Part 4: Ice Cream Social

Date: February 15th, 2004

Time: 8:00pm

Place: Takashi apartment, living room

The TV was blaring in the Takashi living room, the newsman announcing "Coming up next hour: Monsters of Odaiba – An Investigation!"

T.K. sighed and looked over at Patamon. "If only they could understand this for themselves." he thought sadly. He was already sick of all the speculation than had been running for the past month and a half, and he was about to turn the TV off when he heard someone knocking on the front door of the apartment.

"Weird, Mom said she would be working the night shift. Did she change her mind? Or did the boss tell her to go home?" T.K. asked himself as he got up to answer the door. Patamon, roused from a half-sleeping state by the knocking, looked over at the door curiously.

T.K. took a look in the door's peephole and made out long purple hair and something that looked like glasses. He opened the door to see Yolei, holding a bag filled with something from her family's convenience store, and Hawkmon standing beside her.

"Hi T.K., I heard you had a long day, so Hawkmon and I decided to bring up some ice cream for you two." Yolei explained with a smile.

"Oh, great, thank you! Come on in." T.K. replied, opening the door wider and inviting them in. Yolei and Hawkmon obligingly entered the apartment, catching a glimpse of Patamon's curious but pleased glance from the couch.

"What you got on?" Yolei asked as she took off her shoes, referring to the still-blaring TV.

"Oh, it was cartoons, but now is another documentary on the Digimon appearances." T.K. answered with mild disgust as he closed and locked the door again.

"Ugh, don't they ever get tired of it?!" Yolei exclaimed, crinkling her nose at the thought.

"Apparently not, they keep doing new stuff because they keep finding new stuff – all those tapes that were supposed to have been 'unexplainably erased' are coming up with new info and more sensation. Half of the theories involve aliens from outer space, the other half is that its some government project run amok!" T.K. explained in exasperation, looking over at the TV again.

For a minute, everyone was staring transfixed at the TV screen, which was mixing news footage of Digimon attacks with footage from old monster movies as well as something involving "Area 51" (something neither T.K. nor Yolei were very familiar with).

"Absolutely ridiculous!" Hawkmon snapped out, his beak contorted into a scowl. It well summed the mood of the moment.

"Turn it off." Yolei added with annoyance. T.K., of the same mind-set, happily obliged, and the apartment fell silent.

"Where's your mom?" Yolei asked after a few moments of dead silence passed.

"Still working. She's off interviewing nutjobs who think they can get publicity from all this!" T.K. replied, still somewhat annoyed.

"Oh? Really?" Yolei curiously queried.

"Yep, nutjobs who think 'the monsters' come from 'Area 51' or something like that. I don't even know what they're talking about!"

"I saw about 'Area 51' on the Internet. It's supposed to be some place in the American West where they have aliens in stasis in a top-secret government installation. Of course, only a few people take that seriously, most just think it makes good entertainment."

"Entertainment or not, it's still annoying."

"Agreed. Oh, before I forget and it melts in the bag...!" Yolei exclaimed, rummaging in her bag as she spoke, soon pulling out four ice cream bars. Yolei handed one to Hawkmon, who took it with a thank-you.

"Here, catch you two!" Yolei continued, tossing one bar to T.K. and the other to Patamon. T.K. caught his, and Patamon's landed on the couch beside the Digimon, who promptly scooped it up.

"So...what d'ya wanna talk about?" Yolei finished as she opened her ice cream bar and began gnawing on it. The other three present quickly did the same.

"I don't know, I guess..." T.K. began to reply before glimpsing Patamon nibbling at his bar while on his back on the couch.

"HEY, NO EATING ON THE COUCH!" T.K. exclaimed as he rushed over to correct the problem. He attempted to take the ice cream bar away, but Patamon clung on with sheer stubbornness, complaining the whole time, finally forcing T.K. to lift Patamon, ice cream and all, off the couch and "crane" him over to the kitchen table, with a bemused Yolei and Hawkmon following.

Yolei giggled at the scowl Patamon made at being abruptly airlifted and plopped onto a hard table simply because he was enjoying an ice cream bar. T.K. sighed heavily and collapsed into one of the chairs by the kitchen table.

"Be glad he's only like this when ice cream is involved." T.K. wearily explained as Yolei sat down on the other chair by the kitchen table, Hawkmon content with standing beside her.

After that, a minute of relative silence passed as T.K., Yolei and their partners quietly gnawed and nibbled at the ice cream treats. Finally Yolei, sitting casually on the chair with legs crossed, asked T.K. "So, I heard there was something going on for tomorrow, am I right?"

"Yes, everyone who had a Crest is going to go back into the Digital World tomorrow; we're planning to release the other Harmonious Ones and start getting our Crests back." T.K. explained, sitting up in his chair but with elbows on the table, just before taking another bite of his ice cream bar.

"Is that right? That'll be interesting." Yolei replied with mild interest.

"You're telling me! Who knows what tomorrow like, or what will happen, but I know we have been promised the Crests back. With Oikawa guarding things now and the energy barrier the Crests created having been compromised, Gennai and Azulongmon decided that it was better to return the energy to us once the other Harmonious Ones had been freed."

"Well that's cool, but I don't really see why its so important. I mean, Giman isn't that big a threat yet, and we still have our DNA and Armor Digivolutions if we need 'em, right? I don't exactly understand what the deal is, why its so important to get those things back if we don't really need 'em..." Yolei trailed off, becoming vaguely uncomfortable with continuing to speak.

T.K. sighed and responded, "You don't understand. It's more than just an 'insurance policy' against Giman. It runs deeper than that."

"What do you mean?" Yolei asked with a confused look as she straightened up in her chair. She took a bite from her ice cream bar while waiting for T.K. to reply.

"OK, let's start from square one: you remember when Izzy told about having to give up the crests to form a protective barrier around the Digital World?"

"Yeah, go on."

"You also remember that he said it meant our Digimon couldn't Digivolve past Champion level, right? That it devastated them?"

"Well sure, but that's life as a DigiDestined; you learn to live with it and move on, right?"

"That's what you'd think, but look from their perspective." T.K. answered, purposely phrasing his words somewhat cryptically.

Yolei took a bite from her bar before looking up in thoughtfulness, trying to picture the situation from a different perspective. She still came up blank though.

"I can understand why it hurts, but I still don't see why so much energy is focused on this." Yolei answered with a shrug.

T.K. sighed and stated "Maybe this would help: Matt told me that while he and Izzy had been searching for their Crests together, he told Izzy that he was searching because he wanted to reach his 'next level'. The Crests weren't just for their benefit, it was for ours too."

"I don't see how that relates to the Digimon though."

"That's because the improvements aren't just on the outside. Being better, faster, stronger isn't the whole story behind the Crests, it's about learning more about what they truly are, what potential they can reach. Even if its never reached, the very fact that it is possible benefits things enormously. I think both Patamon and Gatomon illustrate this effectively."

Yolei flashed him a skeptical glance, then looked over at Patamon, happily nibbling away at an ice-cream bar. For all his cuteness, you wouldn't have had a clue of the power his higher forms possessed, as she was reminded by the battle to save one of the Destiny Stones where his Ultimate form almost defeated BlackWarGreymon by himself.

And Gatomon, if anything else, was an even more striking example. Her Ultimate form represented not just the freedom that had been bought at the price of her best friend's death, but a reminder of what she truly was, a refutation of every lie Myotismon had told and a mockery of his power. To be denied that would not only be removing that reminder but leave a feeling of hitting a ceiling in a form that carried much baggage, both of mind and of soul.

Yolei's look slowly changed from that of doubt and confusion to a slow realization of T.K.'s perspective. He was right, more right than perhaps was comfortable for her to admit. It wasn't just for the good of the team, it was for the good of the individuals that composed it.

"Do you get it yet?" T.K. asked with a broad smile. Yolei flushed, unwilling to speak.

"That's OK, everyone makes mistakes. No one has to know if you don't want them to know it." T.K. continued reassuringly. Yolei chuckled quietly, the best "thank-you" she could muster at a moment's notice in her state of embarrassment.

"So... how do we help?" Yolei managed to get out after a minute of awkward silence.

"Keep fighting and never forget what you've learned." T.K. replied through a broad smile...

"'Keep fighting and never forget what you've learned.'... You know, that isn't a bad way to live as a DigiDestined..." Yolei thought, trailing off into introspection as she finished her ice-cream bar...

Yolei is "on board", but what about others? Find out in Part 5, "IM Update"!