The Meeting of the Misunderstood
Chaper 1: The Device
It was one of those days in which Ken felt desperate, useless and depressed. The Digiworld was a constant and heavy burden on his back, one of which he wished would condemn him and get it over with. Another useless battle with a Control Spire Digimon marked the downfall of his earlier creations. Any other day, as another Control Spire fell, he would feel a sense of joy that only he could contain. But today was different. Today nothing he did made him feel as though he had affected the outcome of the Digiworld's future.
Wormmon, in Stingmon form, could feel this within his partner and best friend. Even when the hundredth Control Spire downed for that day, Ken did not award Wormmon with his smile of in-depth gratitude and respect. In fact, he didn't even know that they had reached their goal for that day until Wormmon de-digivolved and was at his side, cuddling his left ankle. If Wormmon asked what was wrong, he knew Ken would not answer him. As Kaiser, Ken probably would have smacked Wormmon for asking such a demeaning question and would return to a state of pensiveness. He liked his side of Ken a lot better. Not because this Ken would never hurt him purposely, but because he was more able to help him and pry into his brain if he wanted. Today Wormmon thought that pressing the matter on such terms would be important.
"Please Ken," he begged. His large eyes shimmered in such way that one passing by would think that he was about to shed tears. "Tell me your woes?" He decided intonation would be best to use in this kind of situation. It appeared to be less demanding.
Ken started; apparently unaware that Wormmon was at his side once more. Then the smile of in-depth gratitude came, followed by a glint of sadness in his right eye. Wormmon rarely missed any signal, no matter how small, when Ken showed it in his eyes. He had mastered the art of reading eyes; he had no choice in the matter. Even if Ken was happy, his blank expression never once faltered. Well, maybe once or twice, as he had been around Daisuke more often and was re-learning how to show expression.
This was why Wormmon loved Daisuke. He was bringing out the Ken-chan that he never thought he would have back after the Kaiser incident. More than anything, Wormmon loved to go to sleepovers with his Ken-chan and listen to the stories they told until they fell asleep. Sometimes he wondered why Daisuke's mom chased the girls away when it got late and the boys wanted to sleep. 'Why can't the girls sleep over too?' he wondered. He had no fear in asking his Ken-chan, but he never did. For some reason he had the feeling that once he knew he would wish he hadn't asked.
Ken finally began to answer the question. "I don't know," was the answer. When he saw that Wormmon wasn't buying into that, he continued farther to the real reason. "I just feel unfulfilled."
Wormmon thought carefully before answering. "But we destroyed one hundred Control Spires today!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah," Ken said, but he didn't seem too excited. "Control Spires that I put up-"
"That you were tricked into putting up," Wormmon corrected.
"That I was tricked into putting up and that you knocked over, not me." Ken looked down at his shoes and lifted the leg Wormmon was clinging on to. When he brought him up to a decent height, he scooped him up into his bony arms and held his dear friend to his chest. "I want to do more."
Wormmon saw another familiar glint in Ken's marvelous eyes. That's another thing he had always wanted to say to Ken, that he has marvelous eyes. But the recognizable glint in Ken's eyes was far from marvelous. In fact, it was magnificent. Ken had a problem but he had come up with a plan.
"What do you have in mind?" Wormmon asked, squirming a little to get comfortable in Ken's arms and trying not to sound too eager at the same time. Ken started walking towards a tree bearing some kind of purple fruit to get his friend a snack. He picked with agility that only he could possess: one of knowing and perfect balance. Wormmon was so proud of his human friend that he just wanted to hug him to death, but didn't, for he knew that the sudden emotion and the touching would ruin this moment. He settled with sighing contentedly in the safety of Ken-chan's arms and waited patiently for a chance to eat.
When Ken was satisfied with the amount of food he had picked, he sat Wormmon down in front of it and crouched to watch his friend eat. The quantity of food that went on the exterior of Wormmon's insectoid mouth was comical, so much so that Ken needed to strain himself in order to keep from laughing. Wormmon saw this most favorite emotion in his Ken-chan's eyes, and encouraged him to laugh, as the sound of his laughter made Wormmon feel great. Ken allowed only a smile though, but Wormmon knew that even a smile was progress.
Then Ken began to speak of his project. "I want to create a device," he said, "that will destroy all control spires from a certain perimeter with the push of a button. If I made one for each of the Digidestined we would be out of spires in no time." And they would love him to death for it, he neglected to add.
"Can you really do that?" Wormmon mumbled between bites.
Ken smiled gently, and was now holding a record of smiling three times in the same day. If Wormmon glowed anymore with pride he would be a glowworm.
From his pocket Ken produced a chunk of dark black rock that he had picked up when Wormmon was destroying spires. Ken explained that he could examine that piece of the spire he had obtained to find a weak point in the magnetism. From there he could manipulate that spot and distort the make-up of the entire spire. Then the spire would implode into tiny, harmless fragments that could not possibly hurt any Digimon passing by.
Wormmon had noticing his bulging pocket previously, but dared not to say a word. He might eventually ask the sleep-over question someday, but this was one topic he would NOT bring up. Some time ago he had asked Ken rather loudly what was in his pocket, as it was making his pants bulge slightly. When the Digidestined turned to look, Ken placed his briefcase on his lap and blushed the deepest red Wormmon had ever seen. "I'll tell you later," he muttered shamefully and when he didn't Wormmon decided against bringing it up. The other Digidestined either cared enough not to say anything or didn't know what was going on. Wormmon had felt so bad that he wished Ken would leave him in the Digiworld so that he could cry and cry and cry. Later, at Ken's house, Ken assured him that it was okay to question when one didn't know what was off-limits. With Ken's forgiveness, the topic was dropped but not forgotten.
Wormmon nuzzled his Ken-chan's leg in approval. What a great plan. This would ensure that the creation of another control spire Digimon would be impossible. He saw another side to this as well. The Digidestined would have less to hold against Ken if he took back what he'd done. Ken could improve his relationship with the Digidestined, yes, but that was not his main goal. His main goal was to save the Digiworld from the advent of general takeover and destruction, as well as to banish all evil back to the dark world from which it had emerged. He beamed up with pride at his partner. If Ken-chan could do all of that, the end of the road to forgiveness was in sight.
The device his Ken-chan would make could effect him as well. Instead of Digivolving into Stingmon and manually killing control spires one by one, he could destroy several control spires at once with a push of a button. Mentally he kicked himself. 'Stupid foolish worm,' he said to his brain, 'and selfish at that!' He noticed his partner staring down at him worriedly, and before Wormmon could reassure him that he was hunky-dorry, Ken swooped him into the crook of his arm and told him that the project was for Wormmon too. He didn't like to order Wormmon around all of the time and this was the perfect solution. Also, he could join in the work and he and Wormmon would have fun during their visits to the Digital World. Ken-chan was so kind.
Ken also had a plan to build a small Digihospital from an old building which he had discovered while destroying control spires. He had instantly fallen in love with the grandeur of the building, with its wide arches and Roman-style peaks. A building that beautiful would be able to sway just about anymon to the doctor. Ken himself hated doctors and hospitals but hoped this project would help him get over his intense fear. There weren't many things he was afraid of, but even the thought of a hospital made him want to pay homage to the porcelain God. His hospital would be a combination of the most beautiful architecture he could mimic and every room would have a bed with a soft, springy mattress with a quilt fashioned by hand. Of course, he would have a lot of sewing to do, but with help from his mother (who had become curious at Ken's peaking interest in quilting) and hopefully the Digidestined as well, he would eventually accomplish this. The project would be long and laborous, but well worth it.
Why a hospital? Well, the Digital World had adopted plenty of information from the Real World (as the Digidestined called it, but now Ken wasn't so sure which world was more real) but for some reason neglected to adopt a hospital building. Ken had seen plenty of hurt Digimon and plenty of other Digimon that did well with treating the wounds of others'. He hoped they would all contribute to the well-being of the hospital.
He had no idea what to call it. It, of course, being the hospital building. Or maybe the device as well, but a name for something like that wasn't as important. The name of the hospital had to be something significant, catching and revelant. Something that didn't take away from the immense beauty of his imaginary hospital. Wormmon had suggested they call it, "Ken-chan's hospital" and Ken amiably explained that he was no longer a shallow, big-headed moron. But if he could think of anything that did not include his name, he should inform him right away. Wormmon could not think of anything. Oh well, he could ask the Digidestined later and they could have a vote for all of the Digimon to decide that factor. For now he would keep the hospital idea to himself.
Ken glanced at his watch and realized that he had just missed dinner. His mother would keep it warm for him, but he didn't want to cause any unnecessary worry. Lately he had been showing up later and later, and worrying his mother ill. The tardiness was completely unintentional, because Ken had only been rampaging after control spires and lost track of time. But how was someone to tell their parents something like that? So instead Ken made himself no excuses and marched to his room and stayed in there to punish himself. Minomon pointed out that the punishment was not necessary a relevant one for Ken, since he spent the majority of his time in his room already. His mother and father decided that they didn't want to punish their little prodigy, but should he do it again...
Ken couldn't afford to stay one day away from the Digital World. There was so much to do in so little time. Yet he kept falling into the trap of time and ruining his entire plan. He had no choice but to go back home right away and lie to his parents.
Minomon and Ken entered the bedroom in complete silence through the computer. Before Ken had ventured into the Digital World, he had placed the mattress from his bed before the computer, which ensured a safe, soundless landing. To put his plan into action, he dashed to the window to draw the shades and slipped on his pyjama before Minomon could cover his eyes. They both could smell supper and their little tummies growled with the anticipation of food, but they would have to stay disciplined in order for the plan to work.
With the mattress back in its orginal place, Ken made a soft place by his pillow to rest Minomon. If he thought correctly, his mother checked in on him every half hour, every day, to see if he was back yet. That is, only when he wasn't at school. It was a lot better than before, when his dad had to tell her to stop checking up on him every fifteen minutes, day and night. He wondered if his mother was an insomniac.
She did check up on him, right on schedule too. Politely, she knocked on the door, unwilling to catch her Ken-chan in a bad moment. Ken crawled down the ladder and prepared to put his plan into action. He double checked the mirror to make sure it really looked like he had been sleeping, then he unbolted the door and opened it for his mother.
"Oh!" his mother exclaimed when she saw her son was in his jammies. "Ken, honey, you slept right through dinner."
"I'm sorry mom. I shouldn't have locked the door."
"Nonsense, I should have been louder. Um, I thought you weren't even home, how silly of me. Are you hungry dear?" Ken nodded viciously. "That's good! I'll get your food, I put it in the oven."
Ken bowed and thanked her to show his approval. His mother scurried off to retrieve the food, pleased that her son didn't run away, as he was asleep for so long. When she returned, he took the tray of food and bowed once more as he shut the door. Before the door closed she added, "You can always have more!" then returned to her duties in the kitchen.
Minomon ate one plate after another, without ever skipping a beat. Ken on the other hand, picked at his food in thought. When Minomon finally looked up from his meal, he saw that his Ken-chan wasn't eating and dashed to his side. He nudged Ken's tummy with his rounded little head, but it was like he wasn't even there. Once, a long time ago he remembered, he would not touch his Ken-chan like this - he would not dare - but now he could even yell without getting in trouble. They hadn't raised there voices at all after he was reborn which was good, but Minomon still had severe anxiety when it came to his Ken-chan. And he was noticing that Ken-chan was not emoting like the other children. Maybe it was because he was a genius and he didn't need to, but Minomon wasn't sure. All he was sure of was his love for Ken.
"Ken-chan!" he called, "Eat, eat eat!"
"Ohuh? Sorry, I will Minomon."
"You'd better," he huffed, "I won't have you getting sick on *my* watch."
Ken ate slowly, as he was still thinking hard. He would have to fix the antennae to transmit radio waves equivalent to that of the control spire piece. But were the magnetic domains in each section of the control spire the same, or did they change as you went up? He sighed and started picking at his food again. What a fool he was! He should have taken more samples when he had the chance, so that he wouldn't risk it on the one piece and then have to go back. The device could always wait until tomorrow, but he had a math test the next day and he'd been planning this for a long time.
Minomon sighed; Ken was doing it again! Why did his Ken-chan have to be so stubborn? He didn't want to yell at him, but Ken was worrying him even more than usual. He thought about his nights waiting for a young Ken-chan to come and get him and how skinny he had become during his wait. Only when he found his Ken-chan had he started to eat like he was now. With all of the wandering he did as a baby, he hardly had time to eat. In fact, he remembered some kind female Digimon bringing him food along his journey. He determined that female Digimon had an instinct to care for younger Digimon. Digidestined baby Digimon were pitied most of all - they had to constantly fight for the balance of darkness and light, they were ordered around by human beings who didn't know what they were doing, and they were never rewarded by anymon for all of their efforts. Wormmon was no longer a baby when he finally met up with his Ken-chan, but he would always remember the journey he made.
The course of Ken and Wormmon's relationship was planned to be a disaster ever since the idea had come about. All Digidestined are Destined from the moment of their birth. The qualities they possess are not learned - they come with the rest of the package. Ken's package was jostled at a crucial moment, and that interrupted the balance. The package that was closest, which had been Kari's, was jostled too, and ended up dragging her away from her Destiny until a crucial moment. Ken's package, it was decided, would wait until later, until the balance of the Digiworld was restored for a certain amount of time.
Unbeknownst to Ken was the world's need to rid him of his brother. Had his brother been alive, an important card would not have been dealt and the balance would have wavered. Light would have taken over dark and no one would have done anything because light is perceived to be good. But the unbalance of light would have shifted the Digital World into nothingness - the planet and all of its creatures would have died. So, the darkness planned to kill off Ken's big brother, as he held the key to the entrance of the Digital World, and there was no way he was going to let Ken-chan play with it anymore.
Ken himself did not remember much. He did know that everything had been done for a purpose and that Osamu was probably doing better in the afterlife than he ever would on Earth. The good memories of his brother were blocked, so that he wouldn't miss him as much. But the pain still lingered no matter how badly he thought of him.
Right now Ken wasn't thinking of Osamu, he was thinking of his project. To Minomon's delight, he hurried to finished his rice, carried the cart to the kitchen for washing, then began working on the project he had so eagerly wanted to start. When he got to the desk he saw that a quarter, a dime and a small refrigerator magnet were stuck onto the piece of rock. Quickly, he fashioned a radiometer out of an old television remote control and set to work creating a frequency for the magnetic domains. Ken rarely swore when he was working a project, but this one was so important that he couldn't help but feel a little more anxious. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Minomon wince and apologized profusedly. He hadn't meant to be so impolite.
By 4am, Minomon finally convinced Ken to get some rest. The only reason why he complied was because the device was finally completed. He convinced himself that even if the spire had different domains, he could still blow up a chunk of it and destroy a majority of the structure. It would be easy now to make copies for the Digidestined - in fact he had the hardware backed up on the computer. He could send it to Izzy and Izzy could download the hardware onto the D3s and...
He fell asleep. Minomon relaxed when he no longer heard his Ken-chan muttering under his breath - he could only hear him breathing softly and see his chest rise up and down up and down. Before Minomon rested (he had taken naps in between and certainly wouldn't be as tired as his Ken-chan when he woke up) he sent the e-mail Ken had set up on his computer so that he wouldn't get up at night to do it himself, then hobbled over to the bed for one last look at his sleeping Ken-chan. He found a comfortable spot close to Ken's head and fell asleep with the lovely scent of Ken's hair in his nostrils.
~*~
Koushirou was impressed. Never in his life had he downloaded such a thorough program. The graphics were wonderful, and how he loved racing games! His computer beeped a familiar tune and Izzy paused the game to check his e-mail. It was from Ken. Koushirou wondered when he had sent it and looked at the time; 4:20am. He chuckled; the genius was an insomniac after his own heart. He wondered what the e-mail could say because Ken usually only e-mailed him if he was replying to an earlier message.
Koushirou opened it up and noticed that there was a download attached. The message itself only contained a few brief instructions, but did not mention what the program was. ~Wormmon wants me to rest now~ the note explained. The note itself was grammarically correct and the spelling was, naturally, perfect. If Koushirou had seen any less, he would have had to e-mail Ken right back and ask him if he was well.
The program was magnificently complicated - a pleasurable long night of work for Koushirou. Instructions directed him to fetch an old remote control of any kind (Koushirou had plenty of those - one for the television which he was too preoccupied to watch most of the time, and several more from old minature race cars which he had consistantly taken apart as a kid), some batteries, and a USB adapter for easy conversions. There were no instructions telling him *how* to write the program into the remote without a computer chip of any kind. So, for the rest of the night (he was planning to stay up all night wooing young girls on chat rooms anyway) he worked to build the chip from scratch.
A few loud curses and a couple of broken remotes later, Koushirou had developed a line of chips for each of the remaining controls. Honestly, although he would never admit it to anybody, he still wasn't sure what the program did. As he read further along in the instructions, his eyes widened and his hands went to his mouth. ~Step 4 - Point it to a control spire and watch what happens~ they simply said. Excited at the prospect, he e-mailed all of the Digidestined right away and asked them to bring along any spare remote controls they could find. Purposely, he didn't say why. He wanted to keep it a secret. Besides, Ken probably wanted to be out there first destroying the Spires with his new invention. Koushirou knew not to deprive the young genius of his chance to prove that he was a good guy now and always will be. Because of Ken's hard work and dedication he already respected and forgave him. Now everyone else would *have* to change their minds. He set to work on building even more chips.
~*~
Chibimon looked at his clumsy little paws in disgust. ~Rats~ he thought ~ how on Earth do I get this thing to stop beeping with these pudgy paws? Daisuke is not going to be too pleased if he wakes up early on a Saturday!~ The Digivice's pulsing mail button made Chibimon's head throb. Then he thought of a quick solution to the problem; he shoved the Digivice deep into Daisuke's sock and underwear drawer, behind the pink heart boxers he received from his aunt for Christmas and ta da! No more sound. Now Chibimon had to concentrate on his next task; getting some food for his empty in-training tummy.
When Daisuke finally woke up he was disasterously tardy and was welcomed at Koushirou's house by an array of unpleasant and impatient faces. He pointed and Chibimon and shouted, "It wasn't my fault!" while everyone else shook their heads. Suddenly Koushirou' s face broke out into a smile and he told Daisuke to sit down where ever he could find room. The room was filled to capacity with older and younger Digidestined, who were positioned all over the room. Mimi was absent, but she had promised to meet them in the Digital World later on - of course now she would be waiting since Daisuke was so late.
"What's up guys?" Daisuke began, matching Koushirou's grin.
"Nothing you can do today can spoil my mood. I have the greatest news!"
"You found a way to beat Tetris?" Daisuke asked. He was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, with Chibimon on his lap. He was having fun tapping a beat with both of his index fingers on Chibimon's skull. The young boy wasn't aware that he was doing it until the little creature bit a chunk out of his hand.
The group sighed impatiently, while Koushirou continued, "No, but I did make these!" He proudly held the remotes high in the air for all to see. Many Digidestined sweatdropped. "Fine, be that way. But just wait until you see what these babies can do. Miyako, would you be so kind and open the port?" Koushirou grabbed his sack of remotes and they were off into the Digital World with no clue about what Koushirou was up to. They assumed he had too many long nights.
Chaper 1: The Device
It was one of those days in which Ken felt desperate, useless and depressed. The Digiworld was a constant and heavy burden on his back, one of which he wished would condemn him and get it over with. Another useless battle with a Control Spire Digimon marked the downfall of his earlier creations. Any other day, as another Control Spire fell, he would feel a sense of joy that only he could contain. But today was different. Today nothing he did made him feel as though he had affected the outcome of the Digiworld's future.
Wormmon, in Stingmon form, could feel this within his partner and best friend. Even when the hundredth Control Spire downed for that day, Ken did not award Wormmon with his smile of in-depth gratitude and respect. In fact, he didn't even know that they had reached their goal for that day until Wormmon de-digivolved and was at his side, cuddling his left ankle. If Wormmon asked what was wrong, he knew Ken would not answer him. As Kaiser, Ken probably would have smacked Wormmon for asking such a demeaning question and would return to a state of pensiveness. He liked his side of Ken a lot better. Not because this Ken would never hurt him purposely, but because he was more able to help him and pry into his brain if he wanted. Today Wormmon thought that pressing the matter on such terms would be important.
"Please Ken," he begged. His large eyes shimmered in such way that one passing by would think that he was about to shed tears. "Tell me your woes?" He decided intonation would be best to use in this kind of situation. It appeared to be less demanding.
Ken started; apparently unaware that Wormmon was at his side once more. Then the smile of in-depth gratitude came, followed by a glint of sadness in his right eye. Wormmon rarely missed any signal, no matter how small, when Ken showed it in his eyes. He had mastered the art of reading eyes; he had no choice in the matter. Even if Ken was happy, his blank expression never once faltered. Well, maybe once or twice, as he had been around Daisuke more often and was re-learning how to show expression.
This was why Wormmon loved Daisuke. He was bringing out the Ken-chan that he never thought he would have back after the Kaiser incident. More than anything, Wormmon loved to go to sleepovers with his Ken-chan and listen to the stories they told until they fell asleep. Sometimes he wondered why Daisuke's mom chased the girls away when it got late and the boys wanted to sleep. 'Why can't the girls sleep over too?' he wondered. He had no fear in asking his Ken-chan, but he never did. For some reason he had the feeling that once he knew he would wish he hadn't asked.
Ken finally began to answer the question. "I don't know," was the answer. When he saw that Wormmon wasn't buying into that, he continued farther to the real reason. "I just feel unfulfilled."
Wormmon thought carefully before answering. "But we destroyed one hundred Control Spires today!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah," Ken said, but he didn't seem too excited. "Control Spires that I put up-"
"That you were tricked into putting up," Wormmon corrected.
"That I was tricked into putting up and that you knocked over, not me." Ken looked down at his shoes and lifted the leg Wormmon was clinging on to. When he brought him up to a decent height, he scooped him up into his bony arms and held his dear friend to his chest. "I want to do more."
Wormmon saw another familiar glint in Ken's marvelous eyes. That's another thing he had always wanted to say to Ken, that he has marvelous eyes. But the recognizable glint in Ken's eyes was far from marvelous. In fact, it was magnificent. Ken had a problem but he had come up with a plan.
"What do you have in mind?" Wormmon asked, squirming a little to get comfortable in Ken's arms and trying not to sound too eager at the same time. Ken started walking towards a tree bearing some kind of purple fruit to get his friend a snack. He picked with agility that only he could possess: one of knowing and perfect balance. Wormmon was so proud of his human friend that he just wanted to hug him to death, but didn't, for he knew that the sudden emotion and the touching would ruin this moment. He settled with sighing contentedly in the safety of Ken-chan's arms and waited patiently for a chance to eat.
When Ken was satisfied with the amount of food he had picked, he sat Wormmon down in front of it and crouched to watch his friend eat. The quantity of food that went on the exterior of Wormmon's insectoid mouth was comical, so much so that Ken needed to strain himself in order to keep from laughing. Wormmon saw this most favorite emotion in his Ken-chan's eyes, and encouraged him to laugh, as the sound of his laughter made Wormmon feel great. Ken allowed only a smile though, but Wormmon knew that even a smile was progress.
Then Ken began to speak of his project. "I want to create a device," he said, "that will destroy all control spires from a certain perimeter with the push of a button. If I made one for each of the Digidestined we would be out of spires in no time." And they would love him to death for it, he neglected to add.
"Can you really do that?" Wormmon mumbled between bites.
Ken smiled gently, and was now holding a record of smiling three times in the same day. If Wormmon glowed anymore with pride he would be a glowworm.
From his pocket Ken produced a chunk of dark black rock that he had picked up when Wormmon was destroying spires. Ken explained that he could examine that piece of the spire he had obtained to find a weak point in the magnetism. From there he could manipulate that spot and distort the make-up of the entire spire. Then the spire would implode into tiny, harmless fragments that could not possibly hurt any Digimon passing by.
Wormmon had noticing his bulging pocket previously, but dared not to say a word. He might eventually ask the sleep-over question someday, but this was one topic he would NOT bring up. Some time ago he had asked Ken rather loudly what was in his pocket, as it was making his pants bulge slightly. When the Digidestined turned to look, Ken placed his briefcase on his lap and blushed the deepest red Wormmon had ever seen. "I'll tell you later," he muttered shamefully and when he didn't Wormmon decided against bringing it up. The other Digidestined either cared enough not to say anything or didn't know what was going on. Wormmon had felt so bad that he wished Ken would leave him in the Digiworld so that he could cry and cry and cry. Later, at Ken's house, Ken assured him that it was okay to question when one didn't know what was off-limits. With Ken's forgiveness, the topic was dropped but not forgotten.
Wormmon nuzzled his Ken-chan's leg in approval. What a great plan. This would ensure that the creation of another control spire Digimon would be impossible. He saw another side to this as well. The Digidestined would have less to hold against Ken if he took back what he'd done. Ken could improve his relationship with the Digidestined, yes, but that was not his main goal. His main goal was to save the Digiworld from the advent of general takeover and destruction, as well as to banish all evil back to the dark world from which it had emerged. He beamed up with pride at his partner. If Ken-chan could do all of that, the end of the road to forgiveness was in sight.
The device his Ken-chan would make could effect him as well. Instead of Digivolving into Stingmon and manually killing control spires one by one, he could destroy several control spires at once with a push of a button. Mentally he kicked himself. 'Stupid foolish worm,' he said to his brain, 'and selfish at that!' He noticed his partner staring down at him worriedly, and before Wormmon could reassure him that he was hunky-dorry, Ken swooped him into the crook of his arm and told him that the project was for Wormmon too. He didn't like to order Wormmon around all of the time and this was the perfect solution. Also, he could join in the work and he and Wormmon would have fun during their visits to the Digital World. Ken-chan was so kind.
Ken also had a plan to build a small Digihospital from an old building which he had discovered while destroying control spires. He had instantly fallen in love with the grandeur of the building, with its wide arches and Roman-style peaks. A building that beautiful would be able to sway just about anymon to the doctor. Ken himself hated doctors and hospitals but hoped this project would help him get over his intense fear. There weren't many things he was afraid of, but even the thought of a hospital made him want to pay homage to the porcelain God. His hospital would be a combination of the most beautiful architecture he could mimic and every room would have a bed with a soft, springy mattress with a quilt fashioned by hand. Of course, he would have a lot of sewing to do, but with help from his mother (who had become curious at Ken's peaking interest in quilting) and hopefully the Digidestined as well, he would eventually accomplish this. The project would be long and laborous, but well worth it.
Why a hospital? Well, the Digital World had adopted plenty of information from the Real World (as the Digidestined called it, but now Ken wasn't so sure which world was more real) but for some reason neglected to adopt a hospital building. Ken had seen plenty of hurt Digimon and plenty of other Digimon that did well with treating the wounds of others'. He hoped they would all contribute to the well-being of the hospital.
He had no idea what to call it. It, of course, being the hospital building. Or maybe the device as well, but a name for something like that wasn't as important. The name of the hospital had to be something significant, catching and revelant. Something that didn't take away from the immense beauty of his imaginary hospital. Wormmon had suggested they call it, "Ken-chan's hospital" and Ken amiably explained that he was no longer a shallow, big-headed moron. But if he could think of anything that did not include his name, he should inform him right away. Wormmon could not think of anything. Oh well, he could ask the Digidestined later and they could have a vote for all of the Digimon to decide that factor. For now he would keep the hospital idea to himself.
Ken glanced at his watch and realized that he had just missed dinner. His mother would keep it warm for him, but he didn't want to cause any unnecessary worry. Lately he had been showing up later and later, and worrying his mother ill. The tardiness was completely unintentional, because Ken had only been rampaging after control spires and lost track of time. But how was someone to tell their parents something like that? So instead Ken made himself no excuses and marched to his room and stayed in there to punish himself. Minomon pointed out that the punishment was not necessary a relevant one for Ken, since he spent the majority of his time in his room already. His mother and father decided that they didn't want to punish their little prodigy, but should he do it again...
Ken couldn't afford to stay one day away from the Digital World. There was so much to do in so little time. Yet he kept falling into the trap of time and ruining his entire plan. He had no choice but to go back home right away and lie to his parents.
Minomon and Ken entered the bedroom in complete silence through the computer. Before Ken had ventured into the Digital World, he had placed the mattress from his bed before the computer, which ensured a safe, soundless landing. To put his plan into action, he dashed to the window to draw the shades and slipped on his pyjama before Minomon could cover his eyes. They both could smell supper and their little tummies growled with the anticipation of food, but they would have to stay disciplined in order for the plan to work.
With the mattress back in its orginal place, Ken made a soft place by his pillow to rest Minomon. If he thought correctly, his mother checked in on him every half hour, every day, to see if he was back yet. That is, only when he wasn't at school. It was a lot better than before, when his dad had to tell her to stop checking up on him every fifteen minutes, day and night. He wondered if his mother was an insomniac.
She did check up on him, right on schedule too. Politely, she knocked on the door, unwilling to catch her Ken-chan in a bad moment. Ken crawled down the ladder and prepared to put his plan into action. He double checked the mirror to make sure it really looked like he had been sleeping, then he unbolted the door and opened it for his mother.
"Oh!" his mother exclaimed when she saw her son was in his jammies. "Ken, honey, you slept right through dinner."
"I'm sorry mom. I shouldn't have locked the door."
"Nonsense, I should have been louder. Um, I thought you weren't even home, how silly of me. Are you hungry dear?" Ken nodded viciously. "That's good! I'll get your food, I put it in the oven."
Ken bowed and thanked her to show his approval. His mother scurried off to retrieve the food, pleased that her son didn't run away, as he was asleep for so long. When she returned, he took the tray of food and bowed once more as he shut the door. Before the door closed she added, "You can always have more!" then returned to her duties in the kitchen.
Minomon ate one plate after another, without ever skipping a beat. Ken on the other hand, picked at his food in thought. When Minomon finally looked up from his meal, he saw that his Ken-chan wasn't eating and dashed to his side. He nudged Ken's tummy with his rounded little head, but it was like he wasn't even there. Once, a long time ago he remembered, he would not touch his Ken-chan like this - he would not dare - but now he could even yell without getting in trouble. They hadn't raised there voices at all after he was reborn which was good, but Minomon still had severe anxiety when it came to his Ken-chan. And he was noticing that Ken-chan was not emoting like the other children. Maybe it was because he was a genius and he didn't need to, but Minomon wasn't sure. All he was sure of was his love for Ken.
"Ken-chan!" he called, "Eat, eat eat!"
"Ohuh? Sorry, I will Minomon."
"You'd better," he huffed, "I won't have you getting sick on *my* watch."
Ken ate slowly, as he was still thinking hard. He would have to fix the antennae to transmit radio waves equivalent to that of the control spire piece. But were the magnetic domains in each section of the control spire the same, or did they change as you went up? He sighed and started picking at his food again. What a fool he was! He should have taken more samples when he had the chance, so that he wouldn't risk it on the one piece and then have to go back. The device could always wait until tomorrow, but he had a math test the next day and he'd been planning this for a long time.
Minomon sighed; Ken was doing it again! Why did his Ken-chan have to be so stubborn? He didn't want to yell at him, but Ken was worrying him even more than usual. He thought about his nights waiting for a young Ken-chan to come and get him and how skinny he had become during his wait. Only when he found his Ken-chan had he started to eat like he was now. With all of the wandering he did as a baby, he hardly had time to eat. In fact, he remembered some kind female Digimon bringing him food along his journey. He determined that female Digimon had an instinct to care for younger Digimon. Digidestined baby Digimon were pitied most of all - they had to constantly fight for the balance of darkness and light, they were ordered around by human beings who didn't know what they were doing, and they were never rewarded by anymon for all of their efforts. Wormmon was no longer a baby when he finally met up with his Ken-chan, but he would always remember the journey he made.
The course of Ken and Wormmon's relationship was planned to be a disaster ever since the idea had come about. All Digidestined are Destined from the moment of their birth. The qualities they possess are not learned - they come with the rest of the package. Ken's package was jostled at a crucial moment, and that interrupted the balance. The package that was closest, which had been Kari's, was jostled too, and ended up dragging her away from her Destiny until a crucial moment. Ken's package, it was decided, would wait until later, until the balance of the Digiworld was restored for a certain amount of time.
Unbeknownst to Ken was the world's need to rid him of his brother. Had his brother been alive, an important card would not have been dealt and the balance would have wavered. Light would have taken over dark and no one would have done anything because light is perceived to be good. But the unbalance of light would have shifted the Digital World into nothingness - the planet and all of its creatures would have died. So, the darkness planned to kill off Ken's big brother, as he held the key to the entrance of the Digital World, and there was no way he was going to let Ken-chan play with it anymore.
Ken himself did not remember much. He did know that everything had been done for a purpose and that Osamu was probably doing better in the afterlife than he ever would on Earth. The good memories of his brother were blocked, so that he wouldn't miss him as much. But the pain still lingered no matter how badly he thought of him.
Right now Ken wasn't thinking of Osamu, he was thinking of his project. To Minomon's delight, he hurried to finished his rice, carried the cart to the kitchen for washing, then began working on the project he had so eagerly wanted to start. When he got to the desk he saw that a quarter, a dime and a small refrigerator magnet were stuck onto the piece of rock. Quickly, he fashioned a radiometer out of an old television remote control and set to work creating a frequency for the magnetic domains. Ken rarely swore when he was working a project, but this one was so important that he couldn't help but feel a little more anxious. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Minomon wince and apologized profusedly. He hadn't meant to be so impolite.
By 4am, Minomon finally convinced Ken to get some rest. The only reason why he complied was because the device was finally completed. He convinced himself that even if the spire had different domains, he could still blow up a chunk of it and destroy a majority of the structure. It would be easy now to make copies for the Digidestined - in fact he had the hardware backed up on the computer. He could send it to Izzy and Izzy could download the hardware onto the D3s and...
He fell asleep. Minomon relaxed when he no longer heard his Ken-chan muttering under his breath - he could only hear him breathing softly and see his chest rise up and down up and down. Before Minomon rested (he had taken naps in between and certainly wouldn't be as tired as his Ken-chan when he woke up) he sent the e-mail Ken had set up on his computer so that he wouldn't get up at night to do it himself, then hobbled over to the bed for one last look at his sleeping Ken-chan. He found a comfortable spot close to Ken's head and fell asleep with the lovely scent of Ken's hair in his nostrils.
~*~
Koushirou was impressed. Never in his life had he downloaded such a thorough program. The graphics were wonderful, and how he loved racing games! His computer beeped a familiar tune and Izzy paused the game to check his e-mail. It was from Ken. Koushirou wondered when he had sent it and looked at the time; 4:20am. He chuckled; the genius was an insomniac after his own heart. He wondered what the e-mail could say because Ken usually only e-mailed him if he was replying to an earlier message.
Koushirou opened it up and noticed that there was a download attached. The message itself only contained a few brief instructions, but did not mention what the program was. ~Wormmon wants me to rest now~ the note explained. The note itself was grammarically correct and the spelling was, naturally, perfect. If Koushirou had seen any less, he would have had to e-mail Ken right back and ask him if he was well.
The program was magnificently complicated - a pleasurable long night of work for Koushirou. Instructions directed him to fetch an old remote control of any kind (Koushirou had plenty of those - one for the television which he was too preoccupied to watch most of the time, and several more from old minature race cars which he had consistantly taken apart as a kid), some batteries, and a USB adapter for easy conversions. There were no instructions telling him *how* to write the program into the remote without a computer chip of any kind. So, for the rest of the night (he was planning to stay up all night wooing young girls on chat rooms anyway) he worked to build the chip from scratch.
A few loud curses and a couple of broken remotes later, Koushirou had developed a line of chips for each of the remaining controls. Honestly, although he would never admit it to anybody, he still wasn't sure what the program did. As he read further along in the instructions, his eyes widened and his hands went to his mouth. ~Step 4 - Point it to a control spire and watch what happens~ they simply said. Excited at the prospect, he e-mailed all of the Digidestined right away and asked them to bring along any spare remote controls they could find. Purposely, he didn't say why. He wanted to keep it a secret. Besides, Ken probably wanted to be out there first destroying the Spires with his new invention. Koushirou knew not to deprive the young genius of his chance to prove that he was a good guy now and always will be. Because of Ken's hard work and dedication he already respected and forgave him. Now everyone else would *have* to change their minds. He set to work on building even more chips.
~*~
Chibimon looked at his clumsy little paws in disgust. ~Rats~ he thought ~ how on Earth do I get this thing to stop beeping with these pudgy paws? Daisuke is not going to be too pleased if he wakes up early on a Saturday!~ The Digivice's pulsing mail button made Chibimon's head throb. Then he thought of a quick solution to the problem; he shoved the Digivice deep into Daisuke's sock and underwear drawer, behind the pink heart boxers he received from his aunt for Christmas and ta da! No more sound. Now Chibimon had to concentrate on his next task; getting some food for his empty in-training tummy.
When Daisuke finally woke up he was disasterously tardy and was welcomed at Koushirou's house by an array of unpleasant and impatient faces. He pointed and Chibimon and shouted, "It wasn't my fault!" while everyone else shook their heads. Suddenly Koushirou' s face broke out into a smile and he told Daisuke to sit down where ever he could find room. The room was filled to capacity with older and younger Digidestined, who were positioned all over the room. Mimi was absent, but she had promised to meet them in the Digital World later on - of course now she would be waiting since Daisuke was so late.
"What's up guys?" Daisuke began, matching Koushirou's grin.
"Nothing you can do today can spoil my mood. I have the greatest news!"
"You found a way to beat Tetris?" Daisuke asked. He was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, with Chibimon on his lap. He was having fun tapping a beat with both of his index fingers on Chibimon's skull. The young boy wasn't aware that he was doing it until the little creature bit a chunk out of his hand.
The group sighed impatiently, while Koushirou continued, "No, but I did make these!" He proudly held the remotes high in the air for all to see. Many Digidestined sweatdropped. "Fine, be that way. But just wait until you see what these babies can do. Miyako, would you be so kind and open the port?" Koushirou grabbed his sack of remotes and they were off into the Digital World with no clue about what Koushirou was up to. They assumed he had too many long nights.