Digimon – End Users

Episode 2 – Not set in Stone

Come rain, hail, or ankle deep snow the protesters would be there. Sara had always wondered why Dia was fronted by a pseudo animal testing laboratory, didn't it just make them a target? The car slowly rolled past the shouts and placards that were banged against it. It was the same every morning, not that Sara worked every morning. A car would, three days a week, pick her up from her home in Kent and take her to Mithro Labs on the outskirts of London. It looked like one of those official government cars, which she supposed it was, but she would have preferred to travel to work in something less conspicuous, but security was of the utmost importance and the protesters were the least of their worries. Keeping their anninimity was necessary. Lymon sat in the baby seat next to her, the mon had protested at first at having to sit in a babies' seat but had been forced to accept that if they had to brake quickly no amount of flying would help her. Though the fact that she was reading the Daily Telegraph did make it look weird, well, more so than usual.

There was a light drizzle splattering down the windows as the car got past the line of protesters and turned into the long drive up to the main building. Mithro Sciences was based in a large, white mansion that had been in the Longfarth family for generations. Of course, what could be seen was only a small amount of what was actually there. Much of the structure went underground and connected with another building miles away, which was officially a chemical produce development company though in reality it was just another part of Dia.

The car pulled up to the side of the building and rounded a corner. Though the grounds were surrounded by high hedge lines and patrolled by armed guards no one wanted to risk having their face seen by someone one the road, so the front entrance was rarely used.

Sara unclipped her seatbelt and did the same for Lymon. She got out of the car, Lymon floating behind her, her paper folded under her small arm, as they headed into the building. Sara put her face to the moulded plate on the on the inner door and allowed the scanner to see her eye. The lock made a happy beep and the door opened. The inside of the mansion looked just how you would expect it to look but with a functional edge. Most big old mansions were just for show, no one actually lived in them. Like Buckingham Palace, when you were a kid you thought the Queen lived there and ate her Frosties on the sofa but in reality much of it was off limits to everyone, with the pompous velvet ropes to let you know that everything behind them was worth more than your life insurance. The Mithro mansion had ornate paintings and hideously expensive chandeliers but it also had work stations and a tea lounge. This was a place where people worked, it just looked nicer than the average office.

Sara headed for one of the labs, politely greeting the other workers along the way, she had something she wanted to check out.

"Oh, Sara." Said one of her colleagues, looking up from a report he was holding.

"Morning Terry," Said Sara "That the new information on the data line?"

"Yes!" Said Terry, his face lighting up even as he struggled to hold two clipboards and a cup of coffee "We've got some new ideas on that, we were wondering if you'd had any more luck with Magemon."

"No luck so far." Said Lymon from Sara's shoulder before Sara could answer.

"Why, what do you know?" Said Sara.

"Well, you know how we thought it was just a case of getting the right sequence? Well, we now think it may have something to do with the length of the data line."

"The length of it?"

"Yes, more data may require a bigger line."

Sara thought about that "Yes...yes that would make sense. But I've only ever been able to get one length."

"Yes, we're working on that too, if you could come down to D8-wait! No, sorry, er...was meant to say, got sidetracked, Durain wants to see you."

Aw, poo. Thought Sara, though aloud she said "Oh, right, thanks. I'll come see you guys later then."

"Yes, please do, we'd really like to check out this theory."

Sara walked the halls of the mansion wondering if Terry and his team were right. It made sense that the length of the wispy line that only she could touch would inhibit certain levels of Digivolution. As she walked she also wondered why Durain wanted to see her. That wasn't good.

She walked into the large, cream coloured office whose door was always open if it was okay to enter.

"Ah, Sara, thanks for coming, shut the door would you?" Said Durain.

Aw, poo!

Sara shut the door behind her and walked over to the desk, Lymon sitting on her shoulder having handed her paper to a random mansion worker. Despite the size of the office it was sparsely decorated. One wall was covered in floor to ceiling windows and the floor was covered in a big red, expensive rug. There were two chandeliers hanging from the ceiling but other than the desk and a few extra chairs there was little else in there other than the filing cabinets. Sara had often wondered why Durain would want an office which seemed so empty.

Durain himself was pale skinned and mousey blonde of hair and horribly handsome, he was the head of the Mithro Sciences company, both in name and in reality. His grandfather had set up the company years ago and it had passed onto Durain when his father had been institutionalised. More importantly though, Durain was a Guidpost. It was his eyes, it was always their eyes. Durain's were a light, bright blue. The sort that made you envious and drew you in, though, usually, you could then forget about them and carry on, but when Durain decided otherwise...

"Sit down, Sara." Said Durain in his American accent, just like Jaden's. No! Don't think about Jaden!

Sara sat and tried not to look Durain in the eyes.

"How'd you're outing yesterday go?" Asked Durain.

He wanted to talk about her time off with Nikki? That couldn't be right. "It went good, I suppose. Nikki got to see all the stars and we had a nice day of it."

Durain smiled, reminding Sara that it wasn't just his eyes which could draw you in.

"I'm glad you got to spend some time with your friend. I'm sorry that we work you so hard, we wouldn't do it if we didn't need you. If it were up to my superiors you wouldn't leave the mansion unless you were on a mission, but I think it's very important for people to be able to spend time away, lest we forget what we're fighting for."

Sara smiled pleasantly but said nothing, this couldn't be why he'd called her.

Durain stood and walked over to one of the cabinet's that sat against the inner wall. He opened a draw and took out a file. "Have you spoken to Terry yet?" He asked.

"Yes, I saw him on the way in." Said Sara, happy for the conversation to be going elsewhere "He told me his team had some theories on the Data Line."

"I suppose it makes sense." Said Durain, partly turning back to Sara as he opened the file. "Higher levels generally require more data and so a bigger line might be in order."

"There are exceptions though." Said Sara.

"Yes, but so far we don't know if any of those are real." Said Durain as he leaned against the cabinet. "We can't take imagination for fact."

Sara said nothing but personally didn't see why they shouldn't. The Source had always been right so far.

Durain looked up at Sara "I want you to work with Terry's team, you and Lymon both."

"We'll do whatever we can." Said Lymon "I'm sure I can do it, I just need something."

"But you don't know what." Said Durain, having heard it many times before.

"Sorry." Said Lymon.

"It's okay. Sara, take a look at this." Said Durain, holding out the file.

Sara got up and walked over, taking the file.

"More data analysis from Colorado. Doesn't tell us anything new though." She said.

"Don't you think that's strange though?" Said Durain "We've been studying the site for years and have learnt nothing beyond the original report. Much of the structure still exists but we get no new information from it. It's like someone went in and wiped away anything useful."

"Maltype?" Said Sara, looking up.

"Possibly, but we can't say for certain."

"I can go back if you like. Lymon and I are happy to."

"We are, we are." Said Lymon.

"You know it's not as simple as that." Said Durain.

"But you know that there may be things only and End User can find." Protested Sara, closing the file

Durain sighed. "Regardless of my feelings on the issue it has been decided that you will go to the site. I don't think it's a good idea but it's now out of my hands."

Sara's eyes widened with glee, finally!

"Don't get so excited, Sara. You're vulnerable and it's not a field trip. You won't be going alone we're sending a team with you."

Sara nodded, trying to to look too enthusiastic. "Yes, I understand, thank you." She'd wanted to go back to the Site for ages now but had always been forced to leave it up to the lesser ranks. People considered she and Lymon to important to put at risk and sending her away to a place which had exploded and caused all this mess in the first place was a definite risk.

"It's been decided that you'll leave as soon as possible, so we've got you a private jet for tomorrow morning. Make your arrangements and then report to Kankada at Heathrow." Said Durain, taking back the file.

Sara nodded and headed away towards the door. Then a connection, light and airy, ran through Sara's body. It felt like being touched by the most gentle angel. Sara knew well what that meant. She spun around, slapping Durain's hand away from behind her ear. His eyes were wide.

"So it's true!" He said.

"You had no right!" Shouted Sara, feeling invaded from the touch to her D-Crystal.

"I had every right, Sara!" Said Durain getting angry "You've found an End Type! How could you even consider keeping this a secret?!

Sara looked away. He'd tricked her, Durain had tricked her! Sure he'd wanted to see her about going to Colorado but he'd really just wanted to touch her D-Crystal so that he could update his own information! Now he knew about Jaden, and there was nothing she could do. It was a trick that anyone who had a D-Crystal could pull; touch the Digivice of another and know what they knew.

"It's not our place." She said quietly "It's not our place to decide for him."

"No," Said Durain "It's not, but by keeping this a secret, even for a few hours you've left Jaden Grace wide open."

Sara said nothing, arms folded in a sullen posture.

Durain shook his head at the End User, why did they have to be so stubborn? "We'll have to intercept him in Italy." He said, heading back to his desk.

Sara frowned "How did you know he was going to Italy, you couldn't have got that from the D-Crystal?"

Silence.

"Durain?" Said Sara as she walked back over to the desk.

"A month ago we received intelligence that lead us to believe that Jaden Grace might have a D-Crystal."

Sara's eyes were wide with shock "You knew, you knew about him?!"

"No, Sara, we didn't know, we only had an idea. We needed conformation."

Sara felt as though someone had punched her in the stomach. "You used me." She said in a low and harsh whisper "You used me! You made sure I would go to that première so I would see him! Oh my! You rigged the competition, the one that Nikki won!" Nikki had entered a competition in one of her magazines whose prize was two tickets to see the première of In Time, Nikki had one the third prize, a day trip to London, expenses not included.

"I'm sorry, Sara." Said Durain genuinely. "We needed an End User to identify him."

"Why didn't you just ask me!?" Bellowed Sara, feeling that if they were going to rig the competition they could have at least rigged them to get the first prize. Lymon flitted away from her shoulder, not wanting to be near her partner when she was this angry.

Durain looked down at his desk. "Those weren't my orders."

Sara stared at Durain, fuming. "Since when did you follow such orders?" She hissed.

It was true, previously he would never have gone along with such a scheme. He knew that if Sara had simply been asked she would have been happy to find out if Jaden Grace was an End User, but it was deemed that secrecy was the best way. Perhaps the higher ups wished to test Sara. That wasn't the point though, the point was that Durain went along with it when he should have refused. It was all that Maltype's fault!

Seeing that she would get nothing more out of Durain Sara turned on her heel and marched out in a dangerous huff, Lymon following her.

How could he? How could he do this to her? It was one thing to use her, she knew what she was getting into when she joined Dia, but to involve Nikki, that was what had really made Sara angry. She sat in a chair in D8, one of the lab rooms, while Lymon was put through more tests. The lab itself looked like something straight out of sci-fi, with a bit of hospital thrown in; it had many a flashing light and more than one machine that went 'ping.'

Terry had the little Digimon hooked up to various machines via wires like those used to monitor someone's heart beat.

He looked over to Sara and wondered if he should even attempt to speak to her. Something must have happened in Durain's office, but they needed to continue with the tests.

"Er...uh...Sara?" He said, Sara glared at him "Oh, er...if it's...um...okay, could you, uh...D-Digivolve-"

Sara reached up behind her left ear and pulled out the Data Line, letting it hover in front of her. It was set to Lymon. She moved her hands through the mist like light, pulling and pushing at the stipples to change their position. She'd done this many times now so knew without even looking what Magemon's code was. She reached up behind her ear again and touched the crystal.

"Lymon, Digivolve to!...Magemon!"

Terry and his team hovered over the monitoring equipment as Lymon Digivolved into Magemon. Strangely, Magemon had stayed connected to the equipment, which was something no one had ever quite understood considering she was changing in both size and form.

"Anything?" Asked Magemon, eager for a positive response.

"Maybe," Said Terry cryptically "There are some things here we've not seen before but we'll have to analyse it before we can tell you if it means anything."

"The more I think about the length of the Data Line it really does seem to be the answer." Said Magemon.

"But even if it is the answer how do we increase it's length?" Said Terry as Sara quietly fumed. "It should be simple enough to reach the Champion level if the Source is to be believed."

"Maybe it's wrong." Said Magemon.

"It's never been wrong before." Said Sara, finally joining the conversation.

Magemon groaned "It's not fair, all this waiting, I want to Digivolve."

Sara smiled at her partner, then grew serious again and turned to Terry, "What doesn't make any sense about the length theory is how one length can work for three different levels. Magemon has much more data than any Baby Digimon, most Rookie's do."

"It's possible," Said Terry, thinking aloud as all good genius' did "That the Data Line is a certain length to take into account all potential forms of a certain level. We know that a Rookie can have much more data than Magemon does, or much less."

Sara thought about that one "So...the reason Magemon can Digivolve to Rookie on one length of Line is because she doesn't need any more room on the Data Line with her level of data?"

"Possibly. If so then the Data Line you've always used is enough to take into account for Magemon's 17.49 giga bytes, but it might be the case that if she were of a larger file size when in Rookie form that you would have to increase the length of the Data Line."

"So how much data can this length of Line handle?" Asked Magemon.

"There's no way of knowing." Said Terry "We can't even make an estimate until you Digivolve."

"Which she can't do until we figure out how to increase the Line length." Said Sara with a sigh, tapping her fingers over her lips in thought.

"We know at least that she can Digivolve when you're life is threatened without the manual use of the Line." Said Terry.

"But my life has been in serious danger before and she still couldn't Digivolve to Champion." Said Sara.

Magemon squirmed a little at that, she didn't want to be reminded of the time that Sara had nearly died because she'd failed to protect her.

"Yes, there seems to be some anomaly there." Said Terry.

Sara rubbed at her forehead "Okay, regardless Magemon and I are shipping out tomorrow morning, so you'll have to get whatever information you need now, I don't know when we'll be back."

Terry nodded and he and his team set to work once again.

Jaden Grace stared out of the window as his thoughts ran in circles in his head. He watched how the setting sun played across the clouds as they flew overhead. It was always nice when he could see that happen, so often he wasn't flying in the right direction or at the right time to see the above-cloud sunset or sunrise.

So much had happened in a short time, he'd only known Natamon for a few months and had quickly grown accustomed to his presence. He wouldn't want to be without the little talking head any more.

It had been while filming Gears that he had met the little monster. He and the production crew were out on the Nevada flats. People thought that being a Hollywood actor was all glamorous but so often you had to put up with far less than satisfactory working conditions, often those that the average worker simply wouldn't put up with. A small unit had been set up in the middle of the desert and on that day many of the crew had come down with heat stroke, putting an end to filming until they could be replaced or get better. Jaden had spent the day lying on his bed in his trailer, even lying there and doing nothing made him sweat. The heat was so intense that he'd become a little delirious and, when he'd felt an itching behind his right ear he thought was just an insect bite and ignored it. It was probably for the best that he wasn't really aware of the Key growing out of his head, such a thing would have made him panic, more than panic, he would have thought he was becoming a Borg or something, that resistance really was futile. It was bad enough when he woke after the sun had set to find a strange crystal and metal thing stuck behind his ear. It had come off easy enough but had left a small red mark. At first he'd convinced himself that someone was just playing a prank on him but the device didn't look like any technology that he'd seen before, besides, it glowed. From the green crystal came a faint glow that changed as Jaden ran his fingers over the crystal, it was quite beautiful for something so scary.

It was as he was really beginning to get worried that Jaden heard a commotion from outside. People were shouting, kids were shouting. There were some kids on the set, children of some of the crew members but they shouldn't have been out so late. Jaden put the device in his pocket and opened his trailer door. What he saw wasn't kids messing about, but Digimon. Though, of course, at the time he didn't know that. At the time Jaden saw a talking bowling ball with wings and a talking brown head.

The brown head had seen the light from Jaden's open door and bounced over to him, crying out for help, and asking to be protected from the other creature. The bowling ball had made some comment that Jaden was too shocked to really hear and had then attacked him, throwing what looked like a large syringe filled with a green liquid. Well, you didn't spend seven months learning self defence and martial arts for The Night Lion to stand there and be attacked by a bowling ball with wings. Jaden caught the syringe, spun around, and threw it right back with great precision. It had struck the bowling ball, injecting the green liquid. The bowling ball had then heavily flapped away, muttering to itself in a pained and irate voice.

Jaden spent that night talking to the brown head who called himself Natamon and said he was a Digimon, which was apparently short for digital monster. The other one had been called DemiDevimon, whatever that meant, and the thing that had grown out of Jaden's head was a Digivice, or digital device, and owning one meant you were a Digidestined. Jaden shouldn't have believed a word of it but when you were talking to a head and had just been attacked by something that looked like an ugly bowling ball had mated with a bat you became very open-minded.

Natamon didn't know where he had come from, he only knew that he'd been travelling for months on his own when DemiDevimon had tried to delete him.

Jaden and Natamon had been together since that night.

Jaden was brought out of his memories by a hoste-cabin crew person offering him champagne. He shook his head, no, and continued to stare out of the window. One good thing about being a Hollywood A lister was being able to fly First Class so easily, though he did feel guilty about it knowing the regular folks were stuck back in coach like cattle. Of course, the one who he mostly felt sorry for was Natamon, stuck in the cargo hold, pretending to be a stuffed toy, Jaden couldn't even talk to him without his Key on, which he couldn't wear as it would be far too obvious. He thought about Sara and Lymon, or whatever she was called. That was another thing, how had Lymon changed her form? In his Digivice Jaden had listings for a few Digimon spread out between a couple of different categories. The menu he found the options for; Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. He had no idea what these words meant, other than it seemed to indicate how strong a Digimon was. He had checked before he'd left for the airport and he'd found Lymon listed under In-Training along with Natamon and DemiDevimon, but Magemon was listed under Rookie. He had never assumed that one Digimon could appear in two different listings. Then again he had never presumed that a Digimon could change it's form or that such creatures existed in the first place. He wondered if Natamon could do it too. What had Sara done exactly? He'd only seen her pull that glowey line from her Digivice, or D-Crystal or whatever it was called, mess with it a bit, then touch her D-Crystal again, then Lymon had...changed.

He felt the Key sitting in his pocket and longed to put it on. Coming to a decision he stood and walked into the aisle and to the toilets. Finding a free one he went inside and locked the door behind him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Key, slipping it behind his right ear.

"Natamon, how are you?" He asked, calling silently to his partner.

"I'm okay, it's not so bad really, there's a kitty in here!" Said Natamon excitedly, having wriggled out of Jaden's back pack knowing that he could get back in and make it look as though nothing had happened.

Jaden smiled "Is it a nice kitty?"

"Oh yes, most defiantly, it purred at me and rubbed it's head up against it's carrier. I think it's a show cat 'cos it looks like a leopard!"

"Oh, right, I think that's called a Bengal, or something." Said Jaden.

"Bengal? But it says 'Surreptitiously Inverted Gold' on the carrier?"

"Might be it's show name."

"What's a show name?"

"Like, at home it's called Whiskers or something but when it's being shown it's given some long and usually stupid name." Said Jaden

"Yeah, this ones stupid alright."

Jaden chuckled "I was thinking I might try doing that thing that Sara did, to get Lymon to change shape."

"You mean, Digivolve?"

"It that what it's called?"

"Pretty sure, yeah."

"Okay, well, wanna see if I can pull one of those things from my D-Crystal?"

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Said Natamon.

"You want me to try it or not?"

"Go for it!" Said Natamon enthusiastically.

Jaden took a deep calming breath, not sure what he was doing. He'd touched the D-Crystal many times before but nothing had ever come out but, well, now it felt different. He stood up straight, closed his eyes, and reached behind his right ear with his left hand. A tingling sensation in his fingers had him snapping his eyes back open. He pulled his fingers away from his head and out in front of him. There it was! Right there, like it had always been there! A shimmering, wispy green line of light that was stippled, with bits rising up from the main line as well as reaching down. This one was defiantly different from Sara's though, hers was blue to begin with and this one seemed a different shape in terms of where the stipples were.

"I can't believe it was that easy!" Said Natamon.

"Maybe we just had to be made aware of it." Said Jaden as he gazed at the line with a shocked grin on his lips.

"What did Sara do next, to make Lymon Digivolve?"

"Er...she messed with it, changed the stipply bits, then touched her ear again."

"Try it, try it!" Encouraged Natamon.

"Well, I dunno, I'm not sure that's a good idea right now. What if you change? I have no idea what you'll end up looking like, how am I supposed to get you off the plane if you look like Magemon?"

"Awww!"

"Look, we'll try after we land, when we get to the hotel, how about that?" Offered Jaden.

"Yeah...I guess." Said Natamon, disappointed.

Jaden broke the contact with Natamon and looked at the line. He touched his D-Crystal again and watched the line disappear like smoke blowing in a gentle breeze.

The sun glasses and baseball cap was a stupid idea, it just made him more obvious, but Jaden always felt more exposed if he didn't wear them. He was mobbed by the airports' photographers as he pushed his luggage along. All he could do was keep his head down and smile pleasantly. Besides, there were bodyguards there who'd met him when he'd gotten off the plane. He only had a single case and his backpack, in which Natamon was hidden, but still pushed his things on a cart rather than dragging them around. The photographers finally gave up with a little persuasion and let Jaden be on his way and his security hung back to give him some space as he walked towards the exit.

Moving through one of the larger areas he passed many a passenger waiting for their flight to be called, he felt guilty again; when he flew he could go to the V.I.P lounge and wait in comfort. Many a head turned to look at him, a man with long hair looked up at him then quickly looked away and...touched behind his ear. Jaden kept walking.

Ignore it, just ignore it, you're being paranoid. He thought.

Further on another man, again with long hair, who was sitting reading a magazine, reached up behind his ear, seemingly to scratch. Jaden's heart began to pound.

"You're more vulnerable than you realise." Sara's words rang through his head. Were these people End Users? No, how could they be? Sara had said they were the only ones. He cursed his short hair once again, wishing he could put on his Key and see if the men came up in his listings.

Another man touching behind his ear caught his attention. Would his bodyguards be able to deal with them? What would they do? They wouldn't pull anything in such a public place, right? Which meant they would wait until Jaden was out of the airport. Maybe they would wait in a taxi for him and kidnap him! Every horrible thing he'd ever played out in a movie came back to him now, why did he always have to pick movies with a psychological edge?! He had to do something!

He stopped walking and looked down at his cart, he frowned. One of his bodyguards approached.

"Is there anything wrong Mr. Grace?"

"I think I've forgotten something." Said Jaden. He moved around to the side of the cart and lifted his backpack, being careful with Natamon. "It's not here."

"What isn't here?"

"Uh, I had another bag...must have left it...somewhere." He said, trying to sound hopeless.

"It's okay, sir, it's probably still on the carousel, would you like to wait here while one of us goes back?"

Jaden shook his head "No, let's all go, I'm not even sure if it has my name on it."

The bodyguard nodded and waited for Jaden to turn his cart around and begin the journey back. As they walked Jaden saw the man with the magazine 'scratching' behind his ear, the same one as he'd touched earlier.

Jaden made a big show of looking for his bag for twenty minutes or more, re-tracing his steps in case it had fallen off the cart. When he was deep enough in the airport he swung the cart to the left and headed towards a random terminal.

"Sir? Sir, where are you going?" Said the bodyguard as Jaden headed the wrong way, jogging after him and gesturing for the others to follow.

Jaden found himself in another area, gate 5 according to the sign. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and handed it to the bodyguard that had just come up next to him.

"Here, go buy me a ticket to where ever the next plane from here is going."

"Er...I thought you were meant to be going to the hotel?" Said the bodyguard.

"Please!" Said Jaden.

"Alright, sir, just wait here." Said the bodyguard, making a gesture to the others as he jogged off.

Jaden pushed the cart along a little more and aligned it next to some seats, sitting down on the end one. He wanted to talk to Natamon, the brown ball was pretty much right next to him, but even if he whispered someone would hear him, there were just too many other people.

Five minutes later the bodyguard came back holding a ticket.

"Okay, here's the next flight, it's leaving soon so you need to board now."

"Great." Said Jaden, snatching up the ticket and taking back his wallet.

"You want me to get your luggage dealt with?"

"Oh, yeah, please-but, be careful, some delicate things in there."

The bodyguard nodded and took the cart away.

The boarding procedure went smoothly and soon Jaden was heading through the gate and down the tunnel to the plane. He'd dismissed the bodyguards, not wanting anyone to follow him, not caring where he was going, so long as it was away.

"Oh, First Class, this way please, sir." Said the Italian cabin crew woman, indicating where he should go.

Jaden found his seat quickly and shuffled into it. He sat there as he waited for everyone to board, biting his carefully manicured fingernails. He was, this time, on the right hand side of the plane, which meant that his right ear, and more importantly the space beside it, would be hidden. Surely no one would notice now if he put on his Key? He carefully slipped it out of his pocket and leaned on his hand, slipping his Key behind his ear as he did so. He sometimes wondered why he was so paranoid about wearing it, couldn't he just say it was a new type of hands free for his mobile? Of course then people would want to know where he got it and he couldn't say it was a prototype forever.

"Natamon?" He said.

"What's going on, Jaden!" Came the shrill reply.

"Calm down, we're back on a plane."

"I know that! Why are we back on a plane?" Said Natamon, who couldn't have missed being put into the cargo hold if he'd wanted to.

"I'm sorry, but I think we might be in trouble."

There was a pause, then; "What do you mean?"

"There were these guys, in the airport, as I was leaving. They all had long hair and they all touched behind their ears when I approached. It happened more than once too. I dunno, guess I might just be getting really paranoid."

"I don't know, Jaden, that sounds real suspicious to me."

"That's how it felt, so I said I'd lost something to get out of there then got on the next plane to anywhere."

"Why don't you check your data, see if they come up in the Digivice Users section."

"Darn it! Yes, thought of that before but forgot, checking now." Said Jaden as he moved one finger to his Digivice and brought up the menu in one eye. He cycled through until the menu 'Digivice Users' appeared. First it had been empty, then Sara Lee had been listed under End User. Jaden gasped, then tried to turn it into a cough in case someone had noticed.

"Well?" Asked Natamon.

"They're in here! I'm not going mad they're really in here!"

Natamon was quiet for a moment as he thought "What listing are they under?"

"Breaker."

"I don't think I like the sound of that. I really wish we'd asked Sara what this stuff meant."

"Me too." Said Jaden, who was now regretting his dismissal of Sara's offer. He'd been so suspicious of her, naturally so, but now he could be in real danger.

"Sara warned us about this." Said Natamon.

"I know."

The cabin crew ran through the safety procedures speaking first in English then in Italian, Jaden didn't listen.

"This is your pilot," Came the audio "welcome aboard flight 237, Rome to Colorado Springs, we hope you enjoy your flight."

To Be Continued...