This is where the sheer scope of the story comes into play. This is going to be key in the climactic moments of the tale.
It took seven seconds from the first step down the Slope of Fate for two young teenage women to collide in an undignified mess of limbs.
It took four seconds afterward for three teenagers and one young man to find the mess all had sought.
It took one second afterward for three of the four males to forcibly hold back nosebleeds. The fourth merely glared at the other three. ("That's my sister, jackasses!")
Yolei, who had landed on top despite her momentum, slowly peeled herself off of the older girl.
"Oooh...I'm so sorry." She said as she rubbed her now-aching head with her eyes closed. "I couldn't stop myself."
Kari didn't answer. She sat up just as slowly, also rubbing her throbbing head. She, unlike the younger teen, had her eyes open as she rubbed, and her face flip-flopped between an angry glare and a pained cringe.
"I am so totally sorry..." Yolei continued before opening her eyes to see who her inadvertent victim was. She formed a less-than-amused expression of her own. "And I immediately retract my previous statements."
"What are you doing here?" Kari asked, her head hurting less. "Come to ruin our time together, have you?"
Yolei rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because my bitch-senses were tingling and drew me here. I know I'm good, but I'm not psychic."
Ken slinked up behind Yolei and set his hands on her shoulders. "That's enough, Yolei."
Kari brought a sarcastic finger to her lips in mock thought. "Bitch senses? How do you pick out other people from yourself?"
T.K. slipped beside Kari and gently wrapped a hand around her arm. "Stop it, Kari."
Both girls slipped out of their respective partner's grips and stood up, glares still at full force.
"So Kari," Yolei said. "What's it like to be in a lesbian relationship?"
T.K. did a double take as Kari's eyes flared. "I wouldn't know. I suppose it's better than having a two-men together, though."
Ken nearly fell over as Yolei balled up a fist. "You take that back!"
"Hell no! You take back what you said about T.K.!"
"Bite me, Pink Ranger!"
"That's it!" Kari lunged forward with a raised fist. Yolei followed her lead and charged toward Kari. Tai quickly darted in and grabbed his sister by the waist, yanking her back. Davis mirrored his older friend in order to hold Yolei back.
"Kari!" Tai yelled, hoping to get his sister's attention. "Knock it off before you hurt someone!" Kari glared at her brother before dropping her head silently.
"You too, Yolei!" Davis screeched as Yolei continued to thrash. "You're gonna get someone killed!"
Yolei glared at Davis. Davis returned the glare, hoping he could show that he was serious. Yolei settled down, crossing her arms in frustration. "Fine. I wouldn't want that whore's blood on my hands anyway."
"YOU BITCH!" Kari screamed, lunging forward again. Tai struggled to hold his sister back, forcing T.K. to step in and assist. "I'll kill you!"
"Try it, bitch! See if I don't rip your eyes out!"
"Shut up, Yolei!" T.K. screamed. Ken flared up in his own fit of anger.
"HEY!" He snapped, stomping toward the other three. He shoved T.K. from behind, forcing the other teen to stumble around Kari. "You watch what you say to Yolei!"
T.K. stopped himself from falling over and whipped around to face Ken. "What the hell is your problem?"
"My problem, " Ken said, still upset. "is your inability to keep your girl under control!"
T.K. shoved Ken back. "Do NOT talk about Kari like she's an animal!"
Ken adopted an eerily familiar sneer. "Perhaps I wouldn't if you were able to tame and maintain her attitude."
"Maybe you oughta put a muzzle on Yolei! Maybe then she'd shut up for once!"
"Now why would I do that when clearly Kari has been acting like the bitch this whole time?"
"That's it!" T.K. charged Ken, fist raised. Ken took a step back and raised his own fists. Tai jumped in front of T.K. before the two could collide.
"Cut it out, T.K.!" Tai screamed as he struggled to hold T.K. back.
Kari pulled at T.K.'s waist. "Stop it!"
Ken began slowly striding in T.K.'s direction. Before he could get too close, Davis and Yolei took up positions similar to their counterparts.
Davis shouted at Ken. "Dude! Don't make things worse!"
"Yeah, Ken!" Yolei shouted. "Save it for the cage!"
It took one second for a plan to be inadvertently revealed.
It took one second afterward for all of the members of the play to cease their movements.
It took another second for one lavender-haired teen to realize why four of the other five were staring at her with raised eyebrows while the fifth struggled to keep herself from bringing her face to her palm.
Yolei snapped her hands to her mouth. "Oops..."
Ken turned to completely face his girlfriend. "Yolei...what are you talking about?"
T.K. looked at Kari. "Yeah, Kari. What'd she mean when she said 'cage'?"
Tai and Davis stepped back, noting the confused looks between the two couples and deciding that they were out of place a bit.
"Uh..."Kari poked her fingers against one another. "It might have something to do with the fight Yolei and I planned..."
T.K. crossed his arms. "Try that again. This time, make some sense."
"That fight Yolei and I talked about...we were going to lock you two in a cage."
Ken's eyes bugged at Kari's words. "What? You can't be serious!"
T.K. rolled his eyes. "She's not. This is some kind of pathetic joke to try and keep us from beating each other up."
Yolei started to scratch the back of her head. "No...uh...no. She's not. We were getting you guys ready for a cage fight."
Three more pairs of eyes bugged as another set went wider. Moments of silence passed as information sank in.
"Uh...guys?" Davis eventually broke the silence. "Someone want to clue in the clueless, here?"
Yolei rolled her eyes. "It'd take forever to clue you in to anything, Davis."
"Screw you, too."
Kari stepped forward before another melee could break out. "Uh, Davis, it's like this. Yolei and I got into a fight a couple of days ago. I reminded Ken and Yolei about T.K. beating Ken up in the Digital World a few years ago..." Ken winced slightly at the memory. "And offered them a chance at evening things up."
"We got Ken and T.K. to start working out," Yolei stepped in. "in order to get them ready for a cage match that they had no idea about."
Kari rolled her eyes. "Until you opened your fat mouth."
Yolei sneered at Kari. "My ass, Pink Ranger. Kiss it."
"How about I kick it instead?" Kari stomped forward. T.K. and Tai stopped her again.
"Look," T.K. said, his mini-spat with Ken forgotten. "We need to talk about this."
"Agreed." Tai nodded.
T.K. turned to face Tai with an unamused look on his face. "Alone."
"Why? She's my sister, you know."
"Yeah, but she didn't get you into a fight with a friend of yours, did she?"
"Well, no..."
Kari rolled her eyes. "I'd appreciate it if you two didn't talk about me like I'm not right in front of you."
Both men rubbed the backs of their heads. "Sorry."
Ken brought his hand up to his forehead and began rubbing. He was hoping to get rid of the headache he could feel coming on.
"They're right, Yolei." He said, cringing in anticipatory pain. "We need to have a serious discussion about what you and Kari have gotten us into and why I'm going to need several bottles of headache medicine before the day is done."
Davis nodded. "Yeah. This is some seriously heavy stuff."
Ken glared at Davis. "Not you."
"Why not?"
"Because your mouth is even bigger than mine!" Yolei cried out, giving Kari a reason to sneer for once.
"So you finally admit it. You've got a megaphone for a mouth." Five sets of eyes rolled at Kari's current inability to resist her urge.
"Yeah, yeah. If I've got a megaphone, then Davis has a disaster siren."
"Hey!"
Ken placed a friendly hand on Davis' shoulder. "Sorry, Davis, but this is something that Yolei and I need to work out on our own. I'll tell you how things worked out later on, if Yolei doesn't mind."
Davis nodded while his expression changed to that of a concerned friend. "Alright. If you're absolutely sure about this."
"I'm sure. Everything will, hopefully, be just fine." Ken turned to face Yolei. "We should get going. We have plenty to talk about, I'm sure."
Yolei nodded wordlessly. She didn't feel like trying to argue about anything in public, despite the last ten minutes or so what passed in the middle of the city.
"We should go too, Kari." T.K. said, ready to leave. Kari silently agreed. Both couples began making their way out of the mini forest. Before either got too far. T.K. turned around.
"Ken!" He called out, catching the genius' attention.
"Yeah?" T.K. approached him and held his hand out.
"I'm sorry about what I said. I was a little too deep in the moment to think about what I was saying."
Ken took his friend's hand and smiled. "Don't worry about it. We were all a little too caught up. I'm sorry for shoving you."
"It's cool."
Both teens released each other's hands before turning to both Tai and Davis, who had been standing silently.
"You two are not to say a thing, understood?" Ken warned.
"Nobody else needs to know about what's going on and what's not going to happen between us."
Tai raised his hands defensively. "Relax. I'm not going to tell anybody."
Davis grinned. "Ditto." Both T.K. and Ken eyed Davis warily for a moment before leaving to join their girlfriends. As soon as the two were out of sight, Davis took his D-Terminal out of his pocket and began typing up an email.
"What exactly do you thing you're doing?" Tai asked as he looked at his close friend incredulously.
"Well, I gotta tell someone, about this, don't I?"
Tai rolled his eyes. "That's very un-bro."
"I'll get over it." Davis replied as he sent off his email. "Now I just have to hope that this doesn't blow up in my face."
"It will. Just like the cake you made for Sora's birthday. She's still pissed off about that, by the way."
"Dude, I told you and I told her that was intentional!"
"Davis, you ran around apologizing to Sora at the top of your lungs."
"Because she wouldn't stop chasing me!"
"Whatever. Just don't be surprised when this whole thing goes 'kerblam' all over your face." Tai started navigating his way back to his family's car. Davis followed, hoping Tai would be wrong about his decision.
Who could Davis have emailed, and what kind of implications will the message hold for the four Digidestined? Find out when I get around to more of Round Two!
...and I'm done trying to sound like an episode narrator. But seriously. If you can figure out who Davis contacted, you just might be able to figure out how far I'm going to take this story.