Kyle walked slowly down the steps to his school, avoiding everyone else, for the moment. Well, that was a disaster... I don't know what was worse, getting to school just after lunch, so we missed that, having to pretend not to be there, so the teachers wouldn't hassle us, or Kirsten having lied about telling Lauren what happened, why I forgot to show up for our date, so now she hates me, and- Kyle took a deep breath. You know what? I'm just gonna go home, and pretend today didn't happen.

Slipping by Kirsten and Isaac, Kyle started on his walk home. Fortunately, the streets were pretty silent. He sighed. I just hope mom isn't too mad about all this...

His digivice chose that moment to vibrate. He shook his head. No. I'm not going to deal with it. It vibrated again. No. Forget it! Again, it- Okay! Will you shut up if I look at you? He took out his digivice, but continued walking.

The screen displayed the flashing message "New Mail!" Kyle sighed. "Oh, fine..." He pressed the open button.

He frowned as the message played out over the screen. "What the heck?"

The Clock Of The Long Now! (You Not Included)

Just thought I'd pop in to say high! Yes.

Crimson and black! Always watch your back. For that's where we

are.

JK!

The author. How many, now?

The answer is meaningless, the search is fruitful, and all that you ever knew about

your friend

is wrong. Yet again. Yet another?

Another friend. For another. Are they brothers?

For each other.

The clue: Madness. The cause: Unknown. The cure: Se7en

We have the twelve. But where is thirteen?

Find him. And the cure, the key, is yours.

Where is he? A hint. Closer than you think.

-A friend of a friend.

Kyle blinked. Ooookay... now my digivice has gone cra- "Ow!"

Kyle looked up from his digivice. He was right in front of his apartment building, and he'd just run into a girl. Literally. Crap. "Um... s-sorry that, um..." Kyle blinked as the black haired girl looked at him. The both froze for a moment.

"Kyle?"

"Sara?"

Sara's eyes narrowed. "Are you following me, or something?"

Kyle laughed nervously. "W-what? No! I mean, um, I was looking at my digivice, and wasn't looking where I was going, and, um, this, is my apartment building, so..." Kyle's voice trailed off as he saw Sara's expression change from anger to disbelief.

"You have got to be kidding..." Sara said. "This is where my dad lives!"

Kyle blinked. "W-what? Then- wait, why are you here then? I thought you said he disowned you?"

Sara looked away from him. "Um... that may have been an overstatement..." she took a deep breath. "My... my dad just works a lot, so he can't really be bothered to keep track of me... so... he just sorta..." her voice trailed off.

Kyle shifted uncomfortably. "Um..."

Sara suddenly looked back at him. "Hey, I know! Since we're essentially neighbors, I'll show you where we live!"

"Um... okay?" Kyle said as Sara nodded, turned, and walked toward the entrance. "Hey, hold on a sec! Is this going to be okay with your dad?"

Sara looked back at him. "I told you, he really doesn't care what I do!"

Kyle sighed, "Okay, wait up then!"

Sara and Kyle got into the elevator, alone. Sara took a card key out of her pocket, and slipped it into the slot below the buttons. As the elevator took off upward, she looked over at Kyle, and smiled. "I really think you're gonna like his place. It's a lot nicer than the house that I have." She blushed a little.

"Um, yeah, about that..." Kyle bit his lip. "...do you actually own that place?"

Sara nodded. "Uh-huh. I used the allowance my dad gives me to get it."

Kyle's mouth dropped open a little. "You bought a house... with your allowance?!"

Sara laughed. "The corporation my dad works for is global, and he does some pretty high-end work, so he gets paid very well." She shrugged. "And, well, he doesn't mind passing it around a bit." she laughed again, then paused, and looked away. "...that sounded pretty conceited, didn't it..."

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Kyle glanced up at the floor number. "I didn't know the elevator went up this high..."

"This is the top." Sara said, walking through the elevator door. "My dad's penthouse!"

Kyle followed Sara out of the elevator, and looked around. "Holy crap..."

The room the elevator had let them out into was apparently a kitchen, filled with numerous expensive-looking stainless steel gadgets, supported by well-varnished wood. But the expensive materials was not what impressed Kyle... Holy crap... you can see the entire city from here!

Sara laughed as she saw Kyle eyeing the window in amazement. "You think that's cool?" She grinned. "Wait until you see the view from the rooftop."

Kyle looked over at Sara, and saw that she had opened a side door, leading to stairs that led upwards to sunlight. Kyle nodded, and followed Sara up the staircase.

When Kyle reached the top of the stairs, his jaw dropped again. "I think I need more words for amazement..."

Sara laughed. "Well, what'd you expect?"

"Not a fricking forest!" How the hell do you even fit a forest onto a rooftop?

"It's not really a forest... just an overgrown garden." Sara looked away. "It was my mom's... but she's..." she paused for a moment, then continued, "...not really around to care for it anymore..."

"Oh..." Kyle gulped. "...um... I'm... sorry about..."

Sara shook her head, and looked back at Kyle. "Nah, it's okay... oh! I wanted to show you something else, too!" She took off down a path (more like a tunnel) through the forest.

"Hold on a sec!" Kyle said, and followed her down the path. After a moment of bungling through the bushes, he came out of the foliage, and saw Sara sitting on a bench in a clearing in the rooftop forest, with an unobstructed view of the entire city. Sara smiled as Kyle cautiously sat down next to her. "This is my favorite spot in the entire city..."

"Y-yeah..." Kyle whispered, looking out over the city below them. "I never realized how tall this building really is..."

Sara nodded. "Yeah, it's one of the tallest in the city... only a few others are better, including the corporation my father works for." She pointed to a tall black building, with a large sphere atop it, in the very heart of the city, dwarfing the building around it. "That's it, right there..."

"Wow..." Kyle said. "Your dad must be pretty high up in the corpor... crap, that sounds like a bad joke..."

Sara giggled. "That's okay. You didn't mean to..." her voice trailed off.

Kyle shifted uncomfortably. "...so, um, where's Malcamon?"

"Not here..." Sara shrugged. "Probably keeping Raustemon company."

Kyle nodded. "That's good. I just hope she keeps him from blowing anything else up..."

Sara sighed. "Eh..."

The two of them sat quietly for a moment. Sara cleared her throat. "...um..." but was cut off by a dinging sound below them. Sara looked back. "Ah, dang it... my dad's home early..." Her eyes widened for a moment.

A man's voice, muffled by the rooftop forest, called out. "Sara? You up there?"

Sara bit her lip. "Uh... yeah, dad!" She glanced over at Kyle, and whispered "Look, I... my dad doesn't like guests that much... you'd better go..."

Kyle heard Sara's father start to climb the stairs. "Sara? You okay?"

Sara smiled. "I'm fine, dad!" she then whispered. "Kyle! Hid in the bushes, quick!"

"W-what? Why?"

"Just do it!" she muttered, and pushed him into the bushes, making a large crunching sound. "Ow..."

"Sara? You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, fine..."

Kyle crouched down where he had landed. She is crazy...

Sara's father poked his head into the clearing. "There you are." He smiled. "Well, I'm going to make some dinner soon. You want anything to drink?"

Kyle peeked around the bush. Might as well see who I'm hiding fro... His mouth dropped open. Oh... shit...

Sara looked over at her dad, and shook her head. "No, I'm good." She looked over where Kyle was hiding for a moment. "...I'll just get something later..."

Sara's dad shrugged. "Okay..." he walked back through the woods. Kyle waited until he heard the door close before coming out of the forest. Sara's expression immediately flipped from happy to apologetic. "Sorry about that... Last time I had Reto up here, my dad found us, and got really pissed." She noticed his look of disbelief. "What?"

"S...Sara..." Kyle whispered. "Do you... know who he is?"

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "He's my dad. I just said that." She glared at him suddenly. "What, are you getting stupid all of a sudden?"

Kyle shook his head. "Sara... he's a Sentinel."

Sara eyes widened. "W-what? What makes you think-?"

Kyle sighed. "The day before yesterday, after I saw you and Malcamon for the first time, a black van pulled up. Two men got out. One had black glasses, and one was your father."

Sara frowned, and looked down. "Are...are you sure they were...?"

"Yeah..." Kyle whispered. "...they said they programmed Raustemon..."

Sara's head snapped back up. "What?! I thought we stopped that!"

"Huh?"

"When Reto and I first got our digimon, we had to battle some weird ones..." Sara said, shuddering at the memory, "we later learned that they were being made by the Sentinels, and Reto hacked into their computers to stop the process."

Kyle frowned. "Who told you about that?"

Sara shrugged. "I dunno. We got these messages on our digivices about it..."

"Kinda like this?" Kyle dug out his digivice, and showed her the message he'd gotten earlier.

Sara shook her head. "No... it wasn't cryptic like that... it was more like-" She sighed. "You know what? I think I still have it... hold on a second here..." She dug her digivice out of her pocket, and tapped a few buttons. "Here we go..."

listen new information

the sentinels have a project

they create digimon to fight

hasnt been perfected must be stopped

the code is seven sevens

they seem obsessed with that number

talk later stop them trust no one

Kyle blinked. "Sevens?"

Sara shrugged. "Probably some apocalypse nonsense. Doesn't really matter now, though, they've probably changed the codes..." she bit her lip. "We need to stop them from making digimon... but how are we going to get in?"

Kyle stared at her for a moment. "Um..."

Sara's dad called from below. "Sara, honey? Dinner?"

"Crap..." Sara whispered. "Look, I have to get you out of here, without him seeing you... he'd know who you were..." She yelled "Coming, dad!" whispering again, she said "Listen, when I go into the kitchen, I'll bump the elevator button, and get it up here. When I say 'pineapple', sneak into it."

"Pineapple?"

"My dad likes them, okay?" She glared at him. "Now, let's go!"

Kyle followed Sara through the rooftop forest, and down the stairs, stopping just shy of the kitchen. He listened intently as Sara went on ahead.

"Hi dad!"

"Hey, Sara, how was school?"

"Eh, you know..."

The elevator dinged.

"...did you press the button?"

Sara laughed. "Sorry. Musta' bumped it..."

Say pineapple, please say pineapple... the door's not gonna stay open forever...

"Ech. Pineapple again?"

Whatever answer Sara's dad gave, Kyle ignored, as he scurried into the kitchen. He glanced over, and saw Sara's dad (a Sentinel...) putting dinner on the table. He looked to his left, and saw the elevator closing. Shit! He dove for it, making it in, but also slamming his head against the back wall of the elevator. Ow. Pain.

"What was that?" he heard Sara's dad ask from behind the door.

"What was what?"

"Ah... nothing..."

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator started descending. He was safe.

But Sara's not...

...and we have no idea how to stop the Sentinels...

Suddenly, Kyle felt a little less calm.

Shadow- "Hey everyone. Me again. Just updating now because I might not get to for a while. Why, you ask?"

Renamon- "HALO 3!!!" (dances)

Shadow- "Um, yes. Halo 3."

Renamon- "BEST GAME EVER! KAWAII!"

Shadow- "...Ka... okay... not the word I'd use, but... well, I'll update when I can."

Renamon- "SHOOT UP ALL THE COVIES!"

Shadow- (sweatdrops) "...get me out of here..."