The Digimorphus - Chapter 3

Digimorphs: Secrets of the Digimorphus

Chapter 3: Digimon-Destined?

Tai lets out a yawn as he sits up, finding that the sun has already raised in the east. Scratching the back of his head, he stands up and suddenly falls over, his balance feeling a bit off. Tai blinks a little before slowly standing, soon finding his center of balance. I must have stood up too quickly after sleeping on the hard rock, Tai thinks to himself before he walks over to the stream to get a drink. He kneels down and cups his hands together to help get himself a drink, but as he brings his hands down to submerge them into the water, he freezes in place, frightened by what he was seeing.

Replacing his limbs was a pair of orange, scaly arms with brown gloves covering the hands, claws tipping each of the four fingers on each hand.

Tai lets out a scream as he falls backwards, trying to get away from the lizard-like arms, but finds that they stay with him, falling back when he did. A few seconds later, when he attempts to close his hand into a fist, he finds the gloved hand closing with his. After a few more seconds, Tai realizes that this arm is actually his own arm! Sometime during the night, his arm had turned into this.

“Tai, what’s going–” TK yells as he comes out of the cave, but when Tai comes to face him, they both stare at each other for a second before both letting out screams.

The creature before him was not TK. It was a Digimon with short, orange fur all over its body, tan fur on its belly. Its legs seemed human, but each foot had three toes instead of five and the hands have four fingers. The eyes were brown and had no pupils, the nose was small and triangular, and the hair on its head was blonde. What was most startling about this Digimon were the large bat-like wings that were sprouting from its back, the same orange fur covering the wings on top and the undersides in tan fur. If Tai could tell any better, he could swear that this Digimon resembled…

“…Patamon?” Tai inquires, finding that this creature looks a lot like Patamon.

“Patamon? No, my name’s TK,” the creature says.

“TK?!? Is that really you?!?” Tai exclaims.

“What do you mean?” TK asks. “So who are you? Agumon?”

“Agumon?” Tai now asks, taking the moment to look himself over to see if what TK meant.

The arms included, Tai could now barely recognize himself. His entire body was covered in orange scales that were a lot like Agumon’s. His legs still looked the same, but he now had three toes on each foot like this other Digimon, a claw tipping each toe like with his gloved hands. A quick look into the reflective stream reveals more changes, for his face was as orange and scaly as the rest of him with long, pointed ears. His eyes are blue and also without pupils, and a quick smile reveals sharp teeth capable of eating meat with ease. His hair is still there, however, still as brown and pointed in all directions as before.

“I…I am Agumon! I look just like him!” Tai exclaims, finding this all very hard to believe. “But this is impossible! How could I turn into my Digimon partner?!?”

“Wait a minute! Tai? Is that you?” TK exclaims.

“I…think so…” Tai answers, beginning to get a bit over-agitated. He stands up and attempts to jump into the river, hoping that the waters would wake him up from this nightmare, but falls over again. “Ow…why am I having such a hard time standing?!?”

“Erm…maybe it’s because you have a tail,” TK suggests.

“A WHAT?!?” Tai yells as he looks behind him. It’s true; lying behind him is a long, orange, scaly tail. He even feels it move when the tail stirs a little. “This…is too much…”

“Guys, what’s happen–” Joe pauses mid-sentence as he sees the others and yells, falling backwards.

Tai turns to see Joe and is surprised, yet not very shocked, to see that Joe has also changed.

Joe was now covered in white and blue fur, covered in a fur pattern that greatly resembles Gomamon’s. His hands and feet were now three-digit appendages tipped with black claws and shaped like flippers, which would mean that his swimming ability would probably have improved as well. His mouth and nose now formed a muzzle, a cute triangular dog nose at the end and somewhat sharp teeth within his mouth. On top of that, his ears were now flatten out and hanging out from the sides of his head like a pair of dog ears from under his blue hair. He even had a small tail that made him look like a real sea dog (no pun intended).

“W-Who are you two?!?” the Digimon asks.

“Joe, it’s us, Tai and TK,” TK tries to explain.

“B-B-But you two are…are–”

“–not exactly ourselves at the moment,” Tai attempts to help. “Look, we don’t know what’s going on, but we’ve turned into what seems to be humanoid versions of our Digimon. Even you have changed.”

“What?” Joe asks, his voice quivering a little with fear, before looking at himself. Joe screams once more, looking about ready to pass out. “What happened to me? I look like–”

“Gomamon, we know,” TK finishes.

“But how did this happen? Why?” Joe asks, beginning to throw question after question without stopping for a breath. “And where are most of my clothes?!?”

Tai is silent for a second after Joe’s last question. Now that he thought about it, what did happen to their clothes? Tai was no longer wearing any clothes except for the shirt he was wearing earlier. TK had his shirt as well, but he also had the hat from before. Joe was still wearing his sweater and his glasses, but nothing else labeled him as Joe except for the attitude toward the situation.

“Joe, calm down!” Tai yells, slapping Joe on the cheek.

Joe silences, putting a flipper-like hand to his face. “…Thanks…I needed that…”

“No problem, but we’ll have to keep our cool through all of this,” Tai adds. “I might have an idea what caused this, and I’m pretty sure you two have that same idea as well.”

“You mean Kagakushamon and his strange machine?” Joe inquires.

“Right,” Tai answers. “That might be the best answer to our question.”

“You know, I just realized something,” TK states. “Since we’re Digimon now, shouldn’t that mean that our names are now different?”

“You mean that they should now have ‘mon’ tacked onto the end?” Tai asks.

“Yeah,” TK responds. “So that would make me…Tiikeimon?”

“I think that sounds appropriate,” Tai answers. “So that makes me Taimon then.”

“What about you, Joe?” Tiikeimon quizzes. “Does Jyoumon sound good?”

“No!” Joe retorts, causing Taimon and Tiikeimon to jump. “I am not giving in to this! Accepting a Digimon name is the same as accepting that I will forever be a Digimon! I do not want to be a Digimon forever!”

“Joe, calm down,” Tiikeimon says, putting his hands up as if he were ready to push a boulder. “We are going to find a way to change back, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t live like Digimon until that happens.”

Joe turns away from them. “I don’t care! I do not want to be called anything other than Joe!”

“Alright, Joe, settle down,” Taimon says. “Let’s not get too upset over this.”

“So what do we do now, Taimon?” Tiikeimon asks.

Taimon is about to speak before a grumbling noise is heard coming from all three of them. “…First of all, let’s get some breakfast. I don’t think we’ll get too far without something on our stomachs. Then we’ll go see if we can find the others.”

“Agreed,” Tiikeimon answers. “Jyou–Erm, I mean, Joe, do you think you could help us catch some fish?”

“…Nice catch,” Joe says sarcastically, referring to the near misnaming. Looking at his flipper-like hands, he sighs and then walks over to the stream.

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A cold chill blows across the tundra as another blizzard kicks up. A small digital snow hare hops through the snowstorm, searching desperately for shelter. As it jumps around, it spies a rocky cave that is barely visible on this huge white terrain. It quickly approaches the cave, ready to dive in and get out of the wind. Suddenly, it senses a predator nearby. Pausing, it sniffs the air to try and place the scent.

But it is too slow.

By the time it realizes how close its predator is and attempts to run away, the predator has already pounced, tackling it to the ground. The hare frantically tries to get free from the grip of its enemy, but all of a sudden, the extreme cold seems to become even more extreme as a strange tingling hits the back of its head. All of a sudden, everything goes white.

Matt can’t help but smile a little at his first successful catch. It isn’t a lot of meat, but it would be enough for now. Turning around, he enters the cavern and looks at the Cody and Rika. “Feeling better?” he asks them, looking from one to the other.

Cody’s skin was now rough and yellow, similar to the texture and color of his partner Armadillomon, with a medium-sized tail projecting from his rear. His feet now had three toes each and four fingers per hand, each digit tipped with a tiny black claw for help with digging. The tops of his kneecaps and hands are covered with orange shell-like plates, and two pairs of shell-like wings sprout from his back (although they probably aren’t of any use). A look at his face would yield a short muzzle with a small black nose among other things, including longer, pointed ears; pupil-less, hazel eyes; and several black face markings, one under each eye and one between and just above the eyes but below the hairline of his still brown and neat hair. Other than the shirt he was wearing before the change, he is bare of any clothes.

Rika has also changed overnight. Her entire body is now covered in a somewhat golden yellow fur. Like Cody, she has four fingers per hand and three toes on each foot with a black claw on each digit, but unlike him, her tail is a long fox tail with white fur at the tip. Her face is also different; tufts of fur puff out from her cheeks and accent the fox ears that she got overnight. Blue eyes of no pupils and a small muzzle with a black fox nose, it would be hard to distinguish Rika from some Digimon that resembles Renamon greatly if it were not for the T-shirt she was wearing at the D-1 tournament and her red hair tied up in a samurai style.

“That is supposed to be our breakfast?” Rika (now Rikamon) retorts with a sour look. “Don’t you think you could have brought us food instead of a TV dinner?”

“Well, you try to do better when your attack is meant to freeze something to death,” Matt returns with a bit of sarcasm. “Look, it’s the best we’re going to get for a while until we find our way out of this tundra.”

“I could still try tunneling a way out of here,” Cody (now Kodimon) suggests. “After all, wouldn’t be much warmer moving across the tundra underground instead of up here where the wind shear can kill us?”

“We don’t know how major the issue of fresh oxygen is if we tunnel underground and we also won’t know where we’ll be going,” Matt explains as he takes a moment to observe his own form.

His entire body is covered in a light coating of white fur minus where it becomes a pair of small orange-tan stripes under each eye and on each shoulder. Like all the others, he has four fingers on each hand and three toes per foot, black claws tipping the digits. His face, from looking into a puddle of melted water they managed to make, had a muzzle as well with a cold, wet nose and sharp teeth able to rip meat apart. His ears were long and pointed like a wolf’s under his blonde hair, and his golden eyes twinkled in the reflection. He had more clothing than the others, however, having both his pants and shirt along with a pair of golden bracelets that were around his wrists.

“Well, are you going to just sit there or are you going to help melt the ice off this rabbit?”

Matt (now Matimon) looks up at Rikamon. “You know, you could try to say ‘please’ or at least be a little nicer.” He takes the rabbit and then slams it down on the rocky ground, causing most of the ice to break off, leaving the corpse which is still a slight bit warm.

Rikamon quickly rips off a leg from the rabbit and begins to gnaw away at the meat, no concern for manners at all.

Kodimon gulps, nearly losing his lunch. “I…really don’t feel hungry…”

“You’ll need to eat or you won’t have the energy to get through this blizzard,” Matimon states as he rips off another leg and begins to eat it as well, but with more regard for manners.

Kodimon is silent before taking a leg and slowly yanking it off, looking about ready to faint.

“What’s the matter? Are you afraid of a little blood?” Rikamon inquires, a bit cruelly.

“Rika, stop,” Matimon responds.

“What? Unless he learns to eat something raw, he won’t get too far in this world,” Rikamon retorts.

Matimon is now beginning to get angry. “Rika, you don’t have to lay it on so thickly.”

Kodimon is silent before setting aside his emotions, taking a gulp before biting into the leg. He feels unpleasing tastes in his mouth as he chews the food, but manages to stomach it after a few minutes. He gags for a second as he takes a tiny bit of snow from outside, stuffs it into his mouth, and swishes it around before swallowing the now-melted water.

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” Rikamon says with a smile. “You’ll get used to it eventually, however. We’ll have more meat meals like this one in the future, no doubt about it.”

“Rika, why do you have to be so mean about it?” Kodimon now yells back. “You act like it isn’t wrong to just kill an innocent animal and then to devour it!”

Rikamon stares at him silently for a second before twitching her nose. “Listen, it’s not that I think this isn’t right; I’m doing this because I have no choice. Right now, it’s do or die, meaning if you don’t eat, then you will die. You just got to realize that until this problem is solved, we will have to stick to the diet we are eating now.”

Matimon blinks a bit. He was finding it hard to believe that this was the girl who earlier was finding it hard to accept that they had turned into Digimon when they first woke up that morning. Now she seemed to have adapted to the situation over the half-hour since then.

“Wake up, wolf-boy!” Rikamon yells to Matimon, snapping her fingers.

Matimon winces when Rikamon calls him that. “What?”

“The rabbit’s already gone. Go out there and get us another one,” Rikamon demands.

“I have a better idea,” Matimon rebels. “Why don’t we all go out together and look for food while we try to get out of this tundra?”

“I agree with Matt,” Kodimon answers, tossing the bones aside, even though there was still a good bit of meat left on them.

“Are you sure you won’t be too cold, Cody? You are the only one of us three who doesn’t have fur to keep you warm,” Matimon states with concern.

Kodimon smiles a little as he quickly rubs his hands together to help stay warm. “I’ll be fine as long as we hurry and find our way out of here.”

Rikamon is quiet, aware that she was the deciding vote. Feeling both of their stares, Rikamon sighs and throws her hands up. “Fine…”

Matimon smiles before helping Kodimon up. “Well, let’s go then,” he says before stepping out into the blizzard, which had decreased in intensity during their meal.

Kodimon slowly follows Matimon out of the cave, feeling the cold air on his exposed skin and instantly shivering. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all… he thinks as he tries to keep up with Matimon.

Rikamon lets out a quick huff as she sees Kodimon shiver. Should have figured he would get cold so quickly, she thinks as she rolls her eyes before tailing him and Matimon. As she follows them out across this vast white horizon, she can’t help but wonder if anyone else was having a harder time than them.

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“Oh my! These berries are delicious!”

Mimi continues to enjoy the great fruits that she managed to find, popping another one of the delicious berries into her mouth.

Davis sighs as he looks around this jungle, looking from the sub-tropical trees to the tropical plants on the beach nearby where the golden sands and crystal waters blend and make a beautiful picture. “I just don’t get it,” he states as he takes another bite of the fish he caught. “Last night, we were human. Now, we practically are our own Digimon. What the flip happened?”

“I already told you that Kagakushamon probably did this,” Ken says as he takes a bite of his fish. “After all, it only makes sense that it’s his fault since this happened to us right after he put that in that machine of his.”

Davis sighs as he looks at his friends and then at himself to see if they had changed any more or not.

Mimi (or Meimimon as she now preferred) turned green overnight, and that’s a literal statement since her skin was now filled with chlorophyll. She had four claw-tipped toes and fingers on each foot and hand respectively and there were bracelets of vines around her wrists and ankles. She was wearing a pink dress which was different from what she was wearing prior to the transformation with a cloth belt that had a red and yellow flower as an ornament on the front of the belt. Draped over her shoulders was a large set of pink flower petals with another red and yellow flower as a neckpiece. Her ears were pointed like a forest elf’s, and her pupil-less eyes were walnut brown. In her brown hair just behind her ears was a pair of red and yellow flowers.

Ken (or Kennimon now) also had green skin, but no chlorophyll. Three toes per foot and four fingers per hand, each digit was tipped with a silver claw. His face didn’t change much from the transformation, with the only additions being a pair of antenna that stuck out of his dark violet hair and some yellow marking on his face, a circle between and just above his eyes and a small dot under each violet eye. Similar circular marks were also on the tops of his hands. From his backside sprouted a medium-length tail and a pair of large, colorful butterfly wings out the jacket he was wearing prior to the change.

Davis (Daevimon now) was closer to looking like his Digimon partner than any of the others. In fact, he practically was Veemon from the shoulders down if you ignored the jacket he was wearing from earlier. His skin was now blue and somewhat scaly, light blue on his belly and around his jaw. Four toes and four fingers for each appendage correspondingly, each digit was tipped with a claw-like nail. His new tail stretched out behind him, two scaly spikes lined up at the end. His ears were now flat and pointed, and his eyes are now hazel. His hair is brown and messy as always and Tai’s old goggles are still wrapped around his head.

“So where do you think the others are?” Meimimon inquires.

“Well, seeing that Kagakushamon split us all up,” Kennimon starts, “I’m assuming that he’s spread us all as far apart from each other as possible so that it will not be easy to reunite with one another.”

“Makes sense…” Meimimon admits. “I just wish that we knew where they all were, though. I also wish I knew whether or not this Digimon look clashes with my style to not.”

“Don’t worry,” Daevimon says, trying to reinsure Meimimon, but sweatdropping on the style part. “We’ll find them. I bet they’re already looking for us as well.”

“I hope…” she quietly murmurs before popping another berry into her mouth.

“So, Kennimon, since you seem to know so much about what’s been happening, maybe you can also help us figure out what to do next,” Daevimon states with a hint of sarcasm but also with a hidden trace of hope that Kennimon did know what to do next since he had no idea at all of what to do.

“…Well…I…have no idea…” Kennimon submits in defeat. “The best thing to do is to try to find the others, but then there’s the chance that when we leave this spot, then the others could come here and, upon not seeing us, go off in a random direction. Of course, if we just stay here, then the chances of finding the others are just as slim…”

Daevimon is quiet now that he can see what was holding Kennimon up. “Yeah…I guess I see why you’re kinda stalemated here…”

“I wish Palmon was here…” Meimimon wishes as she holds up her Digivice.

“You have your Digivice as well?” Daevimon notes as he holds up his.

“I always keep it with me just in case,” Meimimon responds.

“Same here…” Kennimon answers before sighing. “This would be a lot easier to cope with if our Digimon were here. I mean, they’ve been Digimon their entire lives, so they know more about being a Digimon than we do!”

“I agree,” Daevimon says. “I mean, I have no idea how to use any of my attacks. I asked Veemon once long ago what it was like to use an attack, and he told me it comes naturally. Well, if that’s the case, then how come I don’t know what any of my attacks are?”

“I can side with you, Daevimon,” Kennimon admits. “I have no idea what to do in order to attack either.”

“By the way, can you use those wings?” Meimimon asks Kennimon.

“I’m…not sure…I suppose I can, but I’ve just never tried…” Kennimon sounds out before standing up. He flaps the wings for a few seconds and manages to lift a few inches off the ground, but suddenly collapses back onto the ground.

“Kennimon, are you alright?” Daevimon inquires, going over to make sure he wasn’t hurt.

“Fine…a bit sore, but fine…” Kennimon responds. “I guess I’ll need a bit of work before I can fly well.”

“I’m sorry, Ken. If I didn’t ask you about the wings, you wouldn’t have hurt yourself,” Meimimon apologizes, her walnut brown eyes filled with sympathy.

“Really, I’m fine,” Kennimon says. From where he is lying, he grabs another fish and begins to consume it.

“Well, that’s the last of the fish,” Daevimon admits as he watches Kennimon finish off the fish.

“And there also goes the last of the berries,” Meimimon mentions after swallowing the berries in her mouth. “I’m a bit surprised that we all managed to eat so much.”

Daevimon shrugs. “I guess since we’re Digimon now, we have larger appetites and greater metabolisms, so we can eat more,” he assumes.

“Well, I’m not Izzy, but I’m guessing that us searching for the others instead of the other way around will make it easier to meet up with someone,” Kennimon estimates.

“Well then, if we’re all ready, let’s get going,” Daevimon says before standing up. He then helps Meimimon to her feet and then Kennimon to his. Soon, the three of them begin to hike through the underbrush of the jungle in the direction they hope they will find their friends in.

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“Why is it so hot?” Yolei complains as she takes another step forward, her foot sinking into the soft yet broiling sands. She looks from the desert horizon ahead of her to the bright sun above, shielding her eyes from the intense sunlight. “Isn’t there another way of getting out of this desert?”

Henry sighs. “Unless you have a better idea, this is the only way to get through here,” he answers. “Truthfully, though, I wouldn’t have minded if the sun had stayed set earlier…”

Takato’s stomach now growls, making a loud, somewhat grotesque sound. “I wish we had more to eat than a few cacti. We couldn’t even eat them, for goodness’ sake!”

“Well, what else is there out here, Takato?” Henry inquires his friend, looking him and Yolei over.

Takato’s skin was now rough, scaly, and a bright red except where it is white on the front of his chest. He had four fingers on each hand with an ivory claw on each one, claws also tipping each of the toes on his two three-toed feet. A red tail of medium length sprouts from his behind, a black ring around it about halfway up it. Takato also has more black markings all over his body, most of which where the same as Guilmon’s and in the same places but with the exception of Guilmon’s danger symbols, which are, unlike Guilmon’s three equilateral triangles around a larger equilateral one, two scalene right triangles lined up on their longest legs and reflecting the other in a symmetric way with an equilateral triangle lined up on their shorter legs to make a kite-like pattern. Takato’s ears also resembled Guilmon’s ears greatly, and his sharp teeth and dark blue eyes tie the resemblance even closer together. Takato still had his brown hair, his goggles, and the shirt he was wearing previously, but otherwise, he looked just like Guilmon.

Yolei had changed a lot as well. Her torso and arms were covered in red feathers and her head with white feathers, and her legs were yellow and scaly instead of feather-coated. Her feet were three-toed each and tipped with ivory claws, but her four-fingered hands are tipped with black claws. Her eyes are now blue and without pupils, and there are red marks under her eyes and above and between them. Her pointed ears peak out from underneath her long light purple hair, which was secured with a headband like Hawkmon’s and had a feather stuck in the back of it. She was also wearing the shirt she was wearing prior to the transformation, which seems to be the only thing she retained from the change physically.

Henry wasn’t any better. He was covered entirely in a short coat of gray fur with pairs of blue stripes on his forearms and thighs. He had four-fingered hands and three-toed feet with black claws and from his rear sprouted a medium-sized tail. Henry’s ears were now just like Terriermon’s and had grown in size, not quite to the size of Terriermon’s but much too big for humanoid ears. A little triangle nose, black pupil-less eyes, a blue mark under each eye and two horns projecting from his forehead completes the image, but Henry’s dark blue hair and jacket from earlier throws off the 100% Digimon look.

“Well, isn’t there anywhere where we can rest in the shade or something or at least an oasis?” Takato (now Takatomon) asks, sweat glistening his forehead. “Any more of this sun and I’m going to collapse of thirst!”

Henry (or Henrimon now) heaves a sigh before turning to Takatomon. “Look, Takato, if you keep up this complaining, we’re not going to get anywhere!” Henrimon tells him a bit harshly.

Takatomon quiets down nearly instantly, looking a bit shocked by Henrimon’s sudden behavior.

Henrimon turns and continues to walk, but he doesn’t get too far before stopping. Henrimon just stands there for a few seconds before exhaling heavily. “…I’m sorry, Takato. It’s just…all of this is a bit too much…I mean, yesterday, we were human, and then Kagakushamon came in with that darn machine of his and changed us into this overnight! We’ve already lost our bodies to him…and I’m just afraid that we might soon lose our minds as well. I mean, after all, if he could change us physically, it might not stop him from messing with us mentally…”

Yolei (or more appropriately Yoleimon) can’t help but feel the same way about all of this. After all, she had gone through the same thing as Henrimon even though she turned into an anthro Hawkmon and not a Terriermon. Nevertheless, being turned into a Digimon was a bit distressful to her and these two, and what of the others? Surely they had also been transformed and are having a hard time coping with this.

“Look! Over there!” Takatomon yells and points out. “There’s an oasis!” He begins to run over to where he sees a large pool of fresh, cool water, already feeling the relief literally wash over his face.

“Takato, wait!” Henrimon yells, running after his comrade and trying to stop him.

Takatomon does not listen to Henrimon and instead jogs at a faster pace toward the oasis. Upon reaching the edge, he jumps up, prepared to cannonball into the heavenly waters.

Flump! Instead of landing in a refreshing desert oasis, Takatomon finds himself sitting in a small section of the vast litter box that stretched on for miles in all directions.

“Hey! Where’s the water?!?” Takatomon yells out as he begins to dig through the sand frantically in search of the liquid he so craved.

Henrimon finally reaches his friend and puts his hand on his shoulder. “Takato, it was just a mirage,” Henrimon explains calmly, trying to snap his friend out of it. “What you saw was only a trick of your mind.”

“No! There was water here! I know it!” Takatomon retorts, unable to accept that he had only imagined there being a crystalline pond here in contrast to what was actually there.

“Takato, snap out of it!” Henrimon now yells, slapping Takatomon on the cheek after grabbing him by the shirt and turning him toward him.

Takatomon is quiet, sanity slowly seeping back into him. Finally, he lets out a huff of defeat. “…Thanks, Henrimon…”

“Takato, I told you not to call me that!” Henrimon states to his friend. “Look, I’m not going to be a Digimon forever, so I’d like to leave my name as is.”

Yoleimon now walks up to the two of them. “Is everything alright here?” she asks, a bit worried.

Henrimon lets out a sigh. “Yes, we’re all fine.”

“That’s good,” Yoleimon answers before turning around. “Follow me, will you?”

Henrimon and Takatomon exchange glances before they begin to follow Yoleimon across the dunes, a bit curious as to what this was about.

After clearing the next dune, however, their question was answered.

“…No…way…” Henrimon slowly sounds out.

“Is it actually real or it just another mirage?” Takatomon now asks, but from the way he was looking, he was sure that the salvation was actually there.

At the foot of the sand dune they were standing on was a pretty large and inviting pool of clean water.

“Water!” Takatomon exclaims, rushing down to meet the precious life source before them. A loud splash confirms that it’s authentic when Takatomon does a dive into the pond.

“I don’t believe it,” Henrimon gasps, turning to Yoleimon. “You found water out here?”

“I kinda kept going and stumbled upon it by accident when Takatomon went crazy,” she admits, smiling a little.

“I don’t think we can complain,” Henrimon now acknowledges with a smile before scampering down to the oasis and beginning to drink his fill.

Yoleimon smiles a little before walking down to the water’s edge, taking hands full of water at a time and drinking it down while watching Takato swim around in amusement. She then looks back toward the sun, glad that for a while they were blessed with something essential in this arid land.

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Another tremor shakes the earth, causing the gigantic volcano to spew even more of the burning red, highly viscous lava. The hot molten rock runs down the side of the mountain, everything in its way dissolving on touch.

“Izzy, when will we get out of here?” Sora asks, running a hand through her hair to brush it out of her face.

“We’ll get out soon, hopefully,” Izzy states as he quickly moves the group to another area that is safe from the descending lava. He then looks back toward the volcanic emission for a moment, calculating its possible routes, and then begins to lead them to the next safe spot.

Izzy was the one who seems to have changed the least, seeming to have donned a suit of armor. His torso, shoulders, and back are covered in red plates with black accents to his lower torso and black bumps on the shoulder plates. His forearms and three-fingered hands are covered in gauntlet-like plates with black claws replacing fingers and a black plate over each elbow. His legs are similar to his arms: the lower half of his legs and his feet covered in red plates to look like boots, claws tipping his two-toed feet with an additional toe in the back for balance, and a black plate covering the kneecaps. Blue eyes with no pupils were the only thing about his face that remained the same with the exception of the black marks running along the side of his cheeks. What appears to be a set of earphones are on his head, the black band around his forehead and the red plate-like earphones covering his ears. A large red gem-shaped scale is in the center of the strange earphones. Large wings coming from his back clash with the human pants and skin showing where the plates do not cover it, making him look like a strange beetle hybrid.

A look at Kari yielded somewhat better results, seeing that not many changes had occurred to her even though she was far from human. Yellow fur covers her entirely from head to toe, a bit odd seeing that she was supposed to reflect Gatomon, who had white fur. Her feet have three toes on each and her hands have four fingers, a black claw on each digit. Her ears, visible sticking our of her brown shoulder-length hair have grown to large proportions as compared to the rest of her head, as cat-like as those of her partner. A black triangular nose tips her face, set below her large, hazel eyes which had not changed any except for size. A long feline tail continues out from the end of her spine from underneath the dress which she was still wearing from earlier.

Now looking herself over, Sora can see that she was probably the least human-looking out of the three of them. Pink feathers cover her body, hiding any flesh that would otherwise be exposed. Her feet also have only three toes and her hands only four fingers, pink claws tipping them. Feelings her pointed ears, she can find three feathers behind each ear, each just like the three pairs of large pink feathers with dark pink tips emerging from her back meant to be wings but were not suitable for providing lift. Baby blue eyes rest below her brown hair, which is done in a fashion similar to that of a blue jay. She also happened to be the one who had the most clothing, having all of the clothes that she had been wearing before the change with the exceptions of her shoes and socks. She also got some new jewelry with her change, a golden bracelet around each wrist and a golden collar around her neck.

“Okay, we can break here,” Izzy (Izzimon) now says, stopping on a small spot of land that was out of the way of the lava.

Sora (Soramon) sighs before sitting down, looking at Kari (Karimon), a bit surprised to find this otherwise cheerful teenager looking down in the dumps. Silence follows for a few seconds before Soramon stands once more and comes closer to Karimon. “Kari, is something wrong?” she asks, worry lingering in her voice.

Karimon says nothing for a few seconds before nodding a little. “I’m worried about the others, how they’re taking this change, how they’re faring in whatever place they are in…and I’m especially worried about Tai…”

Soramon says nothing, the same distressing look on Karimon’s face on her own. Finally, she finds her voice and the right words. “Kari, don’t worry about the others. They’re all very responsible; they will be just fine,” she attempts to relieve Karimon by saying. “And Tai will be just fine…believe me, I know him…”

Karimon is silent before nodding. “Thanks, Sora…I needed that…”

“No problem.”

Izzimon quietly listens as the girls talk, now standing when they finish. “I think I see a forest not too far away from here. We should hurry and get to it before this lava traps us here.”

The girls are silent before nodding, standing and picking up the empty backpacks that they happened to have before they were pulled away from the Real World. They then regroup with Izzimon and then follow him off of the plateau.

Suddenly, the greatest rumble yet shakes the entire area, causing all three of them to stumble and fall.

Karimon slowly gets up, rubbing her head where it hit the ground. “Izzy, what’s happening?”

Izzimon looks at the volcano, using his wings to get a bit of height for a better look. “…Uh oh…”

“Uh oh?” Soramon inquires. “What does that mean?”

“I fear that I made an error when examining the eruption type earlier,” Izzimon replies as he returns to ground level. “Normally, the point when a volcano begins to release stored magma onto the surface is the most eruptive point of the volcano since that’s when there is the most pressure in the magma chamber, but now it seems that the chamber is actually increasing in pressure even after the releasing of the magma.”

“English, Izzy!” Soramon requests from Izzimon.

“The worst is yet to come! We need to hurry and get out of here!” Izzimon sums up for them, quickly grabbing both of them and running as fast as he can while towing along the two of them.

Soramon and Karimon quickly begin to run as well after the sudden tug from Izzimon, all of them making a bolt for the forest where they would hopefully be safe.

It was when they were all only a hundred yards from the edge of the forest that the volcano truly erupted.

With a loud ka-boom, the top hundred feet of the majestic mountain was obliterated, joining with the million gallons of lava that now spewed like a fountain from the volcano. Ash, cinders, and lava fly in every direction, making it worse than a battlefield in the heat of battle.

“RUN FOR IT!” Izzimon yells as he grabs the girls once more, attempting to use his wings to air-lift them for those last hundred yards. The next five seconds seem to be as long as hours, the three of them moving in slow motion toward the edge of the forest. Finally, they fall amongst the foliage, narrowly avoiding a large volcanic rock that would have crushed them had they been standing there only a second earlier.

Ten more seconds pass while the three of them lay collapsed on the ground, attempting to get their breaths back from the hustling done previously. Finally, Izzimon gets to his knees, looking at the others. “We should get farther into the forest. I’m not sure how far the cinders might fall.”

Karimon speaks up. “I don’t mind going deeper into the forest as long as we can get away from this infernal volcano…”

With a bit of collaboration, the three of them manage to get to their feet after recovering from the shock, and they soon make their way into the forest, getting as far as they could from the flaming mountain of death.

o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o

A ray of bright light from outside rests upon Samuel’s eyes, causing him to blink as he finally awakens from his sleep. Sitting up, he looks out the circular hole in the wall that is meant to be a window. “Wow…I must have slept too long…” Samuel mutters, getting out of the bed and looking around after rubbing the sand from his eyes. Seeing the same room that he fell asleep in last night, he assumes that this all hasn’t been a dream, and that he really was in some strange new world. Standing up, he walks back into the main hall and then peaks out the archway. The entire forest seemed peaceful for the time being, but it might not be that way for long.

Samuel returns to the supply room and opens his backpack, filling it up with whatever supplies he could get his hands on that would be essential and/or helpful for a trip of unknown length and time. Once he had filled it, he zips it up and then slips his arms through the shoulder straps. Walking back into the main hall, he checks his pocket for the device from earlier. Finding it, he pulls it out.

The previously blank blue screen now had several statistics on it, including the time of day, the date, and even the temperature.

“Huh, talk about convenience,” Samuel states as he looks over the functions of the device. As he is about to put it back in his pocket, he accidentally presses the upper-left dark blue button on the outer rim of the device.

The device’s screen instantly clears and four small black arrows appear around the edges of the screen, pointing at the four blue buttons around the monitor which also happened to be slowly alternating between being and not being lit.

Samuel raises an eyebrow, dropping the backpack from his back as he continues to examine the device. Soon, curiosity gets the better of him, and he presses the up button.

The device instantly records the pressed button, and the button stays lit. The screen now shows a strange silhouette, like some sort of strange creature that he had never seen before. Another black arrow had appeared, and this one was rapidly blinking, pointing back toward the dark blue button that Samuel had pressed earlier.

Samuel is silent, looking around to see if anyone was there to see what was happening, truthfully hoping that someone could tell him what this device was supposed to do and what he was doing now. His eyes rest upon the device once more, and now, with his curiosity eating away at him more than ever, he presses the dark blue button in.

The device suddenly goes bonkers, the screen clearing and flashing on and off while making loud beeping noises. The four luminous buttons all alternating their lighting as well like with the screen, both them and the screen slowly glowing brighter and brighter.

Fear grasps Samuel, wondering what he did now. He attempts to drop the device, but finds that he can not move a muscle, frozen in place as this strange device began to do who-knows-what.

The bright lights soon reach their peak, and rings of light begin to form around the device, making it look a lot like an atom. Suddenly, the bright light from the device suddenly glows brighter than ever, engulfing everything around it.

Samuel closes his eyes as the light nearly blinds him, feeling a strange tingling all over his body as if something strange was happening to it. After what felt like minutes, the light fades away, and Samuel falls to his knees, gasping deeply from the deep relief he was feeling. He brings his hand to his forehead to wipe away the sweat-

-and feels it pass right through the top of his head.

Samuel’s eyes spring open, fear beginning to take over. Bringing his arms down, he sees the arm of a red suit of armor. Looking into the next room, he sees the pool, and immediately rushes to it, leaning over it and wanting to see his reflection.

The thing that stared back at him was what appeared to be a huge flame with baby blue eyes where Samuel’s should be.

Samuel screams loudly, his yell sounding out for a mile around.