Digimon Continuum: Temptation

Episode 1 – Heatwave: Part I

Tai Kamiya

Tai had never had a reputation for being lazy; sure, he enjoyed sleeping late every so often, and he could be a little unmotivated at times but he'd never been called lazy. On bright and sunny days, he'd always be among the first to make the most of it, he was competitive and driven and nice days were just a great excuse to squeeze in some extra soccer practice or enjoy other outdoor actives with friends.

Yet the sheer heat of the day had defeated him as the freak heatwave had sent most people scattering in search of cooler climates and Tai was no exception.

He lay spread-eagled across the family sofa in a baggy blue and yellow t-shirt – his second of the day – and three-quarter cargo shorts, the Child of Courage was fanning himself with one hand in a vain attempt to cool off as he pressed a glass full of ice to his forehead, his usually wild mane of chocolate coloured hair shagging with the heat. His long-time friend and digital partner Agumon, a squat, yellow dinosaur-like creature with a large head and stumpy arms, was hiding under the shade of the nearby coffee table with a miniature fan for company, panting from the heat.

Little good it did either of them, as the afternoon sun seemed to have frozen in place and was bathing the Kamiya family apartment in bright, blistering hot sunlight through the screen doors. Tai had already raided the fridge of what few ice-pops they had in an attempt to stay cool that morning and the air conditioning seemed no existent. He'd tried leaving open one of the screen doors in hopes of tempting in a non-existent breeze but had quickly abandoned the idea.

Tai eventually gave up trying to cool himself off with his hand, suddenly thankful for how quiet things had been these last few days. He could remember yesterday feeling as though things with the Digital World had been a little too quiet, but he'd rather not go chasing after wild Digimon on such a hot afternoon. Although there had been some odd, if barely noticeable, disturbances in various spots across the Digital World. Izzy seemed intrigued, but far from worried.

Even if these odds disturbance (Izzy had tried to explain exactly what they were but Tai had understood less than half the words the genius had said) were indeed something to worry about, none of them could do anything about it right now. Given how it was likely much cooler in the Digital World than Odaiba, Tai was tempted to just go and look himself as a way of escaping the heat.

When he said as much aloud, Agumon sounded almost tempted to agree but, in the end, replied by saying; "We need rest too, Tai. If Izzy isn't worried yet then we shouldn't be either, right?"

He wasn't wrong, Tai thought to himself as he ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair as he tried to sink deeper into the sofa. He and Agumon had been on the front lines nonstop these last few weeks – constantly responding to a string of strange wild Digimon attacks. What was causing all the attacks no one seemed to know, not even Gennai (according to Izzy), but they seemed more vicious than normal. Random, too it looked like as no could see any sort of pattern or reason in the attacks.

The sudden spike in Digimon attacks wasn't exactly doing much for their current publicity. In the time since Armageddemon anti-Digimon sentiment seemed to have hit an all-time high and nothing, any of them did seemed to help matters. Which is why it was unsurprising as Tai continued in his channel hopping, only to land on a news report about a Digimon attack that had occurred in Chicago the day before.

"–This is only the latest in a lengthy string of Digimon attacks in America following incidents in New York, Boston and Dallas as well as one in Toronto, Canada. The United Nations is set to begin an emergency meeting within the hour as they continue to discuss methods to combat the Digimon menace."

Tai scowled at the newscaster as she spoke, "Whilst the U.N. final response still seems uncertain, members of the Japanese cabinet believe these global attacks will help to see the Tamer Registration Act officially become law in Japan in an attempt to reassure the public that something is being done by the government."

"Something is being done!" Tai almost shouted at the television. Of course, he thought with a roll of his eyes, all the lives he and the other DigiDestined had saved whilst defeating the rogue Digimon were never mentioned. It didn't help that the current administration saw Tai and the others as part of the problem. It didn't matter to those same politicians that whilst the DigiDestined could be as destructive as the wild Digimon, if not for them, things would be much worse.

When he'd heard of it, Tai was certain the attack in Dallas, where there was no active DigiDestined, would finally have proved as much. The world needed the DigiDestined. On the contrary, some had come out and demanded to know where the DigiDestined were: blaming them for allowing things to get so bad before the Digimon – a raging Shellmon – was somehow pulled back into the Digital World.

They couldn't win. If they fought, they were just part of the problem and if they didn't, they were called out for not acting. No-one stopped to address the fact that Dallas didn't play home to any DigiDestined if Izzy's current register was accurate.

Tai hissed as the newscaster went into some of the details about what the Tamer Registration Act was; who even came up with that name? They weren't 'Tamers' they were DigiDestined. Tai gave up and turned off the television in a huff of frustration as he discarded the remote with more force than needed. He didn't need some random reporter to tell him the details of the whole thing, as the de-facto leader of the DigiDestined living in Odaiba (the oldest known group of DigiDestined to still be operating) he was more than aware of what it entailed – it was a power grab.

The politicians didn't like them acting without permission.

The act was about bringing them to heel and holding them standards that they couldn't hope to maintain. A 'Tamer' was expected to present themselves and announce themselves and their partner and agree to only operate within the boundaries set by the government – which were vague at best. Failure to comply would result in the deletion of the Digimon partner. How exactly the government planned to do this Tai didn't know, but he didn't like the implications of the Japanese cabinet having such power.

A part of him suspected that if the government did have the ability to delete Digimon then they must've developed it after Parallelmon raised a good chunk of Shinjuku to the ground at the end of last November. What had started as a normal day, had gone onto to be the strangest day of Tai's life. Parallelmon's appearance in the real world had resulted in some of the DigiDestined meeting their 'Alters' as Izzy had coined them. To take down the mutant Digimon whose very existence was tearing holes, in reality, they'd had to join forces with their Alters and fight side by side.

It'd been a long time since they'd fought such a large-scale battle – even the damage caused by Armageddemon had to be minimal in comparison. In all his time with Agumon, Tai had never once thought about how much damage was caused by clashing Digimon and in the end, it had taken two different versions of Ominmon, Imperialdramon Fighter Mode and three other Mega-level Digimon to take down such an unrelenting force. It was an understatement to say they shared some of the responsibility for the damage done that day.

Although the battle had left him doubt as to whether there might be a better method for containing such wildly powerful rogue Digimon Tai was smart enough to understand that damage that came about as a result of their battles was much less than if they were allowed to rampage around unchecked. Whilst seeing the aftermath of the battle had made his stomach twist into knots and his heart sink there was no doubt in his mind that if they hadn't acted then Tokyo's destruction would be a footnote in the damage caused by Parallelmon. Even if it gave people a justifiable reason to be angry with them, at least they were still around to be angry.

It still left him highly frustrated that many viewed him and the other DigiDestined as just another part of the problem. Even in these lulls between battles they were often the hot topic up for debate.

"I'm sure the remote will make sure not to bring up the Tamer Registration Act in future after that beating." Tai's sister, Kari teased as she leaned over the back of the couch so he could smile at Tai's shock as he almost jumped in surprise. He'd been so engrossed in thought he'd missed her approach completely. "I'd have thought you'd be outside on a day like this."

Bright and bubbly as Kari's tone might have been, Tai was sure he saw a flicker of concern in her chocolate coloured eyes. She handed him a spare bottle of water, tone cautious as she did: "Stressing yourself out over whether or not the Registration Act will pass isn't helping anyone, Tai."

Before Tai could reply something white and furry, with long ear topped with purple fur appeared, barely a blur as she appeared. "Kari's right, if you keep thinking about that silly law you might burn out what few brain cells you have left." Gatomon opined as land gracefully on the back of the couch, sounding smug as she stood on her hind legs, ringed tail swishing and gloved front paws on her waist. Kari had to try and stifle her giggle as Tai scrunched up his face as he glared at the cat-like Digimon. "You should try finding yourself a nice scratching post and release some of that stress."

"You mean like the end of my bed?" Tai accused pointedly, but Gatomon didn't so much as blink. It seemed his sister's partner did not feel the least bit guilty about the destruction she'd wrought upon his bed frame.

"If that works for you." Tai could only glower at the Digimon before turning back to his sister, who looked dressed to impress in the nice yellow and white checkered sundress Tai had bought her for her last birthday – with Sora's guidance of course. The few time he'd seen his little sister wear it before had preceded… outings with either Davis or T.K. and this would no doubt be any different.

"Going somewhere…?" He tried to sound casual, but a part of him made a mental note to find out which boy she was going to see so he could talk with them later.

"I'm meeting up with some of the others to get ice-cream at Fumi's before we go to the beach." That meant Davis and T.K. and possibly Ken, given how much time he and Davis spent together. Which meant Yolei wouldn't be far behind. Which meant Kari would be safe from the less innocent thoughts of Davis and T.K. "I'd be great if you came too, though."

At the mention of going for ice-cream, there was a loud thunk. Kari blinked whilst Tai and Gatomon both tried to stifle laughs as Agumon came crawling out from under the table where he'd be sheltering, nursing his wounded snout.

"Ice-cream!" The yellow dinosaur shouted with great enthusiasm. "Can we go too, Tai? Please!"

"You want to go out in this heat?" Tai asked, unsure if sounded more amused or reluctant.

"But it's ice-cream, Tai!" Agumon said in reply like Tai was the strange one. "It's both delicious and cooling! Strawberry, chocolate, mint and all the flavours of the rainbow!" Agumon just about jumped for joy as he listed of various flavours and despite himself, Tai did agree his partner had a point.

Any feigned resistance he might have attempted failed before he could so much open his mouth as stomach rumbled loudly.

"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal." Tai looked down at his stomach and Agumon cheered as Kari shared a laugh with Gatomon. When Tai stood up, Kari scooped her partner into her arms with a loving smile and Agumon charged in the direction of the door. "Ice-cream sounds great, but let me change my t-shirt first."

"Don't forget your wallet," Gatomon added with a hint of smugness.

"Since when am I paying for this?" Tai said in mock anger – he'd figured this was coming.

"Because you're my big brother and you love me." Kari was all smiles and whilst Tai narrowed his eyes at her, he could not argue her point. His mother was right, he really couldn't say no to his little sister when she wanted something. In all fairness, very few people could say no to Kari so it wasn't like he was completely wrapped around her finger.

A few minutes later, Tai had freshened up and grabbed a few fresh bottles of water from the frigid. When the front door to the family apartment opened, Agumon went tearing out in the direction of the elevator chanting loudly about ice-cream, apparently torn over what flavour to get as the Rookie invented a little song about 'all the flavours of the rainbow'. He and Kari lagged at a more leisurely pace, talking about everything and nothing and Tai couldn't help but feel like his sister was making a concentrated effort to stay away from the topic of Digimon attacks or the Tamer Registration Act and he decided to be a good brother and indulge her desire to stay away from such topics.

Still, as the lift arrived with a dull ding, Tai couldn't help but feel like the sudden silence in Tokyo couldn't last forever. It never did these days. That didn't mean he couldn't enjoy a nice afternoon with his sister and some of their friends doing next to nothing.

Then his phone wailed loudly, and they all knew their trip to Fumi's would have to wait.