Chapter 1: Discovery
~~ Matt ~~
'Dear Dad,
I'm having fun at summer camp. We've gone fishing,
and hiking and all that fun stuff. On the bus there, all the kids
sang Hello Mudda Hello Fadda. But this camp isn't anything like Camp
Prunada. I think that was the name. There's this one little boy just
like Button-Bright! All he ever says to anybody is 'Don't know'! He's
such a sweet boy! Mai and Motoki say Hi. And as much I'm having fun here,
I can't wait to get home! I've got one more week until I head back, so
I'll see you soon!
Love you,
Kitana ^_^
I finished reading Kitana's latest letter. She was coming home today. The letters take one week to get here so I'd keep getting letters for a whole week after she got home. The house had been too quiet without her here; it also seemed rather cold. So I'd spent more time at the restaurant. Yes, it's where I work. It's one thing to work at a restaurant for a vegetable-type DigiMon for no pay. It's quite another when you own the place and are Head Chef. I smiled ruefully; who would've thought those days slaving away for Vegi-mon would prove useful. It gave me the necessary patience to run my restaurant without driving the other Chefs working there crazy. I went to get myself a glass of water. I glanced at the clock while the glass filled. Kitana would be home soon. I walked back into the living room and placed the letter on the counter as I passed it. Suddenly I dropped the glass as a mental cry for help washed over me. "TK!" I shouted. I didn't know how, but I knew my brother needed my help. Just then the cries increased. One by one I heard my friends all call out: Tai, Sora, Joe, Mimi, Kari, Izzy. They were in danger, I just knew it! Then a portal opened and three Bakumon and Phantomon appeared. Oh, great! Now I'm in trouble too. I got ready to fight. If I was going down, I was going down with a fight! I punched, kicked, heck, I even bit at one point! But I was losing, badly, that's when I heard it. The sound of a key in a lock. 'Oh no, not now!' Kitana walked in.
"Dad!" She shouted when she saw what was going on. Then she ran to help me. On one hand, I was proud of her for not panicking; she didn't know what those monsters were. But she was ready to fight, she didn't freeze up, or scream, and I was impressed. On the other, I wanted her to run for it and save herself, there was no way she could beat them, and I didn't want her to get taken too. As she ran forward, her foot fell on a piece of a broken picture frame. Kitana lost her balance and fell forward, her body thudding painfully onto the floor.
"Kitana!" I shouted, looking to see if she was all right. Phantomon took advantage of my distracted state. He threw his chain at me. It wrapped around my chest pinning my arms to my side. The Bakumon dragged me toward the portal. "Kitana! In the jewelry box in my night stand! Don't let anyone touch what's inside!" I shouted to her.
"Daddy!" I heard her scream one more time before everything went black.
~~ Hibiki ~~
I watched as Kitana walked down the hall to the stairs. After she was gone I continued to stare hoping that she'd reappear. I turned when I heard Eiji unlock the door. We walked into our home. We froze when we saw its condition. Everything was in shambles; upturned furniture, broken glass, everything was a mess.
"Oh my God." Eiji whispered. We walked through the apartment looking for our parents. "They're not here." Eiji said, stating the obvious. I took a deep breath.
"Maybe they're at Kitana's apartment. They were away, when it happened and they went up there for help." Then I did something that surprised me; I began giving orders. "I'm going to go to Kitzy's you stay here and call the police." Eiji nodded and I left and walked upstairs. When I reached her apartment I saw that the door was open. I walked in and saw that her apartment was much the same as ours. A total mess. Kitzy was kneeling on the floor in the middle of the living room, crying uncontrollably, and holding one hand in the other with a death grip. "Kitzy!" I said as I went to her. I carefully knelt down next to her. There was broken glass all around. "Kitzy, what happened?"
"They took him, Hibiki! He's gone!" She said her blue eyes wild and frightened.
"Who took him?!" I didn't need to ask whom she meant. I looked down at her hands and saw blood, not only on her hands but also on the floor. "Kitzy are you hurt?"
Kitana nodded dazedly. "I cut my hand on some glass." She opened her hand and I saw a deep cut across her palm. Not deep enough to need stitches, but pretty bad. I got up and got the first aid kit from the bathroom and then bandaged her wound.
"Listen, let's go down to my place, Eiji's down there." She nodded. "Kitana, my parents are gone too."
"There has to be a connection." She remarked. I nodded. Then the phone rang. Kitana went to answer it.
"Moshi Moshi." I listened to what she was saying. "He hasn't? Okay, sit tight, I'll come and get you. Yeah just wait there. Okay, Ja ne." She hung up. That was Mai," Kitana looked down at the floor. "She said that Uncle TK hasn't come to pick them up yet and wanted a ride." When she looked at me there was no mistaking the tears in her eyes.
"Let's go." I said. Before she left she said there was something she had to get. She walked into her Dad's bedroom and got something out of the nightstand and put it in her backpack.
When we got to my place we found Eiji standing in the living room, holding his laptop in his hand. He looked scared and thoughtful at the same time. As if what he knew frightened him. "What's wrong?" I asked him.
"What kind of robber leaves the TV, stereo, DVD, and a laptop?" He asked me. It dawned on me what he was implying.
"They don't." I replied.
"Exactly, my dear Watson." He remarked. "They weren't up there were they?" Eiji asked then. I shook my head no. Eiji bit his lip. "Now what?" he asked bleakly.
"We go and pick up Mai and Motoki, their Dad hasn't picked them up yet." I said.
"Oh no, this can't be happening." Eiji said as it dawned on him what that might mean. I nodded. Then our phone rang. I looked at Kitana, she shook her head no, as if to say she didn't want to pick up the phone. Eiji dashed for it. Picking it up on the fourth ring.
"Moshi Moshi. Ryo? What's wrong... Listen; go to the bus stop. We'll meet you there... All right see you soon... Ja Ne." He hung up. "Three guess to what he was calling about."
"I don't believe this." I said, "why is this happening to us?" Then the phone rang again. 'Oh, no' I thought. "Moshi, Moshi" I said when I picked up.
"Hibiki?" came Hime's panicked voice.
"Yeah" I replied.
"Hibiki, someone broke into my house, and my parents are gone, there's no note or anything! Are they over there?" Hime asked.
"No, they aren't, neither are mine. Listen head over to the bus stop; we'll meet you there."
"All right, Ja Ne." She hung up without waiting for me to reply. I glanced up at Eiji and Kitana and nodded my head.
"Let's go" Eiji said.
~~ Eiji ~~
When we got to the bus stop, just about everyone was there. Only Hime and Reika weren't as soon as they got there we headed to the park. Not a single word was spoken; we just operated on instinct. We came to a deserted area in the middle of a clearing. (AN: the same one the original Digi-Destined met in to plan when they were fighting Myotismon.) "So now what?" asked Ryo.
"I don't know, why our parents. Why would anyone want our parents?" Reika asked. "I mean, they're normal people."
"Maybe not. Maybe they were in the Mafia together when they were younger." Ryo suggested.
"The Mafia?!" Hibiki said. "What kind of lame idea is that?"
"I'd like to see you come up with something better." Ryo challenged. Everyone watched as Hibiki stared off into space trying to come up with an idea. After awhile he blushed and hung his head. "It's not so easy, is it Hibiki?"
Hibiki's face turned red with anger and embarrassment. "Yeah well at least I'm not stupid enough to come up with the Mafia!" he shouted.
"Oh yeah! Well," Ryo started.
"Both of you guys stop it!!! You guys have never argued before, now is defiantly not the time!" Kitana burst out.
"Sorry," They both said to her, genuinely apologetic.
"Look, if anyone knows anything about our parents that we don't, it be our grandparents." Kakeru said calmly.
Hime nodded. "It's Sunday, they all should be at Grandma Grace's for lunch. Right Kitana?" Kitana nodded.
"Good, we'll head over there and ask, we have to tell them what happened anyway."
"Right, so what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Ryo exclaimed.
~~ Ryo ~~
I felt thankful to Hime and Kakeru for taking charge. I really felt bad about the fight. Hibiki and I always got along. I guess we were both felling upset and frustrated, and were just 'venting', as my Mom would put it. I glanced at Kitana. She hadn't said a word after she yelled at us. Hibiki stood close to her, his hand not quite touching hers, as if he wanted to hold it, but wasn't sure he should. I honestly thought he should hold her hand. Kitana, looked emotionally wiped out, and I had a feeling she needed some support. I also noticed that Eiji was watching the two of them carefully, his dark eyes analyzing what they were doing. 'I wonder what that's about?' I thought. 'Oh well, I'll think about it later.' We paid for our train fare, and got on the train. Kitana's Grandmother Grace lived outside the city across the bay. We had to take the train that went across the bridge. When we got there, Kitana rang the doorbell once, then unlocked the door with a key. "You have a key to your grandmother's house?" I asked. Kitana nodded. We found our grandparents in the kitchen. Not all of them, there was my Grandmothers Alice, and Elsie. Hime's Grandmother Tillie was there as well, and Eiji's Grandma Lacie. (I didn't know their names so I came up with some.) They always got together every Sunday for lunch, never fail. When we entered the kitchen they all looked up.
'Why hello, what's wrong?" Grandma Alice asked.
Never one for beating around the bush I said. "Hey, you guys wouldn't happen to know anything about our parents that we don't do you? Cause when we got home they weren't there, and there was a really big mess." The others looked at me shocked.
"Oh dear," Said Grandma Alice. "I didn't think we'd ever have to tell them." Tillie shrugged.
"Sit down, there is something you need to know about your parents." Grace said. We all dragged chairs around the table, after we all were comfortably seated they began their story. "Well, you may not believe this, but when your parents were younger, they saved the world."
~~ Hime ~~
"Nani?" I said. "Our parents?" Grandma Tillie nodded.
" See, there exists another world, a digital shadow world, outside of our own. When evil upsets the balance between Light and Dark the troubles in the Digi-world bleed into our own. When that happens, people from this world are sent to put things right." She explained.
"Your parents, were at summer camp one year, and they got taken to the Digi-World. Because they were the Digi-Destined, the prophesied children that would save the Digi-world as well as our own." Grandma Grace continued. "If your parents are gone that must mean that there is trouble in the Digi-world and they have gone to fix it."
"But why the mess?" Eiji asked.
"It must have been a result of the opening portal." Alice responded.
"But they didn't go! They were taken!" Kitana shouted. Everyone turned to look at her surprised. "I saw it, three monsters took Dad!" Grace's eyes widened, but she quickly got a hold of herself, not wanting to scare the children.
"What did they look like?" Grace asked.
"Two of them looked like really big ghosts, and the third one had a gray cloak with a red hood, and a scythe."
"Those sound like Myotismon's henchmen, Bakumon and Phantomon." Alice said.
"But they defeated him!" Said Elsie. "That's impossible!"
~~ Kitana ~~
I couldn't believe this; our parents had been taken prisoner, by some evil monster from the Digi-world. They were in grave danger, and could quite possibly... I didn't finish the thought. Then determination filled me. I had lost my Mom when I was younger, but no way was I going to lose my Dad! Not if I can help it.
"Nothing's impossible." Said Alice. "He must be after the Crests." I glanced up at this comment.
"What are Crests?" Hibiki asked.
"They were what gave your parents the power to defeat the evil Digi-Mon." Lacie said. "They represented the ideal, or trait, that defined or meant the most to your parents. With the power from the crests their Digi-Mon guardians could become powerful enough to destroy any opponent." Suddenly I had a really good idea about what it was that my father had asked me to protect at all costs. My backpack suddenly felt very heavy. Lacie paused and looked at each of us in turn. "Also, if your parents weren't being true to themselves, or uncertain about their emotions, the Crests would not work. When your parents felt a certain emotion strongly enough, the Crest would start to glow. There was one time for each of them that their troubles were so great their Crests stopped glowing because they were so confused. Once, Matt's crest stopped glowing because he thought he wasn't living up to what it meant, and he thought he didn't deserve it. Sora's crest stopped once because she thought she wasn't capable of feeling the emotion that it represented. It was hard for them to realize how important these things were to them to make their Crests glow for the first time, and at some points hard for them to keep them up. If I remember correctly, Tai's was Courage, and Sora's was Love. Joe and Mimi held the Crests of Reliability and Sincerity. Izzy had the Crest of Knowledge."
"You mean our Mother wasn't a Digi-Destined?" Hibiki asked. Lacie shook her head no. Then continued.
"TK and Kari held the Crests of Hope and Light." Lacie then looked at me. "Matt had the Crest of Friendship, and your Mother, Raina, The Crest of Honor."
'Wow, Honor and Friendship' I thought. I began to wonder what my Mother must have been like to earn such a Crest. 'She must have been a very incredible person.' I thought, but somehow I knew that didn't do her justice.
"Just how powerful are the Crests?" Ryo asked.
"If Myotismon had all the Crests he could take over the world, because they have the all power from your parents' hearts and souls." Grandma Grace said. "Such emotions can only grow stronger as time passes, so the energy the Crests contain is very strong. Also the energy the Crests have collected in the past 17 years or so hasn't been used to fight anyone off with, so there's a lot stored there."
'Oh boy, Myotismon is going to be looking for those crests and I have a feeling I won't like it if he finds them. This is just perfect.'
"What do they look like" Asked Eiji.
"They were necklaces on long cords so that they could be hidden by your parents' clothes. Each crest was held within a golden Tag, before your parents could retrieve their Crests, they also had to find the Tags. Each crest has a symbol and color as well. Why do you ask?"
"Because, Myotismon can't have all the Crests, otherwise he would've attacked already." Eiji responded.
"He could be gathering an army." Tillie suggested.
"From what Kitana said, I think he already has one, besides, you said that this world is digital right?" Eiji continued. All the adults nodded.
"Computers and the things in them, files, programs, software, e-mail, etc., move faster than they do in our world. So it's perfectly logical that time moves faster in that world than it does here. Myotismon must have had plenty of time to gather an army and attack us. The only possible reason he would wait would be that he's missing a Crest."
After she had gotten over the initial impressed state they had fallen into after hearing Eiji's deduction Grace gasped with realization. "Kitana!" She said suddenly. "Do you know where your Mother's Crest is?"
'Yeah, it's in my backpack.' I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want anyone to know what was in the box in my bag, so I said; "No, I've never seen it." Which was true, I had never seen the Crest.
"Well, at any rate, we have to rescue our parents! That's the most important thing right now." Ryo said. He turned to the Grandmothers. "So how do we get to the Digital world?"
~~~
A.N. So that's the end of that. They know who their parents were when they were
younger, what happened to them now. Now the only problem is, what are they going
to do about it? Now, so far in my stories I've referred to some of my favorite books.
In the last part I used a quote from 'The Road to OZ' and in this part I used names
from 'Alice in Wonderland' these are really good books, read them if you have the time,
maybe over Spring Break. Ah, Spring Break, only one more week to go until I get out of
my High School. (Yes, High school, call me immature if you want, my Mom sure does, but I
love my Saturday Morning cartoons.) Yea! Do a little dance. ^_^ Also on a sadder note, my
favorite Student teacher is leaving. ;_; Also, my English teacher is having a baby shower.
And today, my gym teacher brought in the first ultrasound she got. She was so happy.
Mrs. K is 3 Mon. and Mrs. D is due at the end of the school year. We're so happy for
them!! Finally, I would like to thank, Gatomon, and WinWin95 for sending me their
suggestions for the new Crests. I came up with the last one on my own and it is not
lacking in the inside joke department. Yes I know a Crest should not be taken lightly,
but, well when you see it, you'll get the joke. Also, if you can accurately guess three of
the final couples that are coming along you'll get a prize! (Hint: two are in the names,
and the last is just so obvious it may as well be a freebie) Also, in the next story,
the love games begin, and believe me, it won't be easy. Love triangles galore!
-Sinker sinker- I'm so mean that way. ; b
Love ya!
Alita
