"What happened?" Mimi shrieked as loud as humanly possible. Obviously she was not worried about Tai and Riley, she wanted to know why their only exit from the cave was now closed.
"Nothing to worry about," Tai told the group. "We'll just have our Digimon DigiVolve and blast ourselves out of the cave."
"Here, let us do something," Matt said. He looked to Gabumon by his side and held up his DigiVice. "Ready, Gabumon?"
"Gabumon! DigiVolve to...!"
Nothing happened. Gabumon looked at Matt confusedly and cocked his head to the side. Everyone else looked around at each other, bewildered.
"What's wrong, Gabummon?" Palmon asked her friend. Matt stared down at the DigiVice in his hand. The screen was blank, no sort of glow was emitting from it, and no sound, either.
"It's not him. There's something wrong with my DigiVice."
Several of the other DigiDestined reached in their pockets to check out theirs.
"Try DigiVolving again, Agumon! You just did it a minute ago," Tai urged. Agumon stepped forward. Tai extended his arm to hold out his DigiVice.
"Agumon! DigiVovle to...!" Agumon squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists, trying to stimulate some kind evolution, but to no avail.
"I'm sorry, Tai! I just can't do it..." Agumon moaned.
"That's okay, buddy. I don't think any of you can DigiVolve for some reason," Tai assured him. Sora, T.K., Mimi, and Joe each tried to get their partners to DigiVolve. No luck.
"What do you think is going on?" Kari asked, not really expecting anyone to know the answer.
"I think right now the important thing is that we get out of this cave first," Riley replied as he peered at Tai. Tai crossed his arms and glowered back. Juniper sighed at the two boys. Was it really that hard to get along?
"Riley does have a point," Gomamon piped in. "I dont' know about you guys, but being trapped inside a cave doesn't make me feel any better than not being able to DigiVolve." The other Digimon seemed to be of the same mind.
"Hey! You guys, great news! I was able to pull up a sort of GPS map of where we are in the DigiWorld, and it's showing an exit at the end of this tunnel!" Izzy exclaimed suddenly.
"Awesome! That's amazing Izzy, how did you do that?" Juniper said.
"Oh, we're not surprised by it anymore. Izzy's a genius with computers," Sora responded.
The troop began their expedition through the tunnel. There was a considerable regression of sunlight after their immediate leave of the original entrance, but thankfully Joe had packed a flashlight in his bag.
"Always be prepared," he justified.
As the journey continued, the Digimon had gathered around the two new additions. They had so many questions for each other.
"How strange..." Gatomon purred to Nekomon, "to walk on all fours." Nekomon glanced down at her paws.
"Seems natural to me," she replied.
"It doesn't look like Tai and Riley are becoming fast friends," Agumon commented to Toramon.
"Perhaps they just need more time than most. Is Riley always so indifferent?" Toramon inquired.
"I have no idea! You know him better than I do!"
"Oh dear...this will be an interesting partnership," Toramon sighed.
On the human side, the conversation was less buoyant.
"Our Digimon don't act very worried about these phantoms taking over their souls..." Juniper remarked almost absentmindedly.
"I'm sure they're worried, they just don't want us to be worried," Matt said. "That's how much they care about us."
Juniper softly smiled as she gazed at the group of Digimon walking behind them.
"It's strange--to suddenly be brought to this world and have these Digimon assigned to you, and yet they already know they want to protect you." As she spoke, she touched the necklace she was wearing. "It's just...a nice thing. I don't know. We're stuck in a cave, but I still feel a bit serene, you know?"
Tai looked at Juniper with admiration. She must be living the most bizarre day of her life, but she still found time to appreciate her Digimon. He realized then that Juniper and Nekomon would have a very tenacious friendship. He also knew that the Digital World had a way of making people fast friends. Or fast enemies, for that matter.
The group kept walking, walking walking. The walk continued, and continued, and continued. Hours had passed, and everyone had gotten much quieter. Mimi had even stopped complaining that her feet hurt. Another hour passed, the walking slowed down, and it was dead silent among them. No one uttered a sound out of sheer exhaustion.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by a loud grumbling noise. Everyone's heads turned to the source. It was Patamon.
"I'm sorry! I'm just so hungry!" Patamon whined, rubbing his belly guiltily. They all had to laugh as more stomach growls were heard.
"Perfect time to take a break, I guess," Joe suggested.
"Do we have any food, though?" Sora asked around.
"Um...I do," Juniper replied sheepishly.
"Great! Whatcha got?" Nekomon asked as she hopped over to her. Juniper grinned and reached into her jacket pockets. One by one, she tossed packages of food onto the floor, and continued to fish around her jacket for more. First a pack of mini Oreos, then a pair of Twinkies, Skittles, Reese's Pieces, a couple bags of Funyuns, Twizzlers, two chocolate chip Chewy bars, Starburst, and a bag of Doritos.
"Woah!" T.K. exclaimed.
"Why do you have all of that?" Riley demanded.
"It was for the plane ride over to Tokyo!" Juniper said quickly. "I didn't empty my pockets when I got to Sora's."
"It's a good thing you didn't. Let's dig in! I guess everyone will have to share with their Digimon," Tai said. Everyone stared at the pile of junk food, not knowing what to pick.
"It all looks so...American," Joe muttered.
"I don't know what that means, but who cares?" Gomamon said, and picked up a bag of Funyuns. He tried to pull open the bag, but it was a bit difficult with his flipper claws. Finally, he simply ripped a hole in the center of it with his claw. Putting one gingerly in his mouth, he instantly looked up at Joe with glee.
"These are delicious!" he cried out, food still in his mouth.
"What would I like, Juniper?" Nekomon asked. Juniper thought for a moment. Then she picked up the pack of Twizzlers and peeled it open.
"These are my favorite! It's strawberry flavored licorice sticks," Juniper explained as she handed a piece of the candy to Nekomon's open mouth. Nekomon chewed cautiously, but soon began chewing faster, and swallowed the candy down in an audible gulp.
"More please!" she commanded. Juniper tossed her another piece. Behind her, the rest of the group was trying to pick out what they wanted from the pile.
"Ohmigosh! These are GREAT!" Nekomon squealed. "More!"
"Okay, but we're sharing them, remember? There's only eight in here, meaning you can just have two more," Juniper explained slowly, hoping she hadn't created a monster.
"Yeah, yeah! Sure! More please!!"
Juniper sighed and gave her some more. Riley had picked the two Chewy bars for him and Toramon. He broke Toramon's in half and tossed it to him as he sat down against the cave wall.
"What is this, Riley?" Toramon asked after he swallowed.
"A granola bar. Probably the only remotely healthy thing Juniper had. She eats like that all the time. I can't understand why she's not sick everyday," Riley answered, looking up at the ceiling. Around him, Toramon saw the other Digimon sitting with their partners, eating their snacks and laughing with each other. Riley silently flung over the other half of the bar. It landed at Toramon's feet, still staring at nothing.
"I wonder if I'll ever know what he's thinking," Toramon wondered.
After they had finished snacking, Tai urged them to start walking again.
"This food probably won't hold us over for very long. We better keep trying to find the end before someone faints from hunger," he said as he helped Juniper up.
"I agree," Kari replied. Mimi let out an obnoxious whimper.
"I'm going to stay here. My feet still hurt," she groused. Everyone had to roll their eyes, even the new guys.
"Look, Mimi, I checked my computer again. We're probably less than two hours away from what I can tell," Izzy assured her, motioning to his laptop that he had set up on his legs. Mimi closed her eyes and exhaled.
"C'mon, Mimi!" Palmon begged.
"Fine. As long as each and every one of you promises me that you will never make me walk in a cave ever again!" she shouted.
"Okay, okay! Now let's go!" Matt said in exasperation.
And so the second leg of their trek began. Juniper wandered over to where Tai was at the head of the group and started to walk beside him.
"So, do you have a plan?" she said in a half-whisper.
"About what?" he replied.
"About these...phantoms. I mean, how do you usually defeat these kind of things?"
"Well, first of all, we have to get out of this cave. Then, usually we start talking to other Digimon we may meet, and see what they know. We have to find out more about who's behind this."
"How do you know someone is behind it?"
"That's how it always is. There's always a greater evil."
"And do these things usually take long?"
"If you mean in just a couple days, I have to disappoint you. I think your visit to Japan will be cut short."
"But...don't your families worry about you? What do you tell them?"
"The truth. They know about the DigiWorld and everything. It's a long story as to how they know, but they know we have responsibilities here."
"And what do I tell my family? They won't know why I'm not e-mailing or calling."
"I'm sure Sora's mother will come up with something to tell them." Juniper nodded, hardly satisfied. They fell silent for a few minutes.
"So how do you like being a DigiDestined?" Tai finally asked her.
"It's not as glamorous as I had hoped," Juniper stated, indicating to the group of moaning sore-footed DigiDestined behind her. Tai let out a laugh.
After what seemed like much longer than two hours, Biyomon gasped and started to fly ahead.
"Biyomon, what are you doing?" Sora yelled, but as she spoke everyone else gasped as well.
"Light! There's some light coming from ahead!"
Suddenly, everyone's feet felt much better, and they all began running.
"We're almost there, you guys!" Tai shouted over his shoulder as he and Juniper outran everyone. Riley, Matt, and Sora were close behind. All of a sudden, the running was brought to a halt. Joe ran right into Tai's back. T.K. nearly fell into Joe as he skidded to a stop.
"Where's the exit?!" Mimi cried out. The light they had seen wasn't the other side of the cave, it was an illuminating glow emitting from the lines of a design carved onto the cave wall. It was a dead end.
"You said this was an exit, Izzy!" Sora yelled.
"That's what the computer said..." Izzy spluttered.
"Hold on you guys! Maybe this is just a gate or something that's hiding the entrance," Gabumon suggested.
"Good thinking, Gabumon," Tai said. "But can anyone figure out what this design means?"
Juniper stepped closer to get a better look. The design was a large circle with several overlapping smaller circles within it. Written along the circumference of each circle were words in a language that Juniper had never seen before. But for some reason, Juniper recognized the circle design.
"Look up there!" Nekomon said to her as she joined her partner by her feet. Juniper's eyes moved to the top of the circle. Carved into the wall was a different design, and this one was not glowing like the rest. It appeared to be half a sun on one side and a crescent moon on the other. Juniper did not recognize this motif.
"It looks magical or something," Gatomon remarked.
"Do you think this is what's keeping us from DigiVolving?" Agumon questioned.
"I don't know what other explanation there is. But can anyone ready this?" Tai said. Everyone shook their heads.
"It doesn't look like any written Digimon language I've seen, and there's not too many of those, since most Digimon don't have hands," Tentomon explained.
"Here, I'll take a picture. That way we can show it to anyone we find who might be able to read it," Kari offered, holding up the digital camera that was hanging around her neck.
"If we ever get out of here," T.K. muttered. There was a new flash of light as Kari snapped a photo of the design. She looked at the preview on her camera's screen.
"It's not the most ideal lighting, but the writing is discernible."
Without warning, the necklace that Juniper was wearing began to glow as well. Juniper screamed.
"What's going on?" she yelped. Tai ran over to her. The necklace began to float upwards by itself, seemingly reaching for the wall. Juniper looked around for instructions on what to do.
"Is this normal for the DigiWorld?" she asked with a frightened voice.
"I guess you could say that," Matt responded. The cave design started to glow brighter and brighter. Everyone had to shield their eyes, but it looked as if the glowing was disintegrating the cave wall. Where the rocky wall once was had disappeared, and the group was elated to find that it revealed a view from the top of their mountain. Below the cliff ahead was a sea of trees, and above was the bright blue sky.
The kids and their Digimon excitedly ran to the cliff, taking in the wondrous scene as if they had not been out of the cave in days. Tai looked at Juniper's necklace, which was back to its normal state. Just a plain looking golden pendant necklace.
"Where did you say you got that necklace again?" Tai asked her.
"My dad got it for me on a business trip somewhere," she explained, also staring at the necklace. She couldn't explain how, but she knew that her necklace had opened the wall for them. This day just kept getting weirder.
A loud rumbling noise erupted from behind the group. They turned around to see the cave exit being immediately recovered with rocks. It looked as if nothing had ever torn it down before and that nothing would ever tear it down again.