Hey fanfic world! Ok, I've decided that I'm going to try for at least one chapter a week for Mind Games and every other week for Apolake's Rising. I'm kinda suffering from writer's block on that one; I know where to go with it, I'm just not sure how it's going to work. Anyways, I'm glad people read the chapter, wasn't really expecting reviews on this one ^_^. But I digress, enjoy chapter 2!

Disclaimer: I. own. NOTHING. Seriously, if I did, do you think I would be writing fanfiction? Wait, I do own the plot though.

Chapter 2: And So the Wheels Turn

Tai hated Izzy at the moment. Still in his soccer uniform, he trudged along the lamp post lit path, cursing the fact that Izzy just had to live in the dorm building four blocks away from his own dorm. Now most people would think that anyone could walk a few blocks, especially an athlete who spends a majority of his sport running around. Well, this would have been perfectly fine, if he had not just finished a soccer game an hour ago at a stadium on the other side of the campus. 'I really need a car.' Tai could only grumble as he jammed a pair of earphones into his ears. After Tai handed his phone to Izzy, the prodigy felt sympathetic and loaned him one of his older MP3's made from with his own designs. He would have loaned him a phone, but he had just sold his last model to Caine a few days ago.

At the very least, the trips to Izzy's place were never really bad since it usually allowed him to pass by the beautiful Kappa Beta Phi Sorority home, and he was not talking about the complex. Sadly though, his good fortune would become quite a problem for him.

"Hey Tai!" A fellow team mate shouted from the rooftop of the building, about to jump into the pool several feet below. Tai waved back amiably before he continued forward.

"Taichi! Taichi!" Caine hollered from inside the building. The woman from a week ago stood next to him, red Dixie cups in both their hands. Yet again, Tai shook his head and gestured to the building across the street.

"Great game tonight Tai! C'mon, party with us!" Now this part was the most painful for him to deny. A few women, all wearing over-sized Bruins jerseys, and not much else judging from the amount of leg shown, had exited the building and were waving at him like lunatics. Now, ever since Tai had been a freshman, he had had a special fondness for Kappa Beta Phi. It was at one of their parties where he had learned to better communicate with the opposite sex. It was one of their sisters who had asked HIM out for the first time. Hell, he even woke up to his first 'morning after' hang over at that very sorority, wearing only his boxers along with the words 'test monkey' spray painted all over his chest and back. Yes, Kappa Beta Phi had been good to him through the years. Even now, it was all too difficult to reject a party invite from them. 'I'll only be a few minutes, Izzy won't eve-' before Tai could continue that train of thought, his conscious fired back at him just as quickly, 'He has your iPhone'.

Now Tai was conflicted. What should he pick? Should he go to the many pretty women of Kappa Phi, or the endless amount of enjoyable applications not to mention the ability to use his phone after a week? 'Pick the phone.' His conscious droned on.

'But the ladies are asking for me.'

'Pick the phone.'

'But c'mon it's a victory party! We always go to those!'

'Since when do you refer to yourself as more than one person? Go Izzy's house. Now.'

'Bro, THEY'RE NOT WEARING ANYTHING!'

'Since when were you a swinemon? Phone!'

'Swine Flue? Wait, never mind. Hey! Who scored the winning goal during overtime?! I think that at least deserves a conscious free choice!'

'Do you even remember why you need to pick up your phone in the first place?'

"Hey Tai?" He was snapped out of his internal argument by the women who had called out to him earlier. A couple of them were giving him strange looks while the woman addressing him was trying to suppress a giggle. Tai took a moment to check out the woman in the front; Hazel eyes, tan complexion, nice long legs, and short dark hair, all aspects looked at in the span of two seconds (A/N Seriously, can any guy explain how that is even POSSIBLE?! All my guy friends just call it God's gift to men, but I'm still skeptical.) "Yeah?"

"You ARE aware that you just spent the past two minutes making faces at a lamp post, right?" True enough, when Tai faced forward he was face to face with one of the University lamp posts littered throughout the roads. With a chuckle, Tai turned back to face them, slightly pink with embarrassment, "Sorry about that ladies, had too much to drink, you know?" This comment seemed to peak their interest, "Well you do seemed flushed. Maybe you need to sit down." The woman at the front of the group took one of the ear buds out and whispered the words into his ear, the other women waiting on his response. Tai could not resist the urge to smile at the action. "You're right. Maybe I should take a break and be with you then?"

'Dear Azulongmon, is this man really my partner? Tai! You were going to Izzy's place to pick up your phone because he was looking at the CREST SHINING ON IT! Is this ringing any bells?' At this, Tai seemed to snap out of it and pull back from the woman's hand. "On second thought, I really need to be somewhere right now. How about I take a rain check?" The woman looked slightly disappointed but smiled none the less. "Alright, say hi to Meems and her boyfriend for me would you?"

They all flashed him a smile before walking back into the house. Near the front door, Caine waited, hand outstretched. With a huff, the entire group reached into their shorts pockets and each handed him a twenty. Caine, with his arm still over the woman, counted off the bills, "Pleasure doing business with you ladies."

As they went back to the party, the woman he was holding looked up at him, "How did you know? Tai was never known to reject a pretty girl before." Caine just sent her a cryptic smile, "A pretty girl? Never. But for a beautiful ex-love? Japanese super models could be offering him a massage and he'd say no. So Rita," he pocketed the bills and placed his Dixie cup on the ground ", let's ditch this party. How about I use this money to take you to a restaurant off campus? Their fettuccini is delicious." With a nod, the woman started to pack up and follow. Caine took this moment to steal a glance at Tai, the black number 10 on his back contrasting with the bright lights he walked under.

'So, it's THE Sora Takenouchi. Good luck pal.' He made a mental note to thank Izzy for naming the people in Tai's dream, offered his arm to Rita, and escorted her to the campus parking lot in search for his car. 'You're going to need it, if you're going up against THE Matt Ishida.'

As his car disappeared into the night, the same short haired woman appeared out of thin air and looked at the soccer player entering a dorm building. A menacing smirk adorned her beautiful features as she slowly followed.

"Stupid responsibility to the Digital World… stupid Crest of Courage…I wanted to party hardy… why did Izzy ask me to come NOW of all times…" Tai grumbled as he arrived to Izzy's dormitory. Since the building was so close to the Kappa Phi sorority complex, everyone in the building was either at their victory party, trying to study at one of the libraries, or sleeping at a friends place to avoid the sound. So it was not hard for Tai to recognize the only light that was still on as Izzy's.

'Don't be like that Tai! We might be able to meet up soon if what Tentomon is saying is right!'

"I must be a party addict; missing one is driving me CRAZY! Maybe I should go to those self-help meetings." He proceeded to talk to himself in a nervously high pitched voice, "Hi, I'm Taichi Kamiya and I party too hardy. I seem to have a voice in my head that flirts with me when not in contact with a female! I'm already getting to first base: Where my conscious wants to meet up with me!" Tai, becoming more and more amused at his own antics shouted to the ceiling, "BUT WHY MUST THE CONSCIOUS SOUND NOT FEMININE?! WHY?!?! I mean at least use a voice… that doesn't… sound… like… AGUMON?!" Tai seemed to spazz out as he turned around, frantically looking for his companion that he had not seen in 8 years.

'Tai, I'm not there! Check your ear!' Without any thought, he ran face first into the nearest mirror to check his ears for any digital infection or something like that. Ignoring the throbbing in his head, he touched the earphone still in his ear confusingly.

'See Tai? I'm using…device…contact…talk… Hey… STOP IT!' Tai, who had been pulling the earphone back and forth from his ear jumped, nearly dropping both earphones. "How'd you know I was doing that?"

'There's a security camera right behind you and I'm looking at the mirror.'

"O…k… I'm guessing Izzy has something to do with all this?"

'Well not really. Now go to his room so he can explain what's going on! We're in a little deep.' With a nod, Tai ran up to the elevator and punched in the number 4. The already slow elevator seemed much slower than usual to Tai; Agumon seemed to hear the music playing through the elevator speakers and the next 30 seconds were dedicated to the fire Digimon trying to sing along with Hannah Montana's 'Party in the USA' (A/N First, I don't own that song or the artist. Second, I won't deny it, the song is catchy, and I'm laughing at the mental image of Agumon in one of Hannah Montana's outfits and singing off key!)

"Agumon, hahaha… stop, haha stop, you're pfft, killing me!" Tai guffawed as he fell out of the elevator, hand clutching at his stomach.

'So I put my HAAAANNDS UP THEY'RE PLAYIIINNGG MY SONG, AND THE BUTTERMON FLLLYY AWAYYYY!!!' At this point, Tai just stuffed the earphones back into his pocket. After taking a moment to compose himself, he slipped into the room closest to the elevator, a faded PRODIGIOUS sticker placed near the top. "Hey, Izzy I'm he-" Tai took a moment to stare at the couple currently on the bed, turned around and walked out the door, "Uhhh… I guess tell me when you're done?"

"Gah, Tai, this ISN'T what it looks like!"

"What isn't what what looks like now? I suffer from short term memory loss." He sent a sly smile at the flustered computer genius. "Seriously, Tai! This is all just a misunderstanding! Right Mimi?!" He looked desperately to his girlfriend who was casually buttoning up the large shirt she was wearing, "Of course Tai, what is there to say about a man and a woman alone in an empty building??" She fluttered her eyes innocently and sent a wink in Izzy's direction; if Izzy was not red before, he definitely was now. Tai smile only widened.

"So I'm guessing he was good?"

"HEY I'M STILL HERE YOU KNOW!!" Mimi chuckled and gave the uncomfortable Izzy a small peck on the cheek, "You know we were just kidding Kou-chan, you're just so much fun to rile up!"

"Yeah you know we love you the mostest!" Tai cooed as he pinched his other cheek. Izzy swatted him away with one hand and wrapped his other arm around Mimi's waist, "Why did I pick these two to be my best friends again?"

"Hey! Girlfriend by definition means best friend!"

"Well I DID basically hook you up with a model." Both answered simultaneously.

Izzy just sighed once again. The short period of silence gave Tai a chance to look at his surroundings. The layout was relatively simple: Full size bed in the center, a closet on one side of the room, a flat screen TV propped up on the wall near the foot of Izzy's bed, a table covered in textbooks, and a mini fridge right next to it. The room was surrounded by various speakers either lying on the floor or propped up on bookshelves. Various posters were scattered along his walls, more dominantly blown up album covers from the band, The Wolves. Izzy did not have a computer since he managed to turn the widescreen TV his parents had given him into a computer monitor. Add in a broken tower from Alienware turned mega processing unit, and he had transformed his dorm room into his old room in Japan. He even had a separate table for his yellow and white PiBook which was charging next to the bed. In one corner of the room, near Izzy's overflowing closet, lay four small handbags on top of five large bright pink suitcases.

After a few minutes of playing catch up with Mimi who had returned early at the mention of Tai's phone, Tai could not help but ask, "So… why were you guys like that if you weren't doing THAT?" He gestured to the two; when he first came in, all he saw was Mimi putting on one of Izzy's button ups and Izzy himself slipping on a black V-Neck while trying to stand up. Before the genius could answer, a nasally voice projected itself through the various speakers surrounding Izzy's room. "Well I must say that it is partially my fault, but this matter is quite urgent." From Izzy's TV/computer, a robotic red insect with large green eyes popped onto the screen.

"Hey Tento! What up-"

"I swear Tai, if you finish that sentence with 'mon' I'm posting your schizophrenic episode in the lounge on youtube."

"…bro?"

"Better."

"ANYWAYS, what Tento was about to say was that it was all a misunderstanding right?"

"Oh, yes, thanks Mimi! Now where was I? Oh yes! Well-

Flashback

The bug type Digimon known as Tentomon was strolling down the main square of Primary Village. All was good in the world; no virus digimon to speak of, the firewalls were intact, bright clear skies, and a fresh batch of digicookies to devour back at the main base,

"Wait, you have a base? And more than one base?"

"Tai, it is rude to interrupt my story, PUNISHMENT! Uploading video, Epic Spazz, onto youtube(.)com, under profile kingTai01."

"Wait a sec! You can have my rhapsody membership!"

"That would be appropriate. Anyways-"

Tentomon was just heading back to base when a thunderous earthquake shook the town, leaving spaces of static scattered around town. Several Digimon had appeared and were scavenging the village for any significant losses. "The north and south east quadrants are safe, but the digi eggs…two thirds of them have been turned into corrupt data, we need a deletion team over there soon!"

"Main Square has become a scrap heap! It's practically blank space…"

"The weird fuzzy space seems dangerous! Only the DBI are allowed to inspect them!"

"DBI?"

"The Digital Bureau of Investigation."

"Explains the base at least."

A small pink and blue bird broke free from the crowd surrounding the bug digimon, "Tentomon! Come quickly! It's Agumon and Palmon! Something's wrong with them!"

Both Digimon made a beeline to the entrance of the village. At the far end of the plain lay a small dinosaur digimon and a cactus digimon of the same type glaring at each other. Tentomon tried to approach but Biyomon pulled him back, "No look closer!" Upon closer inspection, Tentomon noticed that the two were in fact, frozen in place, the perimeter around them turned black and white. The moment he noticed this, he tried to step back, but was unable to move; one foot had entered the black and white space and was quickly spreading through his body. Before he had time to scream out, his vision went black.

"And the next thing I knew, I was on the internet a week later. I tried to get back on to the Digiworld server, but my access was denied by an unknown I did some net surfing and I found the IP address of Stanford's internet connection. Next thing I know, I show up on Izzy's TV screen and he's screaming like a little girl after Mimi spilled something on him." This earned a chuckle and a glare from Mimi and Izzy respectively. Tai spoke out before the need to tease the genius, followed by very probable video upload, came out,

"Wait, that doesn't explain why, YOU'RE wearing one of his shirts Meems."

"Well," The brunnette shrugged, "I knew you'd be coming up and wanted to see the reaction." Tai could only laugh.

"I have taught you well young Padawan. Anyways," He turned to the Digimon on the screen, "what you're saying is that the static space kicked you, Agumon, and Palmon out of the Digiworld indefinitely?"

Tentomon scratched at one of his antennas, "Well, actually, all the originals were kicked out. I tried a scan to find Agumon and Palmon but instead found all eight of us floating on various electrical connections. I have already contacted the other Digimon and we have all decided to go to our respective partners."

"…"

"…"

"…"

Now, there are many variations of silence. There is the comfortable silence that usually comes after a friendly conversation, a laugh at a good joke, anything that comes after something previously comfortable. There is the awkward silence, the kind of silence after one tries to start up conversations that usually fall flat after the first response or when you have witnessed something so awkward that the words just will not come out naturally. Then there is the tense silence. The kind of silence when you either know that something terrible is going to happen, or when something wrong has happened but no one wishes to address it. The silence following Tentomon's statement was neither comfortable nor awkward. All of the Digidestined in the room knew that something was wrong, but could not admit it out loud. It was one thing for the Digimon to be locked out of the D-Server; another Digidestined could have set up the firewall and botched the programming, but that only explained the firewalls. The static distortions just happened to appear at the literal birthplace of Digimon and attempted to corrupt all of the unborn Digimon. It was too convenient to be a mistake. Everyone knew it had to be the work of another force and no one enjoyed the implications that followed.

With a sigh, Tai walked over to Izzy's table to pick up his Crest free iPhone, "So," he ran a hand through his mass of brown hair, "when should I start packing?" While Izzy went to work purchasing plane tickets, Mimi made a similar gesture, "Here we go again…"

Done! It be short but it is what it is! This was supposed to be posted on Saturday but the hotel I was staying at for the weekend had a weak net signal… but that can't really explain why I didn't post it on Tuesday huh… ah well it's here and that's all that matters! Oh yeah, and to the Sorato fans, I like the pairing, I really do, I just like Taiora MORE. So if you don't like the pairing, don't read my fic. Simple as that. Just pass this story up and read a Sorato fic.

Until next time

-gamings-reminiscence