Author's note: Once again, I have attempted something new in my story, writing a chat room conversation. I made the screen names fairly obvious (I think).

Chapter 9: Of Dreams and Darkness

"Hello, this is Mimi," I said, picking up the phone.

"Hi, Mimi, this is Tai. Have you found Michael yet?"

"Yes, he's been waiting on his computer to talk to you and Matt. His screen name is faithcrest02. I bet you can guess what his crest is from that, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much. You want in too?" Tai asked politely.

"Absolutely! I haven't had the chance to chat with you two in ages." I replied happily.

"Well, we're not really chatting, but alright. Are you online?" Tai asked.

"Yes, I've been sitting her talking to Michael," I replied as the invitation to the chat room popped up. I entered, and Matt and Tai were both there already. I did a quick switch with my computer so that I could type in Japanese to them, and then Michael arrived.

Faithcrest02: Hello everyone, this is Michael.

CityGirl19: Hi everybody!

CityGirl19: I'm so glad to talk to everyone again! 

CityGirl19: Michael, these are my friends Tai and Matt

Soccerfreak77: Hi, this is Tai, and Matt. You're Mimi's friend

Rockking: Hi Michael, I'm Matt

Faithcrest02: Yes, I'm Mimi's friend. She told me that you met Will

Soccerfreak77: Yeah we did, but he started acting really messed up

Rockking: he said his crest was helpfulness but I didn't buy that

CityGirl19: I met Will once a while ago

CityGirl19: he seemed like a nice person

CityGirl19: what was wrong with him?

Rockking: slow down Mimi, don't have a seizure

Faithcrest02: well, he obviously lied to you, but I can explain why

CityGirl19: sorry Matt I just type really fast in chatrooms

Soccerfreak77: let's hear it

Rockking: no problem Mimi, yeah let's hear it

Faitcrest02: well first of all, his crest is darkness

Soccerfreak77: darkness?

Rockking: …..

CityGirl19: There's a crest of darkness?

Faithcrest02: yes Will's crest is darkness

Faithcrest02: he probably hesitated to tell you because of our group

Rockking: did something happen?

Faithcrestt02: it's a long story, but I'll explain

Soccerfreak77: we're listening

Faithcrest02: Will was the last one to find his crest, but when we found out that it was the crest of darkness, we were rather surprised, to say the least. After all, darkness is what we had been battling the entire time. We did manage to defeat Daemon, but it took all of us, including Will. That's probably why he didn't tell you his real crest.

Soccerfreak77: that makes sense I guess

Rockking: but TK said that he saw Daemon a few months ago

Rockking: that's my little bro

Faithcrest02: That brings me to the next part of the story. It involves another member of our group, Ricky. Ricky's crest is the crest of dreams. But before I explain what happened, I need to explain what we learned from a friend about the crests. As you know, there are many kinds of crests which have great power, enough to let digimon digivolve to ultimate levels. But there are four crests that are different from all the rest. Those crests are dream, hope, light, and dark. Normal crests like my crest of faith draw power from my faith and that power can aid those around me, just like most crests. But the four special crests operate differently. They draw on the hopes, dreams, light, and darkness of those around the crest-bearer, and gain power from them. That power is then channeled differently, and has different effects than normal crests. A person with the hope crest can't share their hope with others, but can share other's hopes and gain power, which is opposite of normal crests, like mine, which can share my faith with others, but does not allow me to borrow their faith. After all, if it's my strongest attribute, I shouldn't need to borrow it. But the dark crest stands alone from the other three special crests. It operates in the same way, but it is the antithesis of all three. Our friend used the words 'destroyer of light, dasher of hope, killer of dreams' to describe the dark crest in relation to the other three. It's an accurate description. You see, the power of the dark crest reacts negatively with the other crests. It attacks them, and does strange things. It attacked Ricky after Daemon was defeated, and the negative reaction caused Daemon to be reborn. Daemon fled after he was reborn because he knew he couldn't beat us as he was, he was much weaker than normal when he returned. We figured he would store up power and try to get us again, but thankfully he never did. Also luckily, the crest has continued to react to the dream crest, but on a much lesser scale. It creates very weak enemies that we can easily take care of, and seems to react much less frequently. I think that it built up a tolerance to the dream crest, and so after the initial reaction, none of the subsequent ones will be even close to as bad as that first one. One last thing you should know, the crests will only react while they are in the digital world, and in close proximity to each other. Outside of the digital world they won't react.

Soccerfreak77: Kari has the crest of light.

Rockking: TK's crest is hope.

CityGirl19: is that really bad?

Faithcrest02: I don't know. The dark crest only had the dream crest to react to for us. I'm not sure what two crests would do.

Soccerfreak77: We've got to go find Kari and TK. Thanks for the help Michael.

Faithcrest02: don't mention it. If I can ever do anything to help, don't hesitate to ask.

Rockking: thanks a million man

Both Tai and Matt left the room. Michael and I said goodbye to each other, and also left. I sat there for a while and thought about what Michael had said. If Will's crest was going to have a reaction to Kari and TK's, they might need me and Palmon to be there to help. I made up my mind that instant to fly back to Tokyo to see if I could lend a hand. I picked up the phone and called Tai.

"Hello, look, this is not a good time, so . . ."

"Tai, it's Mimi," I said.

"Oh, hi Mimi. Look, I can't reach Kari on the phone. I'm afraid that she's in the digital world, so me and Matt are going to try to find some way there. I'm going to call Cody, Yolei, Davis, and Ken because Matt can't find TK either. I'm sorry but I really can't talk right now."

"That's alright. I just wanted to say that I'm coming to Tokyo to help in any way that I can," I said quickly.

"Great, we'll probably need all the help we can get. Looking forward to it, bye," and he hung up before I had a chance to say goodbye. It was rather rude, but I could understand his being in a hurry. I thought for a few minutes on what would be the best course of action for explaining this to my parents, and then I started to book the trip online.