"Raya? Raya! Wake up." I heard someone call me. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a small purple digimon sitting on my chest. I knew right away that it was Lunamon, but in her in-training form, Moonmon.
I sat up as memories of just a little bit ago flooded into my mind. I looked down at my tag and saw a lavender colored crest, the symbol of a heart with wings etched into it.
"Myotismon has shut the gate, you can't follow him now." I heard Gennai say. I stood up with Moonmon in my arms and silently joined my friends.
"Listen, pops, you've gotta help us get through that gate. The eighth kid is doomed if we don't." Matt said.
"And that isn't all!" Sora exclaimed, "If that rotten creep goes on a rampage in the real world, lots of innocent people will get hurt."
"There just has to be some way to open that gate up again." Tai said.
"Of course there is." Gennai said.
Everyone smiled at the hopeful news, "No kidding?" Tai asked.
"How then?" Sora asked.
"Any door can be opened with the right key." Gennai answered. I chuckled softly, loud enough for only Moonmon to hear.
"Oh, don't be so mysterious, Gennai!" Tai said in frustration.
"Follow me to my house and I will explain everything." We were all confused, but somehow, I had a fuzzy memory of this old man's home.
"Where's that?" Koromon asked.
"Look above-" Gennai said before he disappeared.
"What kind of directions are those?" Mimi asked.
"Very good ones if you would just listen." Gennai said, "Raya has been to my home many times, do you not remember, Raya?"
I smiled and everyone turned towards me, breathing a sigh of relief when they saw me up and awake.
"Not really, Gennai. Remember, I still don't recall very much of my time here." I replied.
"Just keep looking and you'll see it." Gennai said. We all looked upwards and around, suddenly seeing a strange light flashing in the distance.
"Look, a search light." Matt said
"Sorry, I ran out of maps." Gennai apologized, "Just follow the light and you can't miss it."
"Excellent." Tai beamed.
"Snack time for me." Gennai said excitedly before disappearing in the light."
"Let's jet." Tai said and we began to journey to Gennai's house.
As we walked through the forest, Tk grabbed a hold of my hand, making me look down at the smiling boy.
"Hey, Raya, can I see your crest, please?" He asked. I smiled, took off my tag held my crest in front of him.
His eyes brightened even more when he saw my crest.
"Wow, it's so pretty!" He said, "It's so much better than mine."
"Don't say that, Tk." I said, "The crest of Hope is amazing! A perfect match for the most hopeful of us all."
"Yeah, but with your crest of unity, you can do so much more, especially with those three other crests that are a part of it."
Matt turned around and walked towards us.
"He's right, ya know." He said, smiling at the two of us, "You do so much for all of us, so naturally you'd get the type of crest that gives the powers to do so much more for our digimon."
I chuckled, grabbed both Tk and Matt's hands and walked back with the others.
"You know," Matt said softly, "I was really worried about you, Raya. We didn't know where you were or if you were even okay. Don't do that again, please."
I didn't face the brothers, but I could feel their worried and pleading expressions from behind me.
"I can't promise that I won't be in a situation like that again, but I can promise that I'll find a way back to you all." I said, finally turning to face them and smiled.
My promise eased their nerves, but I couldn't help but think of the target plastered on my back by being the Digi-mage. It could get the others hurt or in trouble, and I couldn't bear the thought.
We hurried along our way until we were finally out of the forest and at the edge of a large lake, the sun setting over us and the search light shining from the waters.
Upon seeing the lake, Gomamon didn't hesitate to jump in, much to Joe's dismay.
"Looks like we're gonna be doing some swimming." Joe muttered.
"My hat! My beautiful hat!" Mimi shouted in panic.
"Either we got those directions really wrong, or Gennai's house is in the middle of a lake." Matt said.
I shrugged my shoulders, "Well, of course he lives in the middle of a lake." I said, "He lokes the scenery of the creatures down there. It's very comforting, really." My eyes widened when I realized what I said.
Where did that come from?' I thought to myself.
"How'd you know that, Raya?" Izzy asked.
I held my hand on my forehead, "Not quite sure. Maybe my memories sorting themselves out?" I said unsurely.
Suddenly, Gomamon popped out from beneath the waters with a bright smile on his face,
"Hey guys, come on in the water's fine." He said, just then, the water became white and started bubbling.
We stared in confusion and amazement as the waters parted similiar to how Moses parted the Red Sea.
The now parted water revealed a descending flight of stairs, and a memory popped into my head.
I had been here before. I saw myself with Gennai, walking down the stairs and arriving at a small house.
I shook away the memory and started descending the stairs.
"Raya, wait for us! The steps may be slippery." Sora said, quickly following us.
I looked back over my shoulder and said, "There's no reason to worry. The steps are dry as a bone in the desert."
They took my assurance as an okay and followed me down the steps. Along the way, we admired the amazing water creatures outside the dry path we walked along.
After a little more walking, we saw something in the distance and something inside me held a sense of familiarity.
It was a house that resembled old Japanese architecture, the edo period to be specific
"Quite a place if you don't mind living in pink fog." Sora said.
"No lawn to mow." Joe added.
We walked up to the house and into the backyard. It was a nice yard, a small fish pond with stones making a path from the porch to the pond's edge.
We called out for Gennai, when I remembered a place I would always find him.
I looked ariund the pond and spotted Gennai on the small bridge.
"Who needs a doorbell with such noisy visitors?" He asked sarcastically.
We gasped, I smiled, when I saw him as he turned around.
"Wow, it's the real Gennai." Izzy gasped.
"Who'd you expect, Santa Claus?"
"We've just never seen the real you." Tai said, "Now tell us, how come you're always hiding?"
"I'm not." Gennai answered.
"Well, you could've come in person, but you always used projections, right?"
"That's just a show to impress you." Gennai said as he walked off the bridge.
"What kind of person are you, anyway?" Joe asked. Gennai walked up to us.
"Are you a human, or some kind of digimon?" Tk asked.
"That's not important."
"How come you call us the digidestined?" Mimi yelled.
"Easy, I'm old but I'm not deaf." Gennai said, "You were chosen to save this world with only Raya to help you."
"But how were we chosen? Why us?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, we only signed up for summer camp." Sora added
"That is all you need to know for now. Come inside. The most important thing is for you to return to your world and find the eighth child. Oh, and Raya, I've prepared your favorite snack for you and your friends." Gennai said as we followed him into his house.
We went inside and sat down on the small purple pillows around a short table.
As we sat down, the water from the lake covered the house, allowing fish to swim around outside.
"Oh, look at the fish!" Mimi exclaimed. Tk ran with Patamon to the clear screen door to admire the fish swimming outside.
"Those are halabut, they're salt water fish." Joe inquired.
"That's right." Gennai said as he entered the room, "So I have to feed them popcorn, salty pretzels and tons of salted nuts."
Gennai set down a tray with snacks and honey covered strawberries. They were my favorite.
"What the heck are these things?" Palmon asked, pointing at my strawberries.
"They're honey covered strawberries. They're really delicious." I said, taking a berry and biting into it, being careful not to spill the honey.
Gennai walked to one of the walls and pulled down a world map.
"Now a look at the weather." He joked, zooming in on Japan, "State. County. City. Does anyone recognize this area?" A little red circle appeared over Odaiba, our home town.
"Our home town?" Tai asked in disbelief.
Gennai nodded, "And the red flashing cirlce indicates that Myotismon's location."
We all gasped at ths sudden reveal of his location, "Wow, he's only a mile from where we all live." Matt said.
"I'm afraid so."
"I'll betcha he goes downtown. This is not good." Tai said, fear slightly audible in his tone.
"Gennai, you have to tell us, how do we open the gate to our world?" I asked.
Gennai took a step-ladder from the corner and placed it in front of a large wall covered in several cabinets.
He climbed to the top of the step-ladder and opened one of the cabinets. He jumped down a moment later and came back to the table with something in his hand.
"You'll need these." Gennai said, setting out several cards with pictures of digimon on them. A couple of the cards had Gomamon and Agumon on them with several other digimon we've encountered here in the digital world.
"All right, check out Gomamon." Joe said.
"Eh, I'm cuter in person." Gomamon said confidently.
"There I am, too." Koromon said.
"But what are they for?" Mimi asked.
"Yeah and how do they help us open up the gate?" Tai asked impatiently.
"Well, there are nine holes on the stone wall of the gate." Gennai said.
"Yeah..." Izzy trailed off before gasping in realization, "Oh, wait, do the cards go in the holes?"
"That's right." Gennai confirmed, "However, take a closer look."
We did as Gennai said and took a closer look at the cards. They had strange writing on them towards the bottom and were either colored red, green or blue, but the one thing that made no sense was the number of cards.
"You're giving one too many cards." Izzy said.
"That's right. One of them is a fake." We all sighed in disappointment.
But Tai was a little more enthusiastic.
"We'll try them all till we get the right combination." He said, his idea was quickly declined though as Gennai went loose and grabbed Tai in a choke hold.
"No you will not, you silly boy, that's absolutely the last thing you'll want to do." He said, "If you put the cards in the wrong holes, it'll be a disaster. You'll end up in a different world with no way to return." Gennai let Tai go and coughed to decompose yourself.
"Let me explain, the wrong cards might take you to a world, for example, people and digimon switch skins."
"No!!!! Not that! I like my skin!" Mimi cried as if it was the end of the world.
"Don't worry, Mimi." I said rubbing her shoulders in a way of comfort, "As long as we learn how to use the cards properly, that will never happen."
"Raya is correct." Gennai said picking up the cards.
"But we don't have any idea about what to do." Joe said.
"You must use your powers the way Myotismon is using his. Tomorrow I'll teach you the proper use of the cards." Gennai handing the cards to Tai.
The sun set not much later and most of us went to bed, except for Izzy, he stayed up to ask Gennai questions.
And as for me, I couldn't sleep very well. I was set to sleep next to Matt, but I sat up on my futon staring at my tag and crest.
In the fading light of the moon and candles around the room, the crest symbol would change. The crest of compassion, selflessness and harmony were strange to me.
And as a result of that, I had no idea what or how to use them, or even how to change them when I would need them.
Eventually I fell asleep next to Matt, and as I fell asleep I felt an arm snake around my waist. I turned around and saw Matt heavily sleeping with his around my waist.
I didn't mind. Any other guys who would try this trick would get their terth knocked out, but with Matt, it was nice.
The next morning, we woke up and went to the living room for breakfast. After we ate, Gennai came in the room and told us good morning.
"Izzy, I've made improvements to your computer." Gennai said, holding up Izzy's laptop, "When you insert someone's digivice into this adaptor, the digimon analyzer will show any digimon that person has seen. I've also added a new screensaver, the one with the colorful fish swimming around, I really like that one."
"Great minds do think alike." Izzy said.
"Now, I have a request for all of you. I don't want you to forget that you are the digidestined and Digi-mage."
"I'll never forget this stomachache." Joe said as he lay his head on the table.
"Joe, this is serious." Sora said.
"I have done all I can do, I can no longer help you once you return to Myotismon's castle." Gennai said, wishing us luck as we left the underwater house.
But before we left, Gennai stopped me and gave me a small box filled with honey-covered strawberries. I thanked him, put them in my backpack and rushed to catch up with the others.
We made the trip back to Myotismon's castle with the cards in hand, determined to make it back home.
"Man, this place looks eve scarier than the first time." Joe said, shivering slightly.
I looked up at the dark walls of the stone castle. I could still feel his darkness permeating the area like a blinding fog.
We traveled down the stairs to the room where Myotismon left through the gate. As we cracked open the doors, we saw Devidramon still guarding the gate.
"How are we gonna get past the Devidramon?" Izzy asked.
"Leave that to me." Tentomon said, flying up above us, "I'll take them out while you go in."
I bent down and set Moonmon on the ground.
"Hold on, Tentomon, let me help, too." I said, grabbing his claw. He nodded and shared hos power with me. In an instant, I was wearing armor similar to Tentomon, with a headband on my head similar to his antennae.
But I didn't stay like that for long, Izzy made Tentomon digivolve and in turn, made me change as well.
I was covered in purple insect-like armor and ware a thick helmet over my head, but it was still easy to move around in. But then, my purple armor turned red with a large blue stone in the center.
I had transformed into a Megakabutarimon look-alike. And I felt so powerful.
I flew with Megakabutarimon as he slammed into one of the Devidramon and the others ran past us.
Megakabutarimon kept the Devidramom busy while I followed the others to keep them safe.
Just then, a large boom sounded and shook the castle. We all fell the ground and I transformed back into mu normal self. Megakabutarimon was defeated.
"Motimon!" Izzy cried out, seeing his little pink digimon roll down the stairs and into his arms.
"Izzy, what happened?" Motimon asked.
"Everything is okay, now. You fixed the warp in space." Izzy said happily.
"Come on, let's get to the gate." Tai said as we continued on our way to the gate.
We quickly ran down the stairs and found the gate, and the pedestal in front with the nine card holes in position.
"We've got to find the pattern in these cards." Tai said laying the cards down on the ground.
He separated the cards into separate groups for starters,
One group had Gomamon, Agumon, Andromon, and Unimon, "Good ones." Tai named..
The second group had Digitamamon, Drimogemon and Gazimon.
"Bad one."
The last group had Kuwagamon and ShogunGeckomon.
"Funky ones."
"I don't think that's it, Tai." I said.
Joe pushed his glasses up his nose as the thought, separating the cards himself into their different levels.
"In-training, rookie and champion, maybe?" He wondered, but something told me that that pattern wasn't right.
"Or could it just be big one, medium one, and small one, how can we be sure?" Matt asked while scratching his head in confusion, "And we still don't have a clue which card is the fake one."
"Maybe it's based one where they live, water, land..." Sora suggested.
"Or maybe the clue is in the names." Mimi said, "Like Agumon starts with A, that's letter number one."
I sighed and saw Izzy walking up to the card holes. Curious, I grabbed Moonmon and followed him.
"Izzy, Raya, what are you looking at?" Mimi asked.
"Myotismon used a spell to open the gate, and I think this picture has something to do with it. Some of these characters I know." Izzy replied.
"I see now," I said in realization, "Look at this stone. The pictures of the lion and centar are the zodiac signs for Sagittarius and Leo, but what about the monkey?"
"Yes, and what's the significance of the star patterns?"
Suddenly, I felt the ground shake underneath my feet.
"Matt, what's that sound?" Tk asked.
"I don't know." Matt said.
"Well, maybe someone should go find out." Mimi said.
Patamon volunteered and flew out to see what was going on while we stayed to figure out the cards.
"What's the point, we won't be able,to open the gate." Joe said sadly.
"Don't even say that, Joe!" Sora yelled.
"Even if we put the cards in the holes and they look right, there's no way of knowing until it's too late."
"We have to try, Joe." Matt said as the castle shook once more.
"Something tells me we don't have much time!" Tai yelled over the cracking walls.
Just then, Patamon came back into the cave with a scared look in his eyes.
"Hey, guys, the walls and ceilings of the castle are closing in and the passages are all blocked." He said.
"That means we can't go back the way we came in. We're trapped." Matt said.
"That means we have to open the gate." Izzy said ans turned back to pictures in ths stone.
"One of us has to choose nine cards and put them in the holes and that will be that."
It was a big decision to choose our fates and which world we would go to through that gate, but none of us were prepared for who would be chosen for the job.
"Raya, I think it should be you." Joe said.
My eyes widened in confusion, "Me?" I asked dumbly.
"Yeah, it's your call."
"But, why me?"
"I'm not trying to put you on the spot or anything, but I think that all of us really trust you, Raya." Joe answered.
"Joe's right." Matt suddenly spoke out, "You're always there and making the right choices. If anyone should make this decision, it should be the one who has the most luck and the best intuition."
"Have you all gone crazy?! What makes you think that I'll pick the right cards?" I asked.
"Remember when Tai disappeared and we all fell apart, you were always there and made the right choices for our little group. They may have not been the best choice out of all of them, but when you sacrificed yoruself to protect Tk, and watched over us in your imprisonment, that showed that you had the compassion, and bravery to do what's best for the group."
"Please, Raya, do it for all of us!" Mimi shouted, looking like she was about to cry, before she lifted her head and smiled at me, "Come on, Raya do it for the team and choose wisely!"
"Yeah, we have to believe in our friends, remember what Gennai said?" Sora asked.
"Yeah Gennai said to believe in our power. Don't you beleive, Raya?" Matt asked. I looked down, not sure what to say.
"Maybe." I whispered.
"Come on, we've been through a lot of weird stuff already. If we hadn't stuck together, we wouldn't have defeated Seadramon." Joe said.
"Or smashed Tyranomon." Matt added.
"Or got away from Toy town." Mimi added.
"Come on, Raya, you can do it." Everyone chanted. I took in a deep,breath, set Moonmon on my shoulder and walked up to the gate card holes.
"So, you're leaving it all to me, huh?" I asked, "And whatever my decision, good or bad, you're willing to go along with it?"
Everyone nodded. I turned around and smiled, "If that's the case, then I want Tai and Izzy to help me do it."
The two boys gasped in surprise, "What, why us?" They asked.
"Tai, we fell apart when you disappeared and you brought us back together. Izzy, you're smartest out of all of us. I want you both to help me make the decision."
"Sounds good to me!" Mimi said.
"If Raya trusts them to help her, then it'll be all right." Matt said.
"But what happens if one of us is wrong?" Izzy asked.
"No one will blame you."
"Come on, Izzy, Raya's usually right about these types of decisions about people." Matt said.
Eventually, Izzy, Tai and I sat in front of the card holes.
Izzy took out his computer after Motimon suggested it and started searching through previous digimon we've encountered.
Suddenly, as we scrolled through the digimon, I noticed something familiar about two of them.
"Izzy, go back to Centarumon." I said, he did as told and went back to the four-legged digimon. That's when it hit all of us.
"Wait a minute..." Izzy said, "the horse, the lion..."
"The lion would he Leomon." I said everything coming together.
"And the monkey..." Tai thought, "Etemon!"
"Gennai told me that digimon could be classified as data, virus or vaccine." Izzy said, "Who here has met up with Digitamamon and Geckomon?"
"I have." Joe said.
"Give me your digivice." Izzy asked and Joe did as told. Izzy plugged up the digivice and pulled up a picture of ShogunGeckomon.
"Prodigious!" Izzy exclaimed.
"Did you figure it out?" Tai asked.
"I think he did." I said.
"Yeah, now, everyone gather around." Izzy said as we gathered around and Izzy drew the card hole chart in the dirt.
"Check this out." Izzy said, "The first three, the lion, archman and the monkey, would be Leomon, Centarumon, and Etemon. In addition, there's one of each classification, Data, virus and vaccine."
"In addition to that, the stars, from top to bottom, represent in-training, rookie and champion." I continued, "so now with that information, we can put all of the cards in the right squares."
And so we did, placing all ths cards in their proper places, however, two cards didn't make sense in one space: Agumon and Gomamon. They we're both data types and in-training level digimon.
"One of these has gotta be the fake, but which one is it?" I wondered aloud.
We sat their not knowing which card was a fake, but happy that we made it this far.
Suddenly, the cieling above us began to crumble and several digimon fell from towards us. Loud rumbles echoed against the walls, signalling that the castle was falling apart.
"What are those?" Tai asked.
"I'll tell you in just a minute." Izzy said, typing away at his computer.
"Dokugumon, an evil digimon with computer virus parasites covering its body!" Izzy answered.
"Intruders in the castle, must be destroyed! Go get them!" Smaller versions of Dokugumon fell frok the cieling and went to attack us.
Suddenly, my digivice began to glow, along with Mimi, Matt and Joe's digivices. Our digimon began to glow and digivolved to the their next stages.
I connected with Lunamon and began to fight, "Tai, choose a card!" I shouted, holding off the small digimon.
He nodded and took the real and fake cards in his hand to choose. Dokugumon covered us in sticky web and sprayed us with a poison cloud and we had no choice but go a step further.
Luna and Garurumon digivolved once more, me changing with my digimon.
WereGarurumon howled and sliced the webs covering us. Then he went straight to Dokugumon, pushing the digimon back.
"Come on, Tai you've gotta make a choice!" Matt shouted.
"Come on!" Mimi screamed.
"Okay!" Tai shouted, picking up one of the cards, "It's this one!" He slammed the card with Gomamon on it into the remaining hole.
Quickly, the gate opened and we all ran towards the opening. I was right behind Matt, holding Lunamon in my arms as we fell through the closing gate.
The last thing I heard were the screams of my friends. When I opened my eyes again, I saw the clear blue skies and Matt and Tk hovering over me.
"Raya, Raya, we did it! We're back home again!" Tk shouted happily.
I sat up and looked aorund to see that he was right! We made it back to the summer camp from before.
I looked down in my arms and saw Lunamon sleeping happily in my arms and the other digimon were there too.
Now, we had all we needed to start our search for the eighth child. Although, I had a strange feeling in my chest.
Myotismon was already in our hometown and I was being pulled to Odaiba. The eighth child was there, and we were going to find them.