Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

14) Stab of Betrayal

It wasn't until the morning that any noise came to disturb the Yagami apartment. The space had been rather quiet, and the previous evening had been spent in a mellow fashion after Miyako and Hawkmon left to return home. Taichi had been up and going about his daily routine when he heard a knocking sound at the door, and he frowned to himself before turning his attention to the entrance of the apartment. "I wonder who that could be," he muttered, making his way to the door. 

He had only just barely twisted the knob of the door before he was immediately met with surprise. None other than Meiko looked back at him, and she was breathing heavily from sudden yet intense exertion. "Taichi!" she cried out. "There's another Digimon attack, and there are a lot of them! I've already sent a message to the rest of the group!"

That pulled all the lingering traces from grogginess right out of Taichi's mind. He turned his head over his shoulder as quickly as he could without hurting himself. "Hikari! Agumon! Tailmon! We have to get going! Something's going on!" he exclaimed. He barely waited for a response before he slid his feet into his shoes, picking the pair that would take the least effort for him to put on. He was already out in the hallway by the time that Hikari appeared with the Digimon. She had two pieces of toast in her hands, and the Digimon had taken similar treats with them. She pressed one piece of bread into her brother's fingers, and Taichi accepted it greedily. They hadn't been able to eat quite yet, so he was beyond thankful for his sister's thoughtfulness. They were going to need as much energy as they could get if they wanted to defeat the Digimon that had appeared. 

"How many are there?" Hikari asked, making it clear that she had overheard part of Taichi and Meiko's conversation before she hurled herself away from the Yagami apartment. The group of six began to make their way through the apartment quickly, and Taichi realized belatedly that Meicoomon was there as well. She was little more than a streak of orange that passed through the shadows quickly, but she was still most certainly present. 

"Three," Meiko replied. "I was on an early grocery run when I noticed that something was wrong, and... I haven't gotten an answer from anyone else, but Koushiro did say that he had seen that there was a signal there."

"I guess he was able to get the program up and running that we heard about earlier on," Taichi muttered to himself. He conntinued to run until the group had arrived at the elevator, and he started to tap his foot impatiently as he waited for the room to arrive. No matter how many times he wanted to press the button, he knew that it wouldn't help. He had to focus on keeping his composure even if the adrenaline was threatening to swallow him whole without any sense of consideration for what he wanted. 

"Hopefully the others will arrive to help us out sooner rather than later," Tailmon said as the doors to the elevator finally slid open. She was the first to enter the space, and Taichi let out a relieved sigh once they were inside. Luckily, they hadn't run into any neighbors along the way, and he prayed that this theme would keep up since it was so early in the morning. 

As soon as the group was outside the building, all of them broke out into a sprint. Each action was hasty, and the first cause of each step was pure panic and purpose. Taichi made sure that everyone had kept up with him as he pulled his Digivice from his pocket. He pressed his phone into his other hand, ready to use either one of them at a moment's notice. 

"I was only about three minutes from the apartment building, so I decided to come by and pick you guys up," Meiko explained. "Meicoomon wasn't with me either, so... I figured it would be more effective to take care of both purposes at once." Taichi could tell that she was trying to justify her decision to run from the scene of the fight, but as far as he was concerned, she might as well have not bothered. He wasn't upset with her in the slightest, and he couldn't imagine that anybody else was either.