Episode 9:

“It's Skylamon's Turn to Fly”

By

Jennifer Morton

and

Shelli-Jo Pelletier

* * *

~~~ Lina's P.O.V. ~~~

OK. We were all looking for a bit of fun, so we found a conveniently placed soccer field. Anyway, we were TRYING to play some soccer... But then it was all interrupted by a big fat ugly bull named Minotarumon. We thought we were gonna have some big problems, but the Cheekomon digivolved to Cheetormon! She kicked Minotarumon's ugly butt and saved the day. Go, Cheetormon! ^_^ But we still didn't get to have our break...

 

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Jaymon complained.

"Jay, you asked me that five minutes ago," Kristina replied to her Digimon, through gritted teeth.

"Oh, right." The little parrot blushed. "So, are we there yet?"

Kristina muttered a low growl of frustration. "Grrr. Will you just LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!?"

Jaymon quickly jumped away from the girl's sudden outburst. Kristina looked as if she was about to punch out the Rookie. Not that it was really her intention.

"Hey, come on, you two," came the subtle voice of their leader. Jennifer grabbed hold of Kristina and wrestled her away from the parrot Digimon.

"Ouch! Do ya mind letting go of me?" The brunette cringed.

"Oops, sorry," Jenn regretfully apologized, releasing her disgruntled friend. "Look, it's hard enough trying to dodge every flying monkey that the Digi Queen throws at us. The last thing we need right now is another fight," the fire-haired girl explained, upset with her companion’s actions.

"Well, maybe if you would take the time to think things through, rather than just blurt out every command that comes to mind . . . Maybe THEN we could easily avoid that sort of thing!" Kristina shot back.

"W-what . . . what did you say?" This was exactly the kind of comment Jenn had feared since the moment she officially donned her goggles, and she didn't know whether to feel angered or hurt. It would make sense that Kristina had snapped at Jenn, because she was tired and grouchy from all this walking, plus they were still wandering in a very hot desert.

The rest of the gathered Digi-Destined just stood there, complete silence hovering like a tangible mist. They were just as shocked and disbelieving as Jenn. This didn't sound like Kristina at all. "Kris, you don't mean that, do you?" Jenn managed to croak out, even though she could barely look up at her sea-green eyes.

Kristina frowned, realizing what she had just said, and was already beginning to regret her words. On the other hand, it was nice to get it off her chest. Much like Jenn, Kristina felt she was pretty fixated on keeping things in order, maybe more so. However, she was also more concerned about her friends' feelings, much to her dismay. This habit was bound to get the best of her, sooner or later. "Well . . . I . . . I. . . ." she began to stutter, unsure of how to answer.

Foximon decided to cut in, in an attempt to help the situation. "Jenn, you’re a great leader!" she graciously protested.

Nonetheless, Jenn knew what was said and it didn't change how she was feeling. A few more seconds went by and nothing had been said. The deathly silence was weighing heavily on the gathered children and Digimon.

Suddenly a devilish grin crossed Jenn's face. "So, you think you can do any better?" Jenn replied, slipping off her precious goggles and holding them towards the other girl.

"Jenn, no . . . that's not what I-" Kristina’s stuttering was cut off.

Jenn’s face was alight with mischief. "No, come on. Let’s make a little bet. If you can handle the responsibility and survive a day looking out for the wellbeing of this little group-plus the fate of the entire digital world-for ONE full day . . . then I will gladly step down and let you carry out the commands for the rest of this trip."

Kristina thought for a moment. She didn't mean to drive Jenn to this decision. Then again, this could definitely serve as a good learning experience. The idea was enticing, and her sea-green eyes smiled at the thought of helping out the group.

"Okay, you’re on!" Kristina agreed, and the two girls made it official with a standard handshake. "But you can keep the goggles," she chuckled and waved the goggles back with her hand, causing her cinnamon locks to sway with the movement.

Jenn smiled her familiar smile, and stuffed the infamous goggles in her pocket for safekeeping.

"I hope you know what you’re doing," Lexxy whispered, her tone warning.

Jenn tossed her long red ponytail aside, letting it cascade down her back. She laughed, a clear tone laced with confidence., "Of course I know what I'm doing."

"Yeah, that's what I was afraid of." Lexxy groaned and rolled her eyes, seeing Jenn was obviously being her cocky self. But since there was no use wasting more time arguing about the situation, she turned her attention to Kristina and Jaymon.

The little bird was flapping all around her partner in sheer enthusiasm. "So now what do we do, Oh Fearless Leader!?" she giggled, playfully teasing the cinnamon-haired girl.

"Um, well. . . . What does the map say, Lexxy?"

Lexxy pulled the folded-up piece of paper out of her back pocket and studied it carefully. "This way," she pointed outward. "The desert ends, just past these sand dunes. After that, there should be a clearing, followed by a family of palm trees, which should-

Hopefully-lead us back to the forest where we all met," she ended with a triumphant grin, her green eyes shimmering with pride.

"Okay then, let’s go!" Kristina ordered.

* * *

It took several hours, but the gang finally made it to the end of the desert.

Everyone was very glad for it. The heat plus the lack of shade or moisture wasn't bad enough to be life threatening; but it did make everyone uncomfortable. Soon the sand underfoot (or claw, etc.) became firmer, and thin shoots of grass poked up. It became thicker and thicker as they walked, and an excited cheer broke out as the palm trees Lexxy spoke about earlier were spotted in the distance.

"About time!" Pandamon grinned as they entered the woods. He was happier among the trees. The panda-Digimon noticed Dani was looking around skittishly, so he asked if anything was wrong.

"I'm hungry," the blonde girl said. "Isn't it time for lunch?"

"Passed time!" agreed Nerimon, "I'm hungry too!" the red dinosaur called. His partner, Alex, and some of the others nodded their agreement.

"It might not be that easy," Lexxy cautioned. "People are always finding food in the woods on TV and stuff, but that doesn't mean we're guaranteed to find some here. It's harder than it looks."

Dani growled. "Why are you always doing that!?" she snapped at Lexxy. "You're always talking like you know everything, and you don't. You just like sounding smart." The blonde girl was getting a bit uneasy with how long she had been without food. To the others it just meant a stomachache. For her it could be life threatening if it went on too long.

"I'm just saying it so you don't get your hopes up," Lexxy explained with a heated voice. She was tired of Dani jumping on everything she said, even if she WAS sick. That wasn’t always a good excuse.

"Yeah? Well did you ever think we are in a TV show, so we should be able to find food perfectly well?" The girl retorted, her blue eyes narrowed in genuine anger.

"Oh, I suppose that means we can all stop worrying about being hurt, because we're obviously invincible here?" Sarcasm dripped from Lexxy’s words, infuriating the blonde girl even more.

Cunomon and Pandamon shared an uneasy look, wondering if they should say something. But before they could, Kristina and Jaymon pushed their way into the argument. "Stop that, you two!" Kristina ordered loudly, "This is no time to argue!"

"Yeah, there's plenty of time for that later!" Erica joked.

Tania, who was standing right next to Erica at that moment, glared at the blonde in annoyance. “Ha! That was so funny I forgot to laugh!" she retorted.

"Yeah, it was, wasn't it?" Erica taunted, while crossing her arms and turning her back to the other girl. Tania furiously grabbed the bill of her yellow baseball cap, which had been shading her eyes from the sun, and pulled it backwards as she muttered a curse under her breath.

"What are you two arguing about?" Kristina questioned the two other girls bitterly.

Two by two, the group fell into what seemed like an endless series of pointless arguing and bickering. And in an attempt to put out this fire, Kristina could only find herself trapped within the flames.

This is just stupid! she thought. We're suppose to be a team. She felt a single tear slowly trickle down her cheek as she suddenly remembered Jenn's words from earlier.

*Flashback*

"You think you can do any better . . . You think you can survive one day, looking out for our wellbeing?”

*End Flashback*

"I . . . I can't. . . ."

Another familiar image comes to mind.

*Flashback*

"I let everyone down! I should have never opened that stupid box. . . ."

*End flashback*

"No! I let everyone down . . . this group will be torn apart . . . and it's all my fault." Her voice shook. "I-I can't . . . I can't take this anymore!" she cried, and took off into the woods.

"Kristina!" Jaymon, who was the only one to notice Kristina's outburst, called after her. The parrot frantically pursued her partner through the thick brush. Fortunately, she didn't go that far. The young brunette was found siting, leaning against a tree, her head rested on her knees and arms covering her face.

"Kristina? Are you okay?" Jaymon landed and walked towards the girl. "Come on Kris, we better go back to the others. It's not safe to be in these woods alone."

Kristina looked up at her friend as she wiped furiously at her tears. "I can't," she sniffed.

"Why not?"

"I just thought I could make a difference, ya know? I admit, that I can be a bit of a control freak at times. . . ."

"Well, you were a little bossy back there," Jaymon giggled, resting a wing on her friend's folded arms. "Don't worry, I know your heart was in the right place."

"I really tried, Jay. But I wish that I never made that stupid bet. I wish that everything was back to normal!" She began to cry even harder. "They were all counting on me to get them through this." A lot of this was starting to sound very familiar to her. Perhaps this turned out to be a good learning experience after all. Suddenly her tears slowly faded into a small laugh as the realization hit her. "Jenn, heh! She knew, all along. . . ."

"Knew what?" came a familiar voice. Jenn emerged from the bushes along with Foximon, who ran up to the other two partners and playfully pounced on Jaymon.

Kristina's surprised expression faded into a smile. "This was never about some silly bet, was it?"

"What makes you say that?" Jenn replied with another mischievous smirk.

"I know you were only trying to teach me a lesson. I had no idea how stressful this job was. I mean how can you handle all this yourself, not to mention every one of us?"

"You just have to take it one day at a time." The redhead kneeled down next to Kristina and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't get me wrong, I think you would have made a great leader! I mean, you’re organized, you’re probably one of the most mature people in this group-"

"-And your a natural at bossing people around!" Foximon joked.

Jaymon rolled around on the ground, laughing her little tail feathers off. Foximon laughed with her. Kristina and Jenn were silent for a few seconds, but then they couldn't help but join in. If you've ever heard the expression “laughter is contagious,” well it really is. This went on for about a minute and a half.

Kristina struggled to speak through fits of laughter. "So, what are we laughing about, again?"

"I seriously can't remember," Jenn responded, as she tried to catch her breath. They finally stopped and took deep breaths.

"Well, I feel better." Kristina smiled. "I'm sorry I got all bossy like that. Next time I'll remember to keep my opinions to myself."

"Hey, we're a team, remember? I'm always open to opinions and suggestions. I may be ‘destined’ for this job, but that doesn't exactly mean I know what I'm doing." Jenn winked.

"Ha! I'll remember that!" Kristina looked at Jenn and smiled. "Thanks."

Jaymon crawled into Kistina's lap and gave her the biggest hug. "I'm so glad that you’re okay now.”

"Me too, Jay." Kristina hoisted Jaymon on her shoulders as she got back on her feet.

Jenn smiled, so relieved that everything was okay now between her and one of her closest friends. “We should probably get back to the others,” she pointed out. “It’s never a good idea to get separated for very long in this place.” She waved to Foximon, who was investigating a beetle crawling through the brush, and the fox Digimon came bounding over with a wag of her tail.

Kristina nodded agreement, Jaymon bouncing against the back of her head. “We’ll really have to watch that,” she said. “You know how often it happens on the show.”

“Yeah,” chuckled the redhead. “I think it’s ‘cause it’s so hard to draw all fourteen characters on the screen at once.”

“Good point.”

Foximon shared a “here we go again” look with Jaymon. “Not another conversation about the infamous show,” the parrot groaned.

Both girls laughed. “Sorry, guys. We’ll try to keep a lid on it,” Kristina promised, knowing it made the Digimon uncomfortable.

“That’ll be a first-” Foximon was about to go into a long rant, but suddenly she stopped and her floppy ears stood upright on her head.

“What’s wrong, Foxi?” Jenn asked, instantly looking around. She trusted her Digimon’s instincts implicitly.

“I hear something. It’s coming this way and it’s big-look out!” She dove at Jenn’s legs, knocking her to the ground. As the redhead hit, the goggles flew from her pocket and landed in the dust several feet away. At the same time Jaymon flapped her wings. She was still on Kristina’s shoulders, and the force dragged them both back several feet. It was a good thing both Digimon had such good reflexes, because a split-second later a twittering bomb in the shape of a bird impacted in the space they had just been standing in.

“Ow. I know that sound,” Kristina mumbled, rubbing her shoulders where Jaymon had pulled at them. On the ground Jenn got to her knees and scrambled after her fallen goggles, hand closing around them just as Foximon yelled out.

“Kiwimon!” the fox Digimon howled angrily. “Hurricane Blaster!”

Jaymon leapt forward, putting herself between the ugly brown bird and her friends. “Tanoblo!”

The ancient bird Digimon just laughed as the wind attacks hit him. He was obviously a pretty powerful Champion. “You’ll have to do better than that!” he grinned. “My mistress chose me for speed and strength. I will be a match for even all of you, and you are . . . so alone.” The Digimon’s pointed beak twisted into a cruel smile as he advanced on Jenn, Kristina, and the Rookies.

“DON’T COUNT ON IT!” A furious voice broke into the scene. From the trees ran the other Digi-Destined and their Digimon, Skye and Magimon in the lead.

“Lightning Shocker!” cried the cat Digimon. But Kiwimon jumped to the side, evading the yellow electricity. He only snickered as the rest of the Rookies fanned out, making a circle around the evil Champion. They all attacked at once, but Kiwimon just leaped straight up in the air. He landed on the branch of a tree, sneering down at them all.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” he sneered. “And I’m afraid you won’t get a chance. Pummel Peck!”

It was the Digi-Destined Digimons’ turn to dodge and leap around, trying to avoid the bird bombs that rained down. One by one the squeaking little birds hit the Digimon below, knocking them off their feet. The last was Jaymon. She stood in the middle of the group of groaning, injured Digimon with a fierce look on her face. “I’m not afraid of you! Tanoblo!”

Kiwimon just laughed and jumped again, sailing right over the blue tornado of wind and landing-right on top of Jaymon! He pinned her to the ground with one big-clawed foot. “Time to clip those wings!” he whispered evilly in her face. He opened his beak to shoot a Pummel Peck at point blank range.

“JAYMON!” The Digi-Destined had stayed away from the battle, afraid to get hit by all the flying attacks. But when Kiwimon caught Jaymon, Kristina tried to run forward. This was all her fault! She was the one who separated them and led Jenn out into the woods. And poor Jaymon. She’d been doing nothing but yelling at her lately. Kristina had created Jaymon from her mind, and she knew how much yelling at the cheerful bird would hurt her. But she had done it anyway, and now she might never get to apologize!

Jennifer and Emily had been trying to hold Kristina back, but suddenly she broke away from both of them and ran straight at Kiwimon and his prey, screaming! The evil bird’s head whipped in her direction in surprise, the attack that was supposed to be for Jaymon flying straight to the human girl!

“Kristina! No!” Jaymon cried out in pain, as the attack hit her. "Jaymon!!!" Kristina gasped. Two brilliant lights shot out into the scene, one from the digi-vice at Kristina’s waist and one from her best friend. Kiwimon fell back at the bright light. “Jaymon digi-volve to. . . .!”

The little reddish and yellow parrot grew in size, becoming even bigger than Kiwimon. Her feathers turned bright yellow and sky blue. The Champion screeched, “Skylamon!” When the transformation was over, the champion then turned to Kiwimon with fire in her teal-colored eyes. “Now you will know what it’s like to have your wings clipped,” she growled.

“Um . . . I think I must be going now. . . .” Kiwimon edged backward, looking around for an escape.

“Sord Twister!” Skylamon shouted, her wings creating a whirlwind of colorful feathers. Kiwimon jumped to one side, but Nerimon was standing there and knocked him back with a swipe of his claws. The bird turned in another direction, but Pandamon kicked him back toward the attack. In a last resort Kiwimon leaped upward, but Diratimon was flying there and again he was knocked back. There was nowhere to run. The whirlwind caught the ugly bird and twisted him around and around. When the wind of feathers died down, Kiwimon was gone.

“Oh, Skylamon!” Kristina sobbed, throwing her arms around the Champion’s neck. “I’m so, so, so sorry for ever yelling at you! Please forgive me!”

The bird nuzzled the top of the girl’s head. “What are friends for?” said Skylamon with a grin. In a moment Kristina was hugging her little parrot friend Jaymon, instead of the great Skylamon.

With her Digimon in her arms, Kristina turned to the others. “I’m sorry to all of you,” she said sincerely. “I thought I could do this because I wanted to be the best for the job. I forgot being a leader means thinking about others before yourself. I’m sorry, Jenn.”

“It’s not a problem,” Jenn said, and the others echoed her words. “And hey, at least now we got to see Jaymon’s Champion form!”

The parrot Digimon grinned. “I only have one thing to add to that!” she said. When everyone looked at her expectantly, she giggled. “When do we eat?”

~~~ Kristina’s P.O.V. ~~~

I’ve been such an idiot. How could I put everyone in danger like that? All because I thought I could be a better leader than Jenn. *Sigh* Well, I guess whoever picked us really knew what they were doing. And I also guess that old saying is true. Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it. I’m glad it all turned out okay. With Skylamon I think we can handle anything!