The Crier Family Reunion

"Is that Keenan's home?" Falcomon asked.
"Yup." Marcus replied. "Have a look. Anything around here look familiar?"
"I really don't think he's going to remember anything." Yoshi remarked. "He hasn't been here for ten years."
"I remember my first house." Marcus added. "Every little nookie cranny of it."
"I got it memorized, all right here." He pointed to his head, causing Yoshi to sigh.
"Well, goodie for you, Marcus. Now lets go see if they're here." Yoshi retorted.
"I don't think they're home." She remarked after pressing the doorbell.
"Hey Boss, I think there's someone over there." Agumon pointed out sniffing the air. "Look!"
"Hey!" Marcus called out to his partner who had headed to the back of the house. "Wait for me!"
"Guys!" Yoshi voiced out. "Wait a minute!"
"See?" Keenan's mother cooed to her new born daughter, a bouquet of daisies in her arms. "Flowers. How about I them in a vase and make your room into a little garden? Would you like that?"
The baby gaggled when her mother picked her up.
"Hey!" Marcus called out as Keenan ran off at the tender sight.
"Keenan!" Falcomon took off after his partner.
Not caring where he ran off to, Keenan leapt out into a side road, almost crashing into his birth father. Kevin Crier was forced to pull on the brakes of his motorcycle as the boy then leapt onto a branch, Falcomon following closely behind.
"Look out!" Marcus and Agumon warned as the two rammed into the scientist.
"Hi." Marcus croaked out.
"Nice to meet ya." Agumon added.
"What are you doing?" Yoshi demanded.
"Yoshi." Lalamon called her partner's attention to the fleeing child.
"Hurry up!" Yoshi urged as she took off after Keenan.
"Wait up!" Marcus called out. "Hey!"
"Young man, are you from DATS?" Kevin asked.
"Yes I am." Marcus replied. "Who are you?"
"Kevin Crier. I'm Keenan's father." Kevin replied.
"Father?" Agumon echoed.
"That's right. Kevin nodded. "Commander Sampson called to tell me that you found Keenan. I assume that's why you're here."
"It is." Marcus admitted. "Though I got to warn ya, he's not exactly a normal kid. He was raised by Digimon in the Digital World and he kind of thinks he is one."
"That's too bad." Kevin sighed. "To be quite honest, I never thought I would see him again. Knowing that he is alive is more than enough for me. Now please, leave us alone."
"Excuse me?" Agumon blinked.
"It happened ten years ago." Kevin narrated as he brought the two to the basement where his abandoned research was. "My wife and I were studying a Digital Gate here in our home. We made a huge mistake and we were never able to reverse the damages."
----Flashback to ten years ago…
It was a stormy night as thunder crackled across the sky. The then infant Keenan was happily playing with his toy robot as his parents proceeded with their experiment. Suddenly, the Digital Gate opened without warning, drawing Keenan along with his crib into the portal.
"No!" Kevin gasped.
"Stop!" He pulled his wife back when Michelle tried to go after her son.
"Keenan! Keenan!" Michelle wept after the Gate closed.
"Keenan…" she muttered.
"NO!" she screamed.
----"It was all my fault." Kevin confessed. "I was experimenting with the Digital Gate and I lost my baby because of it. We joined the expedition, hoping we would find him. We searched and searched and one day we thought…"
----Flashback
Kevin and Michelle gasped, seeing the empty crib in the snowy forest, with Keenan's toy robot intact.
----"It was foolish hope." Kevin admitted. "All we found was his favorite toy, this little robot. We never found him. We were inconsolable, especially my wife. She got so sad that she shut herself off from everyone. She just sat on the porch and stared out of the horizon."
After grieving for so many years," he added as the trio went out to see Michelle coddling the infant girl. "The birth of our daughter is finally allowed her to heal. If she finds out that Keenan is still alive, I'm afraid it might throw her back into her sadness. I never want to see my wife have to go through that pain again."
So, please." He begged Marcus. "Just do us a favor and leave is alone."
"Dude, what is your issue?" Marcus fumed. "How could you possibly make this about you? Your kid grew up thinking he didn't have any parents, but here you are calling yourself his father!? Well it's time for you to stand up and act like it! you got to be strong for your wife and finally be a dad to Keenan. Isn't that what family's all about!?"
"It's not that easy." Kevin wept. "I just can't tell her. You have no idea how long she's blamed herself for Keenan's disappearance."
"Honey, are you home? Who are you talking to?" Michelle asked. "Who's there?"
"Nobody, dear." Kevin replied, hiding Marcus and Agumon away. "It's just me."
"My wife is happy for the first time in ten years." He told Marcus. "Doesn't that mean anything?"
"Please, I'm begging you. Leave us alone." He pleaded.
"Let's go, Boss." Agumon pacified his enraged partner.
"That's it!" Marcus fumed. "We're out!"
Kevin sighed in relief as the pair stormed off.
----In a field somewhere…
"Keenan." Falcomon found his partner in the midst of the tall grass. "She is your mother. I think we should go back there so you can meet her."
"No." Keenan replied. "Frigimon is my only mom."
"Are you sure?" Falcomon asked.
"Don't know." Keenan replied.
"You felt it too, didn't you?" Falcomon asked.
"Come on, Keenan." He chided. "It's her. Her hair and eyes are the same and did you hear the way she laughed? It reminded me of you."
"Quiet!" Keenan demanded, pouncing on his partner.
"It's true." Falcomon insisted as he was pinned under his enraged partner.
"How you forget?" Keenan spat. "Hu-mons do bad!"
----Flashback…
"Keenan… Frigimon choked in her dying breath. "I can't go any further. But you have to escape."
"Me no go." The young Keenan protested. "Me no go unless you come too."
Putting one of Frigimon's around his shoulder, Falcomon doing the same to the other, the pair tried to get Frigimon out of the burning forest, only to fall to the ground as the snowman-like Digimon was too heavy for the two of them.
"Listen to me Keenan." Frigimon told the child. "This is a dark day, I know. But no matter what happens, you must make me a promise. I don't want you to lose your kind spirit, so you must promise not to hate the humans, because you are… you are…"
Frigimon did not have a chance to finish her sentence before she turned into Digi-dust.
"Mama?" Keenan teared. "No, mama no!"
"Mama!" he screamed in anguish.
----"Hu-mon bad." Keenan hissed, grabbing a flower by its stem. "I not forgive them. They enemy."
"Keenan…" Falcomon muttered.
"Falcomon." Keenan told his partner. "Come. She not my mother. My mother gone. I make them pay for making her go away!"
"Keenan…" Falcomon mumbled as the boy took off.
----Back in the Criers household…
"My son… Kevin muttered, looking at the family picture in the basement.
Just then, lightning crackled, activating the long-forgotten Digital Gate.
"This can't be…" Kevin gasped at the opening portal.
"Kevin!" Michelle called to her husband as she ran into the basement.
"No, stay back!" Kevin told his wife.
"What is it?" Michelle asked, carrying their daughter. "Why is the Digital Gate opening up now? It's been ten years! Maybe Keenan found his way back to us!"
"No. Don't!" Kevin tried to stop his wife from approaching the portal.
"Keenan!" Michelle shouted at the opening gate.
Their relief turned into shock when Hagurumon appeared from the gate.
"Darkness Gear!" Hagurumon released his attack, sending his gears flying across the room, one of them finding its way into Keenan's toy robot and possessing it. The robot then grew in size, absorbing the mechanical wires and machinery nearby.
"Come on!" Kevin pulled his family out of the basement.
With the robot large enough, Hagurumon took control of its new puppet.
As the couple tried to escape from the possessed building, Hagurumon taunted them as his gears appeared on the walls.
"This way!" Kevin pulled his wife to another escape route when Hagurumon shut them out from the main door.
Having taken possession of the house now, Hagurumon then tripped Michelle with the wires, entangling her with them as Kevin proceeded to jump to safety.
"Darling!" Michelle called out to her husband.
"I'm coming!" Kevin ran back to save his wife. "Got ya."
"Here Kevin, take her." Michelle handed Ruka to him.
"You too!" Kevin insisted as Hagurumon's metal gate shut in on her. "Hurry! Michelle!"
"Don't worry about me!" Michelle told him. "Get Ruka out of here! Go!"
"Michelle!" Kevin screamed after he jumped out as the possessed house locked her in it.
----At the bus-stop…
"Stranded at the bus stop." Yoshi complained.
"Yoshi!" Marcus called out.
"Hey!" Agumon shouted as the pair ran towards the two females.
"Where's everybody else?" Marcus asked.
"I'm not their keeper." Yoshi shrugged.
"Have you detected Digimon signals?" Marcus asked.
"I'm not picking up anything but the storm might be interfering." Lalamon replied.
"Great." Marcus sighed. "Now we have to go ask Thomas for his help."
"Seriously." Yoshi rebuked. "Do you have any idea what would happen if HQ knew we lost Keenan?"
----Imaginary sequence
"You blockheads!" Sampson hollered.
----"Yeah." Yoshi nodded. "I'm not sure I'm willing to take the heat for that right now."
"Good point." Marcus noted.
"Yoshi, come in." Sampson called from the communicator.
"This is the worst." Yoshi muttered.
"Yoshi." Lalamon tried to sooth her partner. "Calm down."
"Yoshi here." Yoshi replied.
"We are detecting a new Digimon signal emanating from Point K190." Sampson informed her. "Get to it ASAP."
"K190?" Yoshi echoed in disbelief.
"That's where Keenan's parents house is." Lalamon supplied.
"Oh no." Marcus gasped as the four rushed back. "Come on, let's go!"
Keenan and Falcomon arrived back to the house about the same time.
"This very bad." Keenan noted, seeing the oversized house. "What is it?
"Hagurumon!" Falcomon hissed, noticing the Digimon on the grown robot's left eye.
"Did Gotsumon make him come for me?" Keenan asked, running after ducking the robot's attack. "Why he here?"
"I don't know why." Falcomon admitted. "Hagurumon is very stubborn. He never lets anyone boss him around. Frigimon even said so, remember?"
"Yes." Keenan replied. "Then why?"
"I have a feeling it was just an accident." Yoshi replied.
"Then this place must be cursed if another Digital Gate opened in the exact same spot ten years apart." Marcus noted.
"Why you mean, another?" Keenan asked.
"Help!" Kevin called out. "Help me, please!"
"My wife is inside that thing!" he told them as he ran towards the DATS group.
"Inside it?" Marcus echoed.
"You have to do something." Kevin pleaded. "She's trapped! Help her!"
"It's fighting time!" Marcus told his partner.
Falcomon looked at Keenan who turned his eyes to the ground.
"Yeah!" Agumon agreed and the two took off after the oversized robot, with Yoshi and Lalamon following closely behind.
Falcomon looked at Keenan who stood still for a while before following the older teens.
"Spit Fire Blast!" Agumon fired his attack at the robot.
"Seed Blast!" Lalamon released her attack at the same time.
"Mama!" the robot droned, turning around to face its attackers. "Where are you?"
"Mama?" Marcus echoed.
Don't leave me! Don't leave me, mama!" the robot cried as it destroyed the flowering field.
"What's going on?" Yoshi inquired in confusion.
"Yoshi, you there?" Ami called from her ear-piece.
"Ames?" Yoshi replied.
"There's a ton of emotional energy coming from that Digimon." Ami told her, looking at the computer screen.
"Emotional energy?" Yoshi echoed.
"Yeah, don't you remember?" Thomas took over, pulling Ami's ear-piece from her, causing the blue-haired girl to glare at him. "It's that theory I've been working on. Digimon who appear in our world feed off the emotional energy of the people around them. Hagurumon is the perfect example. It's possible he's feeding off the emotions of someone in your area and it's making him act diuretically."
"Human emotions?" Yoshi echoed.
"Keenan." Marcus looked at the child. "I think you know what's he's looking for."
"Mama!" the robot whined as it dug the flowerbed.
"Is that?" Kevin gasped in realization.
"Yup." Marcus replied. "That thing is the toy robot you used to play with when you were a baby."
"Mama! Mama!" the robot continued its rampage.
"No way! That was like ten years ago!" Yoshi protested. "How could he possibly remember that?"
"Mama!" the robot cried as Keenan recalled from his memories of him crying when he first entered the Digital World, hugging his toy tightly.
"Mama?" Keenan muttered.
"No way!" Yoshi gasped.
"You remember?" Lalamon was amazed.
"You know what he's doing Keenan." Marcus told the child. "He's acting that way because it is what you're feeling."
"Mama, where are you?" the robot cried as it continued its riot through the field.
"My feelings?" Keenan echoed.
"Where are you, mama?" the robot called out.
"You're lying." Keenan hissed. "I Digimon. My mom Frigimon only!"
"Listen kid!" Marcus scolded. "You're not fooling anyone but yourself!"
"Boss!" Agumon rebuked.
"How can you pretend to forget your mother?" Marcus continued his tirade. "I don't believe that memory has disappeared at all!"
"It's there." He added, gripping onto the tag his father gave him before he entered the Digital World. "It's part of you and will never go away."
Keenan then looked at his father.
"Hang on!" Kevin gaped. "You said your emotion. It's possible. That robot could have stored up the strong feelings Keenan had as a baby while lost in the Digital World."
"Mama! Where are you?" the robot continued its search. "Mama!"
Keenan looked back at his father who nodded.
"What do you say, kid?" Marcus asked the boy. "How about we go save your mom?"
Not waiting for a reply, he then charged at the oversized robot, meeting it fist-to-fist.
"Alright!" he beamed, after the robot's fist crumbled.
"Way to go!" Agumon cheered.
"It's fighting time!" Marcus told his partner. "D.N.A Full Charge!"
"Agumon warp digivolve to RizeGreymon!" Agumon declared as he evolved.
The robot reformed its hand into a drill and charged at the Ultimate level Digimon, as RizeGreymon grabbed the drill with its claw and pulling it off. With a kick, RizeGreymon sent the robot to the ground. Hovering over the fallen robot, RizeGreymon the ripped a window out of the robot's chest.
Opening its left eye, Hagurumon fired its 'Dark Gear' attack at the giant dinosaur which merely bounced off RizeGreymon's armor. Grabbing the robot's head, RizeGreymon then kicked the robot away, revealing the trapped Michelle.
"Hang on!" Yoshi shouted.
"Michelle!" Kevin called out.
"We can't attack with her in there." Lalamon pointed out.
Taking RizeGreymon's hesitation, the robot knocked the Ultimate Digimon to the ground. RizeGreymon grabbed onto the robot's foot to prevent getting crushed.
"Keenan!" Marcus told to the child. "You can do this! Come on! Get in the fight, man. You're the only one who can save her!"
"Mother… Keenan muttered.
"Yoshi, can you pass your ear piece to Keenan?" Ami requested, having taken her communicator from Thomas.
"Okay." Yoshi replied and handed the boy her ear piece.
"Keenan." Ami spoke in a calm yet soft voice. "Your mother is a good mother. That's what a mother is, Keenan. Her first priority is always her child. That's why you have to understand why a mother like her could never forget you, the son she lost. She knew you were alive and she never gave up the hope of finding you."
Keenan gasped at her words.
Growling, he dashed towards the oversized robot.
"Keenan, grab on to me!" Falcomon shouted to his partner.
"Falcomon!" Keenan looked at his hovering partner and took his legs, allowing the owl Digimon to take him to the skies. Once he was near enough, Keenan dropped onto the robot and entered the cavity RizeGreymon opened.
"Mother!" he ran to his birth mother and proceeded to pull the wires from his trapped mother. Letting her fall into his arms, Keenan then slid down using an overhanging wire.
"That's it!" Marcus beamed after Keenan leapt off the roof of the demolished house. "Go after him!"
"Trident Revolver!" RizeGreymon fired his attack point blank at the overgrown robot, disintegrating Hagurumon into a digiegg. With Hagurumon gone, the robot returned to its original size and everything within it disappeared.
"Michelle!" Kevin ran towards his wife as RizeGreymon devolved back to Agumon.
"Kevin." Michelle got off from her son's arms and hugged him.
"Ruka?" she looked at her daughter as Keenan turned away.
"She's okay." Kevin told her.
"Keenan?" Michelle now turned to her grown up son. "It's you, isn't it?"
"Turn around, please." She requested. "Let me see your face."
"Keenan, you came back to me!" she ran toward her son, hugging him.
"I can't believe it's really you." She wept. "My baby boy."
Agumon looked at his partner and the two smiled. Falcomon beamed as Yoshi and Lalamon let out satisfied smiles.
"Professor Crier." Hashima stated as he entered the scene with his three bodyguards. "I am arresting you for breaking the terms of your 'Cease and Decease' order."
"Director Hashima?" Yoshi blinked.
"What do you mean?" Marcus demanded.
"You have recently conducted an unauthorized opening of the Digital Gate." Hashima remarked. "Furthermore, you have been doing illegal research on the Digital World."
"Now, hold on!" Kevin objected. "That has nothing to do with…"
"Are you actually claiming you're innocent?" Hashima cut his protest short. "When it's plainly obvious that a Digimon came through your gate and completely destroyed your home."
"That was…" Kevin griped.
"Wait!" Michelle cut in. "Please! He's innocent."
"So, it's you." Hashima frowned. "Mrs. Crier. Maybe you're the person we should be arresting for causing all this trouble."
"That's ridiculous!" Kevin objected hotly.
"Why don't we sort this whole thing out downtown?" Hashima suggested. "Boys! Arrest her."
"Yes sir." The three guards moved in to detain Michelle.
"Let her go!" Kevin shouted as his wife was taken away. "She hasn't done anything wrong!"
"Get your hands off of her!" Marcus demanded as he and Agumon ran to free Michelle.
"Wait, this is just a misunderstanding!" Yoshi shouted as she and Lalamon followed.
"Stop it!" Keenan yelled.
"Me open gate." He replied. "Me come from Digital World with Digimon, so I can destroy home. I Digimon Warrior, Keenan!"
"Keenan?" Hashima echoed. "Really? So you're their long lost son?"
"I not." Keenan insisted. "I am Digimon! I come from Digital World to destroy all evil hu-mons!"
"Then, it's all his fault." Hashima declared. "Arrest him!"
"Firecracker Smokescreen!" Falcomon released his smoke attack before Hashima's guards could do anything. Taking this distraction, he took Keenan away.
"Keenan's gone! He disappeared!" Marcus gasped as the smoke died down.
"Falcomon's gone too!" Yoshi added.
"Find them!" Hashima ordered as his guards split up. "Don't let them escape! Bring them back to me now!"
Michelle fainted in the midst of the commotion.
"My baby." She muttered, collapsing in her husband's arms. "Keenan!"
"No!" Marcus fumed, stomping his feet as Michelle wept.
----In the Digital World…
"What?" Merukimon demanded. "Keenan has betrayed us?"
"Yes sir." Gotsumon reported. "While I was looking for him, he must have joined the humans. When I finally found him, they had convinced him that he was a human and then he attacked me."
"I don't believe it." Merukimon remarked.
"It's true." Gotsumon insisted. "I won't lie. After all, he is a human. Shouldn't we despise his very existence because of it? With all due respect sir, I think it would be best if we simply ended this problem by destroying the Human World once and for all!"
"I don't care what you think!" Merukimon hollered.
"But…" Gotsumon protested. "But why?"
"Starting a battle with the humans can only cause harm to our allies." Merukimon reasoned. "We're not at that point just yet."
"But sir!" Gotsumon objected.
"Are you afraid, Merukimon?" Saberleomon inquired as he stepped before the Mega level Digimon. "I can't believe such weak words were uttered by such a powerful ruler of the Digital World."
"Hello." Merukimon greeted the oversized lion. "Saberleomon."
"Hello, my old friend." Saberleomon returned the greeting.
----