Final Angel Keyo: Turn to Page 4 if you wish to know where the notes are, turn to page 7 if you want to know who owns what, turn to your left if you want to find the meaning of life.

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Chapter 15: Lucid Preparations.

A Dream Awry.

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"Mr Jones?" A young programmer poked her head through the grey door of what counted as the office of the lead programmer for Pandai's American branch.

The office, like the door, was meant to be grey in colour, but the walls of the small box shaped room were lined with posters for not only Digimon but also many other franchises, ranging from monster series to harem romance to giant robots, even the filing cabinets hadn't escaped being decorated. Many people wondered why he had filing cabinets when everything he needed could be stored on his computer, but his only response was 'to file things'

"Given that I know you're not a strip-o-gram, and knowing that a lowly peon like yourself can give me no promotion, lateral or vertical, that would be of great benefit to me I can only assume that you've come to tell me of some grave mess you've made or to let me know that you all gained a super intelligence to rival my own and have finished the programme."

At the back of the room sat a small desk, an unusually large computer tower and monitor sat in the middle of it with models of Digimon and old coffee mugs lining the edges. From behind it the scraggly figure of Cecil Jones rose, his Shaggy like appearance made all the more apparent by the rumpled green shirt he wore, the top three buttons left undone exposing some of his scrawny chest.

"Actually, I have a question about some of the coding."

Sighing, Cecil made his way around the desk, 'tsking' as he did so. Reaching into his shirts breast pocket he pulled out a long thin stick coated with a pink substance from its carton and proceeded to hold it up before the intrusive programmer.

"Mary, do you know what this is?" He asked.

"A stick, sir?" The programmer backed up a little, moderately confused.

"This, my dear, is a piece of Pocky, strawberry flavour in fact. It is a fine treat from the Far East, Japan to be exact. It was first sold in 1965 under the name 'Chocotek'. It was an instant hit and its name was changed to Pocky after the onomatopoetic sound 'pokkin', the sound it makes when bitten." Walking back to his desk, he leaned against it and twirled the snack treat between his fingers, apparently admiring it. "It comes in dozens of varieties from chocolate, to strawberry, to soy bean believe it or not." Sitting back against his desk, he placed the piece in his mouth, clutching it to one side in the same fashion as smoker and their cigarette. "The problem is, this fine treat is only available in said land of the rising sun. I have to order boxes of it online to get my fix. It's one of the many reasons I crave a lateral promotion to the Japanese headquarters." He paused as he snapped off party of his snack and devoured it, keeping the rest in a smoker's grip as he gestured it around. "I want to sit in a Manga Café and write my coding while being served hot tea and," he gestured to the carton in his pocket with the stick. "pocky at ridiculously high prices by a waitress in a ridiculously short skirt. Preferably with an Eevee motif."

Stepping forward, he looped his arm around Mary's shoulders and began to steer her towards the door.

"Eevee?" She asked, distracted and a little bewildered.

"Small fox like creature with long ears, it's from another pet monster series. Don't worry about it; just get back to your station. Because this Expansion is the first big job Pandai has trusted the American branch with, and if we do it well, I could get that lateral promotion." Pulling his arm away again, hen gently patted her on the back while ushering her out the door.

"But sir, about my que…"

"K, K, Thanks, bye."

With a bang, the door closed, leaving the young programmer with a lot of grey in her face. With a frustrated growl, she turned and began to stomp back to her desk.

"Is he always like this?" She moaned.

"Yes I am." Cecil poked his head out of the door, before giving her a small wave, returning his pocky to his mouth, and closing it again leaving a frustrated programmer as he dropped down in his comfy swivel chair and resumed his own coding work.

---

Sitting in the lunch hall of the school, Tanya watched as Charley slurped down the contents of her yoghurt pot before drawing back with a satisfied sigh as she filled her lungs with air once more, before licking around her lips in order to remove the ring of banana flavoured dairy product from around her lips.

"Why can't you ever just use a spoon?" Tanya asked.

"Because it's slow and boring." The unorthodox cheerleader returned, before licking around the inner rim of the pot and attempting to remove as much of the remaining contents as possible with her tongue.

Shaking her head, Tanya resumed the consummation of her own lunch, continuing from where she had left off with her ham and pickle sandwich.

"Say, what are you doing tonight after work?" Charley asked after she once more licked her lips clean.

Looking up at her dark haired friend, Tanya's brain preformed a swift itinerary check before signalling for her to try and shrink back into her neck.

"Eh…a guy asked me to go hang out with him…"

Seeing Charley's eyebrow raise in disbelief and shock, Tanya quickly waved her hands in defence and drew her face forward again before spluttering out clarification.

"In my game!" She almost yelled, drawing in a few looks causing her to drop her hands and once more try to shrink into herself. "Just…in my game. A guy I know there asked me to go adventuring with him tonight."

"Oh, I see." Charley slumped, taking a disinterested look in her yoghurt pot before declaring it empty by throwing it with stunning accuracy into the nearest bin.

"Sorry." Tanya mumbled, averting her gaze.

Sighing and inwardly cursing herself for forgetting how sensitive her friend was, Charley proceeded to pick up her unused tea spoon and lean across the table before delivering a light tap to her friend's head.

"Nah, I'm the one who's sorry." Charley watched as Tanya confronted her with unintentional puppy dog eyes, confused unintentional puppy dog eyes, but puppy dog eyes none-the-less. "After all," she grinned. "I'm not the one who's going to be hanging around with a big, fat, smelly, 40 year old dirty perv!"

Eyes widening, Tanya pushed herself up in readiness to retaliate.

"Ca…" Catching herself, she dropped back down to her seat and lowered the volume of her voice. "Cait is not a 40 year old perv…" She almost mumbled.

Smirking, Charley also sat back down, thoroughly enjoying the bout of teasing.

"I mean, I know you're always worrying about how 'plain' you are, but a lot of guys really do go in for the whole skinny, geeky, look. I mean, that little pout of yours and the glasses…"

"But I don't look anything like that in the game!" Tanya protested, wrapping her arms around herself protectively.

"And how do you know he looks anything like he does, hm?"

Watching Tanya struggle for a response, Charley decided to show mercy and stop punishing her friend.

"Relax, I'm only teasing." She assured. "I'm sure he's really a moderately okay guy with less of a social life than you."

"Charely…" Tanya whined.

"I know, I know. But if you didn't keep spending all your time playing that game I wouldn't feel the need to tease you so much."

"Sorry." Tanya resumed her cowering turtle act.

"Enough with the sorry." The dark haired cheerleader scolded. "You'll just have to make it up to me when we do go and hang out, k?"

"Okay." The scrawny geek smiled.

"Good. So you'll be buying me all the apple juice I want when I come to loiter at Joe's tonight."

"Charely!" Tanya almost shouted again, allowing her friend to smirk broadly.

---

Clad in a pink frilly apron, embossed with a simple yellow chick on the front pouch, Vincent whistled to himself as he sliced potatoes, occasionally breaking into either the words of the song or doing a poor vocal imitation of the instruments involved. Tipping the slices of vegetable into his large cooking pot, he refrained from moving as a head suddenly planted itself on his shoulder.

"Oooh, good. Soup." The head's tired voice groaned happily. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to chew much tonight."

"Long day Auntie Lisa?" The teenager asked as his Aunt drew back, slouching over to the kitchen table and taking a seat with a tired sigh, kicking off her shoes in a lazy fashion as soon as she was seated.

"Click kettle on would you?" She asked, enough of a response to answer Vincent's question.

Preparing a cup and the coffee grains, he quickly returned to his cooking, proceeding to slice up the available leaks while waiting for the kettle to boil.

"Did you manage to get Thursday off?" He asked.

"Not quite. They wouldn't give me time off but the did let me swap with one of the night shifts."

"Ah, the girls'll be happy that you'll get to see their play." Vincent poured the boiling water into the mug, presenting it to his Aunt.

"Thanks dear." She accepted, running one hand through her relatively short black hair before taking a sip. "But I won't be back until late, so you'll have to get them to bed and read them their story."

"Of course." The teen nodded.

Leaning back in her chair Lisa tried to savour the peace of the kitchen, was which was suddenly shattered as a pair of young girls, the eldest no older than 8 and the other the younger than 5, tore into the room, tackling their mother who had just enough time to set down her coffee mug before welcoming her children into her arms, finding herself barraged with details of their day at school. Catching the tired smile his Aunt gave her daughters, Vincent could only smile back and give her a shrug. Not much could be done to stop the two girls once they got going.

Returning his eyes to the vegetables before him, leeks now, Vincent let his mind stray to the game. The meeting hadn't solved much, but it had at least forced the question into existence. He hoped the matter would be resolved soon, with all their work coming together soon having distractions and unresolved disagreements would only get in their way.

---

Admittedly Tanya had come to find the goggle wearing child she referred to with supposed affection as 'Bobby' somewhat more tolerable than she had first surmised during the times she had played with him while searching for Cait, but this did not mean that she was keen on having his company forced upon her

"I'm sorry honey," Her mother apologised. "But Ms Bradford has been trying to secure a deal on those new apartments since they started building and she said she needs me there to help tonight."

"It's okay Mom." Tanya reassured her parent, clearly miffed, but able to accept it.

"Thanks honey." Mrs Mills leaned in and kissed her daughter on the forehead before pulling her coat on.

"Bobby, you behave okay?" Ms Bradford cautioned her son before giving him a similar kiss and following her subordinate to the door. And with calls of take care, love you, and all their ilk the two women left, leaving Tanya to sigh at her predicament.

Swaying on his heels and with his hands clutched behind his back, Bobby proceeded to present Tanya with the best 'innocent' smile he could muster.

"So…Tanny…" The girl twitched at the karmic force of the nickname, the boy being just observant enough to catch it and correct himself. "I mean Tanya, I don't suppose you would be willing to…y'know…"

"I'll get the connection cables." She sighed.

---

With the rings of binary flashing around them, Dainya and the Digital Kaiser Sephiroth, aka, Sephy, came into existence. Counting down in her head Dainya braced herself.

'3…2…1…'

"DAINYA!"

With a 'whoof', Dainya found herself blasted off of her feet as Lupmon delivered her customary welcome, slobbering all over the girl and causing Sephy to laugh.

"Man, that just doesn't get o-uff!"

A red blur suddenly crashed into the goggle wearing fan boy forcing him to the ground, his screams of protest ignored by the red lizard Digimon. Pausing, Komodomon looked over at his follower and beamed with his large, sharp teeth.

"You're right, this is a good way to greet people. Good work follower."

"Thanks Aniki!" Lupmon beamed before finally relenting and allowing Dainya to push her off and get up.

"Yo, Dainya."

A little more startled than she should have been, what with his partner currently giving Sephy a tongue bath, Dainya turned to see Cait, accompanied by a rather worried looking Bulletmon. Returning the smile he gave, Dainya waved in greeting, Lupmon running out from her side and looping behind the cloaked adventurer and following Bulletmon as the gun totting virus attempted to pull Komodomon off his partner, yanking unsuccessfully at the lizard's tail, Lupmon laughing and cheering on her Aniki as Sephy called to his partner for help.

"Should I be intervening in that?" Cait asked, pointing to the veritable srummage on the ground, the noise the four were making, especially now that Lupmon had made something of a dog-pile of it by leaping atop Bulletmon, was drawing in a few stares from passing players.

"Yeah, I think you'd better." Dainya suggested, growing uncomfortable with the attention they were receiving.

"C'mon Komodomon." The adventurer prepared to push back his cloak and try and forcibly dislodge his partner.

"I'd love to…really." Komodomon replied, tipping his tail to indicate the two bodies on top. "But they are a just a teensy bit heavy."

Indeed, Komodomon's game had backfired on him as he was now pinned down by the wait of the armoured Bulletmon who in turn was pinned by Lupmon, the wolf sitting happily at the top beaming with her doggy smile.

"I'm the Queen of the castle!" She sang.

Taking shy looks at the players who had now stopped to stare, and in most cases laugh to some degree, causing her to give Cait a nervous smile, preparing to apologise, but was cut off by the adventurer.

"Sorry." He supplied her with his own slightly embarrassed smile. "Komodomon can get a bit carried away sometimes."

"I…it's okay" Dianya responded, a little surprised. "Sorry that Lupmon is so…"

"Incorrigible?" The cloaked adventurer provided with a smile.

"Would someone get them off meeeee!" Sephy wailed in frustration at his position, just causing Komodomon to smirk as Cait sighed and Dainya flushed red in embarrassment as even more people began to stare and laugh.

---

The barbershop quartet were in full warble, accompanied by the slightly out of tune twangs of the piano as the group sat in Gekomon's bar. After convincing Lupmon that the trio beneath her did not make for a very good castle, Dainya had suggested finding a place where they at least couldn't hear everyone snickering at them, and so Cait proposed the little bar Dainya had visited the day before. They had been lucky and managed to secure a table towards the centre of the bar as the corner ones had been taken up by those seeking to be more dramatic. Partners sat by partners, though Lupmon had been sure to sit by her aniki, while Sephy had opted to sit across from the red lizard in order to be able to glare at him.

"How can you stand this place…" Sephy moaned, barely a step away from flapping his hands over his ears.

"I have a thing for mon with moustaches and the wild west." Cait grinned at the kid.

"I'm just in it for the moustaches." Komodomon chipped in.

"I must admit, the décor and motif do strike a certain cord with me…" Bulletmon chipped in, the draw for him probably stemming from his revolver swinging champion form.

"Bulletmon, you're not meant to be siding with them." Sephy whined at his partner.

"Sorry Kaiser…" The gun wielder bowed his head.

Sighing at Bulletmon's subservience, Dainya then remembered that while she had enlisted Sephy in helping to look for Cait, she hand never actually told him who she had been looking for, and the cloaked adventurer no clue as to who her goggle wearing charge was, a realisation that caused her to burst out with a large 'Oh!' catching the attention of those around her.

"I haven't introduced you all yet." Looking to Cait and Komodomon she gestured across to the younger boy and his partner. "Cait, Komodomon, this is B…Sephy and Bulletmon."

"Kaiser…" Sephy murmured, casting his eyes over Cait's smiling form.

"Sephy, Bulletmon." Dainya switched emphasis as she gestured to the adventurers and looked to the younger boy. "This is Cait and Komodomon, they're the adventurers who helped me when I first got here."

"Charmed." Cait offered the boy his hand to shake, but simple received an irritated 'humpf' in return that made Dainya scowl. She, and apparently Komodomon if the way he bore his teeth was any indication, was about to scold the boy for his rudeness but their moment was cut as Bulletmon pushed himself up and leaned over to table, accepting Cait's hand and shaking it in a very formal fashion.

"Indeed." The small virus agreed. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Keeping a smile on his face, Cait focused his attention on Bulletmon. While she was glad that Bulletmon had kept up his usual level of good manners, Dainya couldn't help but give a concerned, and aggravated look in Sephy's direction. The kid may be ill mannered, but she couldn't get why he would be mad at Cait, and his lack of mouthing off was just odd.

Looking across to the adventurer in question, Dainya mentally sighed. She had been looking forward to just hanging out with him again like on the first night, she really didn't want Sephy tagging along and bugging the hell out of them.

"So does anyone have any ideas on where they want to go?" Cait suddenly asked, snapping Dainya from her reprieve.

"Huh? You mean you haven't got some place in mind?" She looked a little bewildered.

"Even great adventures run out of juicy rumours once in awhile." Komodomon shrugged.

"Aw, did the shops not have any more?" Lupmon patted Komodomon's shoulder in symathy.

"No Lupmon rumours…I…No, they didn't." Komodomon relented, helpless against the sappy puppy eyes his follower wore as he patted her on the head, the wolf beaming instinctively at the affectionate gesture.

"So basically you've run out of places to blunder around in?" Sephy asked in a dry tone.

"Sephy!" Dainya began to scold, but before she could begin a proper rant Cait spoke up.

"Indeed." He gave a smile, which while it wasn't any kind of cruel, did give the adventurer a somewhat more dangerous look that made Sephy shrink back in his seat a little. "I appear to be a bull without a china shop." Looking over to Dainya, his smile softened back into its usual warmth. "But I do know a rather interesting place which may be nice to visit. There's a bit of a walk involved, but it's certainly worthwhile."

Nodding in agreement, Dainya smiled back at Cait.

"If you say so Cait."

"Is it a good place?" Lupmon looked up at her Aniki who was still stuck patting her head.

"Oh yeah!" The lizard returned, taking advantage of Lupmon's distraction to retrieve his hand as he began to gesture as he spoke. "It's incredibly beautiful. Sun, sea, flowers!"

"It's a treasure all of its own!" Cait finished.

"Wow…" Lupmon gazed off into space, a dreamy look in her eyes.

"You make it sound lovely." Bulletmon nodded.

With a huff, Sephy pushed back his chair and began heading towards the door.

"Well if we're going lets go then." He called back, restrained, but obviously bothered.

"Think I went a little overboard?" Komodomon leaned in and asked his partner, who looked over to Dainya who shrugged in return.

Rising, they followed the goggle wearer out, finding him waiting beyond the door with no clue as to where to go, forcing him to allow Cait to take the lead, the group heading off to the south, Dainya sure that Sephy would get out of his funk soon, while Lupmon continued to try and drag details from her aniki who remained effectively quiet on the matter.

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Raven: Funny thing about last week. For some reason, I ended up blocking Keyo on my instant messenger and never realized it. So we both thought that the other person had been gone for the entire week. Yeah.

So, Cecil Jones eh? He's like Bobby, only older, smarter, and with Pocky. Same great "I'm always right" attitude, brand new look. Speaking of which, Bobby himself returns! And he manages to ruin the evening without really trying.

Surprisingly, Keyo and I have been spending more work this week discussing a section much farther into the story than where we are now. Man, I can't wait until this thing starts picking up…

Keyo: I really enjoyed writing this chapter, for a few reasons. The first is probably that I go to use Cecil, Vincent and Sephy again, and the second is that Cecil gets to act like House or Dr Cox. We got a good bit of character development, which is damn lovely. I think my writing is coming along a lot, as I'm getting fewer errors back from Eight each time and my chapters seem a bit…fuller.

Also, Plot ho everyone! We got a few hints in this one and a bit will be punching us in the face hopefully in the next one.

As a warning, Chapter 16 may be a bit late as I'll be in Ireland for a few days and won't be back until Saturday, and I may wind up staying longer. So sit tight.