Real World: Kamia Residence

Saturday, March 15th

18:30

"Happy Birthday Kari!"

Kari was greeted lovingly as she and T.K. entered the doorway to her family's apartment. Crammed in her living room stood the other original Digidestined, save for Mimi and Joe. Cody, Davis, Ken, and Yolei were there along with their Digimon, as well as Patamon, and Gatomon.

She gasped in feigned excitement, "You guys threw me a surprise party?". She smiled. She acted taken aback. Davis had let it slip to her a week ago about the surprise party T.K. and Tai had planned for her. Davis was never good at keeping secrets. It is an unfortunate side effect of never being able to shut one's mouth.

"Yeeeeah. You don't have to act surprised Kari," Yolei chimed in. "Mr. Diarrhea Mouth over there told us that he told you."

Davis let out a loud sigh, "Come on you guys you know that I can't keep secrets for shit! I can't be responsible for that much information!"

Kari laughed, "It's alright Davis, you were just so excited and didn't want to keep anything from me is all."

Davis's face became marked with his famous ornery grin as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder to herded her towards the living room table, "That's right beautiful, shows how much of a gentleman I am, never lying to you."

He never gives up, Kari thought as she rolled her eyes.

She was then greeted by her mother's cake. Their mother had described it to Tai as "A 3 layer gluten-free, vegan, chickpea paste, strawberry cake." Tai felt like he should have warned them all, but seeing their faces as they took their first bites proved much more amusing to him. Tai tried to convince his mother to buy a cake from a bakery, without crushing her feelings by telling her that her cooking was atrocious. But their mother found this suggestion ridiculous. Why spend money when it was the perfect opportunity for her to try a new recipe?

After eating what they could of the cake, Tai asked "So what do you think about getting to the presents now…"

"Ooo! Ooo! Kari!" Davis interrupted as he shoved a rather crudely wrapped box in her face, "Open mine first!"

"Wow Davis did a toddler wrap that for you?', Cody snickered.

"Shut up dweeb!", Davis responded.

Kari proceeded to open all of her wonderful presents from her fellow Digidestineds. Davis's ego was very much stroked knowing how much she liked the pink athletic shoes and SD card he bought her for her and her camera. She thanked them all vehemently for their wonderful offerings. T.K. was rather quiet throughout the duration of the party. He had yet to give her her birthday gift. His hand shook ever so slightly.

Why am I so nervous? He thought. Of course she'll like it, won't she? Why do I have to muster up this much courage to hand it to her? I'm such a weirdo.

"Um, Kari?" T.K.'s asked. "You have one more." He pulled out a small, white, glossy box, "I..uh... hope you like it."

Kari took the box from him and removed the lid. It was filled with a soft, white cotton cushioning. On top of it rested a necklace. She gasped. She had never seen anything so beautiful. In the box was a silver necklace with a silver charm that resembled the Crest of Light. In the center of the charm was mounted a shimmering pink diamond.

"Oh my god," she said. "T.K. thank you! This is so beautiful. I-it's the same symbol on my crest. Where did you find something like this?"

T.K. blushed, "I uh, just, had it specially made….that's a real diamond too."

"T.K...this must have cost you a fortune."

She was right. It did cost him a tiny fortune, "Well..I mean..yeah. But, it's your birthday." He shrugged one of his shoulders as he smiled., "You're worth every penny of it."

As T.K. and Kari looked and smiled at one another just a little bit longer than what would be considered normal as a silence fell across the room. Sora could feel the the aura of awkward start to grow as the other Digidestineds began to look at one another, unable to determine if they should be the ones to break the moment. More importantly, she began to see the jealousy heating and fuming up off of Davis.

It was as if everyone could hear him as he thought, That. Freaking. ASSHOLE.

Sora let out an awkward laugh and began to bound toward Kari's seat at the table, "Heyyyy Kari, let me help you put that on. After all, what 16-year-old girl doesn't need some bling right?"

Matt shook his head.

At least he's trying now...I guess, Matt thought.

For some reason he always felt himself being frustrated over T.K. Waiting for T.K. to do something. To make some kind of move. He knew that being a big brother meant that it was his duty to help his little brother out whenever he could, but this was something that T.K. was going to have to figure out on his own.

"Hey weren't the other Digimon supposed to be here too?" Patamon asked as he flew over to T.K. and landed on top of his head. He leaned his head downward until his eyes were at the same level as T.K.'s and whispered, "Good job buddy." as he winked at him.

T.K. blushed and scolded in a hushed tone, "Shhh! Patamon knock it off!"

Kari smiled as she looked down at her pendant and clasped it between her thumb and pointer finger. She had heard what Patamon said. T.K.'s embarrassment made her heart flutter.

"Oh yeah that's right." Sora responded. "They said something about...having to secure their areas they're looking after in the Digital World first? And then they were supposed to meet up and we're supposed to bring them through. But they haven't contacted us yet."

"Maybe they're just running late," Kari said.

Sora's Digivice began to let out a wrenching alarm. As it clung to her hip it's screen flashed an ominous red. Its sudden signal made the whole team jump.

"What's going on?", Sora said as she fumbled with her Digivice, she eventually found the button to silence the device but the screen still flashed.

Izzy's laptop began to make the same alarm. As he open it, the screen flashed a red pop-up window containing the message: DISTRESS SIGNAL ACTIVATED - HOST:BIYOMON. A feminine, robotic voice began to blare from his speakers, "BIYOMON. DISTRESS. SIGNAL...BIYOMON. DISTRESS. SIGNAL...BIYOMON. DISTRESS…"

"What does that mean?" Sora asked, "What's wrong with Biyomon?!"

"IZZY!", Tai exclaimed with his hands cupped over his ears, trying his best to shout over the repeating message, "Shut that thing the hell up!"

Izzy noticed that there was a "view" and "ignore" option for the window. He clicked 'view' and the alarm was silenced. His computer brought up the Digital World Portal Program and zoomed in on a portion of a map of the digital world that contained a red blinking light. He could only assume that the light was Biyomon.

Suddenly a video transmission from one of the TV portals appeared. They heard the voice of Gabumon cry out, "Matt! Sora! Tai! Anyone! Help!" as his figure began to appear on the fuzzy grey screen.

"Gabumon!" Matt nearly shoved Izzy out of the way to get in front of the computer screen. "What's going on?"

"Is Biyomon ok?" Sora interjected.

"We need you right away." Gabumon stated. "Biyomon and the Yokomon village were attacked. She's...she's not doing well. They almost killed her."

"I'M THERE! DIGIPORT OPEN!" Sora shouted as she raised her Digivice towards the screen. As fast as she was engulfed in yellow light, she was gone.

"Sora wait!" Matt pleaded. But it was too late. "Damnit! Why would she just go like that?"

"We have to go too," Kari said.

"Hold on a sec," Tai interjected. "I think it'll be ok. It looks like whoever she was fighting is gone. Let the big kids handle this," He said as he smiled towards Matt. "Besides it's your birthday, you're not supposed to be dealing with anything today."

"But…"

"No 'buts'. You just stay here and enjoy your day. We'll be back soon." Tai and Matt raised their digivices towards the screen and vanished.

"I'll go too," Yolei said. "Just in case they need someone who can Armor Digivolve. Happy Birthday Kari. We'll be back soon!" Both her and Hawkmon were then engulfed in light and vanished.

The others were left alone in silence in Kari's living room.

"Well," Davis said raising his arms and rested his hands on the back of his head. "This is new."