanks to certain people."

"So it starts...," said Veemon as they continued.

Davis retaliated, "I don't think you know who you're messing with, girlie. I'm the last person you'd want to pick a fight with."

"So now it's become a gender war, has it?" asked Jessi as she raised one eyebrow. Feemon simply covered her ears and kept walking. "Well anything you can do, I could do better by far."

"That sounds like a challenge." said Davis with a mischievous smile.

"WILL YOU TWO STOP IT?" yelled Kari. "You two were going at it the entire morning! The walk to the campsite was a nightmare for all us sane people. Can't you give the rest of us a break?"

"Jessi has a point." said Matt. "I'd like to go back to the real world tonight."

"Okay," said Tai. "Let's go back tonight. But first let's explore for just a little while longer."

Jessi frowned, but they continued. As they walked along she saw one of Davis's shoes had come untied. A small grin formed across her face as she quickened her pace to catch up to him. She was walking behind him and managed to "accidentally" step on his shoelace and cause him to trip and run into Cody who fell and took Yolei and Matt down with him.

Everyone stopped to look back at him, "Davis! Stop messing around! How are we supposed to get anything finished or find the Dark Fortress if you're playing?"

Davis looked too ashamed to speak, but he turned around to glare at Jessi. She grinned evilly at him and then walked by him towards the front of their little formation.

They decided to stop and rest at a small lake. Most of the Digimon jumped in for a swim.

"Come on in, T.K.!" yelled Patamon as he glided through the water using his ears. "The water's great!"

"Yeah, Mimi!" said Palmon as she splashed her hands up and down.

"Sorry, but I left my bathing suit in the real world." said Mimi.

"So?" said Palmon. "Why can't you just swim in your underwear?"

Mimi blushed and quickly explained that she just couldn't.

None of the humans were swimming, but some had taken off their shoes and were wading. Katriena was trying to coax Velvemon into the water. "Come on, Velvemon!"

Velvemon sat on the shore next to Gatomon and shook her head. "Water isn't my thing."

Gatomon agreed with Velvemon and said she was having enough fun just sitting there.

Kari and Katriena looked at each other, grinned and then started teasing their Digimon about being afraid.

Gatomon and Velvemon just sat there and pretended not to hear anything.

"Darn." said Kari. "I was hoping we could trick them into coming in."

"Stubborn Digimon." mumbled Katriena. "We'll get them in next time."

Jessi was looking for pretty rocks on the shallow bottom of the lake. "Look at this one, Feemon. Isn't it pretty? It almost looks like a rose quartz!"

"It doesn't look like a flower to me." said Feemon as she took the rock from Jessi and began to examine it.

"No, no." said Jessi. "A rose quartz is a type of stone. A very pretty one too."

Jessi began to explain more types of rocks as Davis crept up behind her. Shannon saw him and wondered what he was doing. T.K. was next to her and he looked over too.

"What is with those two?" she asked. "I wish they'd give each other a break!"

"It's funny." He said. "They are so much alike! I've never seen anything like it. From their hair color to their stubborn personalities, I could take them for brother and sister."

"Hey!" said Shannon. "Is that some kind of indirect way of teasing me?"

"Huh?" said T.K. "Of course not."

"It had better not be!" she said as she splashed him and then ran off.

Davis and Veemon were now right behind Jessi and her Veemon. Jessi had her pants rolled up and she was in about knee-deep water. She was completely unaware of the fact that Davis was behind her.

All of the sudden he tackled her and they both fell into the water. Jessi screamed and Veemon dunked Feemon. Jessi sat up and glared at Davis. He was laughing evilly but stopped long enough to say, "Got you. Now we're even."

Feemon quickly recovered and tackled Veemon for a fight.

Jessi glared at him, "Ooh! You are the lowest! I'll get you back, you just wait!" she stood up and turned so fast she flicked the water from her hair onto him. She grabbed her Feemon off of Veemon by the tail and started dragging her away.

"Let me at him!" Feemon was saying, "Let me at him!"

Sora and Matt shook their heads. "That's rivalry if I've ever seen it."

Then Cody called them all up to the top of a hill. They all started walking towards him.

Over the hill and hidden by a large amount of trees was a strange building. "Weird." said T.K., "I've never seen that before.

"Let's go explore!" said Shannon as they all took off towards the building.

When they approached it, they got a closer look. It looked like an old temple. It was made of a type of limestone and there were ruined carvings on the outside. They were indistinguishable but they had to be of some importance.

"Let's go inside." said Gabumon as he started walking in. Everyone followed him.

The inside was amazing. The room was an ivory color and there were carvings on the walls. They appeared to be Digimon. The Digidestined marveled at the artwork and Ken found an inscription at the end of the room on a wall. It was written in a strange code.

"No problem, guys." he said as he whipped out his mini computer. "I'll have this message cracked in a jiffy."

He started typing away as everyone else continued to stare in awe at the magnificent pictures. One picture especially interested Sora. It looked like a comic book bad guy. It was almost as if the picture was looking directly at her. She shivered. That little carving of that person freaked her out!

"Hey guys." said Velvemon. "Look at this!" In the center of the floor there was a sun carved out. It had nineteen rays of light on it and all but one pointed to a different Digimon carving on the wall. The other one pointed to the inscription on the wall.

"That's amazing!" said Izzy. "I wonder what it means. Are you finished yet, Ken?"

"Yep," he said. "You'd all better hear this." Then he began to read.

"As the final battle approaches, three from another world will join our Digidestined. The Legendary Sacred Digimon of the Digimentals will test the strength of the Digidestined. When all are obtained, the true war will begin. The combat will be fierce, but in the end..."

"What?" asked Sora. "What happens in the end."

"That's all there is." said Ken. "The rest was never written."

"How odd." said Katriena as she examined the writing on the wall. "It just stops, with no more."

"Obviously the final battle must be approaching." thought Yolei out loud. "The three from another world have arrived to join us: Jessi, Shannon, and Katriena. All from America where as the rest of us are from Japan."

"Hence the name 'another world'." mused Izzy.

"But what are the Digimon of the Digimentals and what must we obtain?" asked Yolei.

"I don't care about that!" said Joe. "Did you hear the end?"

"No." said Tai. "There is no end."

"That's precisely my point!" freaked Joe. "There is no end. What if this 'Final Battle' is fated to be the end of the Digidestined?"

All of them shuddered. Joe was right, a battle with the name inscribed as "The Final Battle" had to be none other than just that. This could be the end of them, as they knew it. They were living and fulfilling an ancient digital prophesy with a grim ending: one that wasn't foretold. They all had lives to live, people to be with, and futures to make. They didn't want it all to end. Not here, and not now.

Tai was the first to speak. "This may be the end of us, but it could as easily not be. No matter what, we're going to have to keep pressing forward. We may be in danger, but the Digital World is counting on us. We're the chosen ones and we have to defend it. If it means the end, so be it. We need to fight this as a team, every single one of us."

He put his hand out and one by one everyone set there's on top. It was then and there that they silently promised to stick it out through thick and thin. They were a team and nothing; nothing in both Digital and the real world could break that up.


Chapter Four - Reflections and Hang Time

 That night Tai stretched in his bed. After they had found the inscription in the Temple and agreed to fight it out to the end, they had all come back to the real world. The new girls were given strict instructions on how to handle Digimon in the real world and he knew they'd be fine.

He had been up for over an hour just thinking. Thinking about what might happen the next time they went to the Digital World, thinking about how things had changed since the first time he was a Digidestined. He had been so stubborn! He would never let anyone help him and he always felt it was his duty to protect everyone. Maybe it was his leadership skills, or maybe it was the goggles. He never knew.

He was also thinking about Sora. They had been through so much together and last year she had gone to the same college as him and Matt. When she announced she was going to America for the next year, he was heart broken. He figured it must have been because he hadn't paid much attention to her lately. Sure, he loved her with all his heart and they were "going out", but that wasn't enough. He was scared of commitment. He wasn't ready. This is a big step and he couldn't just go jumping into it like everything else. He wanted more than anything to be able to just do it, but he couldn't. Maybe he was waiting for the right moment? He had the ring bought and everything. He was physically ready, but as for emotionally...

He figured her leaving for America was a result of him partially ignoring her. He had been devoted to his schoolwork and he hadn't thought much about her needs. He had been killing himself ever since she left. He had tried to make things right, but he just couldn't. It seemed as though things were falling apart between them. He could only hope she'd wait for him.


Matt looked over at Tai. Their dorm room was small, but cozy. The two twin beds were very noisy and for the last hour or so Tai had been rolling over and over like he couldn't sleep. Matt couldn't blame him, he had a lot to think about also.

Matt enjoyed college. He was learning to be a reporter like his father and he loved it. It was just the job for him. He hadn't given up on his musical talents and he played in a band in his college. They were pretty popular among the student body and Matt had grown to like it.

He was still the boy he remembered, though. He was hardheaded and he had trouble showing emotions. He and Tai were now best friends, but he still envied Tai. Tai had it all. He was smart and succeeding in school, he was the star of their college soccer team, he had a blossoming relationship with a very special girl, and he always kept his cool. Especially today, when he gave his speech in the temple, everyone was moved to silence. He always knew exactly what to say and how to say it. Matt had always been jealous of him when he assumed position as their leader, but Tai deserved it.

Matt sighed. "I have to stop feeling sorry for myself. Things will get better for me. They can't get any worse."


Sora looked around Jessi's room. Everything was purple. There was a desk with a lot of various art supplies, a giant window with a window seat, a massive bookshelf, and an even bigger collection of stuffed animals. She smiled. Jessi was just a kid.

Jessi's turtle and goldfish had moved in with her little sisters with strict instructions on how to care for them. Jessi's little sisters weren't the devil children she had made them out to be. They were actually really friendly and Sora was sure they'd get along.

It was weird for Sora to imagine living with Kari for a year. She loved Kari like her own sister, but sometimes things were awkward between the two of them. It was probably because of her relationship with Tai. She and Tai had been pulling apart lately and that was the last thing she wanted. She loved Tai and she knew it must be because of his schoolwork. Tai wasn't always the brightest or most caring person, but she could understand him and she knew all he needed was a little time. She figured her trip to America would play a big part in mending their relationship. Unfortunately, with this new problem in the Digiworld his mind would advert to even more things and Sora might be pushed back even further. She hoped that wasn't the case.


Kari set her suitcase down in Shannon's room. It was beautiful. The bedspread, wallpaper, and blind coverings were all orange and green. It was very tasteful. Shannon's pet bird had moved into the kitchen where it could be around people all the time. Kari was thankful for that because she was afraid of how Gatomon would react to it.

She sat down on the bed and thought back to what her brother had said in the Digiworld. She was afraid of what might become of all of the Digidestined, but she knew what she had to do. This year was going to be stressful, school started in a week, and she would be risking her life everyday in the Digital World. She would have to make new friends and write to her old ones. She missed them already!

At least she could still see most of them in the Digital World. T.K. and Davis had become her best friends. Davis had liked Kari a lot when they were younger, but she had never returned his feelings. It was for the best. They were better friends than they could ever be lovers and she was glad a relationship hadn't ruined that. As for T.K., she and T.K. had never gotten too close. They just wanted to be friends. Last year he had taken her to their Junior Prom as a friend and they had lots of fun, but nothing more developed. She doubted anything would, either.

Other guys had shown intrest in her, but she did her best to remain neutral. She believed her Mr. Right would come along some day. Who knows? Maybe she'd even meet him at school in America!


Cody snuggled into his bed. Upamon was snoozing on the floor so he was trying to be quiet. He just lay there. He was looking forward to this school year. He was bound to have a place of authority in the school's computer club and he was in a lot of honors classes. When Yolei had lived in Tokyo, she had treated him like a little brother, and taught him everything she knew. He had become a big computer fan and he was getting smarter everyday.

Being the youngest of the Digidestined was sometimes hard on him, but he made up for it easily. A lot of times he had been the one who kept a level head. Davis would rush into things and Cody had to be the one to hold him back and think things through. He was one of the brains of the team. He hoped that one day he could go to the same college as Yolei and Izzy. But he would have to work hard for that. He closed his eyes and started to ponder what their next move should be in the Digital World. His encounter that morning with the Digiforce frightened him terribly and he was worried about going back.


Izzy closed his laptop and wiped his forehead. He had been straining for three hours, trying to find an answer to the cryptics they had seen on the wall. He had found nothing and decided it was time to call it a night.

Tentomon had fallen asleep a long time ago and Izzy was quiet so he wouldn't wake him up. He sat down and ran his mind through the occurrences today. It had been pure luck that he had been able to bring the new Digidestined to the Digiworld. It was no surprise that they were scattered all over upon their arrival. It was his first time attempting something like that and he couldn't control their position. It was also luck that had brought one of them to him, namely Katriena. That was very lucky for Satimon. The new girls seemed nice and having some extras might help them in the end. He could only hope.


Shannon turned off the light in the hotel bathroom. She hadn't said anything to Sora's mom about her encounter with the Digital World. She didn't know if she should. When she came back to the real world, Plumon had shrunk down into a little green Digimon named Peeweemon. Peeweemon was very cute and it barely resembled Plumon.

Peeweemon seemed glad to have Shannon to care for her. Shannon promised herself she would take good care of her. The way she had been treated before Shannon had arrived made Shannon very mad and she promised to treat the bird like her own child.

She got in the bed and pulled the covers up. She tried to fall asleep, but her mind kept racing back to T.K. She really liked him a lot. They hadn't been together for an extremely long time, but she had already decided she liked him. He was unique. He was very kind, quiet, and caring. She liked that about him. The whole Digital World mess had her worried, but it meant she would get to see T.K. more often. And that didn't bother her at all. Normally she was really shy around new people, especially boys, but there was something about T.K. that made him easy to talk to. She was sure they would become good friends.


Joe walked towards his class. He figured everyone in Japan would be going to sleep, but here it was daytime and he had to attend classes. He hated that.

Kari was right, he did need sleep. All his hard work to become a doctor was killing him. At least he would be able to escape to the Digiworld every now and then. He was probably more nervous than anyone else about the bad things happening in the Digiworld, but he had to be there to help everyone along. He was good, and reliable. He couldn't let anyone down.


Yolei tucked Poromon into the side of her bed and laid down. She was attending summer classes so she would have school tomorrow. She only had two more days and then her classes would be over and the normal school season would begin.

She didn't want to keep herself awake, but her experiences in the Digiworld today kept haunting her thoughts. For a moment in her entrapment, she thought she would die. There she was with Ken and Cody and she felt her life was nearing its end. It had spooked her terribly and she was scared to death about going back.

She and Ken had been unofficially "going out" for a while. He went to a different school, of course, but that didn't keep them from staying in touch. They were friendly towards each other and went on occasional "dates", but they weren't committed.

She had liked him a lot when they were younger and when he joined their team it just clicked. They became good friends immediately and their similarities helped that out.

She had always felt bad for him about how his past experiences in the Digiworld had begun. She was worried if the Digimon were mad at the Digidestined because they had something against the Digimon Emperor. She hoped not. She didn't want to see Ken hurt again. He had changed and they all had forgotten all about the Digimon Emperor.


T.K. pushed Patamon aside and crawled into his bed. He had been up studying for school. It would start in a week and he didn't want to be caught off guard. Davis said he was crazy to be studying, but that was typical Davis.

Davis normally picked on T.K., but T.K. knew it was a friendly gesture. Davis and Kari were his best friends and he knew Davis better than anyone.

He found it weird how Davis had been picking on Jessi today. He normally waited at least a day or so. At least Jessi was a fighter. It was funny to see two people go head to head when they've only known each other for a Digiday. He hoped Jessi would put Davis in his place.

He was going to miss Kari at school this year, but at least they would see each other in the Digital World.

He could also hang out with Shannon. He liked her a lot. It was hard to picture her being sisters with Jessi. Jessi was loud, outgoing, and a prankster while Shannon was quiet, caring, and clever. She seemed to be a lot like him. Her relationship with her sister even seemed like his with his brother, in a way.

He couldn't describe his feelings for her. She was comfortable and easy to talk to. She would listen and allow him to speak and she was not the kind of person who would tease him for having a dumb idea. He was glad she would be going to school with him this year. Even if she was a year younger and they probably wouldn't have any classes together, he knew they would still be friends.


Mimi looked around. She loved Katriena's room. The wallpaper had cats on it, and there was anime all over the place. She figured Katriena must be a big fan.

She had explained to Katriena's Parents that Palmon was a "Japanese-type Chia Pet" and they had bought it. Katriena's cats lived outside most of the time, so that wasn't going to be a problem.

Mimi sighed. All she wanted this year was to have fun in America. Her parents had moved back to Japan so her only way to go back to America was to go on the Foreign Exchange program. But now, with the Digiworld in peril, it was unlikely she would have a carefree time.

Oh well, it was bound to happen. She just wanted to get the digital thing over with so she could enjoy life. Palmon would be mad if she had heard Mimi say that, but Palmon was still in her suitcase.


Ken took an ice pad off his arm. It was severely bruised from earlier, and he was going to go to bed as soon as he was finished properly treating it.

He was living in an apartment in northern Japan. He had moved in when he was accepted to an elite school in the area. He visited his parents often and visited Yolei on the way. He really liked her. She was one of the few people that really understood him, he felt. Well, besides Wormmon. Wormmon was more special to him than probably anyone else in the world. Wormmon had helped Ken conquer the evil inside of him and become his true self once again.

When Wormmon was getting killed protecting him that day, Ken was scared to death that he might lose him again. Losing him once was hard enough and he didn't want to be the cause of his disappearance again. He swore that the next time they were in a position like that, he would be the one to risk his life for his friend.


Jessi splashed cold water on her face. She had to tell herself over and over that it was not a dream. DemiFeemon sat next to her in the hotel bathroom. Jessi dried her face off and then opened her eyes. She looked over at her Digimon and saw that it was eating a bar of soap.

"Don't eat that!" she yelled as she took it away from her. "It'll make you sick!"

"But I think it tastes good!" said DemiFeemon as she reached for it out of Jessi's hands.

"Jessi?" came Kari's dad's voice. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah!" she yelled back as she threw the soap away and picked up DemiFeemon. "Just brushing my teeth."

She sat down on one of the beds in the hotel room and pulled the sheets down. Kari's mom and dad were in the other bed and they were already asleep. Jessi tucked DemiFeemon in on one side of the bed and told her to behave. Then she climbed in herself.

She thought back on her occurrences in the Digital World. The last thing she expected when she came to Japan was do get an annoying little yellow companion, but she was stuck with it. Feemon was constantly getting into things and Jessi was afraid Kari's parents would find out about her.

She wondered what Davis did with his Veemon. Was his as rambunctious as hers? His Veemon and him seemed really close. She wondered if her Veemon and her would ever be like that. She looked over at her Veemon. It had a big bubble coming out of its nose and its mouth was wide open.

"Well," thought Jessi, "Who knows?"


Davis turned off the TV. He couldn't fall asleep. Not with visions of what happened running through his head. He knew this was going to be their hardest battle yet and that he would have to be the brave one. He didn't like always being the brave one, but it was just naturally enforced on him. Maybe it was the goggles?

Jessi had seemed a lot like him. It appeared as though she would be the new "leader". First there was Tai, then there was him, and now there was Jessi. He could be wrong, but it just seemed that way.

What was with her anyway? Girls aren't supposed to act like that! She's sneaky, mischievous, and downright evil. He was going to have to toughen her up, or to "initiate" her to the Digidestined. That would be fun! He smiled evilly. If she was to be the next leader, he was going to make it his responsibility to make sure that she was ready for the job.


Katriena opened her eyes. She was having trouble sleeping. Velvemon was Satimon again and she was sleeping next to her. Katriena kept having visions of what had happened in the Digiworld. She found it all hard to believe, but Izzy had explained it perfectly.

She found her thoughts traveling back to America. She already missed it. She had her cats, her parents, her friends, and even her boyfriend, Kyle. She and Kyle had been going out for a month or so. She felt bad about coming to Japan, but she told him she'd write him every day. And he said the same for her. He said he loved her and that she could either come visit him, or he would come visit her.

She sighed. This was going to be a long year. Not only would it be long because of being away from Kyle, but also because of going to a new school and the problems in the Digital World. With that she fell asleep.


Before they left the Digital World, they all made plans. They were going to have to come back to keep things in line. However, with school starting in a week, they needed to be careful. Jessi, Katriena, and Shannon, couldn't go back without an older Digidestined with them. Their Digimon hadn't digivolved yet and they would need another Digimon there in case they ran into something bad. T.K. and Davis were going to join with Cody and have a "Welcoming Party" for the three. This way they would have a reason two invite the three new American girls over and get to know them and their parents wouldn't be suspicious as to how they knew each other. Also, they would all be able to go to the Digital World. Davis and T.K. were going to say that they wanted to meet Kari's exchange sister so they were going to invite her over when they found out she had two others with her so they were going to invite them all. Hopefully things would work out.

T.K. offered to have the party at his Dad's house because his dad would go along with it and he wouldn't ask questions.


"Someone get the door, will you?" said T.K. as he got some food out of the refrigerator. "It must be Cody."

Shannon opened the door and greeted Cody. Matt's dad wasn't able to be there, so they were just going to hang out so it didn't look suspicious and then they were going to go into the Digital World.

"I wanna play video games!" said Katriena when she saw T.K.'s PS2. "What games do you have?"

T.K. offered Shannon some juice and then went over to help Katriena. "We have fighting, car racing, fighting, skateboarding, action, sea-doo racing, action, and a role playing."

"Ooh!" said Jessi, "I want to play Tony Hawk!"

"Okay." said T.K. as he set it up. "Here, I'll show you how to play it."

"No need to." said Jessi as she picked up a controller. "I'm the master at this game!"

Katriena picked up the other controller and grinned at Jessi. "Bring it on."

Cody was making popcorn and talking to Shannon about what classes she was taking and Davis had gone into T.K.'s room to look for a movie.

"They sure make themselves at home, don't they?" smiled T.K. as he walked back over towards Shannon and Cody. "Don't you like Tony Hawk?"

"Not really." said Shannon. "It's okay, but I like racing games and role playing."

"Well, we can play next." said T.K. as he got out bowls for the popcorn. "I'm the best at that racing game."

"What about me, T.K.?" asked Patamon as he helped himself to the popcorn. "I like playing too."

"You can barely hold the controller, little guy." said T.K. as he put some popcorn in a bowl for Patamon.

DemiVeemon was sitting behind Jessi and Katriena and making fun of their playing skills. "This is Davis's favorite game. He could cream you two at it. Where is he anyways?"

DemiFeemon crossed her arms across her chest and retorted, "Jessi's doing good. She could beat Davis any day!"

"I'd like to see it." said DemiVeemon as he snorted back at her.

Jessi paused the game. "Knock it off, you two. If you want to see me take on Davis then you can wait until he gets back in here. Katriena and I are trying to concentrate.

Just then the entire apartment filled with loud music. Katriena looked around to find Satimon standing sheepishly next to the radio. She rushed over and turned it off. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry." said Satimon. "I just wanted to know what it was."

"It's okay." said Katriena as she picked her Digimon up and placed it on the couch next to the Veemons. "Just sit here and don't touch anything else." Then she looked up at T.K. and Cody. "Why do I feel like I just signed on for a lifetime of baby-sitting?"

"Now's the perfect chance!" said DemiVeemon to Jessi. "Go find Davis and tell him you want to play."

"Come on, Jessi!" said DemiFeemon. "I wanna see you kick his butt!"

"Okay, okay!" said Jessi as she stood up. "Davis? Davis, where are you?" She walked into the hallway he had gone into not too long ago. It was dark and she didn't know exactly which room was T.K.'s or where to find Davis. She was about to call his name again when he burst out of the closet and yelled, "Boo!" She shrieked and fell backwards to land on her rear.

Davis was beside himself with laugher. "You shoulda seen the look on your face! HA HA HA!"

Jessi glared at him and quickly stood up. "That's it, you're going down! I challenge you at Tony Hawk!"

Katriena approached them with Satimon in her arms. "Is everything alright? I thought I heard Jessi scream."

Jessi looked embarrassed. "I... I uh, tripped on the carpet. No biggie."

"Well, come on!" said Katriena as she grabbed both of them and started to pull them back to the living room. "I wanna know who's the best out of you two!"

Shannon, T.K. and Cody had all moved onto the couch to watch the match. Shannon knew Jessi loved Tony Hawk, but T.K. and Cody knew how good Davis was.

"Okay," said Katriena. "We'll have you play HORSE. Loser has to... hmmmmm."

Everyone was thinking of something embarrassing to make the loser do when Cody came up with one: go out into the hall with a popcorn bowl on their head, act like a chicken and sing "I'm a Little Teapot".

It wasn't the worst thing someone could do, but it would be funny no matter who lost.

Jessi rolled up her sleeves. "I'm ready to go. I'm taking no prisoners!"

Davis turned to her and smiled a mischievous smile, "I hope you know what you're getting into, girlie."

Then the match was on. Katriena, Cody, T.K. and Shannon even had a little bet going on. At first they were going to use money but they changed their minds. Now, if Davis won, all of the girls would have to do the chicken thing, and if Jessi won, it would be all of the guys.

"You're pretty confident about your sister winning, aren't you?" asked T.K. evilly.

"Of course I am!" said Shannon, "She's the best, and she has the best coaches, too."

"Oh really?" asked Cody, "Who's that?"

Katriena put her arm around Shannon's shoulders, "Us!"

Jessi and Davis were trying their hardest. They had to win! Humiliation was something neither of them could bear to stand. They each had a lot at stake.

It was down to the last letter for each of them. Whoever got the biggest trick won the match.

Davis was first. He pulled off something really big and landed it nicely.

Jessi swallowed hard. The room was silent, no one was even breathing. Jessi rolled down the hill, went up an incline and started hitting every trick she knew. Right when she was running out of air she straightened herself out and landed it perfectly.

Davis's jaw dropped. Jessi let out a deep breath and all eyes focused on the screen. It was Davis's turn. He had to beat Jessi's score in order to turn it back over to her.

He rolled down the hill and started doing tons of combinations. Jessi's blood ran cold. That was amazing, all he had to do was land it and she was a goner.

Davis was so busy pulling off tricks he didn't realize he was running out of airtime. "Davis!" yelled DemiVeemon, "You gotta land it, hurry up!"

Davis tried to straighten his board but he didn't succeed, his player landed and fell to the ground.

The big words "Player 1 is a HORSE" came up on the screen and the girls all jumped up screaming.

"That was amazing!" Katriena said as they all gave each other high fives. "You got so much air, and you landed it perfect! All the guys at Youth Group and in band would be proud!"

Davis put his head down and Cody and T.K. moaned. "Aww man! Davis, why'd you have to lose!"

"Sorry guys, but..." he started.

"Uh, Davis?" said Jessi as she smiled down at him evilly and handed him three popcorn bowls. "I think you guys will be needing these."

Davis looked at her. Her eyes were a mix of relief, laughter, and playfulness. He snatched the bowls and stood up. He handed one to Cody and one to T.K. "Here you go, my good men." He said in a British accent. "Now let us go out there and show these ladies our stuff!"

Cody and T.K. triumphantly put the bowls on their heads and marched to the front door.

The girls followed laughing hysterically. The boys stood out in the hall and a few people gathered to watch. They started clucking around like chickens and singing "I'm a Little Teapot".

Jessi braced herself in the doorway. She was laughing so hard she couldn't even stand anymore. Shannon and Katriena were behind her and they were each slouching downwards too.

When the song was over Davis pointed at Jessi. "Hey guys, it's all her fault we had to do this, let's get her!"

He charged at her but T.K. stopped him. "What exactly are you going to do to her?" Jessi was still curled up on the floor laughing terribly.

"I dunno." He said. "Either a killer wedgie or tickle her to death."

Jessi's eyes got big and she sat up. "Don't you dare tickle me!" she threatened between snickers. "I hate it when people tickle me!"

T.K. looked at Davis and they both nodded their heads and dove in on attack. Jessi was screaming and laughing so hard she was loosing her breath. "Stop! Stop! I'm warning you!"

Shannon and Katriena decided they were going to help Jessi out so they tried to save her, but Cody and T.K. had another idea.

"Get 'em!"

Now all of the girls were being tickled and when they were all done screaming and wiping the tears from their eyes and catching their breath from laughing so hard the boys stopped. They just sat there in the hall and were silent. They each looked from one another and then laughed some more and helped each other up and went back in the apartment.

The Digimon had attempted to play the game and they weren't doing very well. They didn't even notice the humans walk in.

They were all sore from laughing so hard and they all sat down at the table. T.K. was the first to speak.

"That was fun." They all started laughing again and then it died down.

Jessi raised an eyebrow at Davis. "I guess this means you're a sore loser, huh?"

"Naw." said Davis as he waved a hand at her. "I let you win. I couldn't have you getting all depressed cause you lost."

"Oh really?" challenged Jessi as she threw a towel at him. "Care to try me again?"

"Guys, guys!" said Cody. "I think we've had enough Play Station for one day. Don't forget the true meaning of this 'party'."

"Cody's right." said Katriena. "We'd better go to the Digiworld before our families expect us home."

"Okay." said T.K. as he opened up the Digi-portal on his computer. "Who's ready?"


Chapter Five - Cute Confessions

 Jessi and Cody headed up over a hill. The six had all split up and they were there to train.

"I don't exactly know how to do this." said Cody. "I would be hard to teach you how to Digivolve your Digimon and stuff since we have no one to battle, and I don't want Armadillomon getting hurt in a match in case we need him."

"Digivolveing can't be hard." Said Feemon. "I'll bet I could do it easily."

"It's more complicated than it looks." said Armadillomon. "You can't just Digivolve without a reason. Plus, your human has to want you to Digivolve for it to happen."

"That doesn't sound so hard."

Just then a giant bug emerged from the forest and roared at them.

Cody stepped back but kept his calm. "This is a good opportunity for you to learn, Jessi. Just watch as I walk you through the process!"

Then he held out his Digivice and yelled "Digi Armor Energize!".

Jessi had seen Raidramon Digivolve before and now she got to see Armadillomon Digivolve into Digmon. He looked like a big yellow bug with drills for hands and a nose.

"This is Digmon." said Cody as Digmon lunged in and braced the bug from attacking with its body. "Armadillomon uses the Digiegg of Knowledge to Digivolve into this Digimon. His favorite attack is Gold Rush where he fires his drills at his enemies."

Jessi stared at the giant bug. "Uhh, Cody..."

"I also have the Digiegg of Reliability which allows Armadillomon to Digivolve to Submarimon. A big Submarine Digimon that specializes under water."

"CODY?"

"I haven't yet figured out what your egg is or how it works, but we'll find that out in time. Were you trying to say something?"

Jessi bolted past him with Feemon in her arms. "RUN!"

Cody looked up to see the Kuwagamon throw Digmon to the ground and come after him. He turned around and called to Jessi. "Go on and get out of here, Jessi. You need to hide!" Then he ran towards Digmon.

Jessi stopped and yelled after him. "Cody! What are you doing, get out of there!" Then she bit her lip. "He's gonna get hurt!" she said softly.

Feemon jumped out of her arms. "Jessi let me do this! I can take care of that guy, but you gotta let me Digivolve!"

Jessi looked over in Cody's direction and saw the bug was about to intercept him. She closed her eyes tightly and clenched her teeth. "What do have I do?"


Meanwhile, T.K. and Katriena were walking along and talking. T.K. didn't have to explain much about things to Katriena since Izzy had already told her a lot so he was asking her questions.

"So how do you know Jessi and Shannon?" he asked.

"Oh, we've been friends for a long time. Our families are close and we're almost like sisters."

"What do you guys do for fun?"

"We like anime and we like writing and drawing. I also love to read and play games. Jessi loves playing certain sports, and playing games, while Shannon likes to play games and she really likes animals."

"So you all are game freaks, huh?"

"Oh yeah! Jessi and Shannon have trained me in the art of gaming and I'm finally getting to the point where I can beat their little sisters."

"Little sisters?"

"Yeah, the twins. They're twin girls in the eighth grade but they're nothing alike."

"What else? What about some other friends?"

"Well, we're all in the school band so we have a big circle of people to hang out with there. Plus we have our group from Youth Group and others, like Brian."

"Brian?" asked T.K. as a shudder ran through his spine.

"Yeah, Brian. We've all been close friends since grade school. We like doing things together cause we all have the same interests so we're like an inseparable group of four."

T.K. clenched his teeth. What was it about this Brian guy that gave him such a weird feeling? He decided to change the subject and come back to that one later. "So how old are you all exactly?"

"Well, Jessi and I are both seventeen and Shannon's sixteen."

"That's what I thought." he said.

"Hey T.K.?" said Katriena as they walked along. "Why are you asking all these questions?"

T.K. could feel his face growing hotter. "Uhh, I was just interested in getting to know you guys."

"Uh, huh." said Katriena as she narrowed her eyes to look at him. He started to sweat. "I can read you like a book." she said.

"Wha... what do you mean?" he said as he stepped back and grinned a fake smile.

"You like my sister!"

"WHAT?"

"Oh, come on! It is sooooo obvious! You are head over heels for Shannon and you know it! Come on, say it. You like Shannon!"

T.K. froze. It was true. He liked Shannon. How stupid he felt! He had a special feeling for her that he had passed off as friendship. Could it really be he was in love? But he had only known her for a little while. Was it love at first sight? He had never really been in love before. Could that explain why he felt this way?

He thought back to when he first saw her. She was merely a damsel in distress and it was his duty to save her. However when he got closer, his heart skipped a few beats. She was drenched and pouting, but there was something about her. Then during their ride on Pegasusmon he kept finding himself looking at her...

Then, when they found Mimi, she loudly teased him. This normally wouldn't have bothered him, but he found himself worrying about whether or not Shannon had heard Mimi making such a fool out of him. For some reason he didn't want Shannon to hear and think he was stupid or irresponsible.

Then his mind raced back to when they arrived at the campsite and he helped her off of Pegasusmon. He had subconsciously reached up to help her down, but when she put her hand in his, everything just froze. Her hands were small and soft, and they were perfect. At the time he couldn't decipher what he was feeling, but now, it was all too clear.

That night he had laid awake thinking about all that had happened. He kept thinking about her. She had been with him all day and he had felt so comfortable around her, like they could truly understand each other. She wasn't like any girl he had ever met before. Girls flocked to him all the time because of his good looks, but she was different.

And then that day, when she arrived, he was extremely happy. He couldn't wait to get to know her better. She had the best smile and she listened to him when he talked. It made him love talking to her.

When they paired up, he had been disappointed that Davis had gone with Shannon rather than him. He would have loved to show her around and teach her all about Digimon and how to evolve her Digimon and discuss the Evil Digiforce. He was sad that he wasn't with her. Not that he didn't like Katriena, but he just... .

Then when Katriena mentioned their friend Brian, the first emotion he expressed was anger, or was it really jealousy? Was he jealous of their friend Brian who he had never even met? Was he jealous over Shannon?

Then, he wondered how she felt. Did she like him? Was she just nice to him because she had to be? But her smile, her smile said so much more. When she smiled at him, he could read something in her eyes but he couldn't tell just what. Could she feel the same way about him?

"HELLO?" said Patamon as he knocked T.K. on the head with his little fist. "Anybody in there?"

T.K. was suddenly brought back to his senses. "Oh, sorry, I guess, I kind of zoned out there for a while."

"Yep." said Katriena as she looked at her watch. "I actually thought you'd take longer. It normally takes boys a while to sort out their feelings like this."

T.K.'s jaw dropped, "Ho... how did you..."

Katriena raised a hand to silence him, "Let's just say I'm the professional in this sort of area. So, you admit it, you like Shannon?"

T.K. smiled a boyish smiled and looked at her, "I like Shannon."


Shannon was sitting on a log staring at Davis. He was trying to explain to her how Digieggs were used and how Veemon could change into different things using different eggs. She felt bad about tuning him out, but she had already heard it all, and T.K. had explained it much more thoroughly.

She wondered what T.K. and Katriena were doing about now. Katriena was lucky to go with him. He was a smart guy and he'd teach her a lot.

Katriena was her friend, but when they announced she would be going with T.K., Shannon almost felt a hint of jealousy.

"I'd better stop." she thought to herself. "I'm rushing into this. I know that I kind of like T.K., but I need to focus on the task at hand."

She cleared her head and listened to Davis speak a little more and then caught herself back in her thoughts, "But why is it so hard?"


"You have to break the egg!" quickly explained Feemon as the monster approached Cody. "I don't know exactly how, but you have to do that and then I'll Armor Digivolve!"

"Some help you are!" said Jessi, as she grew frantic. Cody was in trouble, and she knew what she had to do.

She held the egg up in the air and shouted, "Digi Armor Energize!"

Feemon gave her the thumbs up sign and started to glow. The giant Kuwagamon stopped to look over at Feemon and Jessi had time to gather her thoughts.

"That was strange." she thought. "The words just came to me, and I had no idea what I was doing, I just knew exactly what to say!"

Feemon was growing bigger and she was gaining armor. Jessi was tickled to see this and she couldn't wait to show her off to everyone.

When she was done, Jessi got a good look at her. She was still a yellow dragon that stood on two legs, but she had a mask on and armor on her body. The armor was the same as the walls in the cave in which Jessi had found the egg. They looked like dense ice or glass. She had the symbol that was on the egg on the front of her chest armor and high boots with knee guards.

"Cool!" thought Jessi. "Who woulda thought that little pest would digivolve into such a cool looking Digimon?"

It looked over at Jessi and began to speak. "I am Frostdramon, the Warrior of Courageous Love. As Feemon I use the Double Digiegg of Courage and Love to Armor Digivolve. I use my Freezing Strike to paralyze my enemies by freezing them and I can protect myself in a shroud of Icy Dragon's Breath."

"Well, let's see you walk the walk!" said Jessi, "Come on, go help Cody!"

Frostdramon leapt into action and hit the bug with an icy punch. He turned around and started to attack her but she covered herself in Icy Dragon's Breath and flew at him again. This time she froze the entire bottom half of its body.

"Take that!" shouted Jessi. "Now get him out of here!"

Frostdramon wound up for her biggest punch yet and sent him flying out of sight.

"Yeah!" said Jessi as she bounded over to her Digimon. When she got there, it was Feemon again and the egg flew into her Digivice and formed a small computer in her pocket. Jessi pulled it out to examine the strange computer and saw that it was like Davis's and everyone else's. Then Feemon jumped on her.

"Whaddya think, Jessi? Wasn't that the coolest? I was unstoppable! Let's see someone mess with us again!"

Jessi patted her Digimon on the head. "You were awesome! Veemon would be jealous if he could have seen you."

Feemon blushed and climbed off of Jessi, "You think so?"

"Hey, Jessi!" yelled Cody as he ran over to her with Upamon in his arms. "That was amazing! You knew exactly what to do and I didn't even have to show you! Thanks for helping me."

Feemon grinned and put her chin up in the air, "Glad to be of service, Cody."


Katriena was enjoying talking with T.K. He was a nice guy and she thought he would be perfect for Shannon. She had decided to make it her mission to get them together.

"I've been thinking. . ." he said. "How did you become a Digidestined?"

"How did I become a Digidestined?" asked Katriena. "I don't know. Do you mean when I got my Digivice?"

"No," he said. "What made you one of us? All of us became Digidestined when we had an encounter with a Digimon in the real world. I wonder when yours was."

"An encounter a with Digimon." mused Katriena. "I don't seem to remember much about my grade school days. I assume if I did have an encounter it would have been then. But why can't I remember?"

"I didn't remember mine at first either. It might take you a while, but it'll come around. You must have had one or else you wouldn't be here."

Katriena was beginning to think. When was her first encounter? Was it when she still lived in Montana or was it when they moved to where she currently resided?

Velvemon broke her train of thought. "Katriena! Something's coming!"

Katriena looked up to see a Unimon diving towards them. "Get out of the way!" she yelled as she fell to the ground and took Velvemon with her.

They dusted themselves off and T.K. called for Patamon to Armor Digivolve. Pegasusmon flew after the Unimon to keep it from attacking the humans. T.K. asked if Katriena was okay and she said she was. Just then a big winged cat joined in the fight and the two Digimon were able to chase the Unimon away.

"Thanks, Kari!" said T.K. as Kari approached them.

"No problem." she said. "I guess it's a small world."

"What are the odds of running into you here?" said Katriena as she greeted her friend.

Velvemon said "Hi" to Gatomon. The two feline-like Digimon had instantly become friends so they were happy to see each other.

"I recently got an email from Joe." said Kari. "He says he's here too because Gomamon needed him and he'll join with us shortly."

"Hey, the more the merrier." said T.K.

"So how's the training going?" asked Kari to Katriena.

Katriena smiled at T.K. who blushed. They hadn't been training at all! They'd been talking the whole time about Shannon.

"Oh, it's all good."

"That's good to hear." she said with a smile. "I'm having trouble adjusting to American ways, but I can't wait for school to start! It'll be so fun!"

"I wouldn't exactly call school fun." said Katriena, "But hey, everyone's entitled to their own opinion!"

Just then Joe and Gomamon appeared. "Hey guys!"

"Hey, Joe!" said T.K.

"Thank goodness you're all right!" said Kari. "I was worried you might be in trouble!"

"Oh!" said Joe. "You mean my email? Gomamon just wanted to tell me about something he heard. It was about a temple nearby. Wanna go check it out with me? I'm thinking there might be some more inscriptions on the walls."

"Yeah!" said Patamon. "Those places are cool!"

"I'm in." said Katriena. "Where is it?"

"Over this way!" said Gomamon as he hopped along in the opposite direction from which they had come.

"Let's go!"


Chapter Six - Double Switch

 Shannon and Davis were walking along a path. Davis said he was getting a reading on his Digivice that someone was nearby so they were headed towards it.

Plumon was walking since she still hadn't quite yet mastered the art of flying and Veemon was walking in front of everyone as if he was leading them.

"What's that?" asked Shannon as she pointed ahead. The signal on their Digivices was pointing to a small temple.

"Let's go see!" said Davis as he took off for the building.

The temple was like the bigger one they had seen before. Its walls looked like they were made of ivory and it looked very old. When they entered, they saw Izzy sitting in the center of the small room typing on his computer and Yolei was looking over his shoulder. They didn't even hear Davis and Shannon enter.

"Hey guys!" said Davis. "What's up?"

They both jumped and when they turned to see Shannon and Davis they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't ever do that again!" said Izzy as he took a deep breath. "You scared me so much the computer almost flew out of my arms!"

Yolei shivered. "This place freaks me out. It's as quiet as a... tomb. AHHHH! I wanna go, Izzy!"

"Now stop it, Yolei!" said Hawkmon. "Izzy needs you to be quiet so he can figure out the meaning of this strange 'tomb', so stop your whining!"

Yolei sniffed and pouted. "But it's scary."

"Come on, Yolei!" said Davis as he slapped her on the back. "Toughen up!"

"What are you analyzing, Izzy?" asked Shannon.

"This building." He said. "Look, it has eight walls, one for each crest."

Shannon and Davis took their first look around the small temple. Sure enough, there were eight walls. On each wall there was the carving of a crest and in the center there was a small slightly raised circular platform, which Izzy was sitting on.

Shannon grimaced. "This might take a while... Hey, I have and idea! Hawkmon, why don't you teach Plumon the correct way to fly? She never properly learned and I think you should be the one to teach her!"

"That's not a bad idea!" said Yolei. "I'll take them outside so I don't have to stay in here."

Just then someone else entered the building. It was Matt! He said hi and then explained how he had gotten their readings on his Digivice and had decided to join them.

"Well, I'm going." said Yolei as she took each one of the birds in an arm and started to walk out the door. "Don't you want to come, Shannon?"

Shannon hesitated. She wanted to see what Izzy found out, but she needed to be with Plumon at the same time. "Okay."

They walked outside the temple and went a little ways to a clearing to watch the two bird Digimon do their stuff.

"I understand the basic concept." said Plumon. "But I'm not quite sure on how to work my tail and wings at the same time."

Then Hawkmon stretched a wing out and started to explain things to her.

"They're cute, aren't they?" said Yolei. "You'll be lucky you have a bird. They're a little difficult to get used to, but you'll like it."

"I have a bird at home." said Shannon. "His name is Zazu. He's a cockatiel and he's really grouchy, so I know what you mean."

Yolei laughed. "How cute! I always wanted a macaw, but mom would never let me have one because they're too noisy."

"Tell me about it!" said Shannon. "Our neighbor has one and it rides on his shoulder when he rides his motorcycle."

"No way!"

"That's not all," Shannon continued. "He rides his motorcycle every day at 6:00 A.M. and it wakes me up every single time!"

"I never knew birds did that!" she said. "That sounds crazy, I'd love to see it!"

Just then the two girls heard Hawkmon, "Not too high, Plumon! And don't try those double aerial back flips, I don't think you're ready!"

They looked up to see Plumon doing all kinds of loop the loops and tricks in the air and then they both looked over at Hawkmon.

He shrugged. "I guess I'm a better teacher than I thought."

Then they heard Plumon scream and come flying towards them at top speed. "Look out guys! It's a Malignamon! I think he's from the Dark Fortress! Get me out of here!"

Yolei, Shannon and Hawkmon took one look at the evil human thing with dark wings and took off towards the temple. They ducked inside and watched him fly by.

All four of them were standing by the door and catching their breath when Davis snuck up behind them.

"What's the matter, guys?" he yelled.

They all jumped about a foot in the air and turned around to glare at him. He stepped back in defense and grinned at them. "Ha ha, can't you take a joke?" They began to chase him in circles around the room.

Matt and Izzy were sitting with Gabumon, Tentomon, and Veemon in the center of the room and Shannon, Yolei, Plumon, and Hawkmon were chasing Davis.

"Veemon, help me out buddy!" shrieked Davis as they began to gain on him.

"Sorry, Davis." said Veemon. "You can get yourself out of this one. Besides, Matt has food!"

Shannon and Yolei tackled Davis and were deciding on his fate when Izzy made an announcement.

"I've been attempting to decipher this for hours, but I haven't got a clue as to what this shrine means. The only connection that I can make is that the crest carvings somehow have a connection to the Digidestined that possess them."

"That's all?" asked Davis as he sat up. "I could have told you that."

"I know." said Izzy. "I have no idea what these are for."

They all began to wonder around the room and examine the crests one by one. Shannon stopped at the crest of Hope and traced it on the wall with her finger. She caught herself thinking of T.K. and she smiled.

A blue light went off around her and she turned around. Matt was standing there wide-eyed and Yolei was staring at him.

"Did that just happen?" asked Matt as he gazed at his hand.

Yolei nodded her head up and down and didn't say a word.

"What?" asked Davis. "What just happened?"

"I just reached out and touched the crest of Friendship and it lit up!" said Matt as he reached out for it again. Sure enough, the tracing of the crest on the wall glowed a bright blue. He quickly yanked his hand away.

Izzy was now standing next to him and he had his hand on his chin. "What could it be?" he was thinking out loud.

Shannon began to think. The crest of Hope hadn't lit up when she had touched it. She wondered if anyone else could make one light up. "Yolei, try one of yours." she said.

Yolei reached out and touched the crest of Love but nothing happened. "That's weird." she thought.

"Let me try." said Davis as he touched the crest of Courage. "Nothing."

Izzy found the crest of Knowledge and put his hand on it but it remained the same. "That is so intriguing."

"Should I try again?" asked Matt.

"Yeah." said Izzy. "And Yolei can try Sincerity, too."

Matt put his hand on the crest of Friendship and it began to glow again. He left his hand there and Yolei tried the crest of Sincerity. When she touched it the room sparked and she pulled her hand away.

"What's happening, Izzy?" she said as she held her hand.

"I'm not sure." He said. "But I think you two need to be touching yours at the same time."

Matt's hands were still planted on his crest and Yolei reluctantly stuck her hand out and touched the crest of Sincerity. It began to glow a light green and the circular platform in the center of the room began to glow.

Something was forming in the light. It looked like a Digiegg!

"Keep doing that, guys!" said Davis. "It looks like you're making a Digiegg!"

"It appears the power from the two is combining to form an egg." said Izzy. "Maybe this is a 'Double Digiegg' like Jessi found!"

"The Double Digiegg of Friendship and Sincerity?" asked Shannon. "Who's is that?"

Izzy put his hand on his chin again and looked her up and down. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was yours."

"Mine?" she asked.

"Wait a minute." said Davis. "How do you know it isn't mine?"

"No offence, Davis." said Matt as he continued to power up the egg. "But Sincerity would be that last crest I would give you."

Davis scowled. "Thanks, Matt."

"Try pulling it!" said Tentomon. "I wanna see what happens!"

Shannon looked doubtful. "Are you sure it's mine? I mean, Sincerity and Friendship? Am I really qualified to possess such an egg?"

Davis raised an eyebrow. "Look at it this way." He said. "The one your obnoxious sister got was Love and Courage. If she got that, anyone could get one."

"He has a point." said Yolei.

"Okay." said Shannon as she approached it. The glow was starting to fade and she kneeled down to pick it up. The walls by Matt and Yolei had stopped glowing so they figured they were done.

Shannon put her hands on the egg. It was dark green with white swirls on it and it had a symbol that looked like a mix between the crest of Sincerity and the crest of Friendship.

She took a small tug but nothing happened. She frowned. It didn't seem like the egg was going to come up.

"I have to do this." she thought. "These guys were nice enough to think this egg belongs to me, so I have to pull it."

Plumon was standing by Shannon. "Pull it, Shannon." she whispered. "You're the best and most sincere friend I've ever had, it has to be yours!"

Shannon's frown turned into a smile. She rolled up her sleeves and took a harder tug. The egg popped right out and she fell backwards from the force.

Everyone remained silent.

"What do I do now?" she asked.

Just then the Malignamon from before burst into the door.

"Ahhh!" screamed Yolei as she ducked out of the way of his powerful arms.

"Time to kill some Digidestined!" he said as he swung at her again.

She put her hands on her hips and started to yell at the Digimon. "Why are you picking on me, huh? What's the big idea? Why don't you go after Davis?"

"Yolei!" said Davis. "Why are you always making me look bad?"

"Look out!" yelled Matt as he tackled Yolei and brought her to the ground. They had just barely missed another swipe from Malignamon.

"Tentomon!" yelled Izzy. "What can you tell me about this guy?"

"No doubt about it!" said Tentomon. "That's Malignamon. Beware; he's a tough guy! He's a very mysterious Digimon that is rarely ever seen and he's extremely powerful! We'd all better Digivolve!"

"Gabumon Digivolve to... . Garurumon!"

"Veemon Armor Digivolve to... . Flamedramon, the Fire of Courage!"

"Tentomon Digivolve to... . Kabuterimon!"

"And last but definitely not the least, Hawkmon Armor Digivolve to... . Shurimon, the Samurai of Sincerity!"

The four Digimon lunged in to protect their Digidestined and Shannon just sat back. She wanted to help her friends, but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to jump in and fight. What if Plumon wasn't ready to Digivolve?

"Come on, Shannon!" said Plumon as she put her wings on her hips. "I haven't been waiting for you my whole life just to stand around and watch! Break that egg and let me Digivolve!"

Shannon was surprised by her Digimon's sudden outburst, but she couldn't hold her back any longer.

"Well, let's try it out." she said. "Digi Armor Energize!"

Plumon started to grow. She didn't grow much taller than a human, but she was still rather tall. She was now a tall bird with wings that looked more like that of a flying squirrel. She had on a small amount of armor and armored boots, and the symbol that was on the egg was on her stomach like a tattoo.

"Zephyrmon, the Gentle Wind of Sincere Friendship." said Zephyrmon as she spread out her wings. "I am Zephyrmon. As Plumon, I use the Double Digiegg of Friendship and Sincerity to Armor Digivolve. I'm a lightweight Digimon with an immense amount of power for my small size. I can attack with my Massive Flurry to blow my enemies out of the water. Watch out when I get mad, my temper can control the weather."

"Well, what do you know..." said Matt with a half smile. "A Double Armored Digimon."

"Now go help the others, Zephyrmon!" said Shannon.

Zephyrmon flew in to help the other Digimon. With all of them fighting together, Malignamon didn't stand a chance. He was quickly defeated and fell to the ground. When he hit the ground the sound of shattering glass rang through the small room. Zephyrmon screamed and covered her ears. Within a matter of seconds she was Plumon again.

Shannon ran over to Plumon and took her in her arms. The little bird's eyes were glazed over and there were tears dripping from them.

"What's wrong, Plumon?" Shannon demanded, "Are you okay?"

Malignamon groaned and stood to his feet while holding his head in his hands. "Ohhhh," he said, "I feel awful."

"Watch out!" warned Matt. "I'm not sure he's safe."

Malignamon confusedly looked at Matt. "Are you talking about me? I'm a very peaceful Digimon, you don't need to be afraid of me!"

"That's weird!" said Kabuterimon. "It's like he doesn't even remember he was attacking us!"

"What do you remember, Malignamon?" asked Izzy.

"Strange you should ask that." He responded. "I can't quite picture it. All I remember was being at home. Where am I now, and how did I get here?"

"Maybe, you'd better go home now." said Yolei as she helped him to the door.

Davis gritted his teeth. "I know exactly how he got here. He was under the control of that stupid Digiforce! I say we take them out right now!"

"Calm down, Davis!" commanded Izzy. "We need strategize first! Plus we still haven't figured out what the Legendary Digimon of the Digimentals are!"

Plumon blinked a couple of times and then looked questioningly at Shannon. "What just happened, Shannon?" she asked. "Was I asleep?"

Shannon knew that other Digimon had somehow affected Plumon. She didn't know how, but whatever it was, it had put Plumon into almost a half-coma and she woke up without any knowledge as to what had happened. "Yeah." she said. "You were asleep."


T.K., Kari, Joe, and Katriena arrived in the little building and looked around. It was similar to the bigger one they had found with all the others, but it was small and it had eight walls. On each wall there was a crest carved out and in the center of the room there was a raised circular platform.

"What a neat little building!" said Katriena as she ran around and examined each crest one by one. Velvemon was following her.

Joe was doing the same, but when he found his crest, he stopped. It was dirty, and it looked like it was covered in dust. He blew on it and reached out to wipe it off. The minute his hand touched the cold stone walls, the carving lit up a dark blue. Joe yelped and quickly pulled his hand back.

"What happened, Joe?" asked Kari.

"Either I'm finally going crazy or this wall just lit up." he responded.

Gomamon shook his head. "Nope, I saw it, it did light up."

"Do it again, Joe." said T.K., "I want to see this."

Joe reluctantly reached out and touched the symbol to see it light up, but he squinted his eyes and kept his hand there. "That's strange." he said.

"What?" asked Katriena.

"It feels like it's taking a small portion of my power." He said as he put his other hand on the symbol.

"Get away from there!" said Gomamon. "It'll take all your strength!"

"No." said Joe. "It's not taking my power like that. It's more like I'm lending it."

Gomamon started to freak out. "He's blown a circuit! Somebody help him and get him away from that thing!" he started to run around the room frantically.

Katriena stopped Gomamon and kneeled down to his level. "Hold up, little guy! Maybe Joe has a point."

Gomamon bit his lower lip and then felt another light go up around them.

"Kari!" said T.K. Kari had touched her crest and now the room was glowing both blue and pink. The circular platform in the center of the room started to glow and something started to form in the mist.

"What's that, T.K.?" asked Patamon.

"I don't know." said T.K. as he moved in for a closer look. It looked like a Digiegg!

Kari turned around to look at T.K. "Try to pull it, T.K.!" she ordered as she went back into concentrating her power to the wall.

T.K. knelt down and put his hands on the egg when it let off sparks and sent him flying into a wall.

"T.K.!" yelled Katriena as she ran over to him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." he said as he rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the wall. "I don't think I'm the one who is supposed to pull that egg, though."

As soon as he was done talking, a big Digimon burst in the door and growled at them. Joe and Kari turned quickly, but left their hands planted on the wall.

"Look out!" said Gomamon as he ran in front of Joe to protect him. "It's Gargoylemon! Let's hope his temper isn't as hard as his head! Watch out for his powerful stone wings and his Aerial Avalanche attack!"

T.K. stood up and called to Patamon. "Joe and Kari need to concentrate on making that egg. Digi Armor Energize!"

"Patamon Armor Digivolve to... Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!"

Pegasusmon flew in to hold off Gargoylemon as Kari and Joe tried to finish their task. Katriena looked at T.K. "What am I supposed to do? I can't just stand here!"

T.K. looked concerned. He didn't quite know if she was ready to actually have her Digimon battle. "Uhhh, you can try to pull that egg, I guess."

Katriena frowned, but if it was a way she could help, she was going to do it. She walked over and put her hands on the egg. To everyone's surprise it didn't send her flying or electrocute her. She tugged on it, but it didn't budge. It wasn't done forming.

"Katriena!" yelled Gatomon. "That egg is yours! You need to hurry and pull it so you can help T.K.!"

"Kari and I will try to hurry this up!" said Joe. "Pegasusmon, we need you to protect us. Gomamon can join you, too."

"Right!" said Gomamon. "Gomamon Digivolve to... Gomamon? Hey, Joe, how come I couldn't Digivolve?"

"I think it's cause they're using their power to energize the egg!" said Gatomon. "We'd better just stay back!"

"Hurry up, Katriena!" said Kari. "T.K.'s going to need help soon!"

Katriena pulled even harder and small beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. "I have to pull this egg!" she was thinking. "They need me!"

Velvemon was clinging to Katriena's leg in fear and she was shaking badly.

Katriena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "My friends are counting on me!" The egg popped up and Katriena stumbled back. She was breathing heavily when she looked at the egg in her hands. It was purple on the bottom half and golden on the top half with a small pair of white wings on the back. On the front there was a dark purple symbol that looked like a mix between the symbol of Light and the symbol of Reliability.

Velvemon started to glow and she looked at Katriena. "You did it! I can feel the power surging through my body! That's definitely your Double Digiegg of Reliability and Light!"

Just as she had said that a horde of rocks fell from the sky and buried Pegasusmon. T.K. ran over to the pile of rocks and Katriena looked at her Digimon.

"Are you ready for this, Velvemon?" she asked as she held the egg up in the air. "Digi Armor Energize!"

"This is it!" said Velvemon as the glow increased. "Velvemon Armor Digivolve to..." Her size was quickly increasing to a human shape. She had grown to about seven feet tall. She was decked out in golden armor on her legs, arms, neck, and head. She was now wearing a white gown and she had a nice set of white wings. The symbol of Reliability and Light was on her forehead and she had a sword in one hand.

"Seraphmon, the Guardian of Shining Reliability!"

Katriena smiled a big smile.

"As Velvemon, I use the Double Digiegg of Reliability and Light to Armor Digivolve into Seraphmon. Although I'm known for my composure and eloquence, I can roughen things up with my Gleaming Blade attack."

"Enough talking!" shouted Gargoylemon. "You want me? Come and get me!"

"Be careful!" yelled Katriena as Seraphmon flew in for action.

Seraphmon readied her sword and it began to glow. Gargoylemon called for an Aerial Avalanche, but she ducked out of the way and drew in close to him.

"Gleaming Blade!" she shouted as she thrust her sword at him. An immense light lit the entire room and everyone had to shield their eyes.

When the light faded, Gargoylemon was lying several feet away and on his back.

"For my final touch," said Seraphmon. "I'll add in a Hydro Fist!" She threw a punch at him and a blast of water came out of her hand straight for him. He shouted and tried to get out of the way, but it hit him on full impact.

He fell to the ground and the sound of glass shattering could be heard as the rocks on top of Patamon disappeared. Seraphmon turned back into Velvemon and everyone looked over at Gargoylemon who sat up and blinked his eyes a couple of times.

"Where am I?" he asked. "Have I met you before?"

Katriena just stared at him, "Don't you... Didn't we just... Are you...?"

Kari just laughed and smiled at him. "What she means it that you fell asleep here and we found you."

"Oh." He said as he smiled. "Sorry 'bout that. Hey, what happened in here? It looks like a Monochromon wrestling grounds."

"Well actually..." began Joe when Kari interrupted him.

"Uh, it was this way when we found it. I don't know what happened." she smiled a fake smile and he bought it.

"Well, sorry to trouble you. I'll be leaving now." With that he took flight and flew out of the building's new sunroof.

"What happened to him?" asked Joe as he looked at Kari.

"You think I know?" she asked him. "I have no idea. It appeared that something was controlling him, though, and somehow, when Katriena beat him, it was destroyed. So we didn't want him to leave thinking he was the bad guy. He was actually really sweet."

T.K., who hadn't talked during all of this, walked up to Katriena. He was holding a sleeping and severely bruised Patamon in his arms. "Katriena, I need to thank you." He said.

"Wha..."

"Thanks to you pulling the egg, Patamon was able to make it. I owe you."

"Awww," she waved her hand at him. "You don't owe me anything."

"Yes I do!"

"No you don't!"

"But I do!"

"Fine!" she said. "But don't think I won't hold you up to it!"


"I'm ready to go." said Jessi. "We came here and did what we had to do. I learned how to make Feemon Digivolve. Can we go home now?"

"I don't see why not." said Cody. "I'll send an email and see if anyone else is ready to go."


"Look!" said Yolei. "I'm getting an email from Cody. Jessi's whining about wanting to go home."

"Sounds like Jessi." said Davis.

"Well, I'm ready to go too." said Shannon in her sister's defense.


Katriena was trying to figure out how to use her new strange little computer when she got an email. "Hey, guys!" she said. "Everyone else is going home. Are you ready?"

"Let's go!" said Kari.


"Is everything in place, Gizamon?" asked a nasty dark shadowy figure.

"Sure is, boss." said the Gizamon as he finished punching something out on a computer. "I have to commend your intellect, sir. None before us have tried such a stunt and it is pure genius! Even if it doesn't get rid of the Digidestined, it'll be fun to watch!"

"Silence!" said another dark figure. "Your opinion is useless. You just need to make sure they all travel back at the exact same time or it won't work! We don't have time for mistakes. We need to destroy the Digidestined before they find the Legendary Digimon of the Digimentals. Our few servants that have been sent out have failed so we have little time left!"


Davis stretched. They had just gotten back from the Digital World. "So what's this about whining about wanting to leave, Jessi?" he mocked as he scanned the room. There they were, Cody, Shannon, T.K., Yolei, and Joe. YOLEI AND JOE??

"Where am I?" asked Joe as he scratched his shoulder. "What are you guys doing in my dorm room?"

Shannon stared at him. "What are you doing here? This isn't your dorm room, this is T.K.'s apartment!"

Yolei frowned. "Wha... how... what am I doing here?"

Joe took one look around and started to wail. "You mean I'm back in JAPAN?" he fell to his knees. "This can't be happening!"

"Keep it down!" said T.K., "You'll freak out my neighbors!"

"Does anyone know where Jessi is?" asked Shannon. "And Katriena isn't here either."

That's when T.K. noticed. "They both aren't here, and Yolei and Joe are here in their places!"

"You mean you think Jessi and Katriena are still in the Digital World?" said Yolei.

Joe was bawling. "How am I supposed to get back to America now?"

T.K. ignored Joe and continued to think "Is it also possible they could have switched places?"

"You mean you think Katriena's at Yolei's college and Jessi's at Joe's or the other way around?" asked Shannon.

"Sounds logical to me." said Yolei. "I'll just need to leave for my dorm as soon as possible. I have to finish getting ready for school, you know. I could arrange to give whoever's there a ride back here."

"Wait a minute." said Davis, as he appeared deep in thought. "If they 'switched places', we'd have to figure out what caused it. And also, if that is the case, wouldn't that put one of them in America?"

The room went silent.

"That's what I've been saying!" said Joe. "School starts in a few days and somehow I need to get back to America in that time!"

"What about whoever's there?" said Cody. "We need to get them back before their parents find out!"


Chapter Seven - A Walk in the Park

 Jessi was holding DemiFeemon in her arms. "Why is it so dark in here?" she asked. "Okay, Shannon, T.K., Katriena, I know you guys are here, you can turn the lights on now."

Nothing happened.

"Okay, Davis, ha ha, you got your revenge, now turn on the lights!"

"I don't think anyone's here yet, Jessi." said DemiFeemon.

Jessi grumbled as she stumbled around the room looking for a light switch. She finally found a switch and quickly switched it. What she saw made her freeze in her place.

"Jessi," muttered DemiFeemon. "This doesn't look like T.K.'s apartment."


Izzy was closing the gate to the Digital World and talking at the same time. "Well, that was an interesting trip, wasn't it Yolei?" He finished and looked up at the girl next to him.

Katriena stared at him confusedly. "I'm not Yolei. Have you forgotten my name already, Izzy?"

Izzy stared at her. "Katriena? What are you doing here? I thought you were at T.K.'s house!"

"I was." she said. "But I guess I'm not anymore. I wonder what happened."

"What are you doing at my college?" said Izzy. "Why isn't Yolei here? I wonder if some glitch in the Digital World caused you two to accidentally go to the wrong computers."

"You mean I'm at your college?" asked Katriena. "Cool!"

"This is no reason to be rejoicing!" he said as he began to immediately address an email to T.K.'s apartment. "We have to trade you two back!"

"Don't I get a tour?" asked Katriena. "I was hoping to see the campus!"


"We're getting an email from Izzy!" said T.K. as he sat down at the computer to receive it.

Joe was sitting on a couch in a daze. "I'm back in Japan." he kept murmuring. "How am I supposed to get back to America?"

"It says Katriena's with him and he has no idea how this happened." said T.K. as he read the email.

Shannon winced. "So they really did trade places." she said. "I wonder what Kari and Mimi's parents will say about this."

T.K. continued. "He thinks there's a way we can reverse the process to trade Jessi and Joe back. Unfortunately it might take him a couple of days to figure out how, but it will save us plane tickets!"

Cody shook his head. "You're still missing the point, T.K." said Cody. "What are we supposed to tell Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya when they come to get Jessi?"

"And what do we say to Mimi's parents?" asked Davis.

T.K. grimaced. This was going to be harder than he thought.


Jessi had no idea where she was so she decided to go out of the small room and find out where she was. She grabbed a coat off of a small coat hanger and walked out of the room with DemiFeemon in her arms.

As soon as she stepped into the hall a boy started walking towards her. "Hey you!" he called out.

Jessi looked behind her to see whom he was talking to. "You mean me?"

"Well yeah." He said as he stared at her in a funny way. "What are you doing on the boys floor?"

"Boys floor?" asked Jessi.

"Yeah." He said. "You know, the dorms here are divided into boys floors for odd numbers and girls floors for evens. You aren't supposed to go into rooms on a floor that isn't yours."

Pieces began to fall into place. Jessi was in a strange building that resembled a dorm, she was wearing a ... lab coat, and this guy was speaking to her in English. Could she possibly be in someone's school? But whose? She looked down at her coat. There was a name tag on it that said "Joe". The color drained from her face.

"Uh, I forgot something in my room!" she said as she quickly ran back into Joe's room and shut the door.

Jessi sat down on the small bed and started to think. "Okay, I'm in America at Joe's Med. School. But how did I get here and where's Joe?"

She heaved a sigh and sat down on the bed. "What do I do, DemiFeemon?" asked Jessi. "We're in America and I have no idea what to do."

DemiFeemon shrugged her little shoulders. "I guess you could email everyone else and tell them what happened."

"Good idea!" Jessi said as she whipped out her new little computer and started typing away.


"WHAT?" shrieked the evil voice of a dark devilish Digimon. "It only worked on two of them?"

"Actually, four." said the Gizamon.

"ARRGGGH!!" screamed the voice again as it hit the Gizamon and sent it flying across the room. "Now our plan is ruined!"

"Not necessarily, sir." said another voice as it stepped into the light. The tall black lizard Digimon performed a quick bow and continued. "Two of the switched ones were switched between two separate countries. This way they won't be able to correct it."

The first Digimon contained its anger. "You are right. There might be hope yet."


Izzy was still on the computer and Katriena and Satimon were growing bored. "Hey Izzy?" said Katriena "Can't you just take me back to Tokyo? I'm bored."

"It's not that easy." He said. "Tokyo is four hours away and we don't have that time. I have to find a way to reverse the process and we can send you back that way."

"What is everyone saying?" asked Katriena.

"Well Shannon's worrying about both you and Jessi, T.K. is freaking out about what to tell your host families, and, oh look! I'm getting an email from Jessi!" A new window popped up on the screen and he read it out loud.

"Hey guys! Wish you were here! It didn't take me long to figure out where I was. By the way, Joe, you have a nice room. You keep it clean and everything! I commend you. As for everything else, I want to go back to Japan. If anyone can get me back soon I would really appreciate it. There's some guy here that's trying to kick me off the 'guy's floor' so get me out of here quick!"

"I'd better write her back and tell her it might take longer than I thought." said Izzy. "I'm planning to find out exactly how it happened so I can reverse the process and send you all back that way. However, until we have this figured out, I don't want anyone going back to the Digital World!"

"Well what am I supposed to do until then?" asked Katriena. "If I can't go home and I can't call Mimi's parents for a ride, what should I do?"

"You'll have to stay with me." said Izzy. "We'll make up some excuse."

"And we'll leave talking to my parents to T.K." said Katriena. "Poor guy."


Tai was cleaning his dorm room when Matt got back from the Digital World. Matt had just barely finished telling him about how Shannon had gotten her egg when an urgent email popped up on the screen.

"Look at this!" said Matt. "It's from Izzy! It says they're having trouble. Joe and Yolei switched places with Jessi and Katriena? That doesn't make any sense!"

"Wait a minute!" said Tai. "Wouldn't that put Katriena at Yolei's college and Jessi in America?"

"I guess so!" Matt responded. "I wonder if when we all traveled back something went wrong and they just came out of the wrong computers."

"We'd better find out soon!"


"I'm getting an email from Jessi!" said T.K. as another window popped up on the screen. Joe walked over to read what it said.

Shannon sighed when they were all done reading. "Can we stop playing e-tag here for a minute? Our parents will be here to pick us up any minute. What are you going to tell them?"

Davis winced. "We'll have to tell them the truth. At least they all know about being a Digidestined and stuff so it won't be a terrible surprise. Plus we can tell them that Izzy's on the job and we'll have them back before school starts."

"Sounds stupid, but it's our only choice." said Yolei.

"Let me write to Jessi." said Joe as he moved towards the computer. "If she's going to be there for the next few days, then she'd better know some stuff."


Jessi was getting emails. One from Matt and Tai that told her not to worry and they'd make sure things were taken care of with Tai's parents, one from Izzy that told her she might be there for a few days and that she couldn't go back to the Digital World, and one from Joe giving her strict instructions.

"Jessi." It said, "Now if you run into anyone else say you're my cousin and you're checking the school out. I went to go visit my aunt or something so you're going to stay in my room. My roommate won't be getting back into town for a few days so you won't have to worry about that. Don't go wondering around a lot! Also, since I'll be supplying room and board, I want you to..." And then the letter went on with a list of stuff he wanted done: arranging study books, checking out books at the library, finishing cleaning the room and so on.

DemiFeemon frowned. "And I was hoping we could have fun!"

"We will have fun!" said Jessi. "Living on your own is fun! We're both far away from home, now! Sure, it requires a lot of responsibility, but it's just you and me for a few days. It'll be awesome!"


Just then a girl walked into the computer lab where Izzy and Katriena were. "Hi Izzy!" she said. He whirled around to face her and Katriena did the same.

"Oh, hi, Arimi." He said with a slight tone of annoyance in his voice.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked as she moved around to see.

Izzy quickly closed all of the windows. "Just checking my email."

Arimi looked at Katriena. "Who's this?"

"Oh that's Katriena." said Izzy and then after a long pause. "A family friend."

Katriena assumed the role. "Yeah, Izzy and I have been pals forever and I came by to visit for a few days."

Arimi's eyes scrunched. She didn't like this Katriena girl. She had been chasing Izzy for a long time now and then this girl just comes in and takes her place! This made her very jealous.

Izzy frowned. He had been avoiding Arimi for over a year. She had a major crush on him, but he just simply wasn't interested. She was Yolei's roommate and she was always asking Yolei about him and trying to follow him. He could tell by the look in her eyes that she was jealous.

"Katriena, this is Arimi, Yolei's roommate." He explained, and then he looked at Arimi. "Yolei's out of town on some important business so for the next few days, Katriena will be staying in her room."

Katriena smiled at shook hands with Arimi. "Nice to meet you." she said. "Izzy's told me all about you."

Izzy stared at her and started moving his hand across his neck to tell her to "cut it out!". Arimi beamed, "Really?"

Katriena saw Izzy and got the idea she had pulled a bad string. "Well, he's only told me a little, but from what I heard, you sound like a really nice person."

Izzy smacked his hand on his forehead.

Arimi said it was nice to meet Katriena and that she would see her later on and then she left the computer lab.

"Katriena!" said Izzy.

"What?" she asked. "What was I supposed to say?"

"You didn't have to compliment her!"

"Why?" asked Katriena. "Why is it such a big deal?"

"Well she's... She kind of..."

"What? What?"

"She kind of has a crush on me." he muttered under his breath.

"What?" asked Katriena. "I couldn't hear you!"

"SHE HAS A CRUSH ON ME!" he said.

"Oh."

"She's been chasing me and asking me out ever since she first started coming here and she's driving me crazy. Now she thinks I tell my friends about her."

"That's so cute!" said Katriena. "Maybe I could add in some things when I go to the room tonight..."

Izzy grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and had a terrified look in his eyes, "Please don't!" he begged. "The last thing I want is for her to think I like her. That would be the end of my life as I know it!"

Katriena removed his hands from her shoulders and raised an eyebrow at him. "Calm down! I was only kidding. Don't worry, I won't give her any advances."

He sighed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much. I'll try to hurry and fix this problem so we can get you back to Tokyo safely if you promise not to give her any ideas."

"It's a deal."


The door in T.K.'s apartment rang and everyone froze.

"Someone answer the door!" said Davis.

"No way!" said T.K. "I'm going to be in so much trouble for this! I hope missing people doesn't go on my record!"

"Fine!" said Davis. "I'll get it." He walked over to the door, opened it, greeted Mimi's dad and Kari's mom and invited them in.

"Well, hi!" said Kari's mom. "Sorry I'm a little late!"

"Uhh, you two might want to sit down." said Yolei as she walked over to the couch.

The parents sat down and Yolei began to talk. She told them how Jessi, Katriena, and Shannon were all Digidestined and how something had screwed up and Jessi and Katriena had switched places with her and Joe. "But if I can stay with one of you for the next few days, we promise we'll have them back before school starts."

T.K. was shaking. This was the last Digidestined party he'd have at his house. He said Joe could stay with his dad for the next few days and live in Matt's old room.

The parents took it rather well and Kari's mom said they'd take care of Yolei for the next few days. With everything settled, they decided to call it a night. They had a busy day tomorrow.


Jessi peeked out of Joe's room. She knew Joe had warned her not to, but she wanted to explore. She had grabbed a small shoulder bag of his and stuffed DemiFeemon into it. No one was in the hall so she took off.

"Wow!" she said. "I actually feel like I'm in college and like I actually go here!"

"Hey!" said a voice behind her. "It's you again."

Jessi slouched and turned to face the person who was talking to her. It was the same guy from before. "Hey, look." she said. "I can explain! See, I'm Joe's cousin from out of town. He's gone away for a while to visit some of our family and I'm staying in his room to scope out your school. I'm thinking on attending here next year once I graduate."

The boy's face lighted up. "Oh, well, then I wasn't very welcoming, was I?" He stuck his hand out. "I'm Erik."

"I'm Jessi." Then she added. "Hey, you wouldn't mind showing me around, would you? I really wanna see the school but I don't know where to start!"

"No problem!" said the Erik. "It would be an honor."

They walked around and he showed her everything. She loved the campus! It was the greatest place she had ever seen. She had a hard time focusing, though, because in her internal clock it was nine o'clock at night.

She thanked Erik when she got back to Joe's room and went in. It was late morning, there, but she really wanted to take a nap. When she woke up, she'd go to the library and find some of Joe's books on his book list.

With that, she curled up with DemiFeemon and fell asleep.


The phone rang in T.K.'s apartment and he picked it up. It was Sora's mom calling for Shannon. He handed her the phone and then went back to doing dishes. Everyone else had gone home and Shannon was the only one there. His dad had gotten home not to long ago and he was finishing cleaning up.

"I understand." said Shannon, "No, of course it isn't a problem! We don't live that far and it won't take me that long to walk. I'll see you later." Then she hung up and looked over at T.K.

"She has to stay late at the shop so I have to go home and meet her. Thanks for everything today and I'll see you tomorrow at ten."

"No wait!" said T.K. "You can't just go by yourself. Are you sure you know the way?"

"I'm pretty sure." she said. "Besides, if some big Digimon tries to attack me I have Peeweemon." she smiled at her little green fluffball.

"Are you sure?" said T.K. as he continued her joke. "You might just want to have me and Patamon around just in case."

Patamon started posing like he was at a body shop and Shannon and Peeweemon laughed.

"Besides," T.K. continued. "I know a short cut through the park and I'd feel much better if I were to walk you home. It is rather late."

Shannon couldn't stop herself from grinning. He was so sweet! Talk about a chivalrous knight in shining armor! She couldn't resist.

"Okay." she said as she pretended to curtsey. "I am privileged that you would suggest to walk with me, sir."

He bowed and looked up at her, "My pleasure, my lady."

They laughed and T.K. yelled to his dad and Joe that they'd be back. He led her through the park and towards her apartment. It was beautiful this time of night, the moon was shining off the lake and even though people were rushing around and playing around them, it all seemed so magical.

They continued the knight and lady thing for a little while and then they began to talk about tomorrow. They were all going to meet at T.K.'s house at ten that day and get some information from Izzy about what they would need to do to solve this. He was going to get everyone online and see if Ken could help and then give everyone the heads up.

T.K. couldn't help but think about what he and Katriena had talked about. Katriena had told him not to be shy about telling Shannon he liked her or asking her to go out for ice cream or something, but he couldn't help it. It was his nature to be shy. He sighed. He wished he was more like Matt.

As for now, just walking with her, and talking with her was just perfect, and he didn't want to ruin the moment.

Shannon was glad T.K. had offered to walk with her. The park was beautiful tonight and it had instantly become one of her favorite places she had seen in Japan so far. She liked how it was so easy to be with him. She could tell she was falling for him, but she couldn't help it. He was like no guy she had ever met, and even though it probably meant nothing when he offered to walk her home, it meant a lot to her. But how would she say thanks without revealing any of her feelings?

When they arrived at Shannon's apartment, Shannon was at a loss. She just smiled and said thanks and that she'd see him tomorrow. He just simply smiled back and said, "See ya!".

She walked into the apartment and turned on a light. "Surely I could have said more." she thought. "Oh well, he didn't say much either. At least I know where we stand."

T.K. was walking back through the park. No one was there, so Patamon was riding on his shoulder.

"It seems like there's a lot on your mind, T.K." said Patamon.

"Only a little."

"Well, what is it? Maybe I can help."

T.K. smiled and patted Patamon on the head. "Nah, I don't think you could, little guy."

"It's about Shannon, isn't it?"

"Well, sort of."

"Well, what are you worried about? You walked her home, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but, I guess I wish I would have said more when we said good-bye."

Patamon rolled his eyes. "You humans! You always have to make such a big deal out of everything! Just take it slow. If she likes you, she'll come around. Just stick with simple things like flirting."

"Hey." said T.K., "I don't flirt."

"Whatever you say, sir." said Patamon as he batted his eyes.

T.K. blushed. "Shut up!" he said teasingly.

"That's what I thought." said Patamon.

"But really," said T.K., "This is probably just a stupid crush and I'll forget I ever liked her by next month."

"Whatever you say, sir."


Chapter Eight - Work in Progress

 Katriena rolled over in Yolei's bed. Her dorm room was pretty neat. It wasn't super tidy, and there were pictures of guys all over the walls. It was pretty roomy, though.

For some reason she couldn't sleep. It was probably because she was in a new place and she had borrowed some new pajamas that were long on her, but something else was toying with her.

She reached for her little computer and turned it on. Izzy was on his computer so his name showed up on hers. "What's he doing up so late?" she wondered. She sent him an instant message.

"Woa." he said. "You scared me! I'm just finding out a little more. I want to know as much as possible when I email everyone tomorrow."

"Come on, Izzy." she wrote back. "You can't stay up all night! You have school starting in a few days. Catch up on your zz's!"

"Ha ha." he responded. "I just want to do a little more..."

"Do I need to wake up Arimi and send her down to you to tell you to shut off the lights?"

"NO! I mean... no. I'll get off in a little while, I promise."

"You'd better, and that's an order. Even smart guys like you need their sleep."

He sent a little smiley face on the message and then added, "I'll keep that in mind. Now you need to go to sleep too! You have to be at the computer lab at ten tomorrow with me!"

"I know," she wrote back, "And with my sleeping habits I'd better knock myself out now or else I won't be there till well after one!"

He sent another smiley face and she shut off her computer, folded it up and went to sleep.


Jessi woke up. It was now afternoon and DemiFeemon was still sleeping. She decided to run to the cafeteria and snag a bite to eat. Joe said she could use his student I.D. to get stuff to eat.

She got there and was deciding on what to have when someone tapped her on the shoulder. It was Erik!

"I don't suggest you eat here." He said. "This stuff is toxic. You'd think with the courses they teach here, they'd serve something worth eating, but it really isn't."

Jessi laughed, "But I can't eat anywhere else. Joe said my meals will be free of charge if I use his I.D. number."

"How mean of him to leave his poor cousin with school food!" said Erik. "Maybe I could take you out to get something decent sometime."

"Oh, I dunno." said Jessi. "Maybe I'd better to what Joe says."

"Aww, Joe never has any fun!"

"Well, let me try this stuff and if it's as bad as you say, I just might take you up on that offer!"


Davis woke up the next morning at 10:05. "Oh no!" he said as he pounded out of bed and leaped over a pile of clothes to grab his computer. Unfortunately, he tripped on something and landed face first on the floor, but DemiVeemon was already on the computer.

"DemiVeemon!" said Davis. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You were sleeping soundly." said DemiVeemon as he continued to chat. "Besides, it's okay, I filled in for you!"

"Thanks, buddy. You're a real life saver!" Davis picked up the computer and looked at the screen:

Izzy: I found out some neat stuff last night before I had to get off.
Katriena: I made him get off.
Davis: alsdfhsdiiewrcmmew83dliafdj
Kari: Davis, are you not fully awake yet? We have important business to tend to.
Shannon: Is Jessi on yet?
Davis: dsaiewlrmvcbahdsysis8092lakdas
Joe: All right, Davis, we get the picture, now stop doing that.
Davis: a''; dfsdfloqw912 djfdmc
Mimi: Davis, cut it out!

Davis grimaced and glared at DemiVeemon who was proudly beaming at him. "I guess I never did teach you how to type, did I?"

"Sorry, guys." he typed. "My computer was... malfunctioning."

Izzy ignored him and continued: "I think it was simply caused by a faulty in the Digiworld's transporting portion."

Ken agreed. "I checked it out too and it seems as though it also could have been affected by the Digi Force. It is possible for someone to tamper with it and switch us around."

"I have a theory as well." said Cody. "I think that once we all transported back (since we transported back at approximately the same time) we could have accidentally switched."

"Hey, guys, sorry I'm late!" said Jessi as her name appeared on the screen.

"Some prompt one you are." said Davis. "Thanks for keeping us waiting."

"Hey, don't blame me!" she retorted. "I'm still suffering jet lag even without being on a jet!"

"Tell me about it." said Joe as Izzy quickly briefed her.

"Those all sound possible." she said. "I think all of us coming back at the same time played a major part."

"I still don't get it, though." said Sora.

"Well look at it this way," said Matt, "If a crowd of people all came into a concert or something through separate doors and then just went out with the crowd, not all of them would all go out the same door they came in. They'd just move with the crowd and just focus on getting out of all the chaos."

"Great analogy, Matt." said Tai. "Now can someone explain that in English?"

Yolei took a turn. "We did all come back to the real world at the same time. Whenever we've done that before, we've always come out of the same computer we went in because that was the only computer we used. But now, since we're all using different computers to get here, there are so many portals opened up all around the world, even. An evil Digimon could use that to their advantage and simply switch a person's line of transport. I don't think it'd be that hard actually."

"Well," said Izzy. "We might have things back to normal sooner than we thought!"

Jessi was disappointed. She actually liked it a Joe's college and wished she could stay for another day. But school was school and that came first. Darn.

Davis signed his good-bye and they all logged off. He was glad this would be over and everything would be back to normal for the time being. The last thing he wanted on the first day of school was stress.

Whether he believed it or not, he actually kinda missed Jessi. Her sister was nice, but she was too serene. Jessi was wild, obnoxious, and clever. She always had a comeback when he mouthed off to her. She was fun to tease. It was probably fun because she teased him back. No girl had ever done that before. A lot of them saw it as being mean or rude. Jessi saw it more as a challenge and a playful thing. She even teased him when they were chatting. He was thinking of plans he could do to initiate her into the group now that she was really part of the team when DemiVeemon tapped him on the shoulder.

"Davis, I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry!" said Davis. But he was in too good of a mood to let Veemon starve.


Katriena and Izzy walked out of a coffee shop. "Wow!" said Katriena. "I didn't know you had a coffee shop on your campus!"

"They're one of the best ones in this area." said Izzy. "It's run by students and it's a key hang out."

"I never thought you would be one of the lives of the party!" she said.

"Oh, you mean in there?" he blushed. "I just go there a lot so people know me, and I worked there when I first started going here, that's all."

"Well, let's see, you have a lot of girls chasing you, you're popular, and you make and drink espresso! I never would have guessed!"

"Well, I guess I do act rather dignified around everyone else."

"You got that right!" said Katriena. "By the way, thanks for the mocha. They're my favorite!"

"My treat." He said. "Besides, you can't have visited my school without having one of our famous mochas!"

She laughed and they headed for the library.


Shannon was over at T.K.'s again. Joe, T.K., Davis, and Cody had decided they all should meet there so they could do what they could to help the situation. However, it turned out to be that they were really just gathering together to play video games. Yolei suspected this and said she'd stay home. This left poor Shannon as the only girl.

"Yeah! I win again!" shouted Davis. "Just wait till Jessi gets back! She won't stand a chance!"

"It's just cause you're playing poor Joe." said Cody. "He's never been good at video games like you guys are."

Joe hung his head. "I just don't get it."

Shannon felt sorry for him and she plugged in another controller. "Here, Joe, I'll be on your team."

"Wait a minute!" said Davis, "That isn't fair!"

"Well, then we can give you a handicap too." said T.K. Just then Matt and Tai walked into the apartment.

"Oh, hey guys!" he said. "Tai and I thought we'd come into town to see if there was anything we could do to help. We didn't know you'd all be here!"

T.K. grinned at Davis. "And your handicap just walked in the door."

"Huh?" asked Davis.

"Oh Matt!" sung T.K. as he ran over to his brother. "Davis wants you to be on his team."

"No!" said Davis through clenched teeth. "Anything but Matt!"

Matt beamed. "Really? Wow, well, sure I'll play!"

Davis glared at T.K. and Matt plugged in another controller. Before long, Matt was out of the game and it was Shannon and Joe vs. Davis. Joe was actually getting the hang of it while Shannon helped him along and they had Davis out in no time.

"Aw man!" said Davis. "Ya lost it for me, Matt."

Matt smiled an embarrassed smile, "So I haven't played in a few years. I'm not that bad am I?"

Joe was thanking Shannon. "Wow!" he said, "That was actually kind of fun! I never knew a girl could beat Davis!"

"Well before we left for..." Shannon started before Davis clasped his hand over her mouth and grinned at Joe.

"I let you win." he said. "It was good experience for you."

Davis removed his hand from Shannon's mouth and she glared at him. He lowered his voice and whispered, "Not in front of Tai, okay?"

Shannon didn't understand but she shrugged it off.

"Gee, Davis." said Matt. "Why'd you have to attack Shannon?"

Davis turned bright red and smiled a fake smile. "I... I was just playin'."

Tai shrugged his shoulders. "We've been noticing you've been acting very strange lately. Particularly around Jessi, but now her sister?"

Davis thrust his chin into the air. "I'm just trying to toughen them up, that's all." There was a pause and then he added. "Jessi's a crybaby. She needs to be tougher."

"Actually Jessi's very..." started Shannon before she caught the look in Davis's eyes. "Never mind."

"Yeah, whatever, Davis." said Cody. "You've just never properly learned how to act around a girl."

"Oh yeah?" challenged Davis, "Well, how do you know what a girl wants?"

"You don't need to know." said Joe. "Take T.K. for instance."

T.K. turned bright red and went back to cleaning up their mess.

Joe continued. "Last night, when Sora's mom couldn't come get Shannon, T.K. walked her home. That was very chivalrous and a good thing to do. You liked it didn't you, Shannon?"

All eyes turned to Shannon as she turned red. T.K. was especially interested because he wanted to hear her answer.

Tai saw her squirm and spoke, "Aw, come on, guys! Leave it alone. How'd we get on this subject anyways?"

"We were talking about Davis's pathetic history with girls." said Cody. "Like remember that time last year when he asked that one girl to the Valentine's dance?"

Everyone who understood broke out laughing. Shannon was confused and Joe appeared to be also. Cody was about to explain when Davis stopped him.

"Aw, come off it!" said Davis as he crossed his arms in front of him and pouted.

T.K. was secretly disappointed. He had wanted to hear what Shannon's reply was. But maybe she didn't answer because she didn't want to hurt his feelings! Ow. That would be the worst thing in the world.

Shannon heaved a sigh. She was lucky Tai had rescued her from that. She had just frozen. She wanted to tell them all of what she was thinking and how T.K. was always so nice and sweet and how she wanted to walk with him all the time, but instead she had clammed up. And what was that that had Joe said? He said T.K. had walked her home purely out of the goodness in his heart. That was it? It didn't mean anything more? She found herself frowning and quickly put on a fake smile so no one would notice. "Just give yourself time, Shannon." she thought. "You'll be over him before you know it."


Jessi had finished eating. Erik was right; the cafeteria food there was toxic. Either way she had snuck a few bananas and breadsticks to take up to DemiFeemon back in her room.

"This has to be the best weight loss program in the world!" she thought. "After eating this sludge for another day or two, I'll be more fit than anyone else!"

Erik had left right after their rendezvous in the cafeteria. Jessi was partly glad for that. She liked his company, but she still had to clean parts of Joe's room, and knowing her, that was going to take a looooong time.


"Will Koishiro Izumi please come to the main desk in the main building?" blared the announcements. Izzy was so busy trying to fix the problem that he didn't hear it.

"Izzy?" asked Katriena as she tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped like he hadn't known she was there and turned around.

"What is it?"

"You were just paged to go to the main desk. Are you in trouble?"

Izzy blinked as if he was trying to remember something and then shook his head and stood up. "Well, I guess I'd better go, than. Do you want to come?"

"Yeah!" she said as she motioned for Satimon to jump into her arms. "We both wanna come!"

"Remember, Satimon," said Izzy. "You are a stuffed animal."

"I know, I know." said Satimon. "Don't worry."

When they got to the main desk, Katriena looked around. There was a young lady at the desk and there was a room that almost looked like a waiting room. There was only one person in there and he was just sitting there all alone.

Izzy walked over to the desk. "Did you call for me? I'm Koishiro Izumi."

"Yeah." said the lady. "Some one was looking for you." she pointed over to the lone figure and Izzy looked. When he saw, his blood ran cold.

"Willis?" he stammered.

"Izzy?" asked the boy.

"Wha... what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to come on the..."

"The thirtieth?" asked Willis. "Yeah. Why? Are you living by the Roman time system or something?"

Izzy looked at his wristwatch and then smacked his hand against his forehead. "Oh, Willis! I'm so sorry! I just completely lost track of time! I've been busy with some stuff - I'll have to tell you about that later - and I just..."

"Hey Izzy." said Willis. "It's okay, really. Just show me where I can put my bags and I'll be fine."

Katriena was confused all through this. Izzy had never mentioned a Willis to her. Who was this Willis guy?

Izzy practically read her mind as he turned around to introduce them. "Katriena, this is Willis. He's a friend of mine from America and he's here to check out our computer college. I said he could stay with me - since I don't have a roommate - and check things out for a week or so. I guess I just got sidetracked and forgot when he was coming."

Willis looked back and forth from Katriena to Izzy, Izzy to Katriena and then raised his eyebrow expectantly at Izzy.

Izzy blushed. "No," he said. "Not like that! It... it's a long story. I'll explain it later." He grabbed one of Willis's bags and led the way towards his room.


Everyone had left except for Joe, Matt, Tai, and T.K. Tai called his mom and told him he would be in town for a day or two and said we would be over in a little while.

Shannon had just received a call from Sora's mom telling her to walk home again. They were all standing there very awkwardly. Shannon was wondering if T.K. was going to offer to walk her home, T.K. was wondering if he should offer to walk her home, and Matt and Tai were having a staring contest.

"Well," said Shannon when it looked like T.K. wasn't going to say anything. "I'd better be going. Thanks for every..."

"Shannon, wait!" said T.K. as he ran up to the door where she was walking out. "It's... uh... it's getting kind of dark out. Do you want me to walk you home?"

Shannon's heart skipped a few beats. He said it! But was he saying it just to be nice? She was able to croak a small "Yeah." And they both left.

Matt, Tai and Joe looked from one to the other and gave each other a high five. "Joe, we owe ya, man!" said Tai.

"Yeah! I'm glad you emailed us about this! This is way better than college!" said Matt.

"You guys could have acted a little more naturally." said Joe. "Come on, a staring contest? What a pathetic excuse to be listening in!"

Matt blinked his eyes a couple of times to wet them back up. "Hey, it worked, didn't it? Besides, you were right: There is definitely something going on between those two!"

"It's kinda weird." thought Tai out loud. "I always thought T.K. would end up with my sister."

"Yeah." said Matt, "I did too. But hey, Shannon's cool. They're good for each other."

"Now guys," said Joe. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves! They're only walking home together, that's all."

"Yeah, but they wouldn't be walking home at all if it wasn't for us!" said Tai as he and Matt gave each other another high five.

"Somehow," thought Joe. "I don't think we really had much to do with it...


Things were very awkward for Shannon and T.K. at first. They weren't saying much. T.K. was walking with his hands in his pockets and Patamon on his head, and Shannon had her arms crossed in front of her holding Peeweemon.

They had taken the detour through the park and it was a beautiful night like the one before. Shannon decided to say something, "So tell me something. Why does Davis act weird when he's around Tai?"

T.K. smiled but kept his glaze straight ahead. "Aww, Matt and Tai are his role models. He's always been trying to impress them and 'be one of the guys'. I guess it just became too much of a habit."

Shannon looked over at T.K., "But doesn't that just encourage you? I mean, he is setting himself up to be teased and made fun of? Do you ever just want to use that against him?"

"Aw." said T.K., "Everyone's always picking on Davis. I kinda feel sorry for him so I try not to. But you're right, he does set himself up."

"That's his problem." said Shannon. "Jessi'll never let up on him as long as he leaves her an opening."

"Well, she sets herself up, too." said T.K. "And it's the same way with Davis. If he can jump in for attack, he will."

They both went silent and began to stare straight ahead again. Shannon was mad at herself for picking such a lame topic as Jessi and Davis, but hey, it had started the ball rolling.

"Are you going to come over again tomorrow?" asked T.K. "I know we don't really do anything productive to help Izzy and stuff, but it's kinda fun to hang out."

"Well," said Shannon. "I can't be there until late. I promised Mom I'd help her work in the store."

This made T.K. disappointed. But oh well, at least she was coming over!

They began to talk about their Digimon and some other things before they got to Shannon's apartment and they said good-bye.


Jessi wiped her forehead. She had been working hard on organizing Joe's room for a while now. DemiFeemon was trying to help her, but she was having a little trouble lifting Joe's textbooks. Jessi smiled at the poor thing's effort and decided to do something fun for a change.

"This cleaning is sure a drag." she said. "Come on. I have a few bucks in my pocket and you're doing such a good job helping me so let's go out for ice cream!"

DemiFeemon smiled. "Really? That would be so neat! But I have one question."

"What's that?"

"What is ice cream?"

Jessi smiled. "Don't worry, you'll love it. We can run to a Dairy Queen or something. If this is the America I remember, there should be one within a short distance."

"Let's go!"

"You'll have to hide in this bag, though." said Jessi. "I know you probably hate it, but you're just gonna have to."

"Aww, I've gotten used to it." said DemiFeemon as she climbed in and they set off. Jessi left the bag open a little so DemiFeemon could stick her head out and watch. Jessi loved the quaint little town. It almost reminded her of her home in America. They lived in a town that wasn't very populated, but it was very homey. Sure enough, there was an ice cream store not far off the campus. They sat down in a hidden corner where Jessi could share her ice cream.

"Why is Joe making us clean?" asked DemiFeemon with a mouthful of Jamocha.

"Well," said Jessi, "We're staying in his room and he needs to get ready for school. Since he's also supplying us with cafeteria food, we can help him get ready."

"It's so boring, though." said DemiFeemon.

"Don't worry." said Jessi. "We'll get back to Japan soon and then we'll have to get ready ourselves."

"Oh joy."


Chapter Nine - The Road Home

 Katriena was at dinner with Arimi. Satimon was in her backpack and she was being very good about being quiet. Arimi was talking about how school was there and how Izzy was one of the best students there.

Katriena found it boring. She liked Arimi, but Arimi liked Izzy too much. She felt sorry for the poor guy. She wondered if a lot of girls there had crushes on him. He seemed pretty popular.

Izzy was getting Willis settled in and was explaining the problem with the Digital Transportation to him. They made it Katriena's job to keep Arimi away. Katriena would have preferred staying with them and getting to know Willis (and his adorable twin Digimon), but it was late and she probably shouldn't be with them anyway.

"Are you hungry, Katriena?" asked Arimi as she looked at Katriena with concern in her eyes. "You aren't eating."

Katriena snapped out of her train of thought. She was being rude to Arimi and all Arimi was trying to do was be friendly. "No." she said. "I'm just waiting for it to cool down."

Arimi smiled. "Okay, but did you hear what I said? I asked you what you thought of that Willis guy."

"He's okay, I guess. He seems really smart and I think he and Izzy seem a lot alike."

"Really?" asked Arimi. "I think he's hot! I hope he decides to go here! That would totally make me the happiest person alive!"

Katriena couldn't help but smile. Poor Arimi. She was such a funny girl. Katriena figured she and Yolei probably got along really well. Katriena decided that she was going to stay in touch with Arimi when she got back to Japan


It was getting dark outside. Tai, Matt, Joe, Cody, T.K., and Davis were all at T.K.'s apartment again. Willis and Izzy were working together to solve the problem and they were just playing video games.

Tai, Matt and Joe kept noticing T.K. He seemed a little down today. Shannon had never showed up and they figured he was bummed about that. Every five minutes he would look at his watch and frown. The three found it very amusing and were about to say something about it when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" shouted T.K. as he leaped over to the door at lightning speed. As soon as he was behind the door he stopped, took a breath and opened it. "Hi, Shannon." he said.

"Would you look at that?" said Tai as he took a sip of his Dr. Pepper.

"Yeah." said Joe. "I haven't seen anyone act like that since Tai and Sora were kids."

Tai glared at him and Joe defended himself. "Just kidding, Tai!"

"No, really, though." said Matt. "Look at them." They all turned to see T.K. take Shannon's coat. It was raining slightly and she was kind of wet.

Davis stuck his head into their little group. "What's up guys?" He caught them off guard and they all fell off their stools. T.K., Shannon, and Cody looked over to see what had happened. Joe, Matt, and Tai were laying on the floor with swirls in their eyes and Davis looked surprised.

"Davis!" said Matt. "Don't do that!"

"Bu... but I just asked you a question!"

Shannon giggled. These guys were crazy. She was able to beg Sora's mom to let her come, even if she could only stay for an hour or so.

"Gee, Shannon." said Matt. "You look soaked."

"Oh, I'm fine." she said. "I just..."

"Why don't you go get her a shirt to change into, T.K.?" said Matt as if he hadn't heard Shannon.

T.K. said that was a good idea and he went to his room to go get her a shirt. He brought back one that said "Summer Vacation" and she went to the bathroom to change.

When she left Joe and Tai snuck Matt a high five. "Good going!" they said, "I couldn't have thought of anything better than that!"

They played video games some more. Joe was getting the hang of it more and more every time. Davis kept beating Shannon and she was starting to get bored. "Can't we play another game?"

"No!" he said. "Not until I beat you once more. Then I'm gonna play against T.K."

T.K. looked up. "You want to play me?"

"Come on, T.K.!" whined Davis. "I never get to play you. You never want to play and I want to see how well I can cream you. Especially If you play anything like your brother..."

"Hey, now, Davis." said Matt. "Don't make me have to take you down!"

Davis ignored him and continued talking to T.K. "So you're next, okay?"

T.K. rolled his eyes and Shannon and Davis went back to playing. "What's the matter, T.K.?" asked Tai. "Don't you want to play?"

"Aww, I haven't played that thing forever!" said T.K. "Whenever Davis comes over, he hogs it the entire time anyway. I don't know if I even remember how to play!"

"Come on, T.K.!" said Cody. "I want to see you play as much as everyone else."

When Davis had beaten Shannon again, T.K. moved in to play. Shannon moved up to the couch and watched the two duke it out.

Davis was winning for the first part, but once T.K. had gotten his grove back, he put Davis down. Everyone was congratulating T.K. and the Digimon were cheering like crazy when Shannon looked at the time.

"Oh no!" she said. "It's already nine o'clock? I told Mom I'd be home by then! I'd better call her. Do you mind if I use your phone?"

"Not at all." said Matt when no one else heard her. "Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah." she said as she walked down the hallway. "Thanks."

After T.K. was done being congratulated, he was going to his room to get another game when he heard Shannon talking on the phone. He stopped immediately. He didn't want her to think he was listening in, but he ended up doing so anyway.

"Sorry I didn't call sooner." he heard. "I lost track of time." he continued to listen.

"Yeah, I know, I left my umbrella. But it's no problem, I'm sure I'll be okay. Yeah, I know you kept telling me I needed my umbrella. I'm sorry, and if I get pnumonia it's my fault. No, I won't miss the first day of school if I get a cold. Well, I'll be home soon." Then there was a click. Peeweemon was obviously with Shannon because he heard her talking.

"Why'd you say that Shannon?" she asked. "You know as well as I do that your umbrella is in your bag by your coat!"

"Shhhh." said Shannon. "I was hoping one of the guys would either loan me one of theirs or walk me home."

"You mean T.K.?"

"SHHHH!" said Shannon even louder. "You don't want anyone to hear you, do you?"

T.K. was frozen in his spot. She had just said something that made T.K.'s heart beat about ten times faster. She had just said she liked him walking her home. Perhaps she liked him as liking him? He didn't have time to think, he had to get out of there before she saw him and found out he had heard her. He ducked into a closet to gather his thoughts and heard her walk by.

Shannon was about to go back into the room when she heard the guys talking.

"So what was that about earlier?" asked Davis.

"Don't be so nosy, Davis." scolded Cody.

"No really, I want to know."

"We just have a hunch, that's all." said Matt's voice.

"A hunch, huh? What about?"

Tai lowered his voice. "We think T.K. likes Shannon."

Shannon froze. Was she really hearing this?

Davis spoke again, "Come on, guys! You don't really think that, do you?"

"I think I know my brother." said Matt. "He's never acted like this around anyone before. It is very obvious and she probably knows he does."

"I do now." thought Shannon.

"Davis wouldn't know anyway." said Tai. "He's the romantically challenged one."

Some of the guys chuckled.

"Leave me alone, would ya?" said Davis. "I have girls falling over me all the time, I just haven't found one that I happen to like yet, that's all."

"Oh really?" asked Matt.

Shannon decided to make her entrance. "Hey guys." she said. "I have to go home now before it starts raining harder.

Tai leaned in towards Matt. "We can't let her leave until T.K. gets back in here to walk her home."

Davis smiled coyly. "Let me handle this."

"Oh Shannon." He said in a sing-songy voice.

Cody smacked his hand against his forehead. "Oh brother!"

"You aren't leaving until you battle me one more time!"

"I really have to go!" said Shannon. "My mom's expecting me..." What was she saying? She really wanted to stay so T.K. could walk her home. But where was he? Was she going to end up walking home alone?

"Come on, Shannon." said Tai. "It's just one game."

Shannon hesitated and then T.K. walked into the room. "What'd I miss?"

Shannon smiled. "Oh, I was just leaving." she said before she remembered. "Oh yeah! I left my umbrella at home. Could I borrow one of yours?"

T.K. played it out perfectly. "Oh, I dunno, I might need that in case it rains tomorrow."

Shannon bit her lip. Things were not happening the way she had hoped.

"But..." he continued. "I could walk you home with it and then come back. That way I'd have it and you'd get home dryly."

Shannon's eyes lit up. He couldn't help but smile too. It was true; she had just subtly proven that she liked him also.

"That would be so nice of you!"

Matt elbowed Tai and winked at him as Shannon and T.K. left with one umbrella over the two of them, and one buried away in Shannon's bag.


Jessi and Feemon had finally finished cleaning Joe's room and sorting out his books. Izzy and Willis said they'd send everyone home the next day, which meant about eight that night for her.

She finally had time to relax and think. When she got back to Japan, she would have the rest of that day and one more day to adjust back to Japanese time and get ready for school. It was going to be hectic, of course, but she couldn't wait to see everyone again!

They were all going to have a meeting in the Digital World and discuss things. Izzy and Willis were going to tell everyone just what had happened, Jessi and Shannon would be introduced to Willis, and then they would all go home to their proper homes.

Jessi couldn't wait to tell Joe how much she liked his college. She wanted to come back and visit more often. Maybe this was the college she would actually go to. She really liked it and wanted to ask him a lot of questions. She also couldn't wait to see how Shannon and Yolei did with all the boys in Japan. She heard Tai and Matt had come in as well, so that would have left those two girls with all those guys! Poor them! Especially with Davis there!

Then she wondered about Katriena. Katriena had been at Izzy's campus all this time. Maybe she liked staying at a college too? She had emailed Jessi that she had made good friends with a girl from there. Jessi was bummed she hadn't made many friends. She had met Erik and he was nice. He was very friendly and he had invited Jessi to breakfast with him in the cafeteria that morning, but she declined saying she wanted to rest because she was leaving that night. He was sad and said, "Make sure you don't leave without saying good-bye!" She promised him she wouldn't and then he left. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to leave, but she'd think of something.


Izzy turned over in his bed to look at his clock. It was late, but he couldn't sleep. He and Willis had figured out what was wrong that day and they were trading Katriena for Yolei tomorrow. Something was bugging him, but he didn't know what. He was raking his mind for what it was when it came to him. He sat up.

"How stupid of me! I was so absorbed in being the hero, I neglected something very important!" He stood up, put on a pair of slippers and a light jacket and left his room without waking Willis. It wasn't long before he was standing in front of Katriena's room. "I'm crazy to do this," he thought, "But I owe it to her."

He was just about to knock when the door opened. He just stood there with his fist in the air and he looked at who had opened the door.

Katriena rubbed her eyes, "Izzy!" she whispered so she wouldn't wake Arimi. "What are you doing here at this time of night?"

"I came to give you your tour of the campus." he said plainly. "I promised you a tour and I'm gonna give you one."

She took one look at him and started to giggle.

"What?" he asked.

"You came all the way here in your blue striped pajamas, a coat, and a pair of slippers to take me on a tour of your campus?"

"I'm a man of my word." said Izzy as he handed her an extra coat he had brought. "Come on. Let's get this over with."

Katriena quickly slipped on her pair of tennis shoes and Izzy's coat and they left. Sure enough, he gave her the tour. Everything was dark and it was kind of hard to see. They came to a fountain in the courtyard and sat to have a rest.

"What a nice night!" said Katriena. "Sometimes I with humans were nocturnal so we didn't have to miss nights like this."

Izzy had to agree. Tonight was a beautiful night. There at the fountain he could see almost every star in the sky. He had never noticed it before because he had never been here before at night. It took someone like Katriena to slow him down long enough to take things in. He looked over at her. She was wearing pajama pants and a shirt of Yolei's. They looked a little big on her. He still couldn't believe he had gone to her room late at night to take her on a tour of the campus.

"Katriena." he said.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry I didn't do much with you these last few days. You were my guest and I should have treated you better."

"Aw, don't worry about it." she said as she dunked her hand in the fountain. "You were busy trying to find a way to get me home before school started. Besides, I got to hang out with Arimi. She's a cool person, you know."

Izzy rolled his eyes. "Not this again!"

"Well she is!" said Katriena in Arimi's defense. "Besides, you might just have her out of your hair for a while."

Izzy perked up. "Really? What do you mean."

Katriena smiled. "She may have found another guy to crush after."

"No way!" said Izzy. "Who?"

"I'm not telling." said Katriena. "I never break my promises." Then she grinned at him. "Why? Are you jealous?"

Izzy turned bright red, "Wha... me... no way! Why would I be jealous of Arimi?" Katriena shrugged. "Just wondering."

Izzy could feel that his cheeks were still red. But why? Was he really jealous of Arimi? He hoped not. Sure, she was a nice girl, but she just wasn't girlfriend material... for him.

Katriena stood up. "Well, it's getting cold. I'm ready to go back to sleep. I have a lot to do tomorrow."

"Yeah, we'd better go." said Izzy as they went back to Katriena's room. She opened the door quietly and turned around and said good-night to Izzy. He began to walk away when she called out to him.

"Oh, and Izzy!"

"Huh?"

"Thanks. You made my day."

Izzy smiled. "Glad I could." And then he walked away.


Shannon laid in her bed thinking. It was a little awkward for her on the walk home for her to know that everyone thought T.K. liked her, but she managed to hide her shyness. They had talked and walked like they always had, and since they only had one umbrella, they were forced to walk close to each other. Shannon was amazed that she had come up with the idea of hiding her umbrella so she and T.K. would have to share one. That was something Jessi would have done, not her! Oh well, it worked, didn't it?

She was wondering if she should tell Jessi or Katriena about her interest in T.K. Should she wait or should she tell them soon. They could blow it and ruin everything. Knowing them, they'd blow it. She decided to wait.

But what if T.K. already knew? What would happen then? No, he couldn't already know or else he would have said something on walk home. Wouldn't he have? She really needed to get some sleep. It was already extremely late, but she just couldn't fall asleep! She finally ended up sleeping about an hour later.


T.K. was having problems sleeping, too. He had wanted to ask Shannon about her umbrella in her bag, but he decided not to because that would have embarrassed her terribly and she would have known he was eavesdropping. He couldn't stand it any more. He got out of his bed and walked to Matt's room. He guessed Tai was spending the night because he could hear him snoring through the door. He opened the door sharply and turned on the light.

Tai, Matt, and Joe started moaning for him to turn it off. He turned on a small lamp and then turned the big light off.

"What do you want, T.K.?" whined Matt. "I was having a nice dream."

"I need to ask you something." said T.K. firmly as he sat on Matt's bed.

Tai rubbed his eyes and stretched, "Well, make it quick." he mumbled.

T.K. looked intently at Matt, "I need to ask you a question about girls."

"It's about time!" said Matt as he slapped T.K. on the back. "I thought you'd never ask!"

T.K. blushed. "I... I just wanna know how to well... maybe ask a girl out on a date."

Joe looked at T.K. and shook his head. "It's about time you asked Shannon out!"

T.K.'s face turned as red as a tomato and his mouth fell open, "Ho... how did you...?"

"Big brother knows all, little bro." said Matt. "Besides, for your first crush, you aren't very good at concealing it."

T.K. looked at them. "Who else knows about this?"

Tai got a big sweat drop on his head. "Uhh, Davis, Cody, and I think Yolei."

"THEY ALL KNOW?" shouted T.K. "How... how could you...?"

"Well, excuse me." said Matt. "It's not like you were acting secretively."

"What do you mean by that?" asked T.K.

"Well, walking her home every night, looking at your watch every five minutes she's gone, acting differently all together. It wasn't that hard." said Joe.

"Do... do you think she knows?"

"Naw." said Tai. "She probably doesn't or else she'd be acting weird around you. Girls are that way."

"Oh, so now you're the girl expert?" asked Matt as he glared at Tai. "Don't listen to a word he says, T.K., he still hasn't even made up with Sora, much less proposed to her."

"Hey!" said Tai. "I'm working on it, okay. I just have a lot on my mind."

"Listen to me, T.K." said Joe. "Just take it slow. She seems like the shy kind and it'll take her a while before she decides whether or not she likes you too. Until then, just be yourself."

"But." said T.K. as he bit his lip. "I think she already does."

"Now, don't go jumping to conclusions." said Tai. "That's what'll make something screw up."

"Well, I overheard her talking to her mom on the phone..."

"And?"

"And she had her umbrella tonight. She hid it in her bag."

"What exactly are you saying?" asked Tai.

"Don't you get it?" said Joe. "She hid her umbrella so she would have to get someone to walk her home! Pretty ingenious if I do say so myself."

Matt smacked T.K. on the back. "T.K., my boy, I knew you had it in ya!"

"Well, I want to ask her out, but I don't know how or if I'd ever have enough courage to. I just want to do something small, though, like a group thing."

"That's the way to start." said Tai. "But man, does this put a twist on things! She likes him and he likes her. What are the odds? This is kind of exciting! It's almost like high school all over again!"

"Just give it time." said Joe. "You'll think of something; and if you don't, we will."

"Hmmmm." thought T.K., "Somehow that doesn't sound so comforting."


Sora walked into Kari's room and saw Kari reading a book. "Hey there." she said. "Are you all ready for our trip to the Digital World?"

Kari continued to read but replied, "Yep. Are you?"

Sora felt her cheeks heat up a little. "I guess."

Kari book marked her book and set it aside. "Sora, if you're worried about seeing Tai again, don't be. He's just acting weird. Don't worry, he'll get over it soon and give you a call."

"I know." said Sora. "I'm just getting tired of waiting."

"Well, if I know Tai, you'd better not tire out soon, 'cause it might be a while. Just hang in there, for his sake."

"I will." said Sora. "But I hope I don't have to wait too long."


Jessi knocked on Erik's door. She was holding a bag of Joe's with a blanket in it so it would look like she was leaving for the airport and her bag was filled with clothes.

"Cute stuffed animal." He said as he raised an eyebrow at DemiFeemon.

"Oh!" said Jessi as she forced a smile. "I never leave home without it... her."

"So you're leaving me, huh?"

"Yeah, I have to go back to my aunt's in Japan. But don't worry, I'll try to come back again."

"You'd better." he joked.

"Oh, and thanks for being so hospitable. You made my stay a nice one."

"No problem." said Erik. "Be sure to email me."

"I will." said Jessi as she stuck out her hand. "Until next time?"

"Until next time." They shook and she started walking down the hall towards the elevator. "Oh, wait!" said Erik. "Do you want me to walk you down to the front area where your ride's waiting?"

Jessi broke into a cold sweat. "Uh, no, thanks. I'll be fine. But thanks, anyway!"

Erik looked disappointed. "Okay. But don't think you'll get off that easy next time." He smiled and shut his door.

"Now what could he mean by that?" she wondered as she ran down the hall towards Joe's room.

"Let's get out of here, Jessi, before he gets suspicious!" said DemiFeemon as Jessi put her Digivice up by Joe's computer.

"Digi Portal open!"


Katriena was giving Arimi a hug. "Promise you'll write me!" said Arimi.

"You know I will."

"Come on, Katriena." said Izzy. "We'd better get going. We don't want to keep your mom waiting."

"You know, Izzy." said Arimi. "If you want a moment alone with Katriena before you turn her over to her mom, you can leave Willis with me."

Willis turned bright red and Izzy blushed and grabbed Willis by the collar of his shirt. "He's coming with us. Thanks for the offer, though!"

He grabbed Katriena's wrist and he had a firm hold on Willis' collar when he took off. "Let's get out of here!"

"See ya later, Katriena!" Arimi yelled after them. "Don't forget to write!"


Later, in the Digital World, they all met in the big temple with the sun in the middle. That had become their new meeting place.

Everyone was happy to see each other. Davis immediately ran up to Jessi and challenged her to a rematch. She smirked at him, "You sure about that, Davis?"

He evilly smiled back. "Positive."

Tai looked over and saw Sora looking at him. He quickly turned away and felt his cheeks turning red. Why couldn't he just talk to her? Lately he had been so shy! But why? Something was happening between them. It wasn't a fight, it was more of a mutual feeling of distance, but he couldn't bring himself to talk to her about it. He hoped he'd get the courage to soon.

Izzy introduced Willis to the people who didn't yet know him. Then they explained that there was a code they could enter into their Digivices that would allow them to exit from a terminal other than the one they used to enter the Digiworld. They had discovered that the Digivices had been tampered with while they were in the Digital World and they were able to decode it and reverse it. They figured it had been the Digiforce that had done it. Also, this only worked if the two people went back to the real world at the exact same time. It wasn't very complicated, but it was still a little confusing. That was all they had to say before everyone said their good-byes.

Katriena thanked Izzy for his hospitality. And they all left, promising to meet the night after the first day of school.


Chapter Ten - Thus School Starts

 When they all got back to T.K.'s house, they all looked to see who was there. Sure enough, everyone was back to normal. Jessi was there, along with Katriena, Matt, Tai, T.K., Cody, and Davis.

"Wow!" said Jessi. "Feels good to be back!"

"I missed you two!" said Shannon as she gave them both a hug. "How was it?"

Katriena spoke first, "Well, I ended up staying most of the time with Yolei's roommate, and she was really cool. I also got to see the campus and I had a lot of fun."

"Lucky." said Jessi. "DemiFeemon and I got stuck doing Joe's to-do-list. It was neat, though, I made a new friend and he was really nice."

"He?" asked Shannon with a raised eyebrow. "You didn't mention that in your email."

Jessi's cheeks turned a slight scarlet and she lowered her voice, "He was just a friend, that's all, just a friend."

Cody shrugged. "Well, what were we supposed to think? It is spring after all and everyone's in that lovey-dovey mood."

Matt rustled Cody's hair. "Why are you sayin' this, Cody? Do you have a love confession for us?"

Cody turned red and brushed his hair back into place. "No, I'm just sayin..."

"We know what you're saying, Cody." said Katriena. "It's okay."

Davis, who had remained quiet until now, spoke up, "Well, we all have a lot to do tomorrow. Why don't we call it a night?"

Everyone agreed and they all left.


Everyone prepared for school except for Matt and Tai who were still crashing at T.K.'s dad's house. Their school started a week after everyone else and they wanted to stay and keep and eye on T.K. and Shannon. This made T.K. very annoyed, but he would be staying with his mom the next week so he left it alone.

They had all compared schedules. Jessi, Shannon and Katriena had their first hour together because it was a class for exchange students. Jessi had computer class with Cody, math with T.K. and two or three classes with Davis.

Shannon had math with Cody and only one class with T.K. and one with Davis. She didn't think she'd have any with them because she was a grade below them, but she did and she was happy about that.

Katriena was in math with Davis and she was in a class with T.K. She didn't have any classes with Cody, though.

The next day they all filed into their first hour classes. It was weird for the girls to be at another school without any of their friends, but it was also kind of an adventure.

The day went by quickly. Jessi had Davis in her P.E. class. She wasn't looking forward to P.E., but she needed it to graduate. Davis said that was the only reason he was taking it too.

Shannon and T.K. had drama together. He said he was taking it to hopefully make him more outgoing. Shannon smiled and explained that was the reason she was taking it also. She said Jessi was always in the school musicals while Katriena and herself were stuck being stage crew. Shannon said she would have loved to be in the musical but she had always chickened out of trying.

Katriena had Davis in her math class. He instantly sat next to her saying he was going to need to sit next to someone smart because he hated math. Katriena said math was always her worst subject and she'd be trying to get advice from him.

"Well, if we need help we can ask T.K. he's really smart when it comes to math." said Davis. "Last year he and I were in the same class and I would always try to copy his homework but he'd never let me."

Jessi ended up in T.K.'s math class and they sat by each other. "I'm lucky to have someone I know in this class." Jessi said to him. "For the last three or four years I've always had math with my friend, Chandra. It's kinda weird to be here without her."

"Don't worry." said T.K., "Even if this is Calculus, this teacher is a blob. We shouldn't have any trouble."

"Thank goodness."

Shannon and Davis sat next to each other in Japanese History and were talking when a girl came up to them.

"Hi Davis. Who's this?"

"Oh, this is Shannon." said Davis. "She's a foreign exchange student from America."

"From America?" said the girl. "Cool! I'm Rei. I had another girl in one of my classes that was from America. Do you know her? I think her name was Katarina."

Shannon smiled, "It's Katriena. She's actually one of my friends. She, my sister and I all came over for the year."

"How fun!" said Rei. "I'd love to go to America!"


Jessi spotted Cody in the hall. "Cody, wait!" she shouted as she maneuvered her way towards him. "I can't seem to find the computer lab. Could you help me out?"

She and Cody walked to the computer lab together and sat down. Cody was a good friend of the computer teacher because of his involvement in Computer Club, and he said this teacher was really nice and fun.

Shannon felt weird having Cody in her math class since he a year younger than her, but he was very advanced and he was at junior level. She sat by him so if she needed help she'd be able to get it from him.

Davis walked into his chemistry class. He was supposed to have Jessi in that class, but he couldn't find her. "Funny." He thought. "She was here earlier today."

Them bell rang and she never showed up. The teacher said they were going to assign lab partners that day. Jessi was the only one absent from that class. Davis decided he'd volunteer to be her partner. That way she wouldn't be stuck with someone she didn't know, but he also heard she was pretty smart when it came to this stuff and in chemistry, he'd need all the help he could get.

When class was over he really began to worry. He found DemiVeemon after school and told him about how Jessi was missing in his last hour.

"Maybe something happened to her." said DemiVeemon. "She could have been kidnapped by an evil Digimon, or sucked into the Digital World like Kari was that one time."

"Thanks." said Davis sarcastically. "That makes me feel better." Then he put his backpack on. "We'd better go find her!"

He wandered all over the campus but he couldn't find her anywhere. He didn't see anyone else, either.

After a while, he found himself in between the baseball and soccer fields. "What's that over there?" DemiVeemon said as he pointed to a tree. Someone was sitting down and leaning against it and he could only see one foot from behind the tree.

"Let's go see." As he approached he heard the sound of sniffling as if someone was crying.

"That can't be Jessi." He said. "She doesn't cry."

"I don't think you're right." said DemiVeemon.

Davis slowly moved closer and then peeked from behind the tree. Sure enough, it was Jessi and DemiFeemon was sitting on her legs.

"Jessi?" he said softly.

Jessi jumped and then quickly wiped the tears from her face to make it look like she hadn't been crying. "Wha... what are you doing here, Davis."

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"Well, why weren't you in chemistry?"

With that Jessi broke out into tears again. "I can't stand it!" she said.

Davis kneeled down so he was eye level with her. "What's the matter?" he tried again.

"I miss it." said Jessi. "I miss everything, my family, my friends, I even miss school." She was shaking and her voice was quavering.

DemiFeemon looked up at Davis. It was obvious she had been trying to cheer Jessi up.

"Look, Jessi." said Davis. "Don't cry." He opened his backpack. "I don't have a tissue, but maybe this piece of notebook paper will work."

She laughed and took it from him to blow her nose. Davis looked at the two Digimon, "Mind if we have a minute or two?" DemiVeemon and DemiFeemon left to go play on the soccer field.

"Why don't you tell me what's bugging you?" he continued.

"Well," said Jessi, "I didn't think I'd have a hard time once I came here. But being back in America last week and then being in school today just broke me. It was weird not to share a locker with Brian, not to be in math with Chandra, not to have band. I miss everything so much and I don't know if I can stay here any longer. It really hurts."

"Come on, Jessi." said Davis. "You can't mean that! You're one of the strongest girls I know. If anyone can last a year away from their home, it's you."

Jessi smiled, "Yeah, I guess I can make it. After all, it is only one year." Then she looked acutely at Davis. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Davis lowered his voice, "Don't tell anyone, okay? I can't let the guys know I have a soft spot."

Jessi giggled. "Only if you promise not to let on I was crying about being homesick. I have a reputation to uphold!"

Davis smiled and offered his hand to help her up. "It's a deal, than. None of this ever happened."

"Does that mean you'll still be teasing me and everything?"

"Well, I have a reputation to uphold, too. How about I only tease you and act macho when we're around everyone else?"

"Sounds good." said Jessi. "And I'll only be tough, and tease you when we're around everyone else."

"And no one can ever find out that you and I can see eye to eye or that we've made a truce."

"Definitely." Agreed Jessi. "Especially after we've already been named partial enemies."

"So now we're friends?"

"Friends." said Jessi.


Davis said he'd walk part of the way home with Jessi. It was weird, before that day, he had just thought Jessi was a pushy, annoying tom-boy, but now he had seen a side of her he never knew existed. She was a normal girl and she was a lot like him. He couldn't quite explain it, but they had a lot of similar qualities.

They agreed that when they met in the Digital World that night, they'd pretend like nothing happened. They'd still be the Jessi that hated Davis and the Davis that hated Jessi. No one would ever know.

Jessi was talking about school the next day. "I can't believe I have to wear a skirt!" she complained. "I hate wearing skirts and I never wear them unless I have to."

"I hate wearing a suit." said Davis. "You guys were lucky. Just because you're new, you didn't have to wear your school uniforms today."

"But tomorrow we have to." said Jessi.

Davis looked at his uniform. "At least I can still be original while wearing it." he said. "I don't have to button it up or wear a tie, so I just leave it unbuttoned."

"The only possible way to be original in my school uniform would be to... oh, I dunno, wear weird colored toe socks?"

Davis laughed. "I'd like to see you do that!"

Jessi shrugged, "I would, too, but I left my toe sock collection at home."

"Well, then you're in for luck." said Davis.

"Why?"

"There's a store downtown that sells socks and gloves. It's a sock and glove superstore called Sock it to 'Ya. You could go there and buy all you wanted."

"Sounds fun!" said Jessi. "Do they sell gloves like I see all you guys wearing? I don't think I can go back to the Digital World without having either cool gloves, some techno boots, or a pair of goggles."

"Yeah, you could check out their gloves. I'm sure they'd have something you'd like."

"How do I get there?"

"Well, it's kinda out of the way. I guess I could show you some day after school."

"That's cool." Said Jessi. "I can't wait!"


That night in the Digital World, all of the Digidestined were sitting around and talking. Nothing bad had happened since they were last there a few days ago, so they didn't have much to discuss.

They debriefed about how all of the girls had used their eggs to Double Armor Digivolve. And how everyone had made it back safely and nothing else had gone wrong.

There wasn't much to do except get information on the new bad guys and find out how to beat them. They already had the clue that was written in the temple. They knew that had to find the Legendary Digimon of the Digimentals and obtain something from them. If only they could find out what it was!


Meanwhile, the leader of the Dark Digiforce was pacing around. It had a bunch of followers in the room with it, there was their computer-smart Gizamon, the Dark Lizard Digimon that appeared to be the leader's right hand man, and there was a big Rockmon that appeared to be all brawn and no brains.

This leader was known as Delusimon. He was purely evil and was trying to concoct a way of destroying the Digidestined once and for all.

"Are they ready yet?" he yelled at the Gizamon who was looking at a display case full of eggs.

"No, sir." whimpered the Gizamon. "Babies take time to hatch and to grow also."

"Well, can't you speed it up?" yelled Delusimon.

"No, sir. I don't have those capabilities."

"I don't know why I even have you on the team anymore."

"It's because I follow you willingly, master." said the Gizamon. "You don't have to control me like you do those other Digimon."

"Whatever." said Delusimon. "Just don't waste my time. I'd like to get this over with."


The Digidestined were roaming around as a group. Sora was staying towards the back because Tai was leading. She just couldn't bring herself to talk to him. Tai was worried that Sora was avoiding him, but then again, he was avoiding her. He didn't know what to think.

Joe told Jessi that all his friend Erik could do all day was talk about her. Jessi blushed and asked what he was saying.

"Oh, he said he wants you to visit again and he really liked hanging out with you and stuff." said Joe. "I think you have an admirer."

Jessi's face went white and she started shaking "An admirer?" She asked. "Me?"

"Yep." said Joe as he moved in towards her. "Isn't that great?"

Jessi was in shock. "But... but I thought he was just being friendly. I didn't even guess that..."

"Geez, Jessi!" said Yolei. "You're about as clueless as Davis!"

"Put a sock in it, Yolei!" said Davis.

Kari grinned and elbowed Jessi, "Goin' for the older men, huh?"

Jessi was speechless.

"And you couldn't even tell me?" yelled Katriena. "Jess! If you're having flings with college men, I want to know all of the juicy details!"

"THERE ARE NO JUICY DETAILS!" yelled Jessi. "He was nice to me and he had a few meals together as friends. That was it!"

"I'll bet." said Joe. "After the way he talks about you, I'd say you two were engaged!"

Tai's ears perked up at the word engaged, and he looked over at Sora. They both caught each other's gaze and quickly looked away.

"Aww, Jessi, you're growing up so fast!" joked Shannon as she pinched her sister's cheek.

"Don't make me have to kill you." said Jessi though clenched teeth. "Will you all just leave me alone?"

Matt grinned. "Sorry, no can do. Not until you go back to Joe's college again and talk to this guy."

Jessi looked like her hair was about to ignite. "I WILL NOT GO BACK!"

"Are you sure, Jessi?" asked Joe. "My room could use some cleaning."

"AAARRRRGGGGHHH!" Yelled Jessi and they all decided to give her a break... for now.

Hawkmon and Biyomon were flying around with Plumon. They had become an inseparable bird trio and they were writing an air show to perform for all of the humans.

Gatomon and Velvemon were walking together and gossiping about whatever Digimon gossip about. All in all, the new Digimon fit in perfectly. Well, except for one...

"JESSI!!!!" as shill voice pierced the air.

Jessi winced and then turned around to see Feemon with mud all over her. "What is it now, Feemon?"

"Veemon tripped me!!"

Veemon's ears perked up and he ran behind Davis to hide.

Jessi picked Feemon out of the mud and started to wipe her off. "Calm down." she said. "Veemon just has weird ways of saying he likes someone."

Veemon turned bright red and everyone laughed.

"That is not true!" he stammered. "I... I tripped her because she said I was funny looking!"

Tentomon and Palmon started singing, "Veemon and Feemon sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Feemon started squirming in Jessi's arms. "That's it, let me at him, let me at him!"

Jessi held on tightly. "Oh no you don't! You two need to stop fighting! Now Feemon, you apologize to Veemon."

"But why?"

"Because I said so. And what you said was mean."

Feemon stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. "Sorry, Veemon."

Davis looked down at Veemon. "It's your turn buddy."

"But all I did was..."

"No," interrupted Davis.

"I only wanted to..."

"Just do it."

"I'm sorry, Feemon."

"There, now you two are all made up. Don't you feel better?" said Jessi.

Sora couldn't help but smile. Jessi treated Feemon like a daughter. It was kind of funny actually.

With that they continued on. They were looking for another temple to possibly form another egg. The only two crests that hadn't been used to make a Digiegg were Knowledge and Hope. But who would get that egg? They would have to find it to see.

Shannon looked at T.K. he looked like he was deep in thought. What was he thinking about? She was kind of nervous to say something to him because she didn't want any of the boys to start teasing them. Hopefully Jessi and Katriena didn't know yet. That would be very embarrassing. Jessi would tease her constantly about it and Katriena would pressure her to ask him out or something. Those two were the romance craved ones that read romance novels and rented chic flicks. She was never into that stuff. She read adventures and watched horror movies. Anyway, she hoped they hadn't heard. But who would tell Jessi? Tai was staying at his old house with Jessi for the week. Would he mention it? Had Katriena heard anything from either of the guys?

She figured Davis wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut, but he and Jessi didn't get along so she didn't have to worry about him telling Jessi. When she saw how quick Joe was to tease her sister, she began to worry. Joe had been one of the guys who knew T.K. liked her. She hoped Joe wouldn't say anything!

Katriena looked at T.K. The whole time while she was at Izzy's college, she wanted to know what was going on between him and Shannon. He told her he liked Shannon, but she didn't know if Shannon liked him. They had been together in Tokyo for those few days. Had something developed? She didn't think anything had because Shannon wasn't acting differently. Katriena was dying to ask T.K. if anything had changed, but she'd wait until tomorrow in Astronomy with him.

"Hey Jessi, Shannon, and Katriena!" said Kari. "Did you guys like school?"

Davis watched to see if Jessi would let on that she had had a bad day, but she didn't.

"How about, you, Kari?" asked Katriena. "What do you think of Central?"

"Oh, I like it a lot." she said. "I was a little nervous and my accent made it kind of hard to communicate, but it was really neat! I met one of your friends, too."

"Really?" asked Shannon. "Who?"

"Brian." said Kari. "He said he and Jessi are best friends."

"Another guy, huh, Jessi?" asked Joe. "Man, you're quite the romancer!"

Jessi had to restrain herself from wringing his neck. "You never give up, do you, Joe?"

"Jessi and Brian just are friends, you dolt." said Katriena.

"Well anyway," continued Kari. "He was really nice. He let me eat lunch with him and he showed me around. I would have been lost if he hadn't have helped me!"

Tai raised an eyebrow at his sister. "Kari! Your first day at school and you're already flirting with American boys?"

"Kari!" said Sora and Mimi. "We're your American sisters! You have to tell us stuff like this!"

"Geez," said Tai as he shook his head. "I never thought I'd see the day when my sister finally found a guy she liked."

Joe looked at Jessi and grinned his 'tease Jessi grin', "Looks like you have competition for this one, Jessi."

"JOE!" Jessi started to chase Joe around screaming and yelling. Joe was staying just out of her reach and he was laughing hysterically.

"Brian's a nice guy." said Shannon while ignoring Tai. "He knows a little Japanese so he'll be able to help you out. He's really smart, too, so he can help you on your homework."

"Well, he seems really nice and I have quite a few classes with him. In one of them, his mom's the teacher!"

"Oh!" said Katriena. "I didn't know you were taking Health Occupations!"

"Yeah." said Kari. "I have chemistry with him too."

"Hey, that sounds fun." said Shannon. "Who are you sharing a locker with?"

"Kristin Morrison." said Kari. "She's in my Comp. Class fifth hour and she said she knows you guys. I'm glad I'm with someone nice like her and not with some of the freaky people in that class."

Shannon smiled. "Yeah, our school had a lot of freaky people in it, but don't worry, most of the freaky people are harmless."

"Yeah." laughed Katriena. "Just look at our band!"

Shannon and Katriena laughed while no one else seemed to get the joke. Jessi and Joe were panting from their chase and they were just now beginning to listen.

"I can't wait for school again tomorrow!" said Kari.

"You can't wait for school?" asked Jessi. "What's wrong with you, child?"

"Well, aren't you excited for school tomorrow?" asked Cody. "For us, tomorrow is when we sign up for clubs and sports!"

"Really?" asked Jessi, as she got excited. "Like what?"

"Well, I'm signing up for soccer." said Davis.

"I'm going to be in chess club and computer club." said Cody.

"I want to take science club and hockey." said T.K.

"Your school offers hockey?" asked Jessi. "That's so cool! I want to take a sport, but no one has my favorite game." she frowned.

"Well, what's your favorite sport?" asked T.K.

"Jessi's a softball fanatic." answered Shannon. "She plays recreational softball and Co-Ed softball, but our school doesn't offer it so she can't play it with the school."

"Oh." said T.K., "Our school offers softball for girls. You could sign up for it tomorrow if you wanted."

Jessi's face shone, "Really? Your school offers softball? AAAAHHHHH! That is so cool! I'll just have mom send over all my stuff and..."

Katriena glared at T.K. while Jessi rambled on and on. "Now see what you've done?" A few people standing around laughed.

"I don't know what I should be in." said Katriena. "I like volleyball, but I don't know if I actually want to take it."

"Why don't you be in a drawing club?" asked Shannon. "Do you guys have a drawing club?" she asked Cody.

"Yeah." said Cody. "It's a nice one too. We win awards at all the competitions."

"Great!" said Katriena. "Then that's what I want to do!"

"Well, what about me?" asked Shannon.

"You can do softball with me!" said Jessi as she rolled her right arm around in circles. "I'm gonna have to work up my softball arm again."

"Are you kidding?" said Shannon. "Do you remember what happened the last time I tried to play softball? I'd take soccer, but I haven't played in so long, and they don't have a band so I don't know what to do!"

"Why don't you take up a new sport?" asked T.K.

"A new sport?"

"Yeah!" he said. "They have their varsity team and then a team for the people who just want to learn to play or have fun. That's how I learned to play hockey and now I'm going to be on the varsity team."

"Sounds fun." said Shannon. "But what should I take?"

"Take something like tennis!" said Katriena. "Tennis is a big sport in Japan, isn't it? They're always playing it in anime!"

Most everyone had little sweat droplets on their heads, so they just ignored Katriena and continued.

Shannon smiled. "Taking a brand new sport does sound fun. I always wanted to try something like archery!"

"So what's stopping you?" asked Jessi. "You have to do something to have fun!"

"Do they even offer archery?"

"Of course." said Davis. "It's a small club, though. You might want to take something else as well."

"Something else?" asked Shannon. "Could I do two things without being overworked?"

"Yeah." said T.K., "Go for something else that's kind of small."

"Oh!" said Shannon. "I know what I'd want to do!"

"What?"

"Pottery!" I've always been a big fan of pottery and ceramics. Do they offer that after school?"

"You bet!"

"How exciting!" said Shannon.

"Cool!" said Jessi. "I am so pumped for tomorrow."

"Hmmm," said Davis, "Sounds to me like Kari isn't the only one excited for school tomorrow!"

"WHAT?" asked Jessi. "Are you suggesting I want to go to school? How dare you!"

"What is with you always changing your mind?" asked Davis. "Will you just settle on one thing or is that an impossibility for you?"

"DAVIS!" yelled Jessi as she now began to chase him.

"Is there no end to this?" asked Izzy as he shook his head.

"Oh, come on, Izzy!" said Katriena. "Weren't you like this when you were in high school?"

"Geez!" he said. "You make me sound like an old geezer!"

"Who's saying you aren't?" smarted Katriena.

"Don't make me have to chase you!" he playfully threatened.

Katriena grinned at him as they continued on.

The rest of their walk was pretty uneventful if you count out the thumb war between Katriena and Willis, arm wrestling between Jessi and Davis, Davis bragging for the next hour about his victory, Shannon and T.K. shyly having conversations, Matt teasing Tai about how Shannon and T.K. would probably be married before Tai and Sora, Tai beating up Matt, and Ken tickling Yolei to near death. After Yolei finally caught her breath and her pulse slowed back down, they decided to look for a TV portal and go home for the night. They hadn't found the temple, but they would resume their quest after school the next day.


Chapter Eleven - Jumpy

 Katriena stopped on her walk home. She was walking right through a playground. No one was there. It was dark and it was about eight at night. She couldn't resist, so she walked over and sat on a swing.

So much had happened lately. From staying on a college campus to her first day in a Japanese school, she was handling too much!

She pushed herself out and started to sway back and forth. She missed being on Izzy's campus. She liked it a lot and she wanted to go back.

She wondered what Izzy and Willis were doing right now. They had probably just gotten back from the Digital World to go have fun like college people do. She was jealous. She would give anything to be hanging out with them.

Why did she miss them so much? Was it really the campus she missed or was it a select group of a few guys? She grinned to herself. Within the few days they were there, Izzy had had to make sure she was fed so she ended up eating every meal with them. At first it was just Izzy and herself (with an occasional Arimi) but then Willis joined the troupe. They had become almost like brothers to her.

Willis had declared her his official thumb-wrestling partner, and Izzy was like the older brother she never had. She missed them even if she could see them every now and then in the Digiworld, she still missed hanging out with them all day.

She dug her heels into the ground and skidded to a stop. She stood up and continued walking. Who would have thought a swing would have cleared her mind so well?


Shannon threw her coat onto her bed and then fell down on top of it. It had been a long day. They had all met at Cody's house for their computer trip this time and T.K. hadn't walked her home.

She had, however, walked through their park, the same park they walked through every night last week. The lake was still as beautiful as ever and the trees still sung like they did before, but something was missing.

Shannon laughed at herself. She was too romantic for her own good. Here she was fantasizing about the perfect date. All he did last week was walk her home and already she was blowing it out of proportion.

She couldn't help it; she was in love. She sat up on her bed and looked across the room to see Sora's desk chair with T.K.'s "Summer Vacation" shirt slung over it. A huge smile crept across her face. She thought that shirt was the cutest thing. It was so sweet how he had offered it to her and even though it wasn't the best-looking shirt in the world, she loved it. She wondered when T.K. would want that shirt back. Maybe she should ask him tomorrow?


Jessi was walking home with Tai. DemiFeemon was sitting on her head and chewing a piece of gum. Tai would only be in town for a few more days so he was staying with his mom and dad in the guest room while Jessi was in his old room.

They were just walking along silently when Tai broke into a laugh. Jessi looked at him confusedly.

"What?"

He shook his head and chuckled. "Aw, nothing. I just couldn't help but laugh at your sister and T.K."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you know?" asked Tai.

"Know what?"

"He likes her!"

"T.K. likes my sister?"

Tai chuckled again. "Yep. And he thinks she likes him too. That's why they were acting shy today. They're so funny, thinking we wouldn't notice."

Jessi stared at him in disbelief, "How come I never noticed?"

Tai ignored her. "I used to be like that." He said as if he wasn't telling anyone but himself. "But now I'm a little too cautious for my own good."

"Come on, spill it!" demanded Jessi. "I want the scoop on T.K. and my sister!"

"Okay, okay!" said Tai. "All I know is that he likes her and he confessed it to us the other night. He would walk her home every night while you were gone, and she pulled some stunt to get him to walk her home."

"Shannon pulled a stunt?" said Jessi with wide eyes. "I never thought I'd see the day!"

"We never did either!" laughed Tai. "Those two are just so worried about being teased or actually going on a first date that they've started acting shy and almost ignoring each other!"

"Kind of like you and Sora?" asked Jessi in a soft, but questioning tone.

Tai immediately went silent and just continued to walk. Jessi jumped out in front of him and spread her arms wide to get him to stop.

"Listen to me, Tai!" she said. "You can't keep running away. I don't know exactly what's going on between you two, but I know that you need to stop being so immature and talk to her!"

Tai simply smiled. "So now I have a high-schooler telling me I'm immature?"

"Well you are."

"I'll talk to her in good time." he said as he continued to walk.

"No!" said Jessi as she grabbed his coat. "You haven't seen what I've seen. Look, I know I haven't known you guys for very long, but I can tell a bandaged romance when I see one. Every time she'd look at you today there was a hint of sadness in her eyes and it's the same way with you. Either you don't realize you're hurting her the way you are, or you want to break it off. Now tell me, which is it?"

Tai swallowed hard. So that was it? Was his immaturity really hurting Sora? If he knew her, she wouldn't say anything at all and she'd just let him go on hurting her. His shoulders slouched. His selfishness in this whole thing was causing them to fall even further apart. Was this what he wanted?

He didn't know what to say to Jessi who was standing there waiting for an answer. He just closed his eyes tightly and spoke a hoarse "You wouldn't understand." as he sidestepped her and continued on.

Jessi wasn't about to be passed off that easily, "Tai, I know you think I don't know what I'm talking about, but I do! I'm always telling Katriena that you don't ever know what you have until it's gone..."

But he didn't hear the rest. He had walked off and left her standing there. It was dark so she couldn't see where he had gone. She tried calling for him a few times, but she knew he wouldn't answer. Once again her big mouth had gotten someone mad at her.

"Jessi, I don't think Tai's very happy with you." said DemiFeemon from on top of Jessi's head.

Jessi seemed to shrink in place, "Go figure." she thought to herself, "I haven't even been here for very long and already I'm in hot water."

"I have to find him and apologize!" said Jessi as she started running. "Where do you think he went, DemiFeemon?"


Shannon walked over to her window to shut the blinds so she could change into her pajamas when she saw someone standing outside the building. It kind of freaked her out and she quickly ducked down so the figure wouldn't see her. After a while she peeked up again. The person was standing in the shadows so she couldn't get a good look at whoever it was. Just then, a car drove by and she caught a glimpse of the person in the car's headlights. It was Tai! But what was he doing there, just standing across the street like a statue and staring at her apartment? Was he hurt? She decided to go out and ask him if anything was wrong.

"Where are you going, Shannon?" asked Peeweemon as she hopped over to Shannon. "You're not sneaking out to meet T.K. for a private date, are you?"

Shannon's cheeks turned scarlet and she quickly muttered a "no". "I just saw Tai and I was going to go talk to him, do you want to come with me?"

"Awww," groaned Peeweemon. "I don't wanna listen in on any human talk. I'll be in here sleeping."

Shannon smiled. "Suit yourself." she grabbed a coat out of her closet and snuck out of the house.

It didn't take her long to get to Tai. He didn't notice her until she walked up to him and called out his name.

"Tai?" she asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Go away, Jessi." he said. "I don't want to speak to you right now."

Shannon raised an eyebrow. "I'm not Jessi."

Tai looked at her and saw who it was. "Oh, Shannon, I'm sorry, I thought you were Jessi."

"Did you get into a fight with my sister?" asked Shannon.

"We just had a misunderstanding, that's all." said Tai as if he didn't want to talk to her.

"Well, why are you standing here and staring at my apartment?" she asked. "If I hadn't known it was you, I would have called the cops."

Tai got a slight grin on his face at Shannon's joke. "I was just remembering..."

"Remembering about what?" asked Shannon.

"Well, back in high school, Sora and I always used to..." but his voice was cut off by a beeping noise coming from Shannon's pocket.

"Excuse me," said Shannon as she pulled her mini-computer from her coat pocket and opened it up. "I have mail."

She saw that she had gotten an email from Kari and she opened it up.

Guys! I need your help! Sora and I had just gone out to go shopping when she started to disappear. It was similar to the time when I was being pulled into the Digiworld. She was fading in and out for a while, but when she finally disappeared, people around here started going crazy! I think someone has taken her to the Digiworld and she's probably in trouble! I hope none of you are asleep because we need you!

Tai grabbed the computer out of Shannon's hands and re-read the message. "Sora's been kidnapped?" he exclaimed in horror.

He appeared frantic, "Shannon, can we use your computer?"

"Well, I dunno, my mom's kinda asleep and..."

"Too bad! I need to get to the Digital World!"

He started running for Shannon's apartment and she took off after him. "Now let's try to be quiet." said Shannon as she tiptoed into the house. Tai turned on the computer and Shannon announced that she'd go wake up Peeweemon.

Shannon walked into her room and found her Digimon tucked in and comfortably sleeping. "Peeweemon," she gently shook her. "Wake up, we need you in the Digital World!"

"But I don't want to go to school today..." mumbled Peeweemon as she rolled over.

"Now you're starting to sound like my sister!" laughed Shannon. "Come on, Sora's in trouble!"

Peeweemon blinked her eyes, "Oh, Shannon! When did you get home?"

"Come on." said Shannon as she swept the little bird into her arms.

She walked back out to where the computer was, "Okay, Tai." she whispered. "Now we can..." she looked around the room. No one was there. "Tai?" she asked as she walked over to the computer. The Digi port was open and it was about to close. Tai had gone into the Digiworld all by himself.


Jessi heard a beep in her pocket as she continued to look through the park for Tai. She didn't want to check her email, but maybe it was from Tai. She pulled her computer out of her pocket and saw she had two emails. One was from Kari, and the other was from Shannon. Jessi clicked on Shannon's since it was the most recent.

Everyone! Tai just went into the Digital World all by himself. Sora's been captured and Tai chased her in there. I don't know whether or not he has Agumon with him, so we'd better be careful! I need all of you to come here ASAP!

Jessi was confused. That didn't make any sense. She quickly went back and clicked on Kari's email to read it. Wait a minute! Sora had been sucked into the Digital World without using a computer? Tai had gone in to chase her, but where was he and was he safe or was he just putting himself in danger also?

"Great." said Jessi. "This is probably all my fault, too. Come on, DemiFeemon, we'd better get home and grab a computer!"


Katriena was brushing her teeth when her computer beeped. When it beeped the second time for Shannon's email, Satimon heard it and went to go tell Katriena.

"Katriena, your computer is making funny noises."

"Just a second, Satimon, let me rinse my mouth."

When Katriena was done, she read her emails. "Oh, no!" she said. "Sora's in trouble!" Come on, Satimon, let's go to the Digital World and see what we can find. I wonder if anyone else has heard."


Izzy and Willis were a step ahead of everyone. "Sora!" they yelled, "Tai?" Tentomon had found them and was flying high to get a good look while Terriermon and Lopmon were running ahead to check things out. They were walking by a TV when Katriena appeared.

"Am I late?" she asked.

"Not yet." said Willis. "We haven't found anyone or anything."

Katriena bit her lip. "Poor Sora! I wonder where she is!"


Jessi appeared from a TV and sighed. She felt terrible. It was probably her fault that Tai had come to the Digital World without making sure he had Agumon with him.

She heard someone's voice calling for Sora. It was Kari!

"Kari!" yelled Jessi. "Over here!"

Kari saw Jessi and ran over to her. "Thank goodness you're here! Is anyone else here? Like my brother, is Tai coming?"

Jessi frowned and told Kari all about her argument with Tai and how he had rushed to the Digiworld without a Digimon.

Kari looked at Jessi. "Jessi, it probably isn't your fault. Tai gets pretty stubborn when it comes to stuff like this. Right now we have more important things to worry about like finding them both!"

"I guess you're right. I can apologize later when everything's cooled down, but for right now I have a job to do."


Sora moaned and sat up. She was in a dark field. All she could remember was feeling faint and then collapsing while she and Kari were shopping, but where was she now? It looked like the Digital World, but how could she have gotten there without going through a computer? She stood up and something behind her growled. She turned to have a look and there was a person standing behind her and glaring at her as if it were trying to burn her eyes by staring into them.

She began to shake. This was not a regular human. It looked like a bad guy from a comic book. It was all cream colored, from it's hair to it's eyes and it looked very angry. What ever it was, it terrified her and she was going to run away when it spoke.

"Thou hast awoken. I will test you to see if you are worthy of the power."

Sora was still shaking. "What are you? Are you a Digimon?"

"I am more than a Digimon." Its snake-like voice hissed. "I am Thief. Come to me and prepare to be tested."

"BIYOMON!" Sora yelled, "Help me, Biyomon!"

"Your Digimon is not allowed." said the creamy human. "Come to me and prepare to be tested."

Sora fell to her knees as tears attempted to fall. This creamy human, which had called itself Thief, was challenging her, but she was all alone and there was no one to help her. Did they even know she was gone? Where was Biyomon when she needed her?

Thief flew at her as if it was moving in for an attack. It had one hand stretched for her like it was trying to lay it's hand on her face. Sora tried to get up and run away, but Thief tackled her. Thief was sitting on top of her when it reached down to touch her face. Sora was pinned and she tried to wrestle away, but it wasn't working. She cringed as Thief's cold stone hand touched her left cheek. Then she felt it; she was slowly losing energy.

Sora's energy was leaving her body and going into Thief's body! "So that's why its name is Thief!" she thought.

The energy kept leaving her body and she began to grow very weak. She knew she was going to die.

"Oh, Tai." she whispered. All she wanted to do was see him one last time.

"Sora!" she heard a familiar voice. "Sora!"

She looked to see Tai running through the clearing towards her.

"Tai!" she whispered with what little strength she had left, "Help me!"

Thief took it's hand off of Sora's cheek and flew up into the air to watch Tai.

Tai kept running right to her and before she knew it, he was less than ten feet away and still running at full speed. When he got to where she was, he just ran right through her like a hologram.

"Sora!" he continued to yell. "Where are you?"

Sora was trembling terribly. "What just happened?" She asked, "What did you do to him?"

"He is not allowed either."

Sora grew mad. She shakily stood up to run after Tai. She was having trouble, her legs were so weak she could barely walk and she was stumbling in the direction in which he had run.

"Tai, come back!" she attempted to yell.

"NO!" said Thief. "He is not allowed."

Tai stopped where he was and looked around like he had heard something.

Thief grew angry. "You must not break the rules!" it commanded.

"You stay away from me!" yelled Sora as she began to pick up pace a little. "Tai, help me please!"

Thief flew right in front of her and cut her off. It waved its hand and Tai was frozen in his place. It was almost as if she had turned him into a statue. Thief laughed evilly and turned to look at Sora. "Let's see you break the rules now."

Sora quivered. What had it done to poor Tai! She had to get to him, she had to help him.

"Tai, wait for me." she said slowly as her entire body trembled with each step. Every move she made would make her feel like she was being pierced by dozens of arrows.

Fire looked terrified. "What are you doing?" it demanded.

Sora was closing the distance, she was now within feet of Tai's frozen body.

Fire shook its head and flew around like a maniac. "What are you doing? Stop!"

"Don't leave me, Tai!" said Sora as she fell to the ground in front of his feet. She was lying at the foot of his statue. All of the color had left him, and he had turned the same color as Thief, he was a creamy color and he looked almost like the life had been taken from him.

With all of her strength she reached up to him. She put her hand in his and used it to stand up. His hands were as cold as Thief's were and his eyes looked vacant.

Thief growled in the distance and lunged again at Sora, but Sora didn't even care if it was coming or not. She had finally stood up and she looked at Tai, he was cold and still, but she put one hand over his shoulder and the other hand in his and she leaned forward to give him a kiss. The minute her lips touched his, she could feel them warm up again.

All of the sudden Thief screamed a blood-curling scream and fell out of the sky. Tai and Sora both fell to the ground and Sora looked over towards Thief.

Tai began to stir as Thief continued to scream. It was turning into a cream colored mist. It was still screaming when its creamy mist swirled around and around and finally gathered in a small object. The object fell to the ground and Tai opened his eyes and looked at Sora.

"Sora?" he asked she he saw her on the ground next to him. She was pale and she was clutching her chest like she was having trouble breathing. "SORA!"

He reached out to hold her in his arms. "Sora, are you okay? What happened?" He was frantically asking her questions when a creamy colored glow appeared from the ground.

"Tai." she said. "I'm glad you're safe."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "I'm glad you're safe! Look, you're hurt and it's all my fault. Listen to me, Sora. I've been a real jerk lately and I didn't know I was hurting you. I want you to know that I'm sorry if I ever hurt you and I care about you too much to ever let anything happen to you again."

She smiled and the tears that were held back so long during her fight with Thief finally began to fall. "I love you too, Tai."

The glowing cream object flew over to her and she stared at it. "What is this thing? This is the thing Thief was captured in."

It stopped glowing and fell right into her hand. They both looked at it. It was a small ring. It looked a lot like a class ring. It was a silver band with a cream colored stone in it. The stone had the crest of Love engraved in it. On one side of the ring, there was a picture of Thief, and on the other side, there was a picture of Garudamon.

"It looks like a ring that would belong to you." said Tai as he took it from her to get a closer look. "Here, hold out your hand."

Sora was extending her hand when they heard Mimi's voice. "I found them!"

Joe, Mimi and Shannon came up and when they saw Tai about to put a ring on Sora's finger they all stopped in their tracks.

"Oh." said Joe. "Are we interrupting anything?"

Sora and Tai both blushed as Tai slipped the ring on to her finger. "No, nothing."

"Darn!" said Mimi to Shannon and Joe. "I was hoping they'd finally tied the knot!"

"What happened to you two?" asked Shannon as she ran over to them to see Sora in bad shape and Tai holding her.

"Well." said Sora. "It's a long story."


Later that night, they were all gathered around a little fire. Everyone was glad Sora was okay and they were worried about her. Tai hadn't left her side and Izzy, Ken, Willis, Yolei, and Cody were trying to figure out what the ring was.

Sora had told her story over and over so everyone had gotten a chance to hear it.

Jessi found Tai and apologized to him. She was practically in tears and she said she had been stupid to interfere in his life like that and she felt terrible about what had happened.

Tai felt sorry for her. After all, she was just in high school and she had much to learn. He said it was okay and he hadn't responded well about it so it was partially his fault. They shook hands on it and became friends again. They also agreed no one would have to know about their little argument.

Davis was most intrigued by Sora's story. He thought it was amazing how people could just get sucked into the Digital World. He kept saying that if he had been there, he would have shown Thief who was boss.

Tai found the part about his entrance in the story very strange. Sora said she had called to him and he had run right through her, but he hadn't seen anything! The only reason he stopped when he did was because he sensed something in that area. He sensed Sora was near.

He didn't even remember being frozen! He just remembered stopping and then waking up next to Sora and seeing her looking terrible.

Tai also apologized to Shannon for running off like he had; he had gone frantic and had acted a little weird. Shannon said it was okay and she understood.

They all were tired and decided to go home. Sora was especially tired from her loss of energy and she was more than ready cut her shopping trip short and take a nap!


The End

I never finished it but I think the story was going to continue on so that each of the Digi-destined would be tested to prove they held true to their "symbol" x) They each gained a ring when they passed the test that (I think) would eventually allow them to either evolve their Digimon an extra step or at least beat the bad guys. It was shaping out to be a pretty cool story to be honest!!