Genie In A Bottle
by Digi Angel

        From where they perched up on a ledge on a low rocky cliff above the water, the two Angels silently sighed to themselves. Below them, having fun splashing about and playing, were their own human partners, and they could not join them. Although neither would admit it to each other, they both wanted badly to dive in and swim with them.
    I can not go in, Angemon thought. My wings will get wet, and then I can no longer fly. If I can not fly, what happens if someone attacks?
    I can not join her, Angewomon thought to herself at the same time. What if I can not swim? If I drown, where does that leave T.K. and Kari?
    It was a hot day, and they sat in the shade keeping watch over the two children. The group had been seperated into pairs of two after an attack by a giant evil Digimon; Tai and Sora flew off one way, Joe and Mimi another, Izzy and Matt in the opposite, and finally T.K. and Kari in yet another. It was sort of depressing without the others around, but it was something they could not have stopped. Now they were in a lush jungle, searching for a way back to the others.
    Later that evening, they found a place to stay for the night and searched around for food. Angemon stood on a riverbank, a Celestial Arrow tied on to the end of his staff so that he could spear a fish. Angewomon was building a fire to cook it on while Kari and T.K. looked around for some berries or other goodies for desert. Suddenly, they came running back together.
    “We found something!” they said in unison, proudly.
    “A whole bunch of really juicy lookin’ fruit!” T.K. said. “They’re back over there!” He pointed.
    “But they’re way up a tree,” Kari said. “We’ll have to climb it to get ‘em.”
    “Here, I’ll go with you,” Angemon said. “I’m not having any luck with the fish, and my staff will be useful for getting them down. Come on.”
    He let T.K. lead him by the hand to the tree, and as he gazed up at it, frowned. Where the fruit hung, the branches grew too close together for him to be able to fly up and retrieve. He’d have to climb.
    “What are you doing, Angemon?” T.K. asked curiously as the Angel dropped his staff and found a secure foothold in the rough bark.
    “I’ll have to climb,” he replied. “The branches are too thick for me to fly into.”
    “Be careful,” Kari said.
    Slowly, carefully, Angemon made his way up the tree. But it was very difficult. His wings got in the way and threw him off balance, and his feet, which were covered in boots that he could not remove, kept slipping. He often got tangled up in the cloth wrapped around his arm and leg, or the blue lioncloth that was his only clothing.
    I must look rediculous, he thought. I bet T.K. could have scrambled up this tree in two seconds! But I don’t want him climbing this high. He could get hurt, and we can’t afford anyone getting injured while we’re away from the others.
    Finally, he reached the top. Giving his whole body a heave, he lurched up between the branches and reached for the fruit, but his foot slipped and he began to fall. Acting uppon instinct, he spread his wings out to fly, but they got caught up in the branches, leaving him to hang from the tree like a giant christmas orniment.
    “What happened, Angemon?” Kari called up.
    “Go get Angewomon, will you?” he asked instead, blushing.
    When she came to rescue him, she only said one thing: “I thought the Angel went on top of the tree.”
    That night, when she was sure the two children were asleep, Angewomon looked at Angemon over the campfire, curiously. “Would you mind telling me how you got stuck up in that tree? Just because you have wings, that doesn’t make you a bird.”
    He chuckled, then shrugged. “I slipped and my wings got tangled in the branches.” His face then turned serious. “It’s very difficult to do much else than fly in this form, you know.”
    She nodded, and spoke quietly. “I know. You can’t swim, you can’t climb, you can’t run well...you can’t even walk very fast!” She then looked down at the peacefully sleeping form of Kari and sighed. “The humans have it easy. If we were more like them I think things in general would go much smoother.”
    Angemon blinked. “But we are like them, Angewomon. Look at our bodies. We’re the only Digimon who look remotely human! All of the others look animal.”
    “Humans don’t have wings,” she replied, a trifle sadly. “Their skin is white, but not pure white, and even then not all of them are of the same color. They don’t hide their faces behind masks of armor and dress in clothing they are not able to remove.”
    “Humans are not built for battle,” he said gently. “But inside we are just the same as they are; we have a heart and a brain. We know how to love and learn.”
    “But wouldn’t it be great,” she asked, pale blue eyes dancing, “if we could be human for just one day?”
    “Mabye,” he said with a small smile, then stretched out next to T.K. and went to sleep.

    The next morning everyone woke up early, but Angemon was able to provide them with a large breakfast by spearing a dozen whole fish from the river. “The early Birdramon catches the fish!” he said cheerfully as he hauled his capture in. Angewomon was able to fold her wings down and manuvure her slender figure through the trees to get the fruit that had captured Angemon earlier, and T.K. and Kari found some sweet berries that were red on one half and blue on the other. They ate contentedly until the sun began to rise.
    As the first rays of sunlight penetrated the tops of the trees and poured into the clearing, T.K. and Kari headed off for the river to take a bath.
    “Away from each other, though,” they said, because “looking was gross.”
    “We should freshen up as well,” Angewomon said, looking down distastefully at the dirt that clung to her white outfit. “We look like Porkymon!”
    “I could’ve been that, you know,” Angemon said as he headed for the water, unbuckling his belt, but she couldn’t tell if he was grinning or not. He waded in up to his waist and splashed it over his face, shaking the droplets out of his hair. “It’s cold.”
    “Oh well,” she said, slipping off her pink shawl and dropping it next to whatever he was able to remove. “It’ll wake you up. Oh!” She jumped as she stuck a toe in the icy water.
    He chuckled, then proceded to splash water over his arms.
    Angewomon stepped in further, but suddenly her foot slipped on something round at the bottom and she fell, landing with a splash that got Angemon’s attention. “Are you alright?” he called, unable to risk his dignity by moving into the shallow waters.
    “It sure didn’t tickle,” she said, dryly. “I think I tripped on something.”
    “You think you did? It sounded like you did to me.” He grinned. “Can you see anything?”
    She looked down, squinting through the dark waters. “Oh! I think I do!” She reached down and pulled up a small glass bottle, tinted green with a cork shoved in the top, and blinked, holding it up so that Angemon could see. “They need litter controll for this river.”
    “Here, bring it over so that I can see,” he called.
    “Why can’t you come here?”
    He pointed to where his loincloth lay on the shore. Angewomon blushed.
    “Oh, right.”
    She waded over to him in the waist-deep water and handed him the bottle, which he turned over and over in his large hands thoughtfully. Suddenly, he paused, blinking. “Hey, there’s something on the bottom! It says, ‘Rub to open, refrigerate after use’.”
    Angewomon blinked. “That’s...odd. What do you think’s inside?”
    He grinned, recalling something T.K. had said as he rubbed the bottle’s side. “Mabye a digital genie will pop out.”
    And that’s exactly what happened.
    “Geniemon?” they asked, astounded.
    “You were expecting Whamon?” the blue, floating creature asked, face twisted into the biggest, most childish grin either of them had ever seen. “Well, ain’t you just a cute couple. A match made in heaven! HA! THAT’S FUNNY! You’re Angels, I made it funny! Ha ha!”
    “This guy is we-ird!” Angewomon muttered to Angemon, eyebrow raised.
    “Well, I guess you two know the story,” Geniemon said, looking bored. “You freed me, so you get one wish each. Well, how about it? What’s it going to be? Immortality? Supreme power? Sorry, I don’t let people take over the Digiworld and I don’t delete or re-install anybody.”
    The two exchanged glances. “Well....” Angewomon said, staring at the ground. “It might be nice to...”
    “To what?” Geniemon asked curiously, and a bit impatiently as well.
    She looked up at him hopefully. “Could you make me human?”
    “What?!” Angemon exclaimed.
    “Just for a day. I want to see what it’s like.”
    “Really?” Geniemon mused. “That’s interesting, but I could do that.” He turned to Angemon. “And you?”
    Angemon looked at Angewomon for a long moment, and a smile slowly spread across his face. “Do the same for me. Just for one day.”
    “Okay then.” Geniemon shrugged, then snapped his fingers. “It’s done!”
    Suddenly, both Angels felt a strange tingling sensation, as if they were Digivolving, but this one was much sharper; sort of the feeling one got when their foot fell asleep. They were suddenly enevloped in a bright glow, and again, as if they were Digivolving, felt themselves begin to change.
    Angemon felt the cloth wrapped around his body unravel itself and dissapear, as well as his bracelet; he felt his wings melt away and his feet actually become feet. The golden armor on his left shoulder vanished, along with the black sensor disks on his chest, and his skin became the same color as his face.
    Angewomon felt her wings melt away as well, and the collar of white skin around her neck and face turned to the same peach as the rest of her body. She felt the cool freedom of bare skin as the outfit she previously could not remove removed itself, and as the scar on her left hand healed.
    The light cleared, and both looked down to see that indeed, they looked as human as T.K. and Kari!
    “Now,” said Geniemon, leaning back in midair smugly. “You have a Cinderellamon schedule going on here: by midnight tonight, you both will become your normal heavenly selves again. However--since you two make such a cute couple, I’ll make you a deal. If you like being human more than a Digimon, simply meet me here tonight and I’ll make it so you stay that way. Is it a deal?”
    They both nodded.
    Geniemon grinned, then popped back into the bottle and was gone.
    “Well...” said Angewomon, staring at the bottle.
    “Well what?” Angemon asked.
    “What now?”
    They both looked at each other, then gasped and darted out of the water in opposite directions, diving into the bushes. They were human, alright...and totally nude.

    When T.K. and Kari were done bathing, they sat down by the campfire and waited for their Digimon to return. By the afternoon, when the two Angels still hadn’t come back, they began to worry.
    “You think they got hurt?” T.K. asked.
    “I dunno,” Kari admitted, looking around the clearing a little uneasily. “Mabye they got in a fight comming back and now they’re stuck battling trying to get to us.”
    T.K. looked down at his Digivice. The clock changed to show that it was noon, but the bars that indicated Angemon’s energy level remained the same. “I don’t think so, Kari,” he said, clipping it back on his little blue backpack. “It doesn’t say that Angemon’s doing anything.”
    Kari looked at her own Digivice, blinking. “It’s the same for Angewomon. I wonder where they are?”
    T.K. stood, hands clenched into fists. “C’mon, let’s go! I’m gonna go find ‘em, even if it takes all day!”
    “Shouldn’t we just stay here?” Kari asked. “Mom always used to say that you should stay in one place when you’re lost.”
    “Aww, we’re not lost, Kari!” T.K. said. “They are! That’s why we gotta go find ‘em. Now c’mon! Let’s go in the direction they went.”
    They walked off towards the west end of the river, where Angemon and Angewomon had gone to take a bath themselves. But they didn’t get very far when they saw two figures a little ahead of them...figures heading their way that looked and sounded very famuliar.
    The first one was a man. He had a good amount of muscle to his body, and long blonde hair that fell down to his backside. Tall, he was dressed like Angemon in the fact that he wore a long blue loincloth fastened at the waist with a golden sun-shaped buckle.
    The second one was a beautiful woman, with light blonde hair that was nearly as long as the man’s. She was dressed exactly like Angewomon, but lacked a helmet, glove, and the pink shawl, and walked barefoot, as the man did.
    “Who are they?” Kari asked, stopping in her tracks to stare at the nearing man and woman. “They almost look like Angemon and Angewomon.”
    “Angemon and Angewomon have wings,” T.K. said, shaking his head. “That can’t be them. ‘Sides, Angemon is mostly white. That man is the same color we are.”
    But when the two people finally sighted them, they ran forward and scooped them up in a hug, crying their names.
    “T.K., there you are!” said the man. His voice sounded very, very famuliar, like Angemon’s almost, but it didn’t echo.
    “Were you looking for us?” asked the woman, who sounded like Angewomon without the echo. “We’re sorry we took so long.”
    T.K. and Kari blinked, pushing away from them. “Have we met?” T.K. asked.
    The man set him down, brushing back a lock of long bangs that got in his face. “Yes we have, T.K.,” he said. “You remember me. You didn’t think I left, did you? I told you I’d come back.”
    I’ll come back...if you want me to... “Angemon?” he whispered.
    The man nodded.
    T.K. was confused. “But...you can’t be Angemon! Where are your wings?”
    “Yeah, what happened to you, Angewomon?” Kari asked.
    Both of the Angels--or, former Angels--laughed. “It’s a long story,” Angewomon said, then told them the story of Geniemon and how they became human for a day.
    “That’s cool!” T.K. exclaimed. “D’you think he’d make me a Digimon for a day?”
    Angemon chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t think so, T.K. He already went back into his bottle.”
    “Aww.” T.K. frowned, then looked down at his right hand for some reason.
    “Well, come on,” Angewomon said. “We may be human, but that doesn’t mean we can’t search this area for signs of the others. But because we don’t have our powers right now, let’s not go too far, alright?”
    T.K. and Kari nodded. “Yeah.”
    They searched around the area in a circle, not going more than a quarter mile from the campsite. But they were dissapointed to find nothing, not a hair or feather or petal or scale. In fact, the whole place seemed rather empty. Quiet, and still; it was a little unnerving. But all was not lost. Angemon climbed the tree to get the fruit and never got stuck, and Angewomon was able to run and do cartwheels along with Kari, something she had wanted to do for a long time.
    But what delighted them the most was when they got to swim.
    At first they were a little nervous about getting in the water, but after some coaxing from T.K. and Kari, agreed to dive in.
    “Just watch,” T.K. said. “I’m the bestest diver there is. I can even make bigger splashes than Matt!” He then pulled his shirt off over his head and kicked off his shoes and, taking a running start, lept off the edge of the fifteen-foot-tall rock they were standing on. He hit the water below with a giant splash.
    “That’s called a cannonball,” Kari explained. “My brother does those all the time, but mostly he just ends up hitting the water on his belly. I like doing these kinds of dives.”
    She stood on the very edge, then dove off, head first, landing in the water below with barely a splash as she cut under the surface cleanly.
    “That’s great!” Angewomon said with a laugh. “Let me try.” She stood on the edge where Kari had been, and copied her dive perfectly. Her body arched through the air gracefully as she flipped off the edge, and as she landed in the water below, slipped underneath the surface with a tiny splash only a few inches tall.
    “C’mon, Angemon!” T.K. called from down below. “It’s your turn!”
    Recalling how T.K. had dived, Angemon took  a running start and jumpped off the edge, tucking his knees up to this chest. He hit the water with an enormous splash that drenched everyone and everything around them.
    “Nice,” Angewomon sputtered sarcasticly. He and T.K. could only grin.
    Soon afterwards the two young kids started a splash fight, so the Angels decided to explore what was beneath the surface. They stayed under as long as they could hold their breath, swimming with the multicolored fish that were friends of Gomamon and bringing up oddly shaped and colored rocks and shells for T.K. and Kari to see. Once they found an Oystermon, and tried to bring it’s pearl to the surface, but it was too heavy.
    When they all tired of swimming, they got out and layed along the shore of the lake to dry in the sun, letting the warm rays heat their cold bodies as well. But no sooner had Angemon and T.K. fallen asleep when there came a horrible screeching from very nearby.
    Jolting upright, they saw to their horror a beast in front of them in the lake. Long and deep blue, it’s scaley serpentine body glistened as water droplets rolled off it. It was an atrocious monster with meanacing purple eyes and a mouth that hung open in a ferocious scowl that bore many long, sharp fangs.
    “Gyradramon!” Angewomon said with a gasp. “A legendary sea-serpent Digimon who has had countless stories told about him.”
    “So he’s famous?” Kari asked.
    “No, all of the stories were bad.”
    “Gyradramon has been said to cause storms at sea,” Angemon said, climbing to his feet. “Horrible typhoons that splinter unwary ships. He must have swam down the river here to hibernate!”
    Gyradramon roared, smacking the water with his tail.
    “He’s scarey,” T.K. said, backing up with Kari. Angemon and Angewomon stepped in front of the two with no fear at all.
    “That’s what we’re here for,” Angewomon said with a grin.
    Angemon cocked his fist back, out of old habbit more than anything else. “Hand of Fate!”
    Nothing happened.
    “What?”
    “Celestial Arrow!” Angewomon cried, reaching up into the air.
    Nothing came.
    “Huh?”
    “Guys, remember?” T.K. asked. “Geniemon made you both humans! Now you can’t attack!”
    “We forgot,” they said together, leaping out of the way just in time to avoid an attack.
    “Come on, let’s get out of here!” Angemon shouted. “Follow me. We can run into the woods and get away!”
    But as they turned to go, Angewomon let out a horrified chuckle. The three turned to see her frozen to the spot where she was standing, unable to move as she looked the monster in the eye. Angemon ran forward to pull her back along with him, but he too got lost in the gaze of the eyes, and froze to the spot as well.
    “What’s going on?” T.K. asked, uncertianly.
    “It must be some sort of attack,” Kari said. “They can’t move!”
    “We’ve gotta save them!” T.K. cried, then began to run for Angemon. “Angemon! Don’t look!” He then dove on the poor Angel, knocking him off balance and into Angewomon, sending the three of them tumbling to the ground. Blinking, the Angels regained their senses, commenting of how spaced out they felt.
    But the Gyradramon’s fury only increased. Snarling, he prepared to launch an attack at the two fallen Angels and T.K. But as they moved to stand up, T.K. stepped in front of them.
    “T.K., what are you doing?” Angewomon asked.
    “You’ll get hurt. Get back with Kari and let us take him,” Angemon said.
    “No,” he said firmly, pulling his hat over his eyes. “You’ve always protected me when I was in big trouble, and now it’s my turn to do the same for you. Stop worrying. I’ll get ‘im.”
    With that, and to their astonishment, he floated up into the sky.
    “What in the--?” Angemon couldn’t believe it.
    Kari came up beside him, holding a golden bow.    
    “Where in the world did she get that?” Angewomon asked.
    The Gyradramon looked up at them, hissing angerily. But T.K. and Kari didn’t budge. Instead, T.K. clenched his right hand into a fist.
    “Hand of Fate!”
    The Gyradramon screamed in pain as the attack HIT HIM! Angemon could only stare with his mouth gaping open.
    Kari reached up into the air, bringing down something glowing and knocking it to the string of her bow. “Celestial Arrow!”
    Twang! She let the arrow fly, and it hit the Gyradramon in the neck. He howled and reared back, then began to sank into the water, disolving into lost data bits as he did so.
    Totally astonished, Angewomon fainted.

    Later that evening, when Angewomon woke up, she saw that Angemon was sitting with T.K. and Kari by the fire. Right away, she asked to know about the battle. The two kids said they remembered nothing about it, but Angemon said he knew what happened.
    He went and spoke with Geniemon, he said. At first the Genie thought that he wanted to stay human, but then he asked about the battle, and the Genie explained.
    “You see, I didn’t totally take away your power,” he had said. “If I did that, it would be errased forever. So what I did was ‘store’ it in a nearby source, in a matter of speaking. I could tell that boy meant a lot to you, so I stored your power in his body until the spell wore off. He was only supposed to use it in case of extreme emergencies, which is just what he did. He didn’t even know he had it until then! I did the same with Angel-woman’s power. It went to the little girl.”
    “Wow,” she said, blinking. “That was certainly unexpected.”
    “I really did that?” T.K. asked, blue eyes wide. “Cool! Do ya think I can do it again?”
    Angemon shook his head, rumpling the boy’s hair. “I don’t think so, T.K. That battle made me realize that although it’s great being a human, I must remain a Digimon for as long as I live. How can I protect you if I do not have my powers? I’m sorry.” He smiled, a bit apologetticly.
    “Aww, that’s okay,” T.K. said, hugging him. “I kinda missed the old you anyways. But when we get to come home, you’ll become human again and come back with me, right?”
    Angemon smiled. “Right.”
    
    That night, while the two were sleeping, the Angels got their wings back again. They missed being human, but at least now they knew that they could keep their own children safe again. With a yawn, they finally went to sleep, draping their wings around each other for warmpth.

THE END

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