Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ London Diaries - Journey into Adventure ❯ Confrontation ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Lord Archive 
The children face a foe with powers beyond their imagination and learn the fate that is in store for them.
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Fantasy / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.25.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.0K | Visits: 562 | Status: Completed
The children face a foe with powers beyond their imagination and learn the fate that is in store for them.
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Fantasy / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.25.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.0K | Visits: 562 | Status: Completed
London Diaries - Journey into Adventure
Entry 3 - Confrontation
By: Lord Archive
The concept of Digimon is copy write of Toei Animation Inc. and Akiyoshi Hongo. The characters in this story, however, are the property of Lord Archive.
------------------
Seven lost children have found themselves on a path leading to what they hope is a way home. However, if they're right, they must stop Lady Devimon, a foe with powers beyond their imagination. All they have to help them are seven small and young digimon.
------------------
A haughty laugh echoed in the air as seven children and their digimon partners entered a ring of enormous stones. While the placement of the stones weren't the same as Earth's Stonehenge, its similarities could not be coincidence.
At the center of the Digital Stonehenge was the one who was laughing. A woman standing over two meters in height with bone-white skin and was almost completely covered in black leather. Before her stood an altar that had an ancient book with the words written in human blood resting on top of it.
Susan looked at the leather outfit of the evil digimon and then glanced at Freddy and asked, "Friend of yours?"
Freddy tried to ignore her as now wasn't the time to exchange insults.
Lady Devimon stretched out her arms. "I can't believe Jijimon sent you to stop me. You don't stand a chance. With three words, I shall achieve my goal. Clapto!"
The children and digimon knew they had to stop her, but weren't sure what to do. One of them moved in a desperate attempt to interrupt the spell.
Lady Devimon stretched out her arms. "Verata!"
Goblimon gave a quick prayer of hope as he launched his club into the air.
"Nic--" Lady Devimon was interrupted painfully by Goblimon's club striking her nose. She rubbed her injury and hissed angrily, "Dung Eating Fool! You ruined the spell!"
"That's the idea!" Goblimon snapped back.
The book that Lady Devimon read from began to glow, and the evil digimon smiled. "It seems you were too late. The spell to grant me power over all undead digimon is mine!"
The book exploded, sending pieces of itself streaking into the air, many disappearing in the distance. One piece, however, struck Lady Devimon in the chest. She screamed in pain as the glow from the fragment engulfed her body. She curled up into a ball as her body expanded to twice her original size before the light faded.
The evil digimon then stood up, flinging her now black hair behind her back and revealing very beautiful human features. She looked down at her new appearance. She now wore hunter green and royal blue robes, with a golden necklace around her neck. Once again mocking laughter filled the air as she felt the sheer power course through her body. "I evolved! Thanks for your 'interference.'" She then disappeared in a swirl of smoke.
Freddy sagged, believing they had missed their chance to go home. "Sure she's not related to you?" he questioned Susan.
"My family doesn't allow anyone evil to be part of it," Susan huffed.
"That was anti-climatic," George commented.
"I think we should count ourselves lucky we didn't have to fight her," Tapirmon replied.
"Guess we don't go home yet," Henry commented bitterly.
"Looks like it," Chuck replied. "We'll have to go see Jijimon now."
Teressa plopped on the ground. "Why should we? I've had enough walking."
Susan nodded. "That's what I've been saying all along. Why should we try to find these digimon? What if this Jijimon wants to kill us too?"
"Unless your 'majesty' has some special way of finding a way home, these flimsy leads are all we have," Freddy shot back. "If we just sit around, we'll never get home."
Melissa massaged her forehead. "Why don't we just camp here for the night? It is getting late after all. We'll decide what to do in the morning."
Chuck nodded. "That would be a good idea. We should also take turns keeping watch."
------------------
Melissa sighed as she kept watch on the boring field that stretched out before her. She had been one of the unlucky ones to draw a watch tonight. At least she should get a full nights rest tomorrow, even if they don't find a way home.
The monotony got to Melissa only after a couple minutes. She stood up.
"Melissa?" Modoki Betamon questioned.
"Just going to walk around for a bit," Melissa informed her partner. "I just can't stand doing nothing."
Modoki Betamon shrugged and followed Melissa.
The pair looked over where everyone had taken to sleeping. Susan and Freddy were on opposite sides of the Stonehenge. Teressa had taken to sleeping near Susan, while Henry and George were near Freddy.
Melissa looked around for Chuck, but could not find him inside the giant stone circle. She hadn't noticed where he had gone to sleep as he had first watch, while she had the third. She left the Stonehenge and walked around the outer circle. She found him sleeping a few meters away from what looked to be the main entrance of the circle.
Modoki Betamon cautiously followed and looked around, taking her job of being on watch a little too seriously.
Melissa glanced down at the Scotsman. There was something she always wanted to know.
"Melissa?" Modoki Betamon squawked as her partner lifted Chuck's kilt.
"They really don't wear any underpants," Melissa said in amazement. She then pouted. "If only I had a blue ribbon."
Modoki Betamon stared in confusion. "Is that what, um, boys look like?"
"At least human boys." Melissa dropped the kilt. "Let's go before he wakes up."
Modoki Betamon paused a minute before following after her partner.
------------------
"Excuse me!" Chuck called out.
Brachiomon, a large orange brachiosaur digimon with blue stripes, looked down at the small human.
"What a strange looking digimon," commented the gigantic, long-neck dinosaur.
"We're not digimon!" Susan retorted.
Brachiomon blinked as he saw more of the strange creatures with several young digimon.
"Excuse me, but can you tell us where we can find Jijimon?" Chuck questioned.
"That old coot? He lives over that way, on top of a hill in the middle of that forest," Brachiomon replied, pointing out the direction with his head. "Why do you want to find him?"
"We think he might be able to help us get home," Chuck answered.
"Well, he'll probably talk to you since you've got girls with you, but I'd avoid him. He's a dirty old digimon who doesn't take kindly to others," Brachiomon warned them.
"I don't like the sounds of that." Teressa pouted.
------------------
Psychemon's horn glowed brightly leading the way while the stars shined over head as the seven children arrived at their destination. Having been told they were close to Jijimon's hut, they had opted not to stop for the night.
"This is too easy," Freddy commented, eyeing the wooden hut with a grass roof warily.
"Probably should keep on our guard," Goblimon added.
"After all that fighting yesterday, it does seem odd we met no resistance today," Chuck said.
"I, for one, am glad that we didn't do any fighting. Maybe we can finally go home," Susan retorted.
The door to the hut creaked open.
"I don't like the feeling of this," Plotmon chirped.
"Can we just come back later?" Susan questioned.
Freddy scowled and advanced into the hut with Goblimon. Slowly the rest of the group followed him in.
The inside of the hut looked nothing like the outside of it. The walls looked like giant circuit boards. The floor and ceiling were solid metal. The only item in the room was a large screen television.
"Looks like he's not home," Freddy commented.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Susan questioned.
The floor opened up under the feet.
"I'd guess you'll all fall," Tsukaimon commented as the others began to scream. He flew down the hole after them.
Their screams stopped as their fall came to a screeching halt, a full meter above the ground. Then they were slowly lowered to the ground.
"Whoa, 'Hare Brakes,'" Henry joked.
George blinked. "Don't you mean 'air brakes?'"
Henry looked at George as if he came from another planet. "Haven't you even watched 'Looney Tunes?'"
George shook his head. "No."
They all found themselves in an enormous room. Above them was a sign reading, 'London.' There were other signs in the room, with names of various cities in Europe and America written on them.
"Greetings, children. I've been expecting you," said a figure that was a little shorter than most of them were, his white hair and beard covering most of his body.
"You're older than Grandpa!" Susan chirped, pointing at him.
"It's not polite to point," Freddy shot at her.
The old digimon laughed. "I'm Jijimon."
"Do you know how we came to be here?" Chuck questioned.
"That is an easy yet difficult question to answer," replied Jijimon. "You seven were summoned here for a purpose, to accomplish something only you seven are capable of. Defeat Lady Devimon."
"We already met her and stopped her from casting some weird spell," Freddy commented.
Jijimon nodded. "True, you stopped her, but you did not defeat her. Evolved into her new form, she is vastly more powerful than before. She will seek to reclaim all the spell fragments from the destroyed Necronomicmon and try to use the power they contain. Hopefully she'll keep to her goal of trying to become 'Queen of the Dead.' Then even if she's able to collect all the pieces, she'll still have to wait until the next Winter Solstice to gain the power over all undead digimon."
"And if her goal changes?" Plotmon questioned.
"The full power of the Necronomicmon is unknown to me. There may be other things she can do with it. Possibly evolve herself to an even more powerful state," Jijimon explained.
"What's the big deal about evolution?" Henry asked.
Jijimon looked at him like he had said something extremely stupid. "Each time a digimon evolves, their power increases. When you first found your digimon, they were baby digimon with little in the way of being able to protect themselves. Then they evolved into child digimon, who can fight back. Then there are the digimon you fought, who are adults. It took a combined effort of your digimon to defeat one adult digimon, did it not?"
"You've been spying on us," Freddy observed.
Jijimon ignored him. "But now Lady Devimon was a Perfection digimon. Her power exceeded an adult's, as the adult surpasses a child's. But now that she is an Ultimate, yet another level above that, there is no way you children could hope to defeat her the way you are now."
"So we should all just up and quit?" Freddy commented.
"Just because you can't stop her now doesn't mean you won't be able to defeat her in the future," Jijimon corrected. "There are seven swords scattered throughout this region that can help you achieve the power you need. While Lady Devimon is focused on getting the spell fragments, you'll go after those swords."
"Why do we have to be the ones to do this?" Susan demanded. "Why can't it be someone else who actually knows how to fight!"
"You seven weren't picked from some hat. You were selected because of who you are. Each of you has a special something that will serve you. Something that very few kids have," Jijimon told her.
"Shouldn't we get a choice whether to help or not?" Melissa questioned. "Why should we care about this world?"
Jijimon frowned. "You're right. You should have a choice in this matter. However, you would not only be protecting this world against Lady Devimon, but your own world as well. The Digital World and Earth are interconnected. If a village here is blown off the map by an evil digimon, an equivalent disaster would occur on Earth. An accidental gas main explosion, perhaps."
"What about a massive multi-car accident that killed dozens?" Teressa questioned.
"That is possible shadow effect as well," Jijimon replied.
The children stared as Teressa had referenced an accident that had occurred only a few days ago.
"If Lady Devimon's power goes unchecked, she will cause untold hardship in the Digital World, and that will reflect onto England."
"But you're asking us to kill Lady Devimon, aren't you?" Chuck questioned.
Jijimon nodded. "Yes, I am. That may be the only way to stop her."
Susan folded her arms and huffed. "I don't care. I want to go home. Tomorrow is Christmas. It's supposed to be spent with our families. Not going off to kill someone!"
Jijimon let out a long sigh. "I guess sending you home for one day would not hurt anything."
The children stared at him in surprise.
"You're sending us home?" Melissa chirped happily.
"Yes." Jijimon looked down. "And you'll have a choice to return or not. Go to the front of Chestnut school by midnight tomorrow. I'll open up a portal that'll take you straight to the first sword. Where your digimon will be waiting for you."
"We don't get to go with them?" Plotmon asked.
"No. It would not be wise to send you to Earth," Jijimon replied.
"So, send us home already!" Henry called out.
Jijimon gave a short, hollow laugh. "The means home is over this way, but you'll have to fall asleep first."
Part of the wall opened up and they all followed Jijimon through it. In the room was what looked like a giant bed.
"Just climb onto the bed and dream of home, and that's where you'll be when you wake up," Jijimon informed them.
"Should we even trust him?" Susan asked.
"I'm not going to miss a chance to go home!" George jumped on top of the bed, and tried to get comfortable.
"I don't see any harm in trying to sleep," Teressa mentioned. "If something goes wrong, our digimon should wake us."
The remaining children climbed onto the bed. Sleep came easily to the tired children. And soon, one by one, the children disappeared.
------------------
In the early morning hours, Chuck woke up to the sounds of barking and scratching on his door. He tiredly got out of bed and opened the door, only to be assaulted by the loving affections of his dog.
Chuck laughed as his dog licked his face. "I'm glad to see you too."
"Chuck?" Mrs. MacArthur pushed aside the dog only wet her son's face with her own kisses.
------------------
Mrs. Marshall sighed as wished her youngest daughter was home. She looked inside Teressa's bedroom, and did a double take. "Teressa?!" she called out in surprise.
Teressa groggily opened her eyes. "Mom?" She blinked her eyes clear and then shot out of bed grabbing her mother in a fierce hug. "Mommy!"
Mrs. Marshall hugged Teressa and began to cry, giving thanks to God for bringing back her daughter.
Teressa found herself ripped out of her mother's hug, only to be crushed in her father's arms.
------------------
Mr. Mason sat next to an overly decorated Christmas tree as he riffled through police reports gathered concerning the missing children.
"Yo," Freddy greeted as he plopped down on the couch.
"Morning," Mr. Mason returned.
A full minute had passed and neither of them said a word. Then the police reports fell out of Mr. Mason's hands like a waterfall.
"Freddy?!" Mr. Mason called out in surprise.
"I'm back." Freddy reached down and picked up one of the police reports. "You'll find all seven of us are back for today."
"What happened to you?" Mr. Mason questioned.
"That's a long story," Freddy replied.
------------------
Mr. Pilot found himself glomped by someone less than half his size and heard cry of, "Guess who?!"
"Melissa?!" The large man reached behind himself and pulled the young girl off him with one arm.
"Happy Christmas, Daddy! I'm home!" Melissa chirped.
"My little squid!" Mr. Pilot exclaimed tossing his daughter into the air, only to catch her again.
------------------
"Where were you? Are you all right? Did anything bad happen to you?!" Mrs. Lords questioned as she preened her daughter's appearance.
Susan sighed. "I'm fine, mother."
"You had us all worried," Mr. Lords said calmly.
"Sis?!" William cried out and tackled his sister.
Mrs. Lords frowned.
Susan giggled a little. At least someone was here to hug her after what she had been through.
------------------
Mrs. Smith cried as she sat in her large and lonely house. All she had in the world was her son, and now she didn't even have him.
"Mom, are you crying?"
"Henry?!" Mrs. Smith questioned. She shakily got to her feet and shambled over to her son, touching his face to be sure he was there. "Oh, thank God, you're home!"
Henry closed his eyes as he hugged his mother. "Yep. I'm home."
------------------
Music from a grand piano wafted through one of the smaller homes of a sleepy suburb of London, only to turn to shouts of joy when the family learned that the eldest son had returned.
George did not mind that his little sisters and brother had interrupted his song as he soon found himself in the middle of one great big hug.
------------------
Author's Notes:
Coming Soon: Chapter 4 - The Christmas Decision.
The seven children have a choice: To stay safe at home or return to the Digital World? Will they all return? And for those that do go back, why do they?
Thanks to Jeremy Mullin for the grammar check.
Shaun's been a bad influence on me. If you've seen 'Army of Darkness,' then you've probably caught the references to that movie. The spell fragment idea came from 'Those Who Hunt Elves.' Also Melissa's 'blue ribbon' comment comes from a song on the 'Best of Dr. Demento' collection and 'Hare Brakes' is one of Bugs Bunny's jokes.
Entry 3 - Confrontation
By: Lord Archive
The concept of Digimon is copy write of Toei Animation Inc. and Akiyoshi Hongo. The characters in this story, however, are the property of Lord Archive.
------------------
Seven lost children have found themselves on a path leading to what they hope is a way home. However, if they're right, they must stop Lady Devimon, a foe with powers beyond their imagination. All they have to help them are seven small and young digimon.
------------------
A haughty laugh echoed in the air as seven children and their digimon partners entered a ring of enormous stones. While the placement of the stones weren't the same as Earth's Stonehenge, its similarities could not be coincidence.
At the center of the Digital Stonehenge was the one who was laughing. A woman standing over two meters in height with bone-white skin and was almost completely covered in black leather. Before her stood an altar that had an ancient book with the words written in human blood resting on top of it.
Susan looked at the leather outfit of the evil digimon and then glanced at Freddy and asked, "Friend of yours?"
Freddy tried to ignore her as now wasn't the time to exchange insults.
Lady Devimon stretched out her arms. "I can't believe Jijimon sent you to stop me. You don't stand a chance. With three words, I shall achieve my goal. Clapto!"
The children and digimon knew they had to stop her, but weren't sure what to do. One of them moved in a desperate attempt to interrupt the spell.
Lady Devimon stretched out her arms. "Verata!"
Goblimon gave a quick prayer of hope as he launched his club into the air.
"Nic--" Lady Devimon was interrupted painfully by Goblimon's club striking her nose. She rubbed her injury and hissed angrily, "Dung Eating Fool! You ruined the spell!"
"That's the idea!" Goblimon snapped back.
The book that Lady Devimon read from began to glow, and the evil digimon smiled. "It seems you were too late. The spell to grant me power over all undead digimon is mine!"
The book exploded, sending pieces of itself streaking into the air, many disappearing in the distance. One piece, however, struck Lady Devimon in the chest. She screamed in pain as the glow from the fragment engulfed her body. She curled up into a ball as her body expanded to twice her original size before the light faded.
The evil digimon then stood up, flinging her now black hair behind her back and revealing very beautiful human features. She looked down at her new appearance. She now wore hunter green and royal blue robes, with a golden necklace around her neck. Once again mocking laughter filled the air as she felt the sheer power course through her body. "I evolved! Thanks for your 'interference.'" She then disappeared in a swirl of smoke.
Freddy sagged, believing they had missed their chance to go home. "Sure she's not related to you?" he questioned Susan.
"My family doesn't allow anyone evil to be part of it," Susan huffed.
"That was anti-climatic," George commented.
"I think we should count ourselves lucky we didn't have to fight her," Tapirmon replied.
"Guess we don't go home yet," Henry commented bitterly.
"Looks like it," Chuck replied. "We'll have to go see Jijimon now."
Teressa plopped on the ground. "Why should we? I've had enough walking."
Susan nodded. "That's what I've been saying all along. Why should we try to find these digimon? What if this Jijimon wants to kill us too?"
"Unless your 'majesty' has some special way of finding a way home, these flimsy leads are all we have," Freddy shot back. "If we just sit around, we'll never get home."
Melissa massaged her forehead. "Why don't we just camp here for the night? It is getting late after all. We'll decide what to do in the morning."
Chuck nodded. "That would be a good idea. We should also take turns keeping watch."
------------------
Melissa sighed as she kept watch on the boring field that stretched out before her. She had been one of the unlucky ones to draw a watch tonight. At least she should get a full nights rest tomorrow, even if they don't find a way home.
The monotony got to Melissa only after a couple minutes. She stood up.
"Melissa?" Modoki Betamon questioned.
"Just going to walk around for a bit," Melissa informed her partner. "I just can't stand doing nothing."
Modoki Betamon shrugged and followed Melissa.
The pair looked over where everyone had taken to sleeping. Susan and Freddy were on opposite sides of the Stonehenge. Teressa had taken to sleeping near Susan, while Henry and George were near Freddy.
Melissa looked around for Chuck, but could not find him inside the giant stone circle. She hadn't noticed where he had gone to sleep as he had first watch, while she had the third. She left the Stonehenge and walked around the outer circle. She found him sleeping a few meters away from what looked to be the main entrance of the circle.
Modoki Betamon cautiously followed and looked around, taking her job of being on watch a little too seriously.
Melissa glanced down at the Scotsman. There was something she always wanted to know.
"Melissa?" Modoki Betamon squawked as her partner lifted Chuck's kilt.
"They really don't wear any underpants," Melissa said in amazement. She then pouted. "If only I had a blue ribbon."
Modoki Betamon stared in confusion. "Is that what, um, boys look like?"
"At least human boys." Melissa dropped the kilt. "Let's go before he wakes up."
Modoki Betamon paused a minute before following after her partner.
------------------
"Excuse me!" Chuck called out.
Brachiomon, a large orange brachiosaur digimon with blue stripes, looked down at the small human.
"What a strange looking digimon," commented the gigantic, long-neck dinosaur.
"We're not digimon!" Susan retorted.
Brachiomon blinked as he saw more of the strange creatures with several young digimon.
"Excuse me, but can you tell us where we can find Jijimon?" Chuck questioned.
"That old coot? He lives over that way, on top of a hill in the middle of that forest," Brachiomon replied, pointing out the direction with his head. "Why do you want to find him?"
"We think he might be able to help us get home," Chuck answered.
"Well, he'll probably talk to you since you've got girls with you, but I'd avoid him. He's a dirty old digimon who doesn't take kindly to others," Brachiomon warned them.
"I don't like the sounds of that." Teressa pouted.
------------------
Psychemon's horn glowed brightly leading the way while the stars shined over head as the seven children arrived at their destination. Having been told they were close to Jijimon's hut, they had opted not to stop for the night.
"This is too easy," Freddy commented, eyeing the wooden hut with a grass roof warily.
"Probably should keep on our guard," Goblimon added.
"After all that fighting yesterday, it does seem odd we met no resistance today," Chuck said.
"I, for one, am glad that we didn't do any fighting. Maybe we can finally go home," Susan retorted.
The door to the hut creaked open.
"I don't like the feeling of this," Plotmon chirped.
"Can we just come back later?" Susan questioned.
Freddy scowled and advanced into the hut with Goblimon. Slowly the rest of the group followed him in.
The inside of the hut looked nothing like the outside of it. The walls looked like giant circuit boards. The floor and ceiling were solid metal. The only item in the room was a large screen television.
"Looks like he's not home," Freddy commented.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Susan questioned.
The floor opened up under the feet.
"I'd guess you'll all fall," Tsukaimon commented as the others began to scream. He flew down the hole after them.
Their screams stopped as their fall came to a screeching halt, a full meter above the ground. Then they were slowly lowered to the ground.
"Whoa, 'Hare Brakes,'" Henry joked.
George blinked. "Don't you mean 'air brakes?'"
Henry looked at George as if he came from another planet. "Haven't you even watched 'Looney Tunes?'"
George shook his head. "No."
They all found themselves in an enormous room. Above them was a sign reading, 'London.' There were other signs in the room, with names of various cities in Europe and America written on them.
"Greetings, children. I've been expecting you," said a figure that was a little shorter than most of them were, his white hair and beard covering most of his body.
"You're older than Grandpa!" Susan chirped, pointing at him.
"It's not polite to point," Freddy shot at her.
The old digimon laughed. "I'm Jijimon."
"Do you know how we came to be here?" Chuck questioned.
"That is an easy yet difficult question to answer," replied Jijimon. "You seven were summoned here for a purpose, to accomplish something only you seven are capable of. Defeat Lady Devimon."
"We already met her and stopped her from casting some weird spell," Freddy commented.
Jijimon nodded. "True, you stopped her, but you did not defeat her. Evolved into her new form, she is vastly more powerful than before. She will seek to reclaim all the spell fragments from the destroyed Necronomicmon and try to use the power they contain. Hopefully she'll keep to her goal of trying to become 'Queen of the Dead.' Then even if she's able to collect all the pieces, she'll still have to wait until the next Winter Solstice to gain the power over all undead digimon."
"And if her goal changes?" Plotmon questioned.
"The full power of the Necronomicmon is unknown to me. There may be other things she can do with it. Possibly evolve herself to an even more powerful state," Jijimon explained.
"What's the big deal about evolution?" Henry asked.
Jijimon looked at him like he had said something extremely stupid. "Each time a digimon evolves, their power increases. When you first found your digimon, they were baby digimon with little in the way of being able to protect themselves. Then they evolved into child digimon, who can fight back. Then there are the digimon you fought, who are adults. It took a combined effort of your digimon to defeat one adult digimon, did it not?"
"You've been spying on us," Freddy observed.
Jijimon ignored him. "But now Lady Devimon was a Perfection digimon. Her power exceeded an adult's, as the adult surpasses a child's. But now that she is an Ultimate, yet another level above that, there is no way you children could hope to defeat her the way you are now."
"So we should all just up and quit?" Freddy commented.
"Just because you can't stop her now doesn't mean you won't be able to defeat her in the future," Jijimon corrected. "There are seven swords scattered throughout this region that can help you achieve the power you need. While Lady Devimon is focused on getting the spell fragments, you'll go after those swords."
"Why do we have to be the ones to do this?" Susan demanded. "Why can't it be someone else who actually knows how to fight!"
"You seven weren't picked from some hat. You were selected because of who you are. Each of you has a special something that will serve you. Something that very few kids have," Jijimon told her.
"Shouldn't we get a choice whether to help or not?" Melissa questioned. "Why should we care about this world?"
Jijimon frowned. "You're right. You should have a choice in this matter. However, you would not only be protecting this world against Lady Devimon, but your own world as well. The Digital World and Earth are interconnected. If a village here is blown off the map by an evil digimon, an equivalent disaster would occur on Earth. An accidental gas main explosion, perhaps."
"What about a massive multi-car accident that killed dozens?" Teressa questioned.
"That is possible shadow effect as well," Jijimon replied.
The children stared as Teressa had referenced an accident that had occurred only a few days ago.
"If Lady Devimon's power goes unchecked, she will cause untold hardship in the Digital World, and that will reflect onto England."
"But you're asking us to kill Lady Devimon, aren't you?" Chuck questioned.
Jijimon nodded. "Yes, I am. That may be the only way to stop her."
Susan folded her arms and huffed. "I don't care. I want to go home. Tomorrow is Christmas. It's supposed to be spent with our families. Not going off to kill someone!"
Jijimon let out a long sigh. "I guess sending you home for one day would not hurt anything."
The children stared at him in surprise.
"You're sending us home?" Melissa chirped happily.
"Yes." Jijimon looked down. "And you'll have a choice to return or not. Go to the front of Chestnut school by midnight tomorrow. I'll open up a portal that'll take you straight to the first sword. Where your digimon will be waiting for you."
"We don't get to go with them?" Plotmon asked.
"No. It would not be wise to send you to Earth," Jijimon replied.
"So, send us home already!" Henry called out.
Jijimon gave a short, hollow laugh. "The means home is over this way, but you'll have to fall asleep first."
Part of the wall opened up and they all followed Jijimon through it. In the room was what looked like a giant bed.
"Just climb onto the bed and dream of home, and that's where you'll be when you wake up," Jijimon informed them.
"Should we even trust him?" Susan asked.
"I'm not going to miss a chance to go home!" George jumped on top of the bed, and tried to get comfortable.
"I don't see any harm in trying to sleep," Teressa mentioned. "If something goes wrong, our digimon should wake us."
The remaining children climbed onto the bed. Sleep came easily to the tired children. And soon, one by one, the children disappeared.
------------------
In the early morning hours, Chuck woke up to the sounds of barking and scratching on his door. He tiredly got out of bed and opened the door, only to be assaulted by the loving affections of his dog.
Chuck laughed as his dog licked his face. "I'm glad to see you too."
"Chuck?" Mrs. MacArthur pushed aside the dog only wet her son's face with her own kisses.
------------------
Mrs. Marshall sighed as wished her youngest daughter was home. She looked inside Teressa's bedroom, and did a double take. "Teressa?!" she called out in surprise.
Teressa groggily opened her eyes. "Mom?" She blinked her eyes clear and then shot out of bed grabbing her mother in a fierce hug. "Mommy!"
Mrs. Marshall hugged Teressa and began to cry, giving thanks to God for bringing back her daughter.
Teressa found herself ripped out of her mother's hug, only to be crushed in her father's arms.
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Mr. Mason sat next to an overly decorated Christmas tree as he riffled through police reports gathered concerning the missing children.
"Yo," Freddy greeted as he plopped down on the couch.
"Morning," Mr. Mason returned.
A full minute had passed and neither of them said a word. Then the police reports fell out of Mr. Mason's hands like a waterfall.
"Freddy?!" Mr. Mason called out in surprise.
"I'm back." Freddy reached down and picked up one of the police reports. "You'll find all seven of us are back for today."
"What happened to you?" Mr. Mason questioned.
"That's a long story," Freddy replied.
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Mr. Pilot found himself glomped by someone less than half his size and heard cry of, "Guess who?!"
"Melissa?!" The large man reached behind himself and pulled the young girl off him with one arm.
"Happy Christmas, Daddy! I'm home!" Melissa chirped.
"My little squid!" Mr. Pilot exclaimed tossing his daughter into the air, only to catch her again.
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"Where were you? Are you all right? Did anything bad happen to you?!" Mrs. Lords questioned as she preened her daughter's appearance.
Susan sighed. "I'm fine, mother."
"You had us all worried," Mr. Lords said calmly.
"Sis?!" William cried out and tackled his sister.
Mrs. Lords frowned.
Susan giggled a little. At least someone was here to hug her after what she had been through.
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Mrs. Smith cried as she sat in her large and lonely house. All she had in the world was her son, and now she didn't even have him.
"Mom, are you crying?"
"Henry?!" Mrs. Smith questioned. She shakily got to her feet and shambled over to her son, touching his face to be sure he was there. "Oh, thank God, you're home!"
Henry closed his eyes as he hugged his mother. "Yep. I'm home."
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Music from a grand piano wafted through one of the smaller homes of a sleepy suburb of London, only to turn to shouts of joy when the family learned that the eldest son had returned.
George did not mind that his little sisters and brother had interrupted his song as he soon found himself in the middle of one great big hug.
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Author's Notes:
Coming Soon: Chapter 4 - The Christmas Decision.
The seven children have a choice: To stay safe at home or return to the Digital World? Will they all return? And for those that do go back, why do they?
Thanks to Jeremy Mullin for the grammar check.
Shaun's been a bad influence on me. If you've seen 'Army of Darkness,' then you've probably caught the references to that movie. The spell fragment idea came from 'Those Who Hunt Elves.' Also Melissa's 'blue ribbon' comment comes from a song on the 'Best of Dr. Demento' collection and 'Hare Brakes' is one of Bugs Bunny's jokes.