Chapter 30, Black Conquest

BLACK CONQUEST

Digimon © Akiyoshi Hongo

Chapter 30: Cool as Ice

- Holoska -

Shadow's group heads south, towards the ice cold place of Holoska. He is accompanied by his GUN partners, Rouge the Bat, and E-123 Omega. Four members of the DigiDestined, along with their Digimon join him as well. Tai Kamiya and his Digimon partner, Agumon. Tai's little sister; Kari Kamiya and her Digimon partner, Gatomon. Tai's best friend; Sora Takenouchi and her Digimon partner, Biyomon. The young genius; Izzy Izumi, and his Digimon partner, Tentomon. Dr. Eggman, the scientific genius joins as well, along with his robot sidekicks, Decoe and Bocoe.

As they travel through the harsh cold, they decided to stop at a small town and rest themselves as the cold wind blows through them.

We scan closer to see Shadow, Rouge, Kari, Sora, Izzy, Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe resting around a nearby fire that kept themselves warm. Tai and the other Digimon went away to a nearby pond to catch some fish, while Omega kept watch, just in case they came back.

"This p-place is c-cold." Sora shivered.

"We should have stopped somewhere else." Decoe sighed.

"Yeah. Why, in all of places, did we have to rest here?" Bocoe complained.

"It was either here, or stay lost in that desert." Eggman simply replied by looking at them. "And both of you should know that I would rather be anywhere else than get lost."

After hearing what he had to say, the two robots quickly nodded in agreement.

"I wonder how the others are doing?" Rouge wondered. "Do you think they might have ran into some trouble?"

"You mean Tai?" Kari asked.

"No. Not him." Rouge shook her head. "I'm talking about the other two groups."

"Oh...never mind." Kari said slowly.

"They should be okay." Izzy replied. "Even if they have run into trouble, I'm sure that they'll be fine on their own."

Sora looked down for a moment before forming a small smile. "Your right, Izzy. We should keep our hopes up for them."

Rouge decided to change the subject. "While we're here, why don't you kids tell us a little about yourselves?"

Kari seemed opened to that idea. "Well, as you may or may not know, I'm Tai's little sister, Kari. I sometimes have a bad case of asthma, but it doesn't really bother me much anymore."

"I'm Sora. Like with my other friends, we all live in Japan. I'm sorta the big sister of the group and my friends respect me with the love and support I give them." She smiled.

"I'm Izzy." The young genius nodded. "As you know, I have a thing for knowledge and I want to know everything about new places and the knowledge it holds within itself."

"Knowledge?" Decoe said with interest. "You know, if you want, Eggman is always looking for more helpers in his quest to make Eggmanland."

"No thanks." Izzy shook his head. "I'm not interested."

"Aw..." Decoe whined. "At least, I tried."

As this conversation continued, Kari looked over at Shadow, whom looked up at the hazy dark sky with his arms crossed. Something about him keeps getting her attention. And she did remember what he said to her back in the Digital World. About how she was reminded of someone that Shadow knew before. But who was it? That was something that crossed Kari's mind for a while now. If she wanted to know who it was, she would have to ask Shadow, herself.

"Hey guys!" A voice called out.

Everyone turned to see Tai coming back with a barrel of fish in one hand while the four Digimon followed him.

"Did you catch enough fish?" Sora asked.

"Sure." Tai answered with a smile.

"Exactly how much fish did you catch?" Rouge eyed him.

"Uh..." Tai looked at the fish he was carrying about. "About fourteen pieces."

"Only fourteen pieces?" Kari asked.

Gatomon shrugged. "There weren't many fishes biting."

"And besides, we had to get back here soon, or we would've been turned into icicles." Agumon said.

"And I'm getting cold just thinking about it." Tentomon shivered.

"Is it enough to last us, though?" Biyomon wondered.

"It should be enough for the night." Shadow replied.

"Cool. So, how about we grill some of these and start chowing down?" Tai suggested. "What do you say?"

But before that could happen, Omega picked something up with his red eyes. "Red clouds detected. Approaching this direction."

"What?" Everyone's eyes widened, except Shadow's.

Up in the sky, everyone saw the dark-red clouds moving towards their location. Once they were close enough, a number of black aliens were dropping from the sky and onto the icy cold ground.

"Oh no! It's the Black Arms!" Decoe shouted.

"What are we going to do?" Bocoe asked frantically.

"That's an easy answer." Tai replied. "We fight them."

Shadow nodded once as he and Rouge took their stance. Omega twisted his arms and replaced his metal hands with two machine guns as began to lock and load.

"Let's get them!" Tai as he and the other three DigiDestined pulled out their Digivices.

-Digi-Evolution Stage -

"Agumon...Digivolve to...!"

"Greymon!"

"Biyomon...Digivolve to...!"

"Birdramon!"

"Tentomon...Digivolve to...!"

"Kabuterimon!"

"Gatomon...Digivolve to...!"

"Angewomon!"

- End Digi-Evolution Stage -

The four grown Digimon, along with our other heroes charged after the black aliens. The only ones who didn't join the heroes were Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe.

"Doctor, aren't you going to help them?" Decoe asked.

"There's no need." Eggman replied with his arms crossed. "Besides, I'm sure they can handle those black creatures all by themselves."

"But what if they don't?" Bocoe asked.

"Oh, come now." Eggman acting surprised. "Why would you think that? It's not like the black aliens will pass them and come after us."

The two robots looked on at the action ahead of them. Then, their eyes widened.

"Uh...Doctor?" Decoe said.

"We have black aliens coming after us!" Bocoe shouted.

And he was right. Three large black alien charged after them with their guns in hand.

"What do we do?" Decoe asked frantically.

"We're going to be destroyed!" Bocoe shouted.

"Um..." Eggman was trying to think of a plan out of this mess.

Suddenly, gunshots were being splattered all over the black aliens' backs as each one of them fell to the ground, dead. Omega stood over the dead black aliens.

"Targets eliminated. Locating new targets." Omega stated as he boosted off towards another horde of black aliens.

"Phew...that was a close call!" Decoe sighed in relief.

"Yeah. For a moment, I thought we were done for." Becoe added.

Eggman walked over to the dead black aliens and picked up their guns. He turned to Decoe and Bocoe and threw two of guns at them, in which they caught in return.

"What are we suppose to do with these?" Decoe asked.

"We're going to take down these black creatures." Eggman replied, before running off towards our heroes to help them against the black aliens.

Decoe and Bocoe looked at each other for a moment before looking at their guns.

"Do you think we will be able to protect ourselves with these?" Bocoe asked.

"It's the only thing we have to defend ourselves..." Decoe replied.

"Hurry up, you bucket-heads!" Eggman shouted at a distance.

Decoe and Bocoe immediately responded to his call. "Yes, sir!"

Meanwhile, Shadow dodged the the bullets that a black alien was using to shoot the black hedgehog. The Ultimate Life Form retaliated by jumping in the air and created a bolt of energy in his hands.

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

Shadow lunged a bolt of energy at the black alien. The attack connected with it's armored-body, but it didn't really do any damage.

"That's odd..." Shadow said to himself. "That black creature should have gone down by now."

The black alien fought back by shooting at Shadow again. Thinking quickly, Shadow dodged the shot and skated around the black alien, trying to find any source of weak-points.

"Hmm..." Shadow hummed as he looked at the black alien's back. "Perhaps I can attack it's back. In that way, it won't be able to defend itself.

Trying his plan out, Shadow skated towards the back of the black alien and created another bolt of energy in his hands.

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

Once again, Shadow lunged another Chaos Spear at the black creature's back, stunning him. Shadow finished off by attacking the back with multiple kicks before the black alien fell to the ground, dead.

"That takes care of that." Shadow said to himself before turning towards the rest of the action. "Now I need to see if the others need my help."

With Rouge, the female bat was flying in the air, kicking away at two of the black aliens' heads with little problems. They tried fighting back, but thanks to Rouge's fast kicks, they didn't have much luck.

"Good. Now, for the finishing touch." Rouge smirked as she flew higher into the air.

Once she was high enough she dropped multiple bombs on the ground, right where the duo of black aliens were standing. Each one of them blew up, creating a few explosions. When they died down, the black aliens were already down on the ground.

"Well, it looks like my work around here is done." Rouge said with a small laugh.

We now scan towards the Digimon. Greymon grappled with a large black alien. The two monsters were fighting it out in a test of strength, trying to determine who was the strongest.

"Nova Blast!"

Greymon opened his mouth as a ball of fire was launched at the black aliens' chest at close-range. Unfortunately, for Greymon, the attack didn't do any damage thanks to the armor that the black alien was wearing.

"What the heck? That thing didn't go down!" Tai realized.

The black alien retaliated by pushing Greymon backwards, where the larger Digimon slided backwards due to the icy ground. He even went so far as to crash into an icy wall.

"Greymon!" Tai shouted as he ran towards him.

Greymon shook his head, trying to recover from the attack that he just received. "Man, I didn't think that black creature was able to stand up to my attack."

"Yeah. I wonder why it didn't go down?" Tai thought. "I heard from Shadow that these black aliens usually go down pretty easily."

"Hmm...do you think it has something to do with that armor those black creatures are wearing?" Greymon wondered. "Because when I attacked it's chest, it didn't seem to be affected by it."

"I think so." Tai rubbed his chin. "Try attacking other parts of it's body. Maybe that'll do the trick."

"Leave it to me." Greymon said as he charged after the black alien again.

Once again, the two monsters grappled with each other, trying to push each other backwards. This time, however, Greymon was able to lift the black alien from it's feet and held it above it's head for a brief second before dropping it face-first towards the ground. That's when Greymon made his next move.

"Nova Blast!"

By launching another ball of fire from it's mouth, the black alien was already fired to a crisp, thanks to an attack to it's back.

"All right, Greymon!" Tai smiled in triumph. "You did it!"

"Yep." Greymon nodded in agreement. "Now I wonder how the others are doing."

Up in the dark sky, the three flying Digimon were taking of the flying black aliens that were moving around our heroes.

"Meteor Wing!"

Birdramon opened it's wings and released a few rays of fire at a horde of black aliens. The fire connected against a few of the black aliens and caused them to burn to a crisp.

"Go, Birdamon! You got it!" Sora cheered.

With Kabuterimon, the blue bug-like Digimon was swatting off a few of the black aliens that tried to attack him close range. Once they were out of his way, Kabuterimon countered it with a surprise of his own.

"Electro Shocker!"

Kabuterimon created a portion of electricity and fired it at the black aliens, destroying a group of them in a flash.

"Good job, Kabuterimon! Keep at it!" Izzy shouted.

With Angewomon, the angel-like Digimon was defending herself from the assault of the Black Arms that were trying to bring her down. But luckily, she managed to fight them off before countering with an attack of her own.

"Celestial Arrow!"

After creating a glowing bow in her hands, she fired it with precise aim at the black aliens all in a straight line, taking them out in no time.

"Way to go, Angewomon!" Kari cheered with a smile.

On the ground, Omega continued to fire his machine guns at the black aliens' heads repeatedly until they fell to the ground. Eggman also seemed to having trouble whatsoever, and Decoe and Bocoe, despite having a little trouble with their aiming, managed to fight off the Black Arms by shooting at their heads.

"Man, this is harder than I thought." Decoe said with a sigh.

"Yeah." Bocoe said after firing another shot from the black aliens' gun. "I'm already starting to get tired."

"Quit your complaining and keep firing!" Eggman told them as he continued to fire at another black alien.

"Right!" Both of them nodded quickly before taking fire at more of the black aliens.

Shadow took out another black alien by stunning it with it's Chaos Spear, followed by a homing attack to the back of it's head, killing it in the process. After he took the alien out, he looked around to see that the black aliens were decreasing, thanks to the number of kills that they were taking. Soon afterwards, everyone had managed to take out the black aliens. They soon rejoined with Shadow, whom stood there with his arms crossed.

"Omega, is that the last of them?" Shadow questioned.

"All black aliens destroyed." Omega responded.

"All right!" Tai grinned. "It looks like they won't be bothering us now!"

"Good. Now we can focus our attention towards the Dusty Desert." Izzy replied. "It's still a while to go before we get there, though. So it looks like we're going to rest here for now."

"Aw, darn." Decoe said with a sigh. "Oh well, I guess it's better to rest here than stay stuck in the middle of nowhere."

"Now you know how I feel." Eggman glanced at him.

As the group were talking, they heard a large roar in the sky. Everyone looked around at their surroundings.

"What was that?" Sora wondered.

"I'm not sure." Rouge replied. "But whatever it is, it cannot be good."

Angewomon looked up at the sky to see something very unpeculiar. "There!"

Everyone looked up to see what Angewomon was looking at. Most of their eyes widened, except Shadow's and Omega's.

"What the heck is that?" Kari asked.

"It looks like a dragon! But it kinda looks like it's made out of ice!" Izzy thought.

Izzy was partially right. Up in the sky, there was a light blue dragon with ice crystals coming out of it's back. The tail had spikes on the end. It's claws were blunt and it's teeth seemed pretty sharp. It's belly is yellow with light blue markings. And it's wings has sharp spikes on the tip of the wings. The dragon landed itself on top of a pillar as it stared at our heroes from below.

"Uh...why is it staring at us?" Tai asked nervously.

Shadow looked up above towards the dark sky. He then noticed another figure heading towards them. "Black Doom."

"What?" Everyone, except Omega, shouted.

"Up there." Shadow pointed upwards.

And it was true. The leader of the Black Arms floated his way downwards towards our heroes before stopping in mid-air.

"Shadow. It has been a while hasn't it. I believe it was around Westopolis, when Maiza showed you her power." Black Doom cackled.

"So, your Black Doom, eh?" Tai spoke up. "Your the one who is in charge of these weird black creatures, are you?"

"Yes." Black Doom replied. "And it seems like your the one who Shadow brought back here to this world via Chaos Control, am I right?"

"Wait, you know?" Sora asked.

"But, of course." Black Doom replied. "I'm sure you met Mephiles and how you managed to use your creature friends to try and stop him."

"So it looks like they were true after all. Black Doom and Mephiles are working together." Izzy rubbed his chin.

"Black Doom! Why did you turn everyone stone?" Shadow questioned.

"If you wish to know the answers that your looking for, then you'll have to reach me towards the tower." Black Doom answered. "But first, you'll have to get past this dragon."

The light-blue dragon continued to glare at our heroes as Black Doom made the introductions.

"This is Aisu. A dragon that uses ice to freeze it's prey into an icicle." Black Doom introduced.

"No problem." Tai smirked. "We can take care of this thing in no time at all."

"Is that so?" Black Doom raised an eyebrow, as if to be amused. "Then let us test your words then. Now Aisu, destroy them!" Black Doom commanded before floating higher in the air before disappearing into the dark sky.

Once Black Doom was gone, Aisu took flight into the air. The ice dragon opened it's mouth and blew out a stray of icy wind at our heroes.

"Look out!" Izzy shouted.

Hearing his warning, everyone made a run for it, barely escaping the icy breath of Aisu. Once they were out of harm's way, they re-grouped with each other.

"What do we do? That thing is dangerous!" Decoe shouted.

"I know." Izzy nodded. "But I'm still thinking about that."

Rouge looked up at Aisu, whom was preparing itself to dive right at our heroes. "Uh, guys? It looks like we may have some more trouble on our hands."

"No worries." Kabuterimon said as he flew after Aisu. "I'll stop that thing."

"Electro Shocker!"

Kabuterimon fired a portion of electricity at Aisu. However, Aisu managed to duck beneath the blast and charged right after Kabuterimon. The ice draon slammed itself at the bug-like Digimon, forcing Kabuterimon to fly backwards and crash into a wall.

"Kabuterimon!" Izzy cried out.

Angewomon decided to try it out as she stood at a distance and prepared to attack.

"Celestial Arrow!"

Creating a glowing pink arrow, she soon fired it with precise aim. Unfortunately for her, Aisu dodged the attack and blew out another breath of icy wind at her. Angewomon couldn't move, due to the coldness that was blowing right past her.

"Angewomon! Are you okay?" Kari asked from below.

"I-I c-can't move." Angewomon answered weakly.

Aisu charged after her with it's sharp wings. The wings made contact with her skin, sending her flying back towards the ground, where she landed with a loud thud.

"Angewomon!" Kari cried as she ran over to her friend.

Rouge decided to get in on the action as she flew into the air towards Aisu. The, the female bat spinned herself around, aiming a drill kick towards Aisu's head. Her kick made contact with the ice dragon's head, causing Aisu to shake it's head off of the small damage it received.

"Good. Now, let's see if it can stand up to my bombs." Rouge said to herself, as she carefully place a time bomb on it's head before flying away so that she wouldn't be caught in the blast. The bomb exploded, sending the ice dragon falling towards the ground. Unfortunately, Aisu managed to keep itself in the air by flapping it's wings.

"Darn!" Rouge said in disappointment. "It's still moving."

Once Aisu regained it's senses, the ice dragon flew upwards towards Rouge, preparing to strike her down with a charge. Luckily, Rouge was able to evade it before she could take any damage.

"Meteor Wing!"

From above, Birdramon released a few rays of fire at Aisu. The dragon's eyes widened as it quickly dodged the attack. And unfortunately for Rouge, the fire attack was already aiming right at her. And before she had any time to react, Rouge was caught in the fire, causing her to fall down headfirst towards the ground.

"Oh no! Rouge is in trouble!" Sora pointed out.

Thinking quickly, Shadow skated towards her direction and caught Rouge in his arms before she was about to receive a nasty fall. He looked to see that she was unconscious from her burns so he laid Rouge next to a wall on her back so that she could rest herself.

"Is she going to be all right?" Sora asked.

"She'll be okay." Shadow replied before turning attention towards Sora. "How's it going with Aisu?"

"Greymon and Omega are trying stop that thing themselves now." Sora replied by pointer her finger at them.

Confirming her suspicions, Omega and Greymon decided to try and attack Aisu with everything they had. Omega launched missiles with his arms while Greymon used his Nova Blast to bring down Aisu. The ice dragon was doing it's best to avoid the attacks as fast as it could.

"Target is still moving. Must eliminate Aisu!" Omega shouted.

"I'm with you on that." Greymon added as he blew another Nova Blast at Aisu. "But every time we try and attack this thing, it just keeps moving."

Aisu dodged another Nova Blast before launching a couple of ice crystals from it's tail and fired them at Omega and Greymon.

"Incoming ice crystals!" Greymon noted.

"Roger." Omega responded, as he switched out his missile launchers with flamethrowers. The E-Series robot shot out the two streaming fires at the ice crystals, causing them to melt on contact.

"Ice crystals destroyed!" Omega stated.

"But the dragon isn't." Greymon added.

Over with Kari and Izzy, the two kids carried their tired regular-sized Digimon in their arms as they made their way towards Sora.

"Are you guys okay?" Sora asked.

"We're fine." Kari replied. "But our Digimon aren't."

"Yeah. That dragon is a lot stronger than I thought." Izzy pointed out.

Over with Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe, the three looked on at the battle against Aisu.

"Doctor, shouldn't we go help them?" Decoe asked.

"Yeah. Perhaps you can take down that dragon, somehow." Bocoe added with a nod.

"If I had my Egg Walker, I would possibly destroy that dragon in no time flat." Eggman replied with his arms crossed. "Unfortunately, due to that earthquake and that light, the Egg Walker is in no condition to move."

"That would seem to be the reason." Bocoe said.

"And I think it's the reason why we had to leave it behind." Decoe added.

Eggman groaned to himself. He was now regretting on leaving the Egg Walker behind.

Back with the battle, Shadow had managed to catch a ride on Birdramon's leg. Once Birdramon got close enough, Shadow jumped off her leg and did a homing attack to Aisu's head. But he wasn't done there, he continued the attack with multiple kicks and punches. Then, Shadow jumped off the dragon's head.

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

Shadow fired a ray of yellow energy at Aisu's head, causing to stun and damage Aisu. As that happened, Birdramon managed to catch Shadow and land him safely on the ground.

"Did you defeat it?" Tai asked.

"No. But I managed to buy us some time." Shadow replied.

"Well, what are we suppose to do to defeat this thing?" Bocoe asked.

Tai and Sora glanced at each other. After staring at each other's eyes for a moment, they nodded their heads once, signalling that they had a plan.

"We got one idea." Tai replied.

"You do?" Decoe asked.

"Yeah." Sora nodded. "Our Digimon can Digivolve again."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "You mean..."

"Oh yeah!" Tai grinned. "And I think this idea will work." He turned to Sora. "Are you ready Sora?"

"I'm ready." Sora replied with a smile.

Suddenly, both of their crests that they wear around their necks began to glow. Everyone around them seemed to notice this.

"What is going on?" Decoe wondered.

"What are those?" Shadow questioned.

"These are our crests. Each one of them has a different marking on them. Me and my friends each have one of these as well." Tai answered. "Mine is Courage."

"And mine is Love." Sora replied.

"And now, it's time to show you their power!" Tai said as he and Sora raised their crests in the air. "Digivolve!"

- Second Digi-Evolution Stage -

"Greymon...Digivolve to...!"

Greymon's body glowed as it began to change shape into something bigger. It's left hand changed shaped into a large metal hand with three sharp claws. It''s skull-like head changed into a metal skull-head. It's eyes turned blue, and it grew six purple bug-like wings on it's back. This was Greymon's stronger and largest Digimon form.

"MetalGreymon!"

"Birdramon...Digivolve to...!"

Birdamon's body began to engulf itself with fire. Soon, a new head showed itself, followed by it's arms, legs, and wings. It's head was armor red with the crest of Love symbol marked on it, along with a small feather attached to the top of it's head. It had straight yellow hair, it had long red and yellow wings, it's body was mostly red, along with a shade of white markings on it's legs. This was Birdramon's strongest Digimon form.

"Garudamon!"

- End Second Digi-Evolution Stage -

Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe were in awe at this. Even Shadow and Omega were kinda surprised themselves.

"Doctor, those things...are huge!" Decoe said in surprise.

"And they look powerful too!" Bocoe added with a quick nod.

"Wait 'till you see them action.' Tai told them. "Are you guys ready?"

"Bring it on, you ice monster!" MetalGreymon said with a laugh.

"I will protect you, and your friends, Sora." Garudamon said to her. "And I will start by defeating this dragon!"

Both of the Digimon flew towards Aisu, whom had finally recovered from the damage it received. Aisu blew another breath of icy wind from it's mouth and fired it at our heroes. Both MetalGreymon and Garudamon quickly dodged to the side, avoiding the attack.

"Take this!" MetalGreymon shouted as he charged after Aisu and smashed his body next to his. The force from the charge was strong enough to send Aisu flying backwards from the attack. Luckily for Aisu, the ice dragon managed to stop itself from crashing to a wall by spreading out it's wings and taking flight in the air.

Aisu, then charged after Garudamon with it's sharp teeth at the ready. Garudamon was ready for this to happen, as she retaliated by stopping Aisu with her hands before it could chomp her. Her strength made it possible to grab it's head and send it flying backwards again, this time, making it crash int oa wall.

Aisu was already beginning to grow weak and tired. This was the perfect chance for our heroes.

"Now MetalGreymon!" Tai shouted.

"Gotcha." MetalGreymon nodded.

"Gigas Blaster!"

The metal chest of MetalGreaymon opened itself and fired two large missiles with smiling teeth at the front.

Next, Garudamon attacked as well.

"Wing Blade!"

Forming up red energy from within herself, she unleashed the energy into a red glowing phoenix and fired it at Aisu, along with the two missiles. Both of the attacks made contact at the same time, creating a large explosion.

Everyone covered their eyes as smoke began to fly past them.

"Is it over?" Kari asked.

Shadow got a good look through the smoke. It soon died down, revealing that Aisu was down flat on the ground, not moving. Shadow moved closer to inspect it. He checked to see if it was dead. After a few moments of silence, Shadow turned towards the group.

"It's dead." He announced.

"All right!" Tai cheered. "We did it!"

"Good job, you two!" Kari smiled at her brother and Sora.

"Phew." Decoe and Bocoe sighed in relief. "I'm glad it's over."

Eggman rubbed his chin with a grin. "That was impressive."

Shadow looked at Aisu's downed form again. He then noticed the dragon's body slowly turning into ice dust as it was slowly blown away by the wind until it was completely gone.

"Target destroyed!" Omega stated.

Back with MetalGreymon and Garudamon, the two grown Digmon glowed as they slowly changed back into their regular Digimon selves. Tai and Sora managed to catch them in their arms.

"Are you all right, buddy?" Tai asked.

"Yeah. I think so." Agumon yawned. "But now, I'm getting tired."

"Don't worry about it." Tai said with a smile. "You deserve it."

"Biyomon, are you okay?" Sora asked her friend.

"I'm fine." Biyomon slowly nodded. "But like Agumon, I need rest, as well."

"It looks like we all need rest." Izzy said. "Let's head for the igloo's that are nearby. We can rest there for tonight."

"I agree." Tentomon nodded. "And I hope we don't run into another one of those dragons."

Izzy only nodded in agreement. "Is everyone okay with that?"

Shadow slowly picked up Rouge in his arms. "Let's go."

With that, everyone made their way towards the igloo's, where everyone would have a long day's rest.

As they walked, Kari looked at Shadow, which caught Gatomon's interest.

"Kari?"

"What is it, Gatomon?" Kari asked her friend.

"You've been staring at that black hedgehog for some time now." Gatomon replied. "Why is that?"

"...Nothing. It's nothing, really." Kari shook her head as she continued to walk.

"Hmm..." Gatomon could only wonder what Kari is hiding.