A chill ran up Daisuke's spine.

He searched, but his surroundings hadn't changed. The seaweed still swayed peacefully on the wall where he hadn't pulled them, and the bag of it strapped to his hip was undisturbed. He unclipped his D3 from his goggles, but it was quiet. Nothing had changed. He had never grown out of the straight-forward approach—the one that had landed him in Sootopolis in the first place—but every now and again his sense of danger imposed caution on him. With a few deft kicks, he surfaced. So much of the past few days had been spent in the water that he no longer gasped for breath.

As little was amiss above the water as it was below. The sky above the crater was light, but not particularly bright. It was cloudy, but even on a clear day, the sun would not have peeked into the crater just yet. Kiri was enjoying a late morning swim, as were several elderly types who swore by the frigid routine as the source of their good health. The trainee divers were exercising, and the veterans were already far below the water, conducting their business as expected. Nothing was out of place, but Daisuke was not alone in his anxiety.

V-mon was staring in Daisuke's general direction, his broom idling in one hand.

Daisuke waved, and V-mon returned the gesture. Apparently satisfied, the digimon got back to work.

"Maybe there's a storm coming" Daisuke sighed.

After a deep breath, he re-submerged. He continued to pull the fully grown seaweed, but he still felt uneasy. Something wasn't right. The currents were off somehow. He looked below, and after a moment, it came to him.

The sea below him was empty. The thriving schools of magikarp and goldeen, and the idling tentacool were entirely absent.

The hell...?

Something glinted far below him, and shortly after, the floor of the crater lit extravagantly. Chinchou and lanturn raced for the surface with the divers in tow. The meager light of the sky filtering below the water was entirely dispersed as they raced beyond Daisuke and broke the surface, churning it to froth. He could hear the divers shouting, and saw their legs flailing for the shores. He looked back down. The initial glitter hadn't disappeared. In fact, it had doubled, and a current began to tug Daisuke away from the gripped at the seaweed, but it wasn't enough. With the currents all flowing in one direction, they failed to entangle him as they usually would. Because he had pulled them from above, there was nothing for him to use to pull himself to the surface. He held onto his breath as best as he could while being sucked toward an increasingly visible funnel. His heart all but froze in his chest. A whirlpool. If he got sucked in, he would certainly die.

The seaweed in his hands detached from the wall, and he was swept into the currents, toward through growing vortex. Without warning, the water changed direction. The vortex collapsed in on itself, and the next thing he knew he was blinded by bubbles sliding against his goggles. Something rushed by him on his way to the surface, slapping him around with rough, cartilaginous fins. The current created by it's passing hit him like a cannonball. The force crushed the air from his lungs and propelled him up; up so far he couldn't possibly still be under water.

Water began flowing against him, parting enough for him to gasp in air, but not enough that he didn't inhale enough for a coughing fit. He squinted, and realized he was cold. The water had receded and he was dangerously high in the open air in the center of the crater.

Gyaaaaoooooor!

Writhing above him, twisting to prepare for its dive was a long, blue monstrosity with scales so large he could only think of them as plates. The open-mouthed snarl it wore rivaled the malicious, skeletal grin he had only ever seen once, on SkullGreymon, and raised goosebumps all over his body.

Gyarados...!

And yet, there was something more horrific than the monster sea dragon in front of him. On the other side of it, the small frame of a girl was reaching the peak of its ascension—a dainty chinchou-blue bathing suit and a mop of dark, wet hair seemingly floating in midair.

Daisuke felt his own body falling prey to gravity. He grabbed for his D3, and looked down at the pokémon center.

"V-MON!"

A glitter lit the shoreline. Gyarados' tail slapped Daisuke aside just as carelessly as before, and he spun in the air before thudding against ExVeemon's back.

"Are you ok, Daisuke?"

"Yeah..." Daisuke groaned. "Kiri! Where's Kiri?!"

"I've got her." ExVeemon darted down to the pokémon center, where he made a soft landing and laid Kiri's body gently onto the grass. Gyarados hit the water, and didn't resurface.

Daisuke hopped down, and leaned his head close to her mouth.

"Daisuke!" The head diver bellowed. "Daisuke! Is Kiri alright?"

He sat up. "Yeah, she's breathing."

The man sighed heavily, and knelt down to gently smack at Kiri's cheeks. She grunted, and stubbornly rolled over, coughing up small drops of water. "Good thing your pokémon evolved when it did. It saved both your lives."

Daisuke smiled nervously. "Yeah... What happened down there anyway? Did you guys accidentally stir that thing up?"

"Of course not!" He looked out at the water. "We don't know. It just went crazy."

A fireball shot out of the water, and collided with ExVeemon before he could think to dodge. It pushed him back, but he was able to shake it off without much effort.

Gyarados was a different matter altogether. It slithered onto the land and battered at Exveemon with every part of its body until the beleaguered digimon was backed against the wall of the caldera.

"Daisuke!" He shouted. "Get Kiri away from here!"

The divers all responded the same way. "It talks…!"

"Bigger issues right now!" Daisuke growled at them, hefting Kiri over his shoulder. "Where can we go that's safe and how do we get rid of this thing?"

The head diver remained calm. He led them away from the battle to a safe distance, and paused to survey the writhing creature. "There's nowhere to go. When gyarados get worked up like this, they don't stop until everything around them is destroyed. We have to beat it into submission, even if that means killing it. Otherwise it won't think twice of leveling Sootopolis."

"So how do we do that?"

He whistled sharply, and all the lanturn and chinchou that joined in on their dives surfaced. "These are all electric types. We're going to have to use Discharge. Everybody get inside."

Daisuke was the only one to continue standing there while the divers quickly dispersed to take shelter in whatever building was closest. "Why's everyone leaving?"

"Discharge is a wild attack," the head diver answered. "It's alright used by one or two pokémon, but if all thirty members of the diving team use it, the entire caldera is going to be a huge electrical free-for all. Once I give the order, even I'm going to wait in the pokémon center for the sparks to die down. You should make sure your partner stays out of the way." He turned to the herd of chinchou and lanturn. "Use Charge!"

Not one of them disobeyed. They spread out from one another, and their orbs all began to glow bright yellow. A spark crawled over one, then another; soon all of them were sparking dangerously.

Gyarados' assault on Exveemon halted. It could feel the air changing from the gathering up of so much electricity. It turned with a vicious roar, and its mouth began to glow a hot yellow-white.

The diver didn't miss it. He grabbed Daisuke and Kiri and drew back. "Scatter!"

The hyper beam cut between them and the startled water pokémon, splitting the lake as it went. Most of the pokémon managed to disperse, but several weren't fast enough to avoid the attack; Daisuke saw them reduced to warped, smoldering husks before his eyes.

The head diver swore under his breath. His remaining forces were still charged and ready, but he had no intention of endangering them by trying a full frontal attack again. "It's smart... Damn it!"

Daisuke studied the large, lithe man's face. It was furious, but the bobbing lump at his throat wasn't from anger. Nor was it from fear. He looked at the floating, black husks of the creatures that had been alive only seconds ago.

His mind was made up. "Exveemon!"

The bruised, but still energetic digimon thudded against the earth. "Daisuke... The diving pokémon..."

"I know, buddy. We need another electric type to act as a diversion. Can you handle that thing as Lighdramon?"

Exveemon looked at the diver and back to Daisuke. He vanished in an instant, replaced by the diminutive form of V-mon. "Ready."

Daisuke knew the head diver was staring; watching him intensely as he chose a digi-egg, and watching his partner assume an evolved form entirely different from the last one.

Lighdramon darted off, running along the sides of the caldera with sparks jumping from his horn, drawing the gyarados' attention.

"Did he just...?"

Yeah," Daisuke answered tersely. "I'll explain it later; I promise. For now, let me help you."

The head diver waited, and they watched for their chance. Lighdramon wasn't striking yet. His entire game was one of evasion. He dashed along the top of the caldera while Gyarados grew more and more enraged. Hyper beam after hyper beam flew into the air, interrupted by short periods of livid thrashing that damaged the carefully sculpted slopes and churned the lake to froth. However, Gyarados was even smarter than they assumed. Before they could make use of the pattern, it began to sway and move in strange spiraling patterns. An eerie light surrounded its body.

Daisuke squinted. "What's it doing?"

"Dragon Dance…Get your partner out of there!"

By the time Daisuke turned, the situation was beyond his control.

Gyarados no longer moved like a bulky sea creature. It ascended the slopes of the caldera with the swift, deadly menace of a viper.

Lighdramon took off, running deftly along the slim cliff edge. He had hoped navigating would slow Gyarados down, but it made up for its inability to properly balance by thrashing violently, chipping and breaking the path as it went. It didn't even seem to notice that it was hurting itself in the process.

Daisuke looked to the head diver. "Can you use Discharge now?"

He shook his head. "They're too high!"

Daisuke cupped his hands around his mouth. "Lighdramon! Try to get it to follow you down here!"

Lightdramon could scarcely hear Daisuke over the wind, but he caught the gist of the message and made a sharp turn, down along the cliff face.

Gyarados howled in rage. It was fast, but not fast enough to travel along the steep upper slopes without falling. It shot explosively forward, destroying the edge of the caldera behind it, and captured Lighdramon in its wide, snarling jaws. Unable to slow itself down, it crashed into the side of the caldera, pulverizing a part of the cliff face. Before the dust had settled, it was headed back to the highest cliffs with its prize in its mouth.

Lighdramon groaned, less impervious to the shock than the berserk sea dragon. He scrabbled his paws weakly against Gyarados' scales, trying to get a sense of his orientation. The sharp pain of fangs puncturing his sides brought his wits back to him, and he struggled in earnest.

"Lightning Horn!"

Daisuke heard Gyarados' shriek, and saw the familiar sparks crawling along a burnt patch in Gyarados' side, but he also heard his partner screaming. He grabbed the head diver's arm desperately. "He can't keep this up forever!"

"Not yet!"

"Lightning Horn!"

Gyarados' chilling scream.

Lighdramon's howl as Gyarados clenched its teeth tighter and tighter. Blood spilling down over the spikes on his back as they punctured the roof of the sea dragon's mouth.

Daisuke ran for the shore. "Lighdramon!"

Lighdramon did not even think about what had to come next. He arched his back, digging his spikes further into Gyarados' mouth, even as blue sparks crawled and crept between them. "Blue Thunder!"

Gyarados' scream ended. It swayed and lurched toward the ground in a moment of disorientation, it's insides buzzing.

Lighdramon's paws touched stone, and he pushed off as powerfully as he could, sending himself and Gyarados flying into the crater.

The head diver grabbed Daisuke and yanked him toward the cover of the pokémon center.

"Chinchou! Lanturn! Use Discharge!"

The last thing Daisuke saw was the depleted school of water pokémon turn to face their target. Even safely inside the pokémon center, the hairs on Daisuke's body stood to attention. The blue-white flash of the released charge was blinding, and the metallic scent of ozone was overpowering. Shapes danced in his eyes as the light faded.

A thunderous crash made him jump. He dashed outside.

The gym in the center of the island had been wrecked. Gyarados had landed on it, and it had caved in under the impact. If it had been alive after the discharge, the fall had killed it. Pulverized stone and splintered support beams fell across its midsection. The tail of it was lost somewhere inside the gym, but the upper portion of its head was submerged. Only the lower half of its still-snarling mouth was visible.

A deep red swirl was spreading into the clear water, dying the sand the fleshy pink of fresh meat.

Daisuke's stomach heaved, and he pitched its contents, just barely managing to avoid his bare feet. He coughed roughly, and wiped his mouth. His voice came out a raspy growl. "V-mon...!"

He dashed forward, and dived into the water. "V-mon! V-mon!"

When he ambled up onto the bank he was out of breath. His stomach churned, and he was immobilized by a fit of fruitless retching.

"Guh..." He breathed carefully, giving himself a moment to settle before continuing.

Gyarados didn't respond to his approach. The creature was frighteningly large, and Daisuke had to carefully maneuver his way up the pile of rubble and splintered beams before he could climb onto its exposed underside.

"V-mon! Answer if you can hear me!" He began to dig through the rubble. "V-MOOOON!"

"—suke..."

He turned sharply, dropping the splintered section of beam in his hand, and slid down Gyarados' side. "V-mon?"

A sputtering noise answered him, and he dashed for the bank.

Chibimon was half submerged, resting against Gyarados' tongue. Daisuke retrieved him quickly, snatching him before some stray reflex could cause any problems. To his horror, it responded by snorting. A fine mist of water sprayed into the air, and it was quiet again.

It wasn't dead.

No wonder everybody's happier not dealing with these things.

He turned his attention to his partner. "Are you alright?"

Chibimon gave a low, exhausted sigh. "I haven't felt like this since our first encounter with BlackWarGreymon."

Daisuke laughed breathlessly. "You made it then, so we should be alright this time. I promise I'll get you something good to eat for this."

Chibimon smiled weakly. "Hey... Do you think we'll be chased out again?"

"Let me worry about that. You just rest, buddy."

He said that, but he wasn't really sure what would happen when he crossed back to the other shore. All he knew was that he wouldn't let them do anything to his partner.

"Daaaisuke!"

He turned. Where was that voice coming from? He looked to the shore, suspecting it might be Kiri, but the only ones who had dared to come out yet were the divers. They were looking up at the higher slopes.

Garurumon was sliding down toward him.

"Yamato!"

Iori and Armadimon were atop the striped wolf digimon as well. Given that he had vomited so recently, seeing them made Daisuke feel amazingly light-hearted. He waited on the bank for Garurumon to cross the water and finally reunite the three of them.

"What are you doing in that swim gear?" Yamato asked, before his eyes fell to Chibimon. "What the hell happened?"

Iori was looking at the destroyed back end of the gym, and the gyarados hanging out of it. "Oh God… Is it dead?"

Daisuke shook his head. "I wish. How'd you guys find me?"

"We were actually looking for shelter. There was a little town southwest of here, but almost everyone evacuated. There's a storm rolling this way. A big one. We just happened noticed all the fireworks going on over here and saw Lighdramon."

So there IS a storm coming. Maybe that's why all the pokemon are missing. "You know how to get home? What's going on?"

Yamato sighed. "It's kind of a long story. I came from the real world to get you and Iori."

"How urgent is it that we leave?"

Yamato, Iori, Armadimon, and Garurumon all looked at him like he was crazy. "We're not going anywhere. Have you not seen what's going on out there?"

Daisuke looked down at Chibimon, who nodded in agreement. "That's just as well. There's something I need to do before we go."

The storm was as bad, if not worse, than Iori made it out to be. Dark clouds moved above at ominous speeds, promising an eventual downpour where there was currently only a violent, gusting wind. The deep, rumbling howl of it as it blew over the edges of the caldera stiffened the hairs on Daisuke's neck and sent a violent chill through him. He found himself cold despite being fully dressed and the humid, sticky warmth around him. Perhaps it was the sweat still cooling on his skin after the arduous task of digging a grave for the chinchou and lanturn that had died. It was shallow enough—the occupants would be going to a place called Mt. Pyre after the storm passed—but it had to be covered heavily enough that it wouldn't all end up washed away, and that had required moving some stones.

Or perhaps his chill came from nervousness. Chibimon and his friends were back at the center, while he was there alone with the head diver.

The man was looking at Daisuke with different eyes than before. As promised, Daisuke had revealed everything to him. About who he was. About what Chibimon was. About where he came from, and how he came to Sootopolis. He swore earnestly that his intentions were good; that he thought he was choosing the sane, safe option of waiting quietly to be found after the fiasco in Mossdeep. But it was obvious even to him that something about his partner had enraged the gyarados. V-mon had never set foot in the water to do any more than play in the shallows, but Exveemon had been its goal. Its target. Daisuke didn't know what any of it meant. Perhaps the gyarados had sensed the boy's partner was different. Perhaps their alien presence had caused the whole ordeal.

"I'm sorry," Daisuke whispered, not for the first time, his voice hanging on the thick air.

The head diver sat his hand on the stones covering the grave. "I don't think...that this was your fault. The gyarados came up on its own, for whatever reason, and your... digimon only caught its attention after the fact. You helped, and I dare say things could have gone much worse without your help." The man stood, and looked Daisuke in the eyes seriously. "Still... I think you should leave, Daisuke."

It hurt more than he expected it would, but Daisuke grit his teeth and nodded. The head diver's understanding was a huge relief, but the fact stood that something about V-mon had rubbed a monster like gyarados the wrong way. "There's three of us here now," he said lightly, trying to show he understood. "It's Sootopolis' best interest if we don't draw any more attention. We'll leave immediately."

The man raised a bushy eyebrow. Above, the roar of the wind increased enough that they both looked up. Lightning flashed brightly, darting from cloud to cloud and illuminating the sky just as a long, serpentine shape flew threw it.

Daisuke shook unconsciously. "Wh...what—?"

The head diver grabbed him by the shoulders, ushering him back toward the pokemon center. "Come on. You're a good boy, and I'm not putting you out in this weather, but keep your head down, and don't draw anymore attention!"

Daisuke realized that this man, who had remained in control of himself the face of gyarados, was terrified. Somehow, that was more chilling than the first drops of rain, whipping in unnatural directions on the wind.