| Chapter Sixteen: Tailor-made for Digidestined! |
| Sam, Kerri, Khalid, Andrea and their Digimon walked together through the forest towards Primary Village in order to track down the others. Kerri, Andrea and Khalid were having a conversation amongst themselves, while Sam was walking in front of them in silence. �So, you�re saying Audrey and Adrian aren�t dead?� Khalid said. �Yep, they�re not dead.� Andrea confirmed. �But Dracomon told us they were!� Kerri shouted. �I saved them.� Salamon informed her with more than a touch of pride. �Big headed�� Eaglemon begun, trailing off. �Big headed what?� Salamon challenged, walking adjacent to Eaglemon. ��Nothing.� Eaglemon finished. �Don�t make me bite your wing again, Eaglemon!� Salamon threatened. �If you dare bring your fangs near my limbs, I shall not hesitate to peck your eyes out!� Eaglemon answered, looking down at the puppy Digimon. �Bring it on, bird brain!� �That�s it!� Eaglemon exclaimed, motioning to attack Salamon, but hesitated when he realised all the humans and the other Digimon were watching them. �What are you all looking at?� Eaglemon asked the group. Salamon took the opportunity to sink her teeth into Eaglemon�s wing. Eaglemon ran around as though he were possessed, wildly flapping his wings to shake the puppy Digimon off. Andrea laughed. �Aww, they�re just like us, Kerri�� Andrea said, before Kerri swiftly kicked her in the shin. �Ow!� �Look what your Digimon is doing to my Digimon!� Kerri cried angrily. �Call her off, now!� �No!� Andrea shouted, motioning to attack Kerri, when Sam and Khalid held up their hands to stop them. �Girls, please!� Sam objected. �We have a job to do.� Andrea and Kerri smiled at each other. �Bitch�� Kerri trailed off. �Love you, Kez!� Andi said. �Love you too, Andi!� Kerri answered, smiling. Khalid and Sam gave each other incredulous glances. The group continued on their route, Eaglemon and Salamon arguing as they journeyed, despite the objections of Tridemon and Slipmon. Eventually, the eight-strong group reached Primary Village. Elecmon approached them. �Hey, Andrea!� Elecmon spoke. �Looks like you decided to join them again, after all.� �Hey, Elecmon.� Andrea said. �And yeah, thanks for your advice. And for taking care of me and Salamon.� Andrea kneeled down and kissed Elecmon on the forehead. The Digimon blushed. �Aww, it�s okay, Andrea�� Elecmon said. �Guys, look!� Kerri said, looking down at her chest. Her tag was glowing. �Hey, cool!� Khalid spoke, staring at Kerri�s chest. �Indeed.� Sam agreed, doing the same. Kerri noticed what they were doing. She scowled and folded her arms. �No, you sick little pervs! The light in the middle!� Kerri shouted. �Hey, that�s what I was looking at!� Khalid argued. �Me too!� Sam added. �Whatever�� Kerri trailed off, walking away from both of them. �My crest must be somewhere in Primary Village!� �No way!� Elecmon objected. �I know this place like the back of my paw, and I haven�t found any of your crests here!� Kerri ignored him and approached the digi-eggs on the floor. She briefly inspected each one, before nonchalantly throwing them over her shoulder. �Nope�Nope�Nope�� She said after she inspected each one. Elecmon, meanwhile, was darting to and fro, struggling to catch all the eggs she was throwing and set them down carefully on the floor. �Hey, stop throwing my digi-eggs around!� Elecmon complained, catching another one of the eggs. �If you don�t want them to break, you should get them hard-boiled.� Kerri argued. �It�s your fault.� �Hard-boil digi-eggs?� Elecmon exclaimed. �You�ve never looked after digi-eggs before, have you?� �Nope.� Kerri said simply, picking up another digi-egg. Upon seeing this one, she smiled. �It�s this one!� �What�s that one?� Elecmon asked, approaching her and inspecting the digi-egg she was holding. Elecmon looked at it in shock. �What?� �What�s wrong, Elecmon?� Andrea asked, approaching them. �I know every digi-egg in this village,� Elecmon informed her, �but that�s one I�ve never seen before.� �Then this must be it!� Kerri said, looking at it closely. She could see a light emanating from the egg�s core. The shell itself had a pattern on it, which was a circle with a curved line running through its centre and a spike jetting out from either side of the circle, the left and right spikes bent slightly down and up, respectively. Kerri grunted and applied force to the egg, breaking it open. The egg was completely empty, with the exception of the source of the light, a small red rectangular charm with the same symbol on it as the egg. Kerri took the crest and slid it into her tag, smiling as the glow of both faded. �There!� She said, smiling, and turning to Elecmon. �Thanks Elecmon!� �What if you broke one of my eggs?� Elecmon complained. �Then we could have had a decent breakfast�� Andrea answered, rubbing her stomach. �I cast out my fishing net a while before you all came.� Elecmon said. �I might have caught something by now.� �Fish?� Kerri said. �No thanks, I�m a veggie.� �Suit yourself.� Elecmon replied, turning and running off. |
| The entire group were sitting in a circle, eating fish from a plate in the middle. Elecmon turned to Kerri. �Enjoying that, Kerri?� Kerri turned to him and frowned, biting on an apple she had been given. �You sure there�s enough left for the baby Digimon, Elecmon?� Sam asked. �I mean I don�t want them to go hungry.� �Don�t worry, Sam.� Elecmon replied. �There�s plenty left for them, and the put the net out again to try and catch some more. They don�t eat as much as you�d think.� �Oi!� a familiar voice shouted. The group turned to face Adrian, who was approaching them, followed by Tim, Darren and Audrey. The group stood and approached the other four. Sam approached Audrey and hugged her. �Hey, Sam!� Audrey said, returning the hug. �Dracomon said you were dead.� Sam explained. �I was worried.� �Don�t worry hun.� Audrey replied. �I was saved by Gatomon.� �I know, Andi said.� �Andi�s come back?� Audrey said, looking over his shoulder and seeing Andrea. �Oh yeah.� �Hey!� Khalid exclaimed, approaching Adrian, Tim and Darren. �You�re okay!� �Yeah.� Adrian replied. �Finally, you guys are here!� Kerri exclaimed. �I thought Andrea, Sam and Khalid were gonna�do pervy stuff to me�� Andrea gasped. �You�re so big headed!� She exclaimed. �Hey, what�s this?� Elecmon said. �More visitors? I barely had enough food for four of you.� �I know where I can get them more food, Elecmon.� A voice said. The group turned and saw Gennai standing near where they had been eating, smiling at the group. �Gennai!� Adrian shouted, approaching the man. �Hello Adrian, and I must say it�s amazing how you�ve been fighting Dracomon so far.� �Thanks!� Shocamon said, smiling with pride. �Anyway, as I was saying Elecmon, it�s nice that you�re looking after the Digidestined but your fish should be saved for the baby Digimon of Primary Village.� Gennai said. �Digidestined, if you�ll follow me, I�ll lead you to my home. I�ve prepared dinner for you.� �Oh, sounds good.� Tim said. �It�s gotta be better than apples!� Kerri exclaimed, throwing the half-eaten apple over her shoulder. �I�ve been eating apples for the past week!� |
| �This is my home, Digidestined.� Gennai spoke, looking up at the mountainside. �It�s a mountain�� Kerri said. �True, if you don�t look closely.� Gennai replied, putting a hand to the cliff face. To the Digidestined�s surprise, a white square of light formed under Gennai�s hand and two square panels slid apart in the face of the mountain. Gennai walked in and felt the inside wall, before flipping a switch, causing a light to come on. �Come on in.� Gennai offered, motioning to the Digidestined with his hands, and the group walked inside, Gennai closing the doors behind them. The room they walked into was well lit and well furnished, with several sofas and chairs dotting the room and a table in the middle. There was a small kitchen in the corner of the room, two doors in the opposite wall, and in the other corner were two glass patio doors that led out to a small courtyard. �Wow, nice place.� Tim muttered. �Thank you.� Gennai replied, turning back to the group. �If you�ll all sit down, I have something I need to explain to you all.� The eight young people and their Digimon allies obliged the old man, sitting down on the various sofas and chairs dotted around the room. Gennai walked into the kitchen. �I promised you food and you will get food.� He announced to them. �But first, I must explain a few things to you.� The children watched him from inside the living room, seeing him take something out of the oven and put it on the counter, laying some foil lightly over it. He then returned to the living room and sat down on one of the chairs that hadn�t been occupied. �Allow me to explain to you all my purpose here in the Digiworld.� �You�ve already told us, Gennai.� Audrey said. �You�re here to prepare our Digimon, Digivices and crests.� �It�s also my job to help you fight the evil that has taken control of the Digital World.� Gennai informed her. �Obviously, I�m too old to fight by your side, but I can lend you some advice and information that you may find useful.� �Like what?� Khalid challenged. �Do you know of the attributes?� Gennai asked. �Attributes�� Khalid trailed off, leaning his head back in thought. �I think I heard Dracomon talking about them with Slipmon. Why?� �Attributes decide how Digimon behave.� Gennai said. �There are three attributes: Vaccine, Data and Virus. All Digimon are one of these three attributes.� �Cool, what are our Digimon?� Khalid asked. �Well, Shocamon, Tridemon, Onomon, Moosemon and Salamon are all vaccine.� Gennai said. �Slythamon and Eaglemon are data, and Slipmon is a virus.� Slipmon, upon hearing his name mentioned, looked down at the floor in thought. �Cool, what does that mean?� Khalid asked. �Let me explain.� Gennai said, slightly annoyed at Khalid�s questions. �Vaccine Digimon are usually good Digimon. They only use their powers to help others and to protect themselves. Virus Digimon, on the other hand, are usually evil Digimon. They use their powers to hurt others and usually have evil intentions. Data Digimon could go either way. Depending on their individual circumstances, they could be good or evil.� �What about me?� Slipmon asked, looking up at Gennai. �I�m a virus attribute. Does it mean I�m evil?� �Not necessarily.� Gennai replied. �You see, what I�ve said isn�t always true. There are exceptions. You can have evil vaccine Digimon, and you can have good virus Digimon. If a virus Digimon is a good Digimon, we call them a benign virus attribute. If they�re evil, we call them a malignant virus attribute.� This seemed to silence Slipmon and he looked back down at the floor. �So Digimon like Davimon and Dracomon are malignant viruses?� Adrian queried. �That�s right, Adrian.� Gennai agreed. There was a brief pause, before Gennai asked, �have you all found your crests?� �I have.� Adrian replied. �Yeah, I�ve got mine.� Khalid stated. �Yeah, got mine today.� Kerri informed. �Darren and I got ours yesterday.� Tim said. �Moose!� Darren exclaimed, holding his tag up proudly. �I got mine.� Sam said simply. �So have I.� Andrea said, smiling, and looking down at her crest. �So the only one that hasn�t found their crest is�� �Me?� Audrey said sadly, looking down at her empty tag. Gennai laughed. �Don�t worry, Audrey. I anticipated that you wouldn�t have yours yet.� �How?� Audrey asked. �Because my assistant hid it here.� Gennai said, standing and walking into the kitchen again. �How surprised I was when I tried to cook myself a microwave meal yesterday, and found this strange box in my microwave! But when I saw the symbol of Modesty on the box, I knew what my assistant had done.� Gennai approached the microwave and opened the door, pulling out a small blue box. He approached Audrey and, as he did so, her tag began to glow. He placed the box on the table and she leaned forward to inspect it. �Go ahead and open it,� Gennai invited, sitting back down, �you�ll find your crest inside.� The box was blue with a decoration on its lid that was simply a circle with a small dot in the middle and four triangles inside the circle, pointing at the dot. Audrey opened the lid of the box and, sure enough, her crest was inside, resting on a little plastic stand. It was green and glowing as brightly as her tag. She took the crest and slid it into her tag, smiling as the glow of both objects faded. She looked back up at Gennai. �Now you all have your crests.� Gennai noted. �That�s wonderful! Now, I need to explain to you some history of the Digiworld.� �This should be fun.� Tim commented. �I never did like learning about history in school�� Audrey said. �Well, that�s the history of the real world. I assure you the history of the Digiworld is much more interesting.� �We�ll see.� Sam said, leaning back on his chair. �Well, the Digital World was created by eight great Digimon gods thousands of years ago.� Gennai explained. �They created the Digiworld and all was well, until eventually evil Digimon appeared. The eight Digimon gods were, at first, powerful enough to stop the evil Digimon, but the evil Digimon grew in power and in number until eventually the eight Digimon gods were not able to hold off the evil alone. So the eight Digimon gods brought me to the Digiworld and had me create a team of Digidestined, that could assist in the saving of the world.� �And that was us?� Khalid asked. �Precisely.� Gennai replied. �Cool.� Khalid commented. �By the way, it�s no coincidence that there are eight of you and eight Digimon gods.� Gennai spoke. �Each of you has a guardian god, and that god�s spirit is inside your crest. If your intentions match those of your crest, it will glow, and the god will lend you some of his or her power.� �Lend some of their power?� Audrey asked. �Yes.� Gennai confirmed. �You see, Digivices are powerful, but in order to Digivolve past champion, your Digimon need to have some power donated to them from a Digimon that is more powerful than they are. Your crests act as a store of energy, which your Digimon can take if they need it.� �Oh, okay.� Audrey muttered. �Well, in any case, this is more than my home.� Gennai continued, standing and approaching one of the doors on the opposite wall. �It is also a place for you to stay for a while. My room is the door on the left, your is in here.� Gennai opened the right hand door and walked inside. The Digidestined all stood and followed him in the room, looking around. The room was a small one, with a few bedside tables and four bunk beds. �This room was custom built for you, Digidestined.� Gennai said. �I claim top bunk!� Adrian cried, running and jumping up onto the top bunk of one of the beds. �Me too!� Kerri shouted, climbing onto the top bunk of another one of the bunk beds. The other Digidestined all sorted themselves out with beds; Adrian, Kerri, Khalid and Tim taking top bunks, Andrea, Darren, Sam and Audrey taking bottom bunks. �Well, I�m glad you all sorted out that problem, but you seem to have forgotten that I have prepared dinner for you all.� Gennai reminded them. �Oh yeah, what is it?� Andrea asked. �I hope you all like pizza.� Gennai said, smiling. �Vegetarian pizza?� Kerri asked, sitting up on her bunk. �I have different kinds for all of you, and yours is vegetarian, Kerri.� �Wow!� Kerri exclaimed, jumping down from her bunk. �Thanks, Gennai!� |
| After dinner, the entire group had returned to bed to slumber, in order to gather energy for their battle with Dracomon. Slipmon, however, couldn�t sleep. He looked at Khalid as he slept. He looked so peaceful. Slipmon unsheathed his claw and ran it gently over the boys face. He then retracted the claw and with his paw gently traced the line he had marked out with it. Slipmon frowned. Was his true destiny to protect Khalid, or to destroy him? He thought about Gennai�s words. Was he a malignant virus, or a benign virus? He decided he needed to know. Approaching the ladder connected to Khalid�s bunk, he climbed down, landing lightly on the floor below. He exited the Digidestined's quarters and approached the patio doors leading to Gennai�s courtyard. He opened the door and closed it behind him. The mountain that contained Gennai�s home was very strange, in the shape of a donut, and the garden was in the middle. The effect was that most of the garden was blocked from the sun and moonlight, but there was enough light from the torch on the wall for Slipmon to see his way around. Small trees and shrubberies were dotted around the lawn, and there was a pond on the far side. Slipmon silently jumped down from the porch onto the grass and approached the pond. There were several fish of multiple colours inside, and they were swimming around the pond in circles. Slipmon dipped a paw into the pond and swept it to and fro, causing ripples to appear on the water�s previously immaculate surface. He watched as the fish swam around frantically to avoid this intrusion to their world. Slipmon smiled as he thought about what simple lives these fish must lead. Not having to worry about anything big, like protecting a Digidestined, or saving the world� no, all these fish had to worry about was thinking of original ways to swim around a pond. �Isn�t it a little late for fishing?� Slipmon retracted his paw and turned his head upon hearing Gennai�s voice. He turned back as the old man sat beside him, looking down at him. �I believe there�s an expression on Earth that goes� a penny for your thoughts?� Gennai spoke. ��It�s nothing important.� Slipmon replied. �If it was nothing important, we wouldn�t be here.� Gennai said. �You�d be by Khalid�s side getting a good night�s sleep, and I would be doing the same in my bed.� Slipmon sighed. �It�s about what you said�about virus Digimon.� A look of understanding came to Gennai�s face. �Ah yes.� �I want to know, Gennai�am I malignant or benign?� �It wasn�t just me that brought about these thoughts, was it?� �No�� Slipmon explained. �It was Dracomon too. He said that my father was a top-ranking officer in his army, and that he was evil� am I gonna be like that?� �Well, I must admit, Botrahebramon was a little anxious about giving his power to a virus Digimon.� �Botrahebramon� the Digi-god of loyalty?� �Yes, one of the eight.� Gennai said. �He didn�t like the idea, but I said it should be chanced.� �Does that mean I�m a benign virus?� �I don�t know.� �You don�t know?� Slipmon exclaimed, jumping to his feet. �Well, there�s no way to find out.� Gennai explained. �It�s not like sexing a Digimon, where you can just see what�s in their genital pouches. It�s much more complex than that.� �What do you mean, more complex?� Slipmon asked. �Well, there�s no real way of knowing.� Gennai answered. �Do you feel any destructive tendencies?� �Yes�well, no�well�I don�t know.� �Don�t worry if you do, all Digimon, even vaccine types, feel some destructive tendencies.� Gennai explained. �But if you start to feel those tendencies towards your friends and allies, then you�re malignant.� �But I don�t know if I feel that way about the others�� Slipmon said. �I want to protect Khalid, I�d protect him with all my strength, but I don�t know about the others�� �I think you�re thinking too hard about this.� Gennai said, standing. �You should just leave it for now. The answer to your question will present itself eventually.� �Are you sure?� �I�m certain.� Gennai said simply, before walking back inside the building. Slipmon sat by the pond and patted the surface of the lake with his paw again, just thinking about Gennai�s words, before fatigue got the better of him. He walked inside, and quietly crept into the Digidestined's quarters. He climbed the ladder to Khalid�s bunk and lay down beside the young man, before closing his eyes and falling asleep. |
| �Goodbye Digidestined!� Gennai called. �And good luck in your battle against Dracomon!� �Thanks Gennai!� Kerri called to him, waving, before the group walked along back to Primary Village. �We gotta battle Dracomon now.� Tim said. �You nervous, Tim?� Audrey asked him. �No way!� Tim exclaimed, walking faster so he was ahead of the group. �You ain�t gonna get very far unless you know where it is.� Sam said, walking beside him. �Yeah, only we know where Dracomon�s castle is!� Khalid said, as he and Kerri approached Tim. �Well, so do I.� Andrea said. �And while I was taking a break from all of you, I learned about the fastest routes there.� �I think we�re all needed.� Darren spoke, walking faster to keep up. �Yeah, we need to work together to beat Dracomon.� Adrian agreed. �This is gonna be our most difficult battle so far.� Audrey said. �He�s tough, we know that. We�ve seen it.� �I don�t care how tough he is, we�re gonna bust him up!� Sam shouted. �Yeah! Dracomon, you can�t get away now!� Tim exclaimed. �We�re all together, and you don�t stand a chance!� |