The striver and his problem

Matt´s Part:

Now we had ran around for hours without finding anyone!

That poor TK! He still is having a real bad cold and should lie in bed right now, not running around doing adventures in the digiworld! Maybe he's lying somewhere right now and... STOP! Don't think any further! TK is fine!

Frustrated I hit my own head a few times, so that I could think normal again.

Meanwhile Agumon and Veemon were fighting about the fact, who may go at the very front. Agumon pushed Veemon away and ran some more meters further, but a little while later Veemon ran to Tai's digimon and tripped him up. And then there was the problem – a turning! Veemon confident took the left path while Agumon took the right one meanwhile, just as confident as Veemon. After that Tai and Davis dashed - with many „Wait!"- and „Hey! Stop that!"-callings – away, after their digimon to catch them.

„Just like little kids.", Ken whispered, who had been walking behind us the whole time. He still looked depressed on the ground and even Wormmon, who sat on his shoulder and talking to him all the time, couldn't calm him down.

„What are you thinking about, Matt?", Gabumon asked and looked at me with his big, red saucer eyes.

„I'm only trying to guess who he could be."

„Well, it isn't one of you, is it?", my digimon asked interested.

„That's what I'm thinking about the whole time, but...", Ken began, but then Davis ran towards us.

„Where are you got to?!", he cried already ten meters away „And where's Tai?!"

Like an answer we heard a crying sound from where Agumon had gone. It sounded like Tai. Something must have shocked him.

The first thing we did, was to ran there immediately.

There was staying Tai, behind him two other persons. The bigger one gesticulated around like mad, the other one looked... very... worn out...!

„TK!"

I ran towards my little brother, who looked simply happy when he realized, that I was the one, who caught him in his arms.

„Matt! Am I glad to see you!", he said relieved „Joe drove me up the wall, you know?"

„Joe...?", I realized only now, that the gesticulating, humongous guy behind me was Joe.

„Five minutes!", he cried nonstop at Tai.

„What has he a problem with?", I asked TK.

„Oh, I can tell you very well", he told me obviously bored „Well, I only woke up and then..."

1 day ago at TK's and Joe's:

That stupid cold is going to kill me someday! I was awake, indeed, but I still had closed my eyes. Everything I wanted was to lie here and to do nothing, and really nothing.

But this plan was disturbed by Joe, who cried in my ear: „Say TK, do you even listen to me?!"

„Awww...", I sat up and felt terrible fever, head- and earaches and rather would lie in my bed, instead of dying here, because of Joes crying!

Patamon sat next to me and asked: "Are you feeling better, TK?"

"Better?", I nearly started laughing because of this bad ironic "With him?!", I pointed at Joe, and this was the first time I realized what he was shouting around the whole time.

"... I still had five minutes! Whole FIVE MINUTES! And only because of me being that stupid to push that motherfucking damn button my WHOLE WRITTEN EXAM HAS HAD IT! Now I can forget my graduation! I wasn't able to finish one whole exercise! One out of TWENTY-FIVE! If I'm not getting at least a B for this written exam, I'll fail the whole examination!", he shook me now "THE WHOLE EXAMINATION, TK!"

Now everything hurted even more.

"... and when I'll fail the examination, I surely can forget becoming a doctor! AAARGH! MY LIFE IS RUINED!"

After an explanation of Patamon and Gomamon for us (well... more ME than US, because Joe was still whining about his written exam...) we started searching for the others. Meanwhile that freaked out student was telling me, what he was going to do – back in our world.

"I'll just go to that teacher and tell him that I HAVE to write that exam again because of... eehm... technical mistakes or something like that. And if he won't give it to me, I'm going to jump from that big bridge next to..."

I rolled my eyes and walked faster.

"TK, you're really not looking good.", Patamon had landed on my shoulder and looked at me worried.

"Maybe Joe has something with him...", Gomamon added.

"Tss... Joe...", I loudly took a breath of air "That boy not even has five minutes!"

But I stopped to take a breath, because now I felt REALLY sick!

And again there appeared Joe next to me.

"Now just wait! I...", he stopped right in the middle of the sentence and looked at me with wide opened eyes "OH MY GOD! WHAT A SIGHT YOU ARE, TK?!"

"Just like you look when you catched such a goddamn cold!", I said.

"A cold?!", he rummaged around in his bag "I think, I have some medicine here... Ah, there it is!", triumphant he raised a little bottle, in which some liquid slopped around. Most likely something, that would taste as enormous disgusting as possible. I just thought about a good excuse, so I wouldn't have to drink that kind of thing, when Joe already had inserted me a spoon full of it. Totally thunderstruck I only swallowed it and - just like I thought before – it tasted HARROWING!

"Well! And now", Joe said, while he put the bottle back into his bag "we're going to deal with the real problem again: I MADE A MESS OUT OF MY EXAMINATION!"

I sighed. Because THAT should probably be the thing I had to listen to the entire time...

Beep – Beep – Beep – Beep - - - ERROR

"Argh, damn shit! Won't work like that, either! I have to try it again!"
"Well... we still have... 2347 opportunities... Enjoy!"
"Thank you!"

Ken's part:

Headache, headache, headache and a barnacle, whining Joe, who bended my ears!

"...please, Ken, at least YOU could have some mercy..."

"I can't. Because I would have finished the exam after half an hour already."

"Oooooooooh...", Joe started an annoying, lasting siren sound, which nearly drove me out of my mind.

If he won't stop that annoying kind of sound, I can't guarantee anything!

Joe's constant howling was switching in an even higher octave.

Which was the final straw.

"ENOUGH!"

I turned around to collar that blue-haired irritant. Joe's siren sound immediately turned into a screaming sound, which prompted our companions to stop and stand there like frozen.

"Start only ONE MORE TIME with this unnecessary whining, and I'm going to KILL you!"

Thoughts flew through my head. Thoughts of the maddest grade. I only wanted to betray, to hurt, to kill!

And before I could contain myself, I already had punched Joe's face. I already wanted to hit him again, when someone grabbed my wrist and unloosed my grip around Joe's shirt.

"Stop it!", it was Matt "You'll only hurt yourself with those kind of actions!"

Then he pushed me down on the ground and released my arms. I felt hot and I was sure, that my face was as red as a traffic light.

Matt... Joe... I'm sorry...

Angry about myself I clenched my fists. I never ever wanted to become the digimon emperor again!

Joe sat in front of me, holding his cheek and looked at me with fear in his eyes.

"You, you, you wanted to..."
"Sorry!", I brought out, stood up and walked further afar to recollect myself.

Matt's part:

Totally frozen I stood there. Normally Tai would have stepped in, not me!

"We should go on.", Tai said and laid one hand on my shoulder.

"You're right.", I agreed and then I said to the others: "You've heard Tai, so let's hit the road!"

Somehow we landed up in the middle of a desert, however we did that. Ken was now going at the very end, so he hadn't to talk to someone.

Suddenly a call of Davis pierced through the silence, that came.

"Am I crazy, or do you see two people there, too?!"

I stopped staring at the ground and instead of that looked at the horizon, which wasn't very interesting at first. But then I saw, what Davis meant: Two little points right in front of us.

"Well, that really ARE two people", I noticed "But you're also crazy, Dave!"

"Ha, ha!", Davis screamed and started to run. "Oi!", we could hear him screaming far away "Those are Izzy and Cody!"

Now we all started to run – even TK! But when we reached them, we realized that they both had started a horrifying quarrel.

"I already told you, Cody, I don't know, where we are!", Izzy screamed.

"Oh, I don't even wonder!", Cody yelled at him "When you're that stupid, to let someone hack you computer!"

"I have no idea, who did THAT!"

"Oh! The ever-so-great Izzy has NO IDEA! Well, that's interesting!"

"Don't pretend as if YOU would know anything! And further we're as good as lost here with a hacked PC!"

"Well, they really like each other!", Gabumon said ironic.

"I think, those are the wrong ones! Normally they both are totally well-adjusted!", Joe noticed.

"No, no, those ARE the real ones.", Armadillomon explained "They only can't stand each other. I don't know, why."

"Very unfortunately!", Tentomon remarked and shook his head.

"Well, now it's going to be funny!", Tai said "In sum we now have an ill TK; an annoying Joe; Ken, whose biggest wish is to kill us all; the she-goat Matt; Davis without ANY sense of direction and two fighting Izzy and Cody!"

"And at least we have Tai", I completed the numeration "who always runs his head against the wall and as a result havoc wreaks!"

"Right!", Tai agreed and only thought afterwards "Eeh, WHAT?! No, I'm the knight in shining armour!"

"As if!", Ken said and rolled his eyes.

Meanwhile Tai and Davis had separated the two squabblers and each of them held one.

"Shouldn't we at first think about what to do next?", I asked and looked angry at Izzy and Cody.

"But not until we've chained and gagged Joe!", TK sighed.

"Yaaay! Get him!", Gomamon screamed and threw himself onto Joe. Agumon and Veemon surley were in on it and even Patamon joined the chaos on the ground.

"And because of THAT problem being served, too", Ken said "we now can think about what to do now."

Frustrated TK sat down on the ground and began to draw twirls in the sand with his finger.

"No matter, what we'll going to do. I can't help as sick as I am."

"Don't say that!", Patamon griped and desisted from holding Joe on the ground "You still have me!"

"Patamon's right, TK!", Davis said, who obviously had problems in holding Cody "He – unlike you – CAN fight!"

"Hmm... maybe...", TK still looked as depressed on the ground as before.

"Let's just think, as if we all were able to fight", Ken started his calculations, threw back his hair, crossed his arms and laid one hand on his temple "Then we would have eight digimon, that are able to fight. Matt", he looked at me and I looked back, totally thunderstruck "Back then you were eight, too. What chance to win do we have, what do you think?"

Totally confused I thought about it. Never, never in a thousand years I would have thought, that Ken would ask ME about my opinion. Okay, granted, in games of strategy like playing Battleship I nearly always won, but there you're mostly depending on luck.

"Well... don't know... I'm sure we could do it.", I answered.

"I too know, that we could do it.", Ken yelled at me "But I want to hear a prudently percentage!"

"What?!", I looked confused at him.

What the hell are you thinking, boy?! Don't you know, that you can win if you really want to?! You don't need such a crap like percentage!

That was what I actually wanted to say. But instead of that I only said: "Something like... 60%?"

What the heck are you doing, Matt?! Why can't you just tell him, what you thought?! Is it because of...?! No! Stop it! That's not the important thing here! You're a digidestined, remember? No playboy!

"Wrong!", Ken shouted. Then he began to walk from left to right and back again "Do you all really think so, yeah?! I can tell you, how big our chance is! With a humongous portion of luck we could have a chance of 50%, but as bad as the personal conditions look at the moment...", he paused and looked angry at us "We have no more than a chance of 15%."

Silence.

Deathly silence, in which Ken closed his eyes, feverish thinking, and again started to walk around. Then suddenly he turned around and looked at us with the meanest grin on his face, I've ever seen.

"Now I know!", he screamed confident in his victory "At first we have to know more about our enemy! Tentomon!", he turned to the metal-beetle, who looked at him thunderstruck and nearly froze while he was flying "Seek for my old fortress!"

"NO!", Izzy screamed and freed himself out of Tai's grab "You're not going to do any harm to my digimon, Ken! Either I would fight against you!"

"I'm not doing any harm to him!", Ken yelled "I send him on an important mission!"

"Yes, I know!", Izzy shouted "But maybe he won't return, if he's going to seek for your stupid fortress!"

"Eeehmm... Izzy...", Tentomon began.

"What?", Izzy turned around and looked into Tentomons eyes.

"I really think, I could do this. And additionally I want to help, you know?"

"Well...", Izzy thought for a moment "Okay, if you're really sure about it."
"I am!"

"Well then...", Ken began to grin again "Go and seek for it, Tentomon!"

"Roger!", shouted Tentomon, saluted and flew away. Izzy looked after him, until there was no single sight of him at the horizon anymore.

"Very good! And now...", Ken looked kind of amused "we need a sacrifice, to send there!"

At first we all looked at Ken, as if he was crazy.

Then... all eyes focused on Joe.