Episode 21: Jijimon Explains It All (Part 2)

Evander, Jessica, Mario, Flora, Zai, their Digimon, and their new friend Tameron walked back to Jijimon's house. It was a short walk as the portal they had gone through was at the edge of File City. Tameron looked back and forth, up and down with his hand on his brow acting like a visor. "Where's my Digimon? All you guys got Digimon. I have a digivice, where's my Digimon? Didn't you say I would get a Digimon partner?" Tameron asked. Evander sighed. "Be patient. You'll find him or her soon enough." Evander said in an irritated tone. Zai sighed. "You telling people to be patient, Evander? That's like the pot calling the kettle black." Zai said in a monotonous tone of voice.

Syn looked up at Zai and then scurried onto Zai's shoulder so she could look back at Tameron. "Maybe! Maybe! I know! Ooh! Maybe your partner Digimon will be a monkey! Like that Etemon! Hey, go get him!" Syn said. Tameron's eyes widened. "Wait, Etemon? You think he could have been my partner without me even realizing it?" Tameron said, now slightly worried. The Digidestined and the now-freed-from-the-red-mark Etemon had parted ways about 10 minutes ago. Etemon had thanked them for freeing him from The Digimon Ruler's control and then he took off swinging from tree to tree in the Native Forest. He was going back to a large tree he lived in as a house, south of Native Forest and north of Coela beach.

"I don't think you need to worry, Tameron. I mean, most of our Digimon knew who we were before we even got here with a couple of exceptions. I think whoever chooses us informs the Digimon that they have digidestined partners." Jessica said.

Augie nodded. "Yep. In Terriermon's case and mine, Jijimon told us about you. And he told us to meet up with you at Coela Beach." Augie said. Evander leaned over Augie's head and grinned while winking. "And he and Ladybugmon showed up, but you were late." Evander said. Augie smiled and sweatdropped. "Haha. Sorry. I slept late that day." Augie said, scratching his nose with one of his white claws.

They finally arrived at Jijimon's house. Flora reached up and knocked on the door. "Jijimon! We're back!" Flora said. A few moments passed, and Jijimon opened the door. "Oh, hello there! Good to have you back. I see you've found Evander and you picked up an extra 'souvenir' along the way." Jijimon said. When he said "souvenir" he was looking a Tameron. Evander frowned. "I'm sorry I ran off. I promise I won't do it anymore. No matter how bored or impatient I get, I will stay put!" Evander said. Jijimon scratched his scraggly white beard. "Really?" He asked, sounding a bit skeptical. Evander put his arms to his side and bowed. "Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye!" Evander said. Jijimon continued scratching his beard. "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that. That sounds quite painful." He said with a chuckle. Jijmon then opened the door wider and gestured with his hand for the Digidestined and Digimon partners to come in. "Come inside, sit down, make yourselves comfy. We've got a lot to talk about." Jijimon said.

So the Digidestined did so. Jijimon motioned over to a rug and a statue. "Come stand on this rug. This will take us to the base." Jijimon said. Evander and Jessica walked over to the rug with their Digimon. Tameron did so too. Evander grinned and clinched his fists. "This is going to be so much fun?" Evander said. Tameron looked back at Evander and raised an eyebrow. "What is?" Tameron asked. However, as soon as Tameron asked the question, Jijimon moved the head of the statue and the floor opened up underneath them. Evander, Jessica, and the Digimon all slid down a chute, squealing, hollering, some laughing out of fun. Evander, Jessica, Agumon, Terriermon, Ladybugmon, Leormon, Gabumon, PawnChessmon, and Tameron all landed on a piece of foam at the base of the chute. Tameron got up and straightened out his shirt. "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that!" Tameron exclaimed. "But then again….I wasn't expecting to get brought to another world today either."

Tameron turned to see Mario, Flora, Zai, and their Digimon already standing in the base with their Digimon and Jijimon. "How'd you get here so fast?" Tameron asked.

"We took the stairs." They all responded in unison.

Jijimon's base looked like a homey library. The room was circular and there were bookselves circling all around the room. There were a couple of recliners in the middle of the room as well as a couch and a coffee table. Off to the south end of the room was a door which lead to the training facility where Yukio had trained Mario, Flora, Evander, Jessica, and their Digimon partners in races that involved grabbing different colored marbles. That room was about the size of a bowling alley. And it was a weird room where different appliances could appear out of thin air whenever it was needed. As if by magic.

Tameron grimaced and sweat dropped. "You mean, we didn't have to fall down the chute like a load of laundry?" Tameron asked. Jijimon chuckled a little. "I thought it would be fun for you kiddies. Evander and Jessica seem to have liked it." Jijimon said. Evander and Jessica stood up and threw their arms in the air with big smiles on their faces. "Again! Again!" They cheered. Their Digimon also threw their arms in the air with big smiles on their faces. "Again! Again!" The partner Digimon all said in unison. Jijimon chuckled. Jijimon went to the south end of the room and opened the door, going into the much larger room that Yukio had used to train the Digidestined a week ago. Jijimon walked over to the kitchen area and opened a drawer near the sink. He rested his staff up against the counter, bent down, and took a couple of oven mits out of the drawer. Then he walked over to an oven and opened the door. He took a batch of muffins out of the oven and set them on top of the stove. He took out a second tray and put it on the stove as well. Then he turned the oven off. He sniffed the air as the scent of the freshly baked muffins went into nostrils. "Ah, yes. Jijimon's special muffins. And enough for everybody." Jijimon said. Jijimon put the muffins on a plate and then turned around and walked into the small library room where the Digidestined were. "Anyone care for a muffin? Everyone can have about two muffins each by my counting." Jijimon said. He set the big plate of muffins on the coffee table.

Every Digidestined and Digimon grabbed a muffin and began chowing down on it. "Delissh!" Evander said cheerfully. "It tastes like hopes and dreams!" Ladybugmon said cheerfully. "If hopes and dreams taste like muffins, then I agree!" Augie the Agumon said cheerfully. "Yummy nummy in my tummy! It'll digest and come out the bummy!" Syn the BlackGatomon said. Zai nibbled on her muffin. A slight smile came across her face. "Hnn….it's not bad." Zai said in a monotonous tone.

On the west side of the room, scratching could be heard on the door. Jijimon opened the door to reveal Dobermon on the other side. "How embarrassing. Having to scratch on the door like a dog." Dobermon said before realizing that he is a dog, or a dog Digimon anyway. Jijimon chuckled. "My apologies, my friend. Perhaps I'll install a doggie door when I get the time." Jijimon said. Jijimon went over to his recliner and sat down. On Dobermon's back was a green, scaly reptillian monster. It looked like a tiny version of the Lochness monster. When this little reptile saw Tameron, it's eyes lit up! It jumped off of Dobermon's back and used its fins to hop over to him. "Tameron! Tameron! You're here! You're here!" It said cheerfully. Tameron bent over and said, "Are you my partner Digimon?" The little reptillian Digimon nodded while smiling. "I'm Meldmon!" He said.

Tameron picked Meldmon up and then went back to his seat. Jijimon began; "Now that everyone's here, it's time for us to begin. Tameron, you're new here so let me bring you up to speed. I'm guessing you already know the concept of Digimon and the Digidestined, correct?" Tameron nodded. "Children from all over the world are being paired up with Digimon partners and are being brought to this world to help fight something evil, right?" Tameron said. Jijimon nodded. "Correct. Well…mostly. There are Digidesined being brought from all over the universe. From different planets in your world such as Aqualia, Felinia, and Devilis. The girls here, Jessica, Flora, and Zai are from these planets respectively." Jijimon explained. Tameron's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Whooooa! No waaaaay! You mean, like, alien chicks!?" He said, taking on a Californian surfer accent for some reason.

"Precisely, although to them, you'd be an alien." Jijimon said.

"I'm Jessica and I'm from a planet called Aqualia, where amphibious beings called merpeople live. There are mermaids and mermen. We have the ability to go from having mermaid tails to legs and vice versa at will. The planet is mostly covered in water, but it does have some landmasses."

"And I'm Flora. Felinia is my home planet. It's a planet that has roughly the same land-to-sea ratio as Earth, except that most of the land consists of forests. There are few other kinds of land such as jungles as desserts. They do exist on Felinia, but they're practically non-existent. The people there consist of humanoid feline creatures with mostly beastly features. These are called Felinicuses. There are those who mated with humans and gave birth to hybrid offspring called Demi-Felinicuses. I'm of the latter. As you can see, we Demi-Felinciuses look mostly human, except for the cat ears and cat tails…and claws."

"Devillis is a hot planet. The people there suck. The surface is mostly molten lava. Lots of things are on fire. We have a bad reputation throughout the galaxy." Zai said. "Oh, and…I'm Zai." She spoke in a very monotonous tone.

Tameron got up and ran over to Flora. He began rubbing his hands over her ears. "Oh! You mean these are real!? I thought it was a costume accessory!" Tameron said. Flora scowled and grit her teeth. With an open palm, she pushed Tameron over. "Hey! Don't touch the ears!" Flora scolded. Tameron fell straight on his back! He head came within mere centimeters of hitting the coffee table. Everyone stopped muching on their muffins momentarily as - for just a second - they feared the worst….for the coffee table with the rest of the muffins. Once they saw that the muffins were safe, everyone went back to eating.

Jijimon then cleared his throat. "Anyway, since you're up to speed on that. Let's talk about the threat. The Three Great Angels; Seraphimon, Ophanimon, and Cherubimon have contacted me. They and their team of Angemon have been patrolling the Digital World, searching for any clues as to who our enemy might be. What they have found coincides with what Syn has seen in her visions. There is a human here; a very evil human. A blonde haired girl who calls herself The Digimon Ruler."

"The Digimon Ruler is a girl?" Mario repeated.

"Yes. Anyway, she has been seen throwing red, glowing stones at Digimon. When the stones make contact with the Digimon, the Digimon writhes in pain before going into what looks like a trance. Then she commands the Digimon to do her bidding, and it does. She calls herself The Digimon Ruler and gets mad if anyone doesn't address her as such. We don't know what these red stones are or how this child came upon them, but we do know the following; (1) the red stones create red marks and allow The Digimon Ruler complete control over the Digimon with said marks. (2) The red marks increase the Digimon's fighting abilities by leaps and bounds. This was confirmed in the Angemons reports and independently corroborated by Jessica earlier when she said that the Shellmon that attacked her made a Slamming Attack as devastating as a 'meteor of epic proportions', as well as the Dyno Blast and Fire Ball created by Allomon and Tyrannomon respectively. And of course, there's Dobermon with his incredible speed and his ability to create after images of himself. (3) Attacking the red marks make the Digimon even stronger, but if you attack them enough, the red marks will vanish altogether." Jijimon explained.

Evander had finished one muffin, and had reached out to grab a second one. Before he took a bite out of it, he looked over to Jijimon and asked, "Do you know the identity of The Digimon Ruler?" Jijimon shook his head. "Unfortunately, none of her subjects - that's what she calls the Digimon she's red marked - has ever addressed her by her true name. They call her 'Your Majesty' or 'Your Highness' or 'my queen' or just 'The Digimon Ruler', but never by her given name. She could be a Mary, Susan, Jenny, or Jane for all we know." Jijimon replied.

Mario frowned. "Darn. Knowing her name would be really helpful." Mario said. Guilmon looked over to Mario and titled his head. "Eh? How so?" Guilmon asked. Guilmon then ate his second muffin whole. He had a big dinosaur mouth, so an entire muffin was bite sized to him. "Well, if we could go back to the human world, we could do a web search for her name. See if anyone with that name has gone missing. Maybe we could track her parents down and question her. You know, find out a motive, why she's doing this, and maybe even where we might find her." Mario replied. Guilmon smiled and giggled. "You're so smart, Mario!" Guilmon said. Mario's Agumon looked over at his Guilmon with a strange look. "You're a fart, Mario?" Mario's Agumon said, repeating what he thought he heard Guilmon say. Guilmon looked confused. "No, I said he's smart! Not a fart!" Tameron back and forth rapidly. "SOMEONE FARTED?!" He yelled.

Zai munched on her muffin. She swallowed the last bite and then sighed. "No. No one farted, Tameron." Zai said. Syn began bouncing in Zai's lap. "Fart! Fart! Fartity fart fart! Farts and sharts and auto parts! If I had a paintbrush, I'd make some art!" Syn said, beginning to make a little rhyme. Syn then looked down and frowned. "Heeeeeeey! Who ate my cupcake?" She whined. Zai sighed. "You already ate it. Don't you remember?" Zai said in a monotonous tone of voice. Syn smiled with her eyes closed. "Oh yeah!" She said in a cheerful tone of voice.

Evander, and pretty much everyone, seemed to be done with their muffins at this point. Evander scowled and punched his left palm with his right hand. "That Digimon Ruler. When I get my hands on her, I'll beat the tar out of her! Making slaves out of innocent Digimon." Evander said in an angry tone of voice. "You think you can beat her up all on your own?" Ladybugmon asked. Evander put his thumb to his chest as he looked down at the little ladybug Digimon. "Of course I can! She's human just like me! She's not a powerful Digimon like Devimon or Shellmon. I'll leave fighting whatever red marked Digimon she sends at us to you guys. I'll go mono e mono with The Digimon Ruler." Evander replied.

Flora sighed. "You need to think, Evander. What if she's not human, but only looks human. Or have you forgotten about Jessica?" Flora asked.

Evander looked in her direction and scowled. "I don't care what she is. I'll still pummel her into the dirt!" Evander said holding up his fists.

Jijimon cleared his throat to get the childrens' attention. "She's definitely human. During one of her rounds, red marking Digimon, Dobermon was able to sever a few strands of her hair. We ran a DNA test and she's definitely from the planet Earth." Jijimon said.

"To get that hair sample was how I came into contact with her." Dobermon began, "And…how I ended up getting red marked."

Evander gave a smirk. "Then she's ripe for the pounding. He'll beat her up, beat her down, and beat her all around." Evander said.

Dobermon let out a quick barking sound in Evander's direction. Evander looked startled at the sudden outburst. "Don't get so cocky, boy! The Digimon Ruler is a serious threat! She may be human, but she has powerful Digimon surrounding herself." Dobermon said. "And we'll beat those Digimon with our Digimon partners! Then I'll beat the stuffing out of her!" Evander rebutted. "Not only that, but she is incredibly cruel. I've spied on her for the last several days. She has whipped and beaten Digimon slaves of hers who have been digging in the mines on Mount Infinity, harvesting rocks for her. She works them until they drop, and when they've collapsed from exhaustion, she hits them several times with a whip. If they don't respond by getting up and going back to mining, she commands other red marked slaves to delete them! She has no heart!" Dobermon rebutted. Evander growled. He felt a rage swelling up inside of him. Now he wanted to find this Digimon Ruler and pummel her into the ground even more than he did before.

Jijimon nodded. "I'm sad to say it, but Dobermon is right. This girl is evil. Regen, Kari, and Brian have contacted me and also told me of the way she treats her red marked slaves. Like Dobermon said, she works them to exhaustion harvesting…what seem to be ordinary rocks…and when they finally reach the point where they can do no more, she orders other red marked Digimon to destroy them." Jijimon said.

"What would a human even be doing here in the Digital World anyway? She must be a Digidestined, right?" Augie asked.

"Yeah, does she have a Digivice and a Digimon partner?" Terriermon asked.

"The Angemon spies have seen The Digimon Ruler with a brown colored Digivice. The same ones you all have, but it's unclear as to her her partner is. The Digimon Ruler is never seen with a Digimon accompanying her." Jijimon said.

Flora's eyebrows furrowed. This was curious. No Digimon partner, but she has a digivice? Flora's Palmon raised one of her arms. "Maybe The Digimon Ruler told her partner to not be seen with her in public. Maybe she knows she's being watched." Palmon said. Flora's Gatomon had a look of realization come across her face. "Oh yeah! Maybe so! It could be that maybe she wants her partner to come in close at some point and if we don't know what kind of Digimon it is, we won't know to put our guard up." Flora's Gatomon said. Palmon looked at Gatomon and nodded. "Yep."

Jijimon nodded. "Well, if she has a digivice and she's here in the Digital World, she must be a digidestined. Although, ironically, she's actually a threat rather than a help."

"Jijimon, are you the one who chose us?" Evander asked.

"Was not I, but a powerful digital being." Jijimon replied.

"Did he or she not know that The Digimon Ruler was….well….evil?" Gabumon asked.

Jijimon shook his head. "They who choose the Digidestined usually choose well. They chose a Digidestined team a long time ago who preceded you, a team that preceded even Regen's team. Though evidently, Regen comes from an entirely different Earth than you do, the Digital World he and Kari came to 4 years ago was this one. This girl must have been pure of heart when she was chosen and only later went down the path of darkness. That's my hypothesis, anyway." Jijimon said.

Mario and Flora both had a look of realization come across their faces. "Hey, speaking of Regen, whatever happened to him?" Mario asked. "Yeah, where did those older kids run off to?" Flora asked.

"They went off in search of Ragnarok. He's probably the ultimate threat that you kids and The Digimon Ruler were all summoned to take on together. Or maybe…" Jijimon said, thinking of another possibility.

Mount Infinity….

The Digimon Ruler stood whipping a bunch of Gotstumon, all with red marks on them. "Faster! Faster! You're burning daylight! I need about 300 stones to convert into red stones by tomorrow morning! Work faster, you good-for-nothing Gotsumon!" The Digimon Ruler said as she continued whipping them. One of the Gotsumon fell over onto his back. He struggled to get up, but he was pushed to his limit. The Digimon Ruler scoffed. She put her whip to her side and turned around. She looked over to the other Gotsumon and said, "This one is no longer of any use to me. Dispose of him." The Gotsumon did as she said. They all turned around and faced the Gotsumon that fell over. "Rock Fist! Rock Fist! Rock Fist!" The multiple Gotsumon shouted as they repeatedly fired large rocks out of their heads over and over at their fallen friend. After several blows, the fallen Gotsumon disippated into digital particles before forming back into a DigiEgg.