Chapter 13

Pushing Ahead

Tom led the way, following the scent of water. TK looked ahead at Tai's back, his shoulders tensed and every once in awhile he turned around to tell them to hurry up. TK held Punimon close to his chest. His warmth helped his heart beat a little easier. Patamon was on TK's head, trying to shield the sun from his eyes. Punimon hadn't said a word since . . .

"Patamon . . . ?"

"Yes, TK?"

"What's wrong with Punimon?"

"I don't know," Patamon said. There was a silence before Patamon spoke again. "TK . . . what happens when people die? Do they go to a nursery like digimon?"

TK swallowed thickly. "No Patamon, the don't."

"Then where do they go?"

"They don't go anywhere, okay?!" he snapped.

Tai stopped and looked at TK, then sighed. "We're taking another break!" he shouted. "It'll be years before we get anywhere anyway," he muttered.

TK sat down where he was, staring at the sand. "I'm sorry, Patamon . . ."

Patamon blinked.

"I guess . . . people go to Heaven when they die . . ." TK looked up to the sky.

"What's Heaven like?"

"Don't know. Never been there, but it's supposed to be filled with angels," he said and tugged on Patamon's wing. "They fly you up there and show you the way."

"So . . . Heaven's up there?" Patamon asked and looked up into the sky.

"Yep."

"Hey TK!" Patamon flew from his head to face him. "I can fly! I can fly you up there, and you can see Matt and maybe I can bring him down, too and things will be back the way they're suppose to be. It would make Punimon better and Tai, too."

TK stared down at Patamon, a tear sliding down his cheek. "Patamon . . ." He took the little digimon and held him close. He couldn't bring himself to tell Patamon that it wouldn't work. He couldn't say the words.



Sora opened her eyes to see blue sky. She could hear the ocean and the warm sand felt good on her skin. She wanted to stay there forever. What was the point of getting up, anyway? How could things ever be all right again? They would never be the same.
What was the point of anything?

But she knew she had to force herself up . . . for a reason she wasn't quite sure on. She promised herself she would be grateful for it later.

Get up.

Her head swam once she sat up. She waited for it to subside, digging her toes into the sand. She had forgotten to put shoes on. She looked around. She couldn't see any life at all . . . The jungle loomed behind her, silent and slightly frightening.

She had to find Tai.

Where would he have gone? Probably in the jungle the idiot that he was.

She got up slowly, and staggered as she tried to walk forward. She knew if she was attacked by anything, she wouldn't be able to defend herself at all, but she didn't really care. Maybe she wanted to hurt herself.

She reached the jungle, her hands outstretched to keep balance, stroking the leaves as she went by them. The earth felt cold under her feet. She felt like she was in a dream. She was wondering aimlessly. The chances of her finding Tai were about as big as her feeling of caring. She'll probably end up dying out here . . .

No . . . she was going to find Tai.

Somehow.



The light faded and Joe, Mimi and Cody found themselves surrounded by trees.
"Oh we're in the jungle!" Mimi cried out.

"So?" asked Cody.

"There are things living in jungles! Any second they'll jump out on us and do so something gross!"

Cody stared at her flatly.

"Okay, guys . . . we have to find the others," Joe said.

Both Mimi and Joe jumped up as a sudden noise started to ring through the air. They both landed on the ground, backs straight, simultaneously. Cody thought they looked oddly similar.

"I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world . . ." The sound was slightly muffled.

"Oh . . ." Mimi placed a hand over her chest. "Is that my cell phone?"

"Well, it's definitely not one of ours!" Cody cried out.

Mimi started to go through her purse. "I know it's around here somewhere . . ."

"You just got it back, shouldn't it be easy to find?" asked Joe.

"Well, sometimes things just get all jostled up in here," she laughed. She found it. "Hellooo!?" she sang. "We're all peachy here . . . except for Cody, who's being a Mr. Grumpy pants!" she said, kneeling down to Cody's level in a baby voice.

Cody glared at her.

"Though, Izzy . . . did you have to send us into the jungle? Why not at the front entrance of a hotel?" she looked up at Joe. "Joe? Izzy want's to talk to you!" She handed him the cell phone.

"Joe, I see Sora. She's close to you. Just keep walking North," said Izzy's voice from the phone.

"North . . ." Joe muttered "Which is . . . if the sun set's in the west, and right now the sun's . . . I can't see the sun, there are too many trees."

"Oh . . . well . . . um just move somewhere you can see the sun."

"O . . . kay . . . We need to get somewhere where we can see the sun," Joe said addressing Mimi and Cody.

"Okay!" Mimi said with a smile and started to leave.

"Wait, Mimi! We need to stick together!"

She laughed. "How hard is it to find the sun? It's right up in the sky!" she said before disappearing through the leaves.

"Mimi!" Joe started to go after her. Cody sighed. He should have gone with the other's to the Dark Ocean.

"Mimi . . . slow down. What if you hurt yourself? You could trip and sprain your ankle or get lost. Do you even know how to find food in the wild? Mimi, I can't see you and it's making me nervous."

Joe stopped when he came to an open meadow, Cody running into him. Mimi was standing in the middle of it, a smile on her face and the sun making her pink hair glow. She raised her hands to the sky and spun around. "I found your sun, Joe," she said.

Joe stared at her, noticing how lovely she looked in the light.

"Joe? You gonna move?" asked Cody.

"Yes . . . right, the sun." He moved into the meadow. "We have found the sun," he said into the phone.

"Where is it?" asked Izzy

Where is it?" he repeated.

"Joe, it's in the sky!" Mimi said, waving her arm toward the sky.

"I know that. Where in the sky?"

"Joe, just look at it! How can you miss it?!"

"Mimi . . . never mind," He gave up on asking his question and tried to figure out himself. "Um Izzy . . . I think it's noon."

Joe could hear Izzy sigh through the phone.

"Well, what direction did we move in already?"

"The map is too small. Any movement that you make is too small for it to show it."

"So whatever direction we do go in, if we pick the wrong one, it'll take us miles to get back on track before we notice?"

"Yep."

"What if we just wait for the sun to move?"

"That's what you guys are going to have to do, but Sora could be moving farther and farther from you. I doubt she'll just stay in one place."

"Maybe she'll come to us."

Izzy laughed dryly. "Maybe. Call me back later then. I have to get the others in the Dark Ocean."

"Okay, we call you if anything happens." Joe turned off the phone. "We're going to stay here for a while until the sun moves and we can get our direction. Then we'll find Sora."

Mimi sat down. "Okay, I was getting tired anyway." She laid down and closed her eyes.

After a moment she lifted it again. "I'm hungry."



Ken, Yolei and Davis fell face first into the gray sand. "I'm gonna be sick," Davis muttered. "That was more . . . stomach lurching then just going to the Digital World."

"Well . . . we're here . . ." Ken said somewhat softly. "This is the Dark Ocean." The black sea beside them crashed its waves against the gray shore. On the other side of them, black stone jutted out into the gray sky. It was as if there was no color in this place.

"Cheery," Davis commented.

"Now, remember that you emotions have a huge effect on you in this place, so . . . try not to get depressed or anything . . ."

"Right, happy thoughts. So where's Kari?" Davis brushed the sand of his pants.

"I don't know."

"KARI!"

"Davis!" Yolei cried. "What if someone else hears you!? We don't have our digimon with us. If we get attacked, were dead! Dead Davis! Like, painful death!"

"Yolei, does it look like anyone is here?"

"What was that?!"

"Nice, try Yolei, but you're not freaking me out . . ."

Suddenly Yolei started screaming, making Davis scream too, until Yolei's screams turned into evil laughter.

"Guys," Ken said a little angry. "What of someone does hear us?"

"Maybe it'll be Kari," said Davis.

"What if it isn't?"

"Then we're screwed," Davis said as if that was a happy thought. He took a breath as if he was about to shout out Kari's name again, but Ken put his hand over his mouth.

"Don't . . . do that, Davis."

Davis took Ken's hand away from his mouth. "Then what's your way of finding Kari?"

"I don't know. Let's look around or something . . . Oh I'm going to try to call Izzy," Ken said, taking out his cell phone. "You have Joe's number on your arm still, right?"

"Yes!" Davis said holding up his arm. He was giving the number before they had entered the computer. Ken typed in the numbers.

"Izzy? We're fine. We don't see anything yet . . . I'll call you later, I just wanted to know we made it. We should keep the phone free incase you need to get to the other's." He hung up. "Let's go."

They started onward, across the dead beach.



They made it to the oasis. Tai personally made sure everyone was drinking enough before he collapsed onto the sand exhausted. Agumon and Tom watched him worriedly. "You should drink something, too, Tai," said Agumon.

Tai bit off his angry retort and just stared at his two digimon, before taking a scoop of the water. He was surprised to feel something press against his side and a thump, as Tom laid himself down beside him, before curling up and closing his eyes. Agumon nudged his head under Tai's arm and rested his head on his lap.

Tai didn't want to be comforted. It made him angry, but looking at Agumon's green eyes made his anger subside and he sighed. Maybe they were the ones that needed comfort. He placed his hand on Agumon's head and looked over to where TK was. TK, too. He needed comfort. He was laying, underneath a large rock, curled up to try and fit in its shade.

Tai wasn't very good at that sort of thing . . . not when he was in such a bad mood.

So instead he left TK there and started thinking on what he had to do. He looked around the oasis, of little digimon either drinking or sleeping. He needed to get them back to the jungle. He also needed to find the portal and he needed to find Kari. His first priory was to find Kari, but even he couldn't leave the baby digimon out in the desert. Not if he could help it.

What if they split up? One of them go on to find the portal, and the other lead the digimon back home? He looked over at TK again and tried to remind himself that he wasn't the eight-year-old little boy anymore . . . it wasn't helping at the state that TK was currently in . . . he was still clutching Punimon.

His original plan was to make TK take the digimon back and then he, himself would find the portal so he would be able to see if he could find his sister, but he realized how selfish that would be . . . to make TK go all the way back to the jungle through the desert. He still didn't have a shirt; he'd burn up. The portal had to be closer than the jungle.

But Tai didn't want to leave his sister in the hands of the boy curled up with the tear stained face.

He groaned. Agumon looked up at him, reminding him to be softer before saying, "Hey TK! Get over here!"

TK pushed himself up with his elbow to look at Tai, before getting all the way up. He shuffled over, painfully slow. It made Tai even more angrier, and he didn't even know why.

It wasn't TK's fault.

It was his fault.

Tai got up and stared down at TK. Patamon landed beside him. "TK," Tai's voice was hard. "One of us is going to have to take the digimon back, and the other's gonna have to find the portal and then go after Kari."

TK looked up at Tai, but didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.

"You . . . go after Kari!"

TK opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out.

"Did you hear me?!"

TK nodded vigorously, afraid Tai would literally bite his head off.

"Good," Tai said out of breath. "We'll spilt up after we're done here . . ." He looked at Punimon. "Punimon should probably stay with me and the rest of the digimon . . . It'll be faster for you."

TK nodded and offered Punimon to Tai. There was a sad smile on his face as he looked up at Tai, intrusting his brother's digimon to him.

That hurt Tai the most.

He hesitatingly took the digimon, holding it carefully as if he was afraid he would crush him.

"I guess I'll leave then," TK said, still the same sad smile on his face. He turned to Patamon. "Pegusmon will probably be the fastest." Patamon nodded and armored digivolved before TK mounted him.

"TK . . ."

TK looked over at Tai. "Bring her back safe . . . please." Tai bit his lip.

TK nodded before Pegusmon opened his wings and leaped into the air, leaving Tai and the digimon far below on the ground.

Tai took a deep breath and tried to see how the other digimon were doing. The long green plant things were still here. They should take those with them for food. How could a lot be carried? Maybe he could tie a little on every digimon, and each could carry their own food.

As he was thinking he gave Punimon to Tom "Watch him for me, kay?" Tom nodded.

Agumon went over to talk to Yokomon. "Hey, Yokomon, I just noticed that Gatomon isn't with you . . ."

"You're right. When she wasn't captured too, we all assumed she was with you guys."

"Gomamon isn't with us either," said Montimon.

"I hope they're all right. Do you think they're together?"

Tom came over with Punimon. He set him down and gave him a lick, but Punimon did not respond.

"Punimon . . ." Tanemon sighed. They all huddled up against him, trying to comfort as best they could.

Agumon saw Tai watching them, but when Tai saw Agumon noticing, he turned his gaze away and started pulling on the plants that grew around the oasis.



Mimi studied her manicured hand and watched the sun reflect the light from the sparkles of her nail polish.

"Mimi, you could help, you know?" Cody said from coming back from within the trees.

"Help with what?" Mimi said completely innocently.

"Joe and me are looking for food, because you're the one that's hungry!"

"You are? That so kind of you!"

Cody tried hard to suppress his anger when there was a sudden cry from Joe. "It sounds like Joe needs our help."

Mimi waved it off. "He's gonna be a doctor. I'm sure he's fine."

"Mimi,"

"Okay, okay." She got up and followed Cody to where the sound came from.

They found Joe hanging by one foot from a tree, a rope around his ankle, swinging slightly. His glasses dangled from one ear, and his hair hung freely.

"Joe!" Mimi exclaimed. "Why are you upside down?"

"Mimi? I don't know, but . . . GET ME DOWN!"

"Hold on, Joe" Cody said looking up at the rope, trying to figure out the best way to do this. "We'll get you down . . ." But before Cody could do anything, they were suddenly surrounded by a group of Crabmon. Mimi started screaming and jumping up and down, panicking.

"There's more than one. You fool!" said one of the Crabmon to the other.

"We can take them," another answered.
<br.They started to come closer, raising their large pinchers. Cody picked up a large stick and waved it defensively at them, remembering his Kendo.

One of the Crabmon went near Mimi and he gave it a good swat, before poking the stick underneath it and flipping it over. It wiggled its legs, unable to righted its self. Another went over at Joe and he quickly dispatched that one as well. He continued to run back and forth between Mimi and Joe until one of the Crabmon chopped Cody's stick with its large pincher.

"Crap,"

Mimi's screams got louder and even the Crabmon winced at the pitch.

"Princess Mimi!?"

Suddenly a Gekomon sprang out of the leaves. "It is Princess Mimi! Oh, and she's distressed!" A few more Gekomon came out as well.

Mimi stopped screaming and clasped her hands together. "The Gekomon!"

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" said one of the Gekomon to a Crabmon. "Attacking Princess Mimi and her friends like that!"

"We thought they were the kidnappers . . ." said the Crabmon, blushing. Another Crabmon climbed up the tree and snipped the rope that was holding Joe. He fell on his face.

"I'm all right," he muttered, picking up his glasses.

Mimi started crying to one of the Gekomon who patted her comfortingly. "Now, Princess Mimi, everything will be all right."

Cody rolled his eyes. Mimi was perfectly fine.

"Come with us," said another Gekomon. "Our hideout is under ground."

They led them into a hole in the ground that was concealed by a bush. They had to go on their hands and knees and it was especially difficult for Joe, though Mimi complained the most.

"Don't worry, Princess Mimi. We'll make sure that you get a hot bath and a good meal. Are you hungry?"

"Oh, I'm starving!"

"Did you hear that?" asked the Gekomon to the others. "Princess Mimi is starving! We must hurry."

They took them through a long tunnel, which grew bigger the deeper they went and lead them to a chamber were there were two couches next to a fireplace with a fire, for it was fairly cool under ground. The room was lit up by torches.

"Oh, I'm exhausted," Mimi sighed, before falling onto one of the couches, the other's sat more hesitantly

"Get Princess Mimi some nourishment! Quickly!" and the Gekomon scrambled away.

"We must inform the leader," said one of the Crabmon and they left too.

"Now what?" asked Cody. "Should we still go after Sora?"

"I don't know . . . you think we should just leave?" asked Joe.

"Joe!"

Everyone's head turned to the familiar voice. "Gomamon?"

Gomamon bounded over to Joe and placed his claws on Joe's knees. "Man, you've gotten tall."

"Gomamon, wha . . ." Joe was too surprised to speak clearly.

"Cody and Mimi are here too . . . So, you two gotten married yet?" he asked motioning between Joe and Mimi.

"What?" Joe's face turned bright red, but it was hard to see in the dim light.

Cody drew his eyebrows together in confusion and Mimi let out a little, "Huh?" She wasn't sure who Gomamon was referring to when he said "you two" though she assumed one of them was her, since she was the only girl in the room, but then you never know.

"You know," Gomamon continued, oblivious to Joe's frantic faces as he tried to signal Gomamon to shut up. "Isn't that what humans do, before they do that whole reproductive thing?"

Joe kicked Gomamon, hoping no one saw in the lighting.

"Ow, oh . . . well anyway . . ." Gomamon pulled himself on the couch next to Joe. He left the sentence hanging and Joe took this opportunity to change the subject.

"What's going on? Why are we here? What is this place and who's this leader?"

"Well . . ."

The Gekomon came back with some other digimon and huge trays of food.

"Oh! Food!" Mimi cried out in glee.

"It must be true!" exclaimed a Candlemon. "If this is your Princess Mimi, these must be her warriors!"

"Huh?" Cody and Joe said at the same time.

"Now that you mention it," said a Crabmon. "That one had wield a stick as if it was a sword."

"The prophecy is true!" crowed the Candlemon.

"Gomamon, what's going on?!"

Gomamon laughed nervously. "They think you're part of some prophecy." He waved it off. "They're kinda nuts, if you know what I mean," he whispered.

"Gomamon,"

"Right," he turned to the digimon, who were now bowing at Cody. "I would like to speak with the warriors and Princess Mimi alone," he said in a tone that made Joe raise his eyebrow.

"Yes, of course," the other digimon left.

"Well . . ." Gomamon started again. "They kinda think I'm their leader . . ."

"And how did that happen?" asked Cody asked suspiciously.

"After half the population of digimon that lived here started to go missing, I told them I could bring them back . . ." he gave a guilty smiled.

"So you lied?" asked Joe.

"No, maybe I can help . . . but I did make up the prophecy . . ."

"You made that up!?" cried Joe.

"Hey, they were panicking. If I didn't do something, they would have thrown themselves to who's ever doing this and we wouldn't have made this hideout together."

"Yes, I guess you're right."

"Of course I am. It's a wicked cool hideout."

Joe ignored him. "So digimon have been going missing?"

"Yeah, they've been taking them to two places that I know of. One's in the middle of the desert and the other it in the bottom of the ocean. We haven't gone out to the desert, but we have gone to the one under the water. We can't get through, but . . . I might know how to open it . . . never mind. That's impossible."

"Have you seen Tai, Matt, TK or Kari?" asked Cody.

Gomamon looked at Cody. "No, why?"

Mimi, who had been munching on cookies during the conversation suddenly put her cookie down and folding her hands on her lap.

Joe took a deep breath. "Kari disappeared awhile ago. We think someone was controlling her, and TK followed her. After that, Tai and Matt went to the digital world to look for them. We know that they found TK, but we think Kari was sent somewhere other then the Digital World. Then . . . we lost contact with them . . . Izzy can see where they are on his computer, except for . . ."

"Something happened to Matt," Cody finished. "We're not sure what."

Mimi covered her eyes with her hands.

"Sora got upset and went into the Digital World without us. We're supposed to find her and then start looking for the others. We can't stay here long, if we want to catch her."

"Oh . . . Kari's disappearance and the kidnaping of digimon have to be linked, right?" Gomamon said, thinking.

"About that thing . . . you said freeing the digimon that are held underneath the ocean is impossible, but it sounded like you had another idea."

Gomamon bit his lip. "The place is locked up with a dark shadow . . . and you know a digivice can break that right?"

The three looked at each other.

"That's great!"

"But one of you have to do it and you guys have to go after Sora."

"We could split up . . ." Joe suggested.

Mimi looked over at Joe, her hands by her mouth as if she were about to bite her finger nail.

"Joe . . . did you not hear me before? It's at the bottom of the ocean! You'll have to get there alive first. You won't have any air if I take you. And even if you made it down there, you'd still have to make it back up."

"Oh . . ."

"Yeah."

"Oh . . ." Joe repeated. "How deep is it?"

"One thousand, three hundred and thirty-two feet, almost four miles."

"How fast can you swim?"

"Joe, you can't seriously be thinking of going down there!" Mimi exclaimed.

Gomamon grinned at Joe. "Depends on what form I'm in."

"How fast can you go at your fastest?"

"Maybe about a mile a minute."

"I think I could hold my breath in four minutes . . ."

"Joe!"

"But I've never been able to digivolve that high," Gomamon said.

"You mean it's your Mega form?"

"Yeah . . ."

Joe looked at his digivice. Maybe he could make Gomamon digivolve through sheer will. Didn't Tai try to do that once? It hadn't ended so well . . . but Tai was trying to do it just for the sake of digivolving. They needed it this time.

"Joe!" Mimi shouted again. "You have to come back up, too!" she cried out in almost a panic. "That's eight minutes! Can you hold your breath for eight minutes?! And what about Sora!? We have to find her!"

"Right . . . Mimi, I want to call Izzy." Mimi gave him her cell phone hesitantly, briefly thinking about not giving it to him. He took the phone. "I'll be right back."

He left the room to talk to Izzy alone. Gomamon, Cody and Mimi watched him leave, wondering why he couldn't talk to Izzy in front of them.

"Hey Izzy?"

"Finally! You called! You were giving me a heart attack. I wanted to call you, but I was afraid you were being attack or hiding or something and I might give you away."

"No, we're fine. We found some digimon and Gomamon is with them . . . where's Sora?"

"She's already at the desert!"

"What?! But– How long has it been since I last called you?"

"Like two hours."

"But . . ."

"And Tai and TK have spilt up for who knows why. But it does look like Sora's going in the right direction to Tai . . ."

"Well . . ." Joe said before telling Izzy about what he found out from Gomamon, but he left out the part about how deep this thing actually was.

"I guess you could try. These things have to be linked anyway, and you guys are lot closer to the ocean. Maybe you'll find the rest of our digimon." Izzy said hopefully.

"How's the search for Kari coming along?"

"They haven't found anything yet . . . but they think they can see a tower in the distance and are heading for that."

"Sounds good."

"Call me back as soon as you can."

"Sure," and Joe hung up. He turned around and almost ran into Cody.

"I want to do it," Cody said, his face dead serious.

"Cody, what are you talking about? It would be better for me to go. My lungs are bigger than yours."

"Stop it. I don't like being treated like I'm so much younger than everyone else. You were my age when you first came to the digital world. I want to do something . . .  If Armadillomon were here, he could digivolve into Submarinemon and take me down there without me having to hold my breath," he said as an after thought.

"Well, he's not. Cody, what would be the point sending you if you're more useful here?"

Cody looked up confused. "How am I going to be useful if I just stay here?"

"You guys need to find the others. It's very important and I . . . I need you to look after Mimi. I'm sure you could be very good at that. You practice Kendo, right? You'll be good at it. Please. Mimi's . . . careless at times. She needs to be with someone."

Joe looked so sad as he said this that Cody couldn't say no. He nodded his head yes. "At least think about it better, though," he said. "Maybe it will sink into your brain and you'll realize how stupid you're being."

Joe smiled "Okay, I'll think about it." When they returned, Gomamon offered them more food, a bath and even a place to spend the night. Though Joe was pretty sure, he was not going to change his mind.