Chapter 54: Future Plans

Heya everybody. I'd like to say thank you to Magyk-Foal1, Atariel Tsukai, Lilly The Omega Wolf and LullabyStorm for your reviews of the previous chapter. I really appreciate the feedback. I'm glad that Joe being as reliable as always seemed to be liked, because he is the Digidestined of Reliability after all. For those of you who have been wondering when Tai is going to appear next, your wait is over …


"And that's our plan as things stand at the moment," TK sighed as he and Kari finished explaining to Matt how they were going to deal with the changes in their lives now that they were having their daughter. The younger blonde felt Kari's embrace tighten as the couple waited for his brother to mull over everything that they had just told him. TK was sitting with Kari on the edge of their bed with Matt opposite them, sitting on TK's desk chair. He had been surprisingly quiet as he listened to everything that they had said.

"I'm glad that I left this a couple days." Matt adjusted the hat on his head as he continued to think about everything that the two younger teens had just told him. TK was actually rather surprised that his brother hadn't come back later during the day after he had found out about the baby and he was even more surprised that he didn't bring it up yesterday. "I think my headache would have come back while discussing this if I had found you any sooner. It was bad enough yesterday when Sora and I were discussing what might happen if she does end up pregnant."

"It's a really stressful thing to have to sort out." Kari nodded as she fidgeted slightly. "We think that we've come up with something that's doable for us though. Our plan is probably our best chance at staying together and raising our daughter while still trying to achieve our dreams."

"So you're going to move out and get your own place then?" Matt rubbed his eyes as he paused for a moment, prompting TK to wonder if his brother was still feeling the effects of his concussion. "You know, Kari, I'm not sure that your parents would kick you out for this. I think they'd let you stay. Although, I'm not so sure about our Mom, TK."

"I don't know. I'm going to bring a lot of shame on my family by becoming a teenage mother and I think my father could kick me out for breaking my promise to him." Kari glanced down at the floor. "Besides, I think that he wouldn't let TK move in so that we can raise our baby together. I'm not living away from TK and we're going to raise our daughter together, even if we have to run away from home. Also, I doubt my family would like TK and I making love as much as we'd like to, especially after this."

"We also don't want to force our parents to have to live with a baby," TK added as his eyes also fixed onto a spot on the carpet. "Mom works really long hours and so does Kari's father. The last thing they would want is to come home every night and have a crying baby keeping them awake."

"You have a good point. Either way, I'll support you throughout all of this as best I can." Matt pursed his lips and leaned forwards. "Your plan is really well thought out and I might end up stealing some of those ideas if Sora and I do end up having a baby."

"I'm sure that the pill Joe gave to Sora has worked and that you won't end up in the same situation as us." TK lifted his head and forced a smile as he gazed into his brother's eyes. "You'll be fine and everything will work out for you."

"I hope so. I'm not ready to be a father yet," the older blonde groaned as he leaned back in the chair again and stared at the ceiling. "I don't plan on having kids for another five or so years."

"We're not really ready to be parents yet as well," Kari sighed as she rested her head on TK's shoulder. "But we have to be ready now we've made our decision. We have to make sure we're as ready as we can be in the next six to seven months."

"You know, our parents and Kari's parents will expect you two to get married." Matt's eyes left the roof and locked onto TK's again. "Are you ready for that?"

TK knew that his brother was referring to their conversation nearly two months ago outside of that jewellery shop in the Venus Fort Mall. "I love Kari more than I can really say in words and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I planned to marry her one day and I guess that I'm just going to have to move my plans forward and marry her soon than I expected."

"I love TK just as much as he loves me and I want him to always be in my life, so marrying him would make one of my biggest dreams come true," Kari added and the look in her eyes made it obvious to TK that she was taking the honest route. "Also, as I've said several times already, we want to raise our daughter in a loving family. TK doesn't want my relationship with him to end up like your parents' relationship did, so we have to get married. Sure, it will lessen the embarrassment and shame for our families and I'm sure they'll expect it of us, but the truth is we're going to get married because we love each other and not because we're going to be forced to marry."

The brunette teen glanced into her boyfriend's eyes and she silently asked him whether she could continue and tell Matt the whole truth. TK took a deep breath before taking her left hand in his right one and tightening their embrace a little more. Kari understood his response and took a deep breath before she continued. "That's why TK proposed to me. We love each other, we want to spend our lives together and we want to raise our daughter together. We're getting married earlier than either of us expected but, in the end, it doesn't really matter when we get married because we were always planning to get married in the future."

"Wait." Matt glanced between the couple as his eyes opened wide. "You two are also engaged?"

"Yeah," they replied in unison before TK continued for them. "It's what we both want because we both want to be together for the rest of our lives."

"TK, you are so dead when Tai finds out," Matt groaned as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Not only have you got Kari, his younger sister, pregnant, you've also proposed to her without even asking anyone in her family for their permission. He's going to pummel you to death, then revive you and then pummel you into oblivion again."

"I won't let him." Kari suddenly tightened her grip of TK's hand. The determination in her tone was impossible to miss as she stared straight into Matt's ocean blue eyes. "I won't let anyone hurt TK, including Tai. I love him and I'll do whatever I have to do to protect him. I'll protect him like he protects me."

The older blonde shook his head. "I'm not sure that you can. Tai's going to be apocalyptically pissed when he finds out."

"He won't hit me, especially if I'm pregnant. And if he hits TK …" Kari paused as she tilted her head and gazed straight into her fiancé's eyes as she took a deep breath. "If Tai hits you, I'll knock his lights out. I promise that I'll protect you and keep you safe from him."

The brunette leaned forwards and parted her lips as she closed her eyes. TK mirrored his fiancée before pushing his lips into hers. The couple held them there for a few moments so that Kari could seal her promise to him. They reluctantly broke the contact between their lips and slowly moved their heads back so that they could gaze lovingly into each other's eyes.

A smile spread across Kari's face as her mahogany orbs remained fixed on her lover's sapphire pair. "You know, TK, I still get excited every time I think about me becoming Hikari Takaishi. I'm going to be yours forever."

"And I'll be forever yours." TK smiled back before he gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"I guess I should say congratulations," Matt chuckled dryly before sighing. "But I don't really know if that's appropriate given you weren't really expecting your baby and so on. Ah well, what the heck. Congratulations on your engagement. At least you're taking responsibility for your actions and not shying away from what you have to do."

"Thanks," the couple replied in their usual perfect synchronicity. "And it's ok, we understood what you meant."

Kari snuggled into TK's chest as the group fell into silence. She wrapped her other arm around her boyfriend and squeezed him, prompting the blonde teen to do the same to her. He could feel the warmth and light energy coming from her body and it relaxed him in a way that only being close to her could. TK knew that he could never be with anyone else and that nobody would be as close to him as Kari.

"You do know that this means neither of you can fight against Dragomon now, right?" Matt broke the short silence. "You can't risk anything happening to your baby."

TK glanced up at his brother. "Kari and I have discussed this and we think that we should be fighting Dragomon's army right now. We need to get this war finished before our daughter gets too big inside Kari and stops her from moving normally. It's one of the reasons why we feel we need to get out there now to fight."

"I'm still able to do all of the things that I can normally do." Kari smiled as she also glanced at Matt. "You saw what I'm still able to do in the battle the other day. I was still able to run and take down those Deep Ones with TK. I'll still be able to run and be as flexible as normal for a couple more months until my baby bump gets too big."

"So please can you still try to persuade Tai to let us fight?" TK asked as he stared into his brother's eyes once more. "Kari and I can win this war for us, but we've only got a limited amount of time. We have to fight now. Especially now you, Sora and Yolei are also out of action."

Matt's eyebrows furrowed before he shook his head. "I can't do that. It's too risky and …"

"We need to get this war finished before I'm too heavily pregnant to fight. We need to be fighting in the battles because we're the ones with the best chance of beating Dragomon," Kari cut him off in a stern tone. "I'm not raising my daughter in this base and don't even think about sending me and TK away from the frontlines until Dragomon is defeated. This base is not set up for someone to have a baby, so I need to end this war before I give birth to my and TK's daughter. I also don't want an evil Digimon like Dragomon around because he'll probably come after her instead of me, so we have to defeat him before it's too late."

"Look, Matt, I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of Kari being out on the battlefield while she's pregnant either." TK took a deep breath as he cast his mind back to the conversation he had with his girlfriend on this matter. "However, Kari is right that we need to end this as soon as possible for the reasons she said. Also, Kari's convinced me that she's still mobile enough to keep fighting at the moment. Trust me, I'll be the first to stop her from joining the battles if it starts to become too much for her."

"Fine, ok. I see you've thoroughly thought this through as well," Matt sighed again as he rubbed his forehead. "Your points make sense because I wouldn't want to be raising a baby in this base and if my luck's out then I might have to as well."


Mimi groggily opened her eyes and glanced to her right at her alarm clock. Seeing that it read nine thirty, she closed her eyes again and rolled onto her side, hoping to get more sleep. She'd been up half the night getting intimate with Izzy and she felt that they deserved a lie-in this morning. Neither of them had anywhere to be so what was the point in getting up?

"Prodigious!"

The brunette bolted upright in bed and gasped as her eyes opened wide. She felt the covers being thrown aside as Izzy leapt out of bed. Her completely nude boyfriend ran over to his laptop and opened it before hitting the power button. He sat down on his chair as he impatiently waited for the computer to boot up.

"What is it, Izzy?" Mimi took a few deep breaths before she glanced around the room. "Are we being attacked? Have you figured out how we can beat Dragomon and Metalseadramon? Is there a way we can reclaim Tokyo?"

The redhead didn't glance back at her as he entered his password. He still seemed oblivious to his lack of clothing while he plugged his D-Terminal into his laptop. "I've just figured out a way that I can improve the digital barriers so that TK, Kari, Ken and our Digimon can sense out of them while making sure that the evil Digimon still can't see or sense them inside the barriers."

"What?" Mimi sighed and shook her head. So much for her lie-in. She glanced down and realised that her upper body was exposed. The brunette quickly pulled up the bedcovers to cover her busty chest and hide it just in time as Tentomon flew up and landed on the bed.

"I've figured out how to make the barrier work only one way," her boyfriend replied still completely oblivious to the fact that he'd just ruined her plans for the morning. "This could give us a big advantage when we're out scouting or in a battle against Dragomon's army. It means that TK and Kari won't be, as they put it, blindfolded by the barriers."

"Izzy," Tentomon shook his head too as he stared at his partner. "You need to stop doing this kind of thing. You've given us the shock of our lives."

"He does this kind of thing on a regular basis?" Mimi groaned as she rubbed her forehead with the hand that wasn't keeping the covers up over her breasts.

"Normally he's wearing clothes when it happens," Tentomon rubbed the back of his head. "Except for that one time he yelled prodigious and came running out of the shower with nothing on."

Another sigh escaped Mimi's lips as she lay back down and sunk under the covers. She wrapped herself up in them to get warm again before she glanced over at her lover. "I guess it'll be something that I'll have to get used to."

"I've come to expect this kind of thing every time he comes up with an idea that he thinks he needs to work on," the red bug replied before he flew off the bed and started collecting some of Izzy's clothes. "I let him do it because he usually comes up with something very useful to us or gives us some new insight into how the Digital World works."

"I need to get to my computer in our office," Izzy announced as he closed his laptop and D-Terminal before scooping up both devices in his arms and heading for the door.

"WAIT!" Mimi and Tentomon shouted in unison. "You're not wearing any clothes!"

Izzy paused just before his hand was about to touch the door handle. His eyes gradually opened wider and wider as he slowly glanced down towards his manhood. He gulped as his face turned crimson red and he realised what he would have done if it wasn't for Mimi and Tentomon. "Ah crap. I can't believe I nearly did that."


Matt rubbed the bandage on his head as he mulled over whether he should actually discuss allowing TK and Kari to fight again with Tai. It was something that he had been going over and over in his mind for the last few hours and he still wasn't certain. Now that he knew Kari was pregnant, he knew that she shouldn't be going out into battle like she was asking because it could put both her life and the baby in danger. However, the brunette girl did make a good point that they needed to get this war finished soon because the base was probably one of the worst places to raise a baby. As Matt admitted earlier, he wouldn't want to raise his child in the DPD base.

After adjusting his hat, the blonde teen checked his digivice once more to make sure that Tai was still in the Digidestineds' living area. The screen confirmed it, so he got off his bed and turned to Sora. "I'm going to speak to Tai. I'll hopefully be back soon."

"Ok," Sora smiled at him before returning her attention back to the TV. "Say hi to Tai for me."

"I will," Matt nodded before he left their bedroom and walked down the corridor towards the living area. Giggles could be heard emanating from the room before Tai burst into full on laughter, which was shortly followed by Noriko's laugh. Matt turned the corner and found the two of them sitting at the table having dinner together.

His eyebrows rose as he watched their laughter die down before they continued their conversation. He'd noticed that Tai had been spending a lot of time with Noriko, which was something that both he and Sora had teased their bushy-haired friend about, and it looked as if they both had built up a good friendship recently. A smirk spread across Matt's lips as he recalled some of the other interactions between his best friend and Noriko over the last few weeks. Maybe it was something more that they had built up and his suspicions seemed correct as he watched Tai flirt with the brunette girl.

"I hope I'm not interrupting something," Matt teased as he strolled into the living area and headed for the table. "Do you mind if I join you? There's something I need to discuss with you, Tai."

"You're not interrupting anything. We're just having dinner," Tai grinned before gesturing to the chair next to him. "Please take a seat."

"Thanks." Matt took the seat and adjusted the fedora on his head again as he thought about how to word what he had to say. "I spoke to TK and Kari this morning."

"Oh." The smile dropped from Tai's face as he glanced down. "How are they doing?"

"They're fine," Matt lied, knowing exactly what would happen to TK if Tai knew the truth. "But they did ask me to speak to you about something."

"I guess Kari's still mad at me, huh?" Their leader ran his hand through his wild hair. "She hasn't said anything to me in days, so I must have really pissed her off."

"Really?" Noriko asked as her eyes opened wider. "But I thought that you two were really close and you never fight like most other brothers and sisters do."

"Yeah, I think that she's been avoiding me," Tai sighed before he rubbed his forehead. "She's really angry that I won't let her and TK fight. I know why she's frustrated staying in this base all of the time, but she's got to realise that she and TK are important to this war and we have to keep them safe."

"That's the reason they asked me to speak to you." Matt took a deep breath and he couldn't actually believe that he was vouching for a pregnant woman to go and fight in a war. "Kari does make a good argument about how effective she and TK would be in battle. What they did when they came with the others to save me, Sora and Yolei proves what Kari's saying. They're able to take on the strongest of Dragomon's forces and beat them, which means that they can deal significant blows if they were to do some stealth attacks."

"You can't be serious. Are you saying I should put them in danger?" Tai's brow furrowed as he glanced to his left at his blonde friend. "They're key to us winning this war, which is why we must keep them safe. Putting them out there on the battlefield means that it's a lot easier for Dragomon to capture them. That means TK would be killed and we'd lose this war. Is that what you want?"

"No, I don't want them to be captured or hurt. However, I don't think that they will get hurt if you let them fight. TK and Kari can handle themselves and they've foiled every attempt Dragomon has made to capture either of them." Matt kept himself calm and decided that keeping to the facts would be the best way to proceed. "It's not like they're asking if they can take on all of Dragomon's army by themselves."

"You know just as well as I do what they've done to protect themselves from the Deep Ones. I don't like the idea of my sister charging down evil creatures with a makeshift spear or using her light in hand-to-hand combat," Tai's tone rose a notch as he continued. "What part of that being too risky do you not understand? If they make one mistake while doing that kind of thing, they'll doom Earth and probably even the Digital World too. It's a risk I'm not willing to take and it's not their choice."

Matt sighed and rubbed his eyes as he thought for a moment. He knew that this was going to be difficult, but he didn't expect Tai to put up this much of a fight. "We put them in those positions, Tai. I doubt that they would be willing to do that by choice."

"What'll stop them from doing it again?" Tai gritted his teeth as he glared at Matt. "They'll do the same thing again. It's too risky. They'll charge …"

"We have to take risks to win this war and they know that. It's their duty as Digidestined to fight, which means that they might have to risk their lives some times." The blonde teen took a deep breath. "I learned long ago during our first adventure that I couldn't keep on protecting TK and that I have to let him fight even though I didn't want to put him in that kind of danger. There are times when you have to let them fight and do their jobs because it's what's best for everybody and the best way to save the world."

Matt's ocean blue eyes stared straight into Tai's deep brown pair as he continued. "I thought you used to understand this because you used to let them fight without being overprotective of them like I used to be with TK. You used to let them do what they needed to do, so what's changed? The Taichi I know would have taken this risk and allowed them to help out, so why aren't you letting them? What are you having doubts about?"

"I told you." Tai clenched his fists. "They are the key to winning this war so we …"

"Matt's right," Izzy interrupted as he placed his laptop on the table and took the seat next to Noriko. "Yes Tai, you're right that Kari and TK are the key to winning and losing this war, which is also why Matt is right that we need to use them more. We can't fight back affectively if we keep them cooped up in this base and don't use their abilities."

Both Matt and Tai turned to face the newcomer to their argument and it was their leader who spoke first. "How long have you been listening?"

"For a minute or so," the redhead replied as he opened his laptop. "I came to suggest the same thing Matt seems to be suggesting and tell you about a modification I've made to the digital barriers that might help."

"What have you done to the barriers?" Matt asked as his eyebrow rose. "I'm guessing you also have some plan that involves them and requires TK and Kari's help."

"Yes, TK and Kari can help us confirm whether Dragomon is actually on Earth and they can pinpoint his location," Izzy smiled before he pointed to his screen. "I've changed the programming in the digital barriers to allow TK and Kari to use their extra sense while keeping them and the energy from their crests hidden from Dragomon's forces. This new setting means that they won't be fighting blindfolded and can be at their most affective while keeping the digital barrier up."

"How will it affect the rest of us?" Noriko asked as she stared at the lines of programming on the genius' computer. "Will we still remain invisible to the Deep Ones and evil Digimon?"

"It'll work exactly the same as before but now we have the option to allow TK, Kari, Ken and our Digimon to sense things outside the barrier," he replied before he pulled out his D-Terminal and showed them the software. "This will allow TK and Kari to track Dragomon's forces so that we'll have a much better idea of what's going on in Tokyo than we do now. It will also allow them to keep the rest of us safe from surprise attacks. Heck, this would even allow them to sneak up on Dragomon's forces and wipe out whole platoons with The Gate of Destiny."

"That's great, Izzy." Matt nodded his approval as the gears began turning in his mind. "TK and Kari can then use their extra sense to guide us during our escape afterwards so that we don't accidentally bump into any other bad guys."

"You're forgetting that they will still sense Magnaangemon and Angewomon when they're fighting Dragomon's forces," Tai sighed as he shook his head. "They will still know that Kari and TK are out there if they sense their Digimon."

"As TK and Kari have pointed out already, that might be a good thing because of the psychological effect." Izzy's gaze fell on Tai as he continued. "Imagine how Dragomon's army would feel if Magnaangemon and Angewomon show up, wipe out a platoon or squadron and then suddenly disappear. We should then follow it up with another attack somewhere else later in the day. To them, it would be like we are appearing from nowhere and defeating their army before they can even rescue them."

"Do you mean that we can do something similar to what the Deep Ones did at the beginning of this war?" Noriko eyes lit up as she realised what they were talking about. "This would be our equivalent of when they created those dark clouds, attacked innocent people and then ran back to the Dark Ocean before any of us could get there to help. If we do things quickly enough, I doubt that the Deep Ones would be able to form any defence against us."

Matt's grin grew. "Turnabout is fair play. Besides, if things don't go to plan, the barriers will still hide us and we can always escape into the Digital World. Also, it's not like TK and Kari will be alone out there."

"Exactly," Izzy nodded before bring up a map on his computer. "I definitely need to go with them so that we can triangulate Dragomon's location. We might even be able to figure out the location of other powerful Digimon in Dragomon's army, such as Metalseadramon."

Tai groaned as he glanced between his three friends who were now looking at him expectantly. He rubbed his forehead as he thought over their plan and their chances of success. "I don't like this, but we'll give your plan a try. Knowing where Dragomon is would be very helpful in deciding our strategies for how to proceed. I'll speak to Kari and TK tomorrow and we can come up with a solid plan for how we're going to do this. Oh, and Izzy, I'm also going along. Someone needs to make sure that they don't do anything reckless."


For some reason that still baffles me, I couldn't resist writing that scene where Izzy shouts "prodigious" and runs around naked as he tries to do some work. It was inspired by Archimedes and the story about him yelling "eureka" while running down the streets naked after he discovered that the amount of water displaced in his bath is equal to the volume of his body. I figured that this is the kind of thing that Izzy might end up doing when he suddenly has a great idea that he feels he must work on, which led to Mimi's lie-in being ruined.

As always, please let me know what you thought about this chapter and what happened in it by posting a review :D