Innocent Games
I think I've always been afraid of the dark.
My mother used to turn on a night light every time she tucked me in. I still have the same one: a pink cat that shoots sparkles into the room. They bounce in the darkest places just when I wonder what might be hiding there. Tai says it makes weird shadows on the wall. He used to sneak past the bottom bunk to turn it off when he thought I was asleep.
Sometimes I wasn't. I didn't tell him, but one night, after I spent nearly a week at the hospital with pneumonia, he caught me sniffing back tears. He didn't turn it off anymore after that.
I've never grown out of nightlights.
I certainly never thought I'd be called one. I've never even seen the light I've cast: the power that caused creatures in a dark world to seek me out, as if I were the sun to their endless night; the light that ends battles and brings truth and casts me aside.
Now, in this place, I wonder if it chose wrong.
Because as afraid as I am of the dark, I'm terrified of the Light.
Chapter Three
It Was
It was raining.
Drops pattered against the window, singing with the low bass and steady thrum of voices. There wasn't much to see outside but wavering streetlights, blurred in the night. Ken had turned to them to avoid her eyes, that cry for help, which he didn't feel he had the place to give.
Despite his warnings, Davis was on a mission, and if there was one thing Ken had learned over the years, it was that when Davis was on a mission, there were no words of wisdom (or anything for that matter) that could stop him.
Their voices came hushed through the noise. Davis spoke in a sort of gentle restraint he only ever really had in those private moments. His self control was an interesting feat considering the way he hung forward, supporting himself against the wall just to stand.
Ken could barely hear Kari at all.
It was something she said, her voice just a soft squeak, that must have drove Davis to his normal decibel.
"You know what?" he said, teetering straight. "You're selfish."
It came out hostile, cold and way too clear.
Ken turned in time to see the rain reflect in Kari's eyes. She looked shocked and the pink creeping into her cheeks seemed to spur Davis on.
"You knew I still liked you," he hissed. "We... And now you just want to pretend like it didn't happen?"
"No, I just—"
"Wish you could take it back?"
"Davis, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Kissing you didn't hurt." Palms slid down his face, yanking the skin of his cheeks. "This does." His body seemed to fold in half, as if literally wounded.
Ken was wondering if he should intercede when Kari uttered, "TK…"
"Don't." Davis groaned. "You just said he didn't act like you were more than friends."
He wobbled toward her, hand catching the wall on her side. "But I... Kari, what if we were…?"
Another voice answered, "I wondered where you went."
Ken whipped around to find TK behind him, a bag of chips clenched in one fist and a solo cup in the other. Water had spilled over the side and was dripping from his fingers like rain.
Davis took a step backwards, smearing a palm into his eye. "Ugh…"
"Sorry for interrupting," TK said.
"You're not," gasped Kari. "We just—"
Davis's hands slapped together and she flinched.
"Ran into each other," he said. "First time she's talked to me since, ya know…" Somehow his wringing hands looked explicit and he laughed so loud and hard that tears beaded at the corners of his eyes.
"Davis, stop." Kari's words fell somewhere between a scold and a plea, like an embarrassed mother corralling her tantruming child in the grocery store.
With a straight face, TK waved the bag of chips in surrender. "It's fine. I'll go."
Something about the way his voice went low put Ken on edge. He remembered all too well the calm before the storm. It always sat in the back of his mind: TK's steady, quiet speech before his fist slammed into Ken's face. Not that Ken hadn't deserved it. He had struck first and the horrors he'd committed as the Digimon Emperor…
They never spoke of that fight since and when Davis had brought it up in front of them once (an ill-timed joke that earned him a pinch in the side and a hiss of "too soon" from Yolei), TK had brushed it off. But there was still something in TK's eyes when he met Ken's, a sharp spark, as if he was searching for the darkness inside.
TK started to walk away, drops of water sprinkling the floor behind him.
"Wait," she pleaded to no avail. Kari had to squeeze past Davis to follow and he lost his balance, hitting his shoulder into the corner of a bookshelf.
"So this is why you kissed me?" Wincing, Davis rolled his arm and his voice came out far more malicious than his glossy eyes should have allowed. "Because Takaishi had commitment issues and left-"
Kari shot back a glare. "Davis."
"...and I was still here, waitin like an idiot."
"Davis, shut up."
But he didn't. His words chased TK through the crowd. "Runs in the family, I guess."
A storm of chips and water preceded TK pinning Davis to the wall.
Before Ken could get close, someone yelled, "FIGHT!" and a crowd swarmed around them, blocking his way. He could see flashes of the two as he struggled to get through: a wrestling match with a wayward fist, either too emotional or too drunk to be thrown with any skill.
Curses and grunts broke through the excited gossip surrounding them. Ken's voice calling for Davis was as lost as Kari's angry screams for them to stop. He shoved past someone taking a picture and stalled when a voice caught his attention.
"My chips!"
A flash of lilac hair appeared amidst the chaos. Yolei broke through the crowd at superhuman speed, crushing shards of potato beneath her heels.
"That is enough!"
Her bellow actually stopped Davis in his tracks. His head jerked sideways and Ken took the opportunity to force his way between them. TK stumbled to a stop. His chest fell up and down in heaves and the bright burn in his eyes fizzled as Kari joined them.
Yolei whipped on Davis, finger flying.
"What the hell are you doing?" she shouted. "You're supposed to be our leader, you doofus. Stop hitting TK!"
"He was hitting me!" Davis cried.
From the looks of TK's face, they had both managed to get a couple of good shots in. There was an angry red mark on TK's brow that had begun to bleed and his cheekbone already seemed to be swelling. He reached down to grab his baseball cap from the floor.
"TK," Kari whispered. Her fingertips brushed his wrist as he turned into the dispersing crowd, pulling his hat over his eyes.
She turned to Davis, who was trying to staunch the blood on his lip. "I can't believe you," she snapped. "Why would you say that?"
Davis's tongue retreated and his pout accentuated the gash in his mouth.
"You saw our dreams…" she hissed.
Ken felt a surge of memory hit him: Davis and the hundreds of versions of Veemon he'd brought to life, witnessing his moment of judgement in the sand. All of their dark desires.
"He—You knew, Davis."
"Shit," Davis moaned.
Kari shook her head, teeth rolling over her bottom lip. "Shit?" Her eyes blinked, frustrated tears pooling in the corners. "You're a terrible friend."
Davis seemed to waver, his body swaying over his firmly planted feet.
Kari's fingers laced through her hair. "I have to go." She slipped through the remainder of the crowd.
Yolei turned on Davis, lenses glaring under the dim light. "What did you say?"
Using the back of his hand to wipe his lip, Davis mumbled, "Think I sorta said somethin bout his parents."
Yolei's lenses cleared when she turned to Ken, eyes bright beneath thick black liner. She looked so different, an accentuated version of herself, older. Anger and alcohol flushed her cheeks and her lips were painted a fading crimson.
Ken averted his eyes.
She gave a loud sigh that Ken supposed was directed at him and said, "You were supposed to keep him from doing something stupid."
"Not possible," Davis said, voice reeking of self-pity. "He'd have to stop me from breathin."
He started to sink to the ground right there, back dragging against the wall as he smeared his hand with red.
"Oh please," Yolei said, "Ken's too soft on you for that."
Davis broke into a giggle that tore tears into his eyes.
Yolei turned to Ken to confirm, "You are."
Ken wasn't sure how to respond. He had never been afraid to tell Davis his opinion, but in the end, Ken was there to support him, even if he disagreed. He owed him that much.
When Davis continued to laugh, snorting and crying all at once, Yolei muttered, "Gosh, I wish I still felt that drunk."
She grabbed his arm before he sunk completely to the floor and he dangled there, using whatever coordination he had left to keep from pulling her down.
"C'mon," she said, "let's get you cleaned up."
"Meh."
Frowning, she gave Davis a sharp pinch on the forearm and ignored his whine by turning back to Ken. "Could you check on TK for me? I'm worried about him."
Davis gave a loud grunt as he stood.
Ken immediately deflected. "I can stay with Davis."
Yolei gave him a shake of her finger ."Nuh-uh. Soft." The finger stopped and gave Davis a poke, forcing him forward with an "ooowwwwah."
"See? He needs a firm hand." When Davis broke into another round of sobbing giggles, Yolei shooed Ken with the back of her hand. "I've got this."
And so Ken went in search of TK, because, as much as he supported Davis, he couldn't deny Yolei even more.
...
...
It was too loud.
Matt had never grown accustomed to noise. Not after years of electric bass drumming in his ears, or the explosive battles in the digital world, or even the sheer velocity of his best friend.
Eventually he had to escape. Whether it was to a slow acoustic jam, a lonely forest, or a dim stairway.
Only one other person had passed by since he had taken refuge there, filling the fluorescent lit concrete with smoke. So when the door opened, hurried footsteps and shaky breaths echoing behind him, he turned to look.
Tears were still slipping down Kari's face when she stopped in her tracks, just steps above his back. Matt didn't need to ask why.
Silently, he moved to the side. There was a pause before she finished her last steps, gasping back tears as she collapsed beside him.
Wiping her eyes on the neck of her shirt, she whispered, "Thanks."
He gave a nod and began to put out the rest of his cigarette when she stopped him.
"It's fine, I don't mind."
Matt placed it back between his lips. "I'd offer you one...but Tai."
A short laugh erupted from her mouth, so quick and sudden Matt wasn't sure if it was real or forced. Fresh tears emerged from her eyes.
They sat like that until he'd finished his cigarette and Kari had finished sniffling. Matt thought of his brother, of how he'd been lying around for weeks, not caring about all the things he should care about because of her. Then Matt thought of Tai and the promise he had failed years ago when he was supposed to watch out for her.
"Do you need a ride?" he asked.
Her lashes fluttered upward, sticky with water, and Matt noticed her eyes. They were more chestnut than her brother's dark brown, but just as commanding: like a dormant mountain, full of life, magnificent and waiting to erupt.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
Matt stood. "Come on."
"Let me text Tai," she said, pulling a phone from her purse.
Matt hadn't brought his, so he leaned against the wall of the stairway, listening to the click of her keys and glaring at the dried gum beside his boots.
"Matt."
He looked up, half expecting something unpleasant like an apology, or, even worse, an explanation.
After all these years they had never grown close. Their conversations were limited to their brothers, the two of them worrying. Either about Tai and his concerning obsession governing the tokomon village (He had actually coerced Sora into sewing him a pink hat with tokomon ears so he would be accepted as one of their own. Kari claimed he got overzealous when he felt out of control) or about TK. Their mother had been stressed lately and TK had a bad habit of emulating her problems. Her all nighters became his, as if the the sound of her keyboard needed an echo in the early morning hours.
Together, Matt and Kari could bring their brothers back to earth, although Kari usually seemed more at peace with the end result, the letting it go. But that was it: the extent of their relationship.
Even when she started dating TK, nothing changed. She smiled a lot and sometimes they talked about the digimon or Tai. Sometimes they didn't talk at all.
Matt didn't want that to change now. Thankfully, he found her still staring at her phone.
"It's Izzy," she said, reading a text. "Cody says he's missing. They think he's in Digiworld."
They fell into step together without another word. Matt took two stairs at a time and Kari ran to keep up.
"The message came an hour ago. I didn't notice," she said, shame tearing at her face. "Tentomon saw Izzy disappear after his program malfunctioned. He can't get through the digiport."
"Great," Matt muttered.
"Do you have a laptop?"
"I don't even have my phone."
"We have to find Tai."
"I know."
So there they were, together, greeted by the warm whoosh of sound as they opened the door to a party neither wanted to attend. Kari: the child of Light, his best friend's little sister, his brother's everything, and Matt: knowing exactly why he still barely knew her.
They stumbled onto Tai almost by accident, Sora laughing by his side.
Kari looked at Matt and saw through him. It was as if her light burst into his heart, brightening the darkest crevice to read everything he hid there.
Matt let her do the talking.
...
...
The world was spinning.
Or at least the marble sink was. Davis could swear the faucet was dancing between his hands. He looked up at his reflection and it wavered back and forth while Yolei pawed at his swollen lip.
"Stop goin s'fast," he muttered to the world.
The washcloth slipped from his mouth and he caught sight of a churning Yolei in the mirror, heavy makeup blurred across her face.
"Does it hurt?" she asked when he turned to sit on the edge of the sink.
Davis lifted a hand to his head and his face flopped against his forearm. "Nah."
For some reason, his response elicited a smack from the washcloth. Water splattered across his nose.
"Because you're drunk," Yolei said, clicking her tongue as she continued to clean the blood from his face.
"Thank God," he muttered, closing his eyes when the washcloth passed across his cheek. His head grew heavy, resting there and he heard Yolei huff in annoyance. When she tried to continue, he grabbed her wrist, forcing the washcloth to stay still against his forehead, like a warm, wet pillow.
He leaned forward and she gave his shoulder a rough shove. "Davis..."
He rubbed his face against the washcloth. "Nnnn."
"You need to think about other girls."
His eyes popped open to find a spinning Yolei staring at him from behind her trippy glasses. He let go of her wrist and gave his eyes a rub with the heel of his palm, drooping forward again. "Nu-uh."
"No, you won't?"
"Mmm."
"Yes?"
He gave a nod.
"Is that a yes? Or a yes, you're saying no?"
"Ugh."
"Davis, I'm serious." Yolei moved the washcloth away when Davis tried to rest his head on it again. He felt it smack his ear. "You can't keep pining after Kari like this," she said. "It's not good for you."
Groaning, Davis rubbed his head, trying to unflatten his hair. "Yer not good fur me."
"I am, actually."
Davis immediately broke into giggles.
"Shut up, you know what I mean."
He unsuccessfully snorted back another round of laughter.
"I mean—knock it off!—I mean I'm what you need to hear right now." Yolei's whole body straightened. She pressed her glasses onto her nose (Davis swore she did it to look smarter) and said, "You had your chance with Kari."
The name cut into his laughter and stuck to his gut so sharply that his throat closed. He could feel it churn there, stinging.
"She wishes she could take it back," Yolei said.
"Yeah… I know." Giving his head a shake, Davis tried to clear the stinging from his throat and gave a gruff cough.
"I'm just telling you what Kari told me," Yolei said, shrugging. Davis felt himself sink, his head weighted and heavy. She stared at him then, eyes extra honey beneath her black eyeliner. "You might be a doofus, but you deserve someone who isn't going to think of you as a mistake."
The hot stinging in his chest burned into a sarcastic, "Thanks."
Yolei relented with a smile that made him realize she had meant it. "Fine." The bathroom light swam behind her head, haloing her violet hair while she pressed the cloth against his lip, dabbing it. "I take back the doofus."
It must have started bleeding again, because Davis tasted iron. He pushed his tongue out to test it and Yolei peeled back her hand.
"Stop," she said. "You're going to make it bleed again."
"I thought it—" The words halted in his throat and a bitter burn rose in their stead. He swallowed. "It was alrea…" he gagged, bending forward.
"Are you—OW!"
Over the sound of his own misery, Davis could still make out Yolei cursing at him. She was probably milking her arm for all it was worth even though he'd only shoved her out of the way to avoid puking all over the front of her plunging neckline.
...
...
It was hot.
Anger flushed his cheeks, but the swelling of bodies probably had more to do with it. TK had to squeeze through the onlookers, comments following him as he went.
"Isn't that Ishida's brother?"
"I thought they were friends."
"Is he bleeding?"
"I think his girlfriend made out with Motomiya."
The kitchen was a stupid place to go. It was packed and more than one person asked about his face, but the freezer was there and the only thing that kept him from breaking down and searching for his brother to take him home was the thought of getting ice on the throbbing pain in his brow.
It was how he ended up sitting at the bar with the computer club, two packs of ice alternating on his face and a shot of vodka waiting by his hands. Coding strangely made more sense when someone drunk explained it to you.
When Ken found him there, all the attention TK had been receiving switched gears.
"Oh wow! Guys, guys, it's Ken Ichijouji! Why's he in Odaiba?"
Someone mentioned Motomiya and all eyes immediately flashed to TK.
TK wanted to say that Ken was friends with all of them, but "them" was never really understood by outsiders unless he mentioned the "monsters" which always seemed to create a strange atmosphere of nostalgia and hostility, as if the entire world both desperately wanted to remember and forget them.
"I know a few of the upperclassmen," Ken said, gaining back their attention. His eyes turned to TK. "Yolei wanted me to check on you, but I see you're in good hands."
"That's right! Yolei!" said one of the girls who had been pressing ice on TK's forehead. It was now gracing the countertop. She leaned over to TK to explain in a not-so-quiet whisper, "She knows him."
She grinned at Ken. "Yolei showed me your statistics program. It's amazing! How did you come up with those algorithms?"
"Takeru Takaishi!"
The shout interrupted Ken's response, blaring across the crowded room until Mimi appeared by their side like a flame enveloping the room.
"What is this I hear about you fighting?" she demanded.
TK grabbed his untouched shot of vodka.
"Nope." Mimi stopped him, forcing it down with slender and surprisingly strong fingers. "Duty calls. Izzy's missing."
"When isn't he?" groaned one of the computer club members.
"What?" asked TK.
Joe managed to move between them from out of nowhere, staring at his phone. "Have you seen Tai?"
Both TK and Ken shook their heads and Joe finally tore his eyes away from his phone. His worried brow flipped even more inward when he caught sight of TK's face. Pocketing his phone, he swung a bag from behind his back and pulled out a hoard of alcohol wipes.
"What happened to you?" he asked, already working at a cut on TK's brow.
"Oh Joe." Mimi sounded amused. "You still carry around a med-kit?"
"Obviously it's still needed," Joe said, looking very father-like as he frowned at TK. "Did you fall down the stairs?"
"Joe," Mimi said again, amazed. "Are you telling me you didn't hear everyone talking?"
"I was texting Cody. What happened?"
TK felt himself shrink away from Joe's touch, ashamed. He tugged at his cap. "I'm fine."
"He was fighting with Davis," tsked Mimi.
"Oh." There was a slight twitch by the corner of Joe's mouth, as if he had to stop himself from reacting. "You should really put some ice on that."
TK picked up the abandoned ice baggie and put it on his brow like he was told. He could feel the blood rush to his cheeks no matter how hard he tried to stop it, embarrassed for everything: for losing his cool, for acting like a victim, for Kari.
"You said something about Izzy," Ken said. TK had never felt more appreciative of him than in that moment. "What do you mean missing?"
"Tentomon said something took him to Digiworld," whispered Mimi.
The computer club suddenly became very interested in their conversation when Ken murmured, "Does this have something to do with his program?"
"That's all he works on anymore," said the girl beside TK. "He stopped leading the computer club. Yolei's acting president now and she's not even an upperclassman."
"She never mentioned that," said Ken. TK hadn't heard of it either.
"Izzy said not to tell anyone outside of the club unless he officially resigned." The girl paused. "Is he okay?"
"He's not going to be once I get ahold of him," said Mimi, rubbing a fist into her palm. "What has he gotten himself into?"
"We were just there," Joe said, looking at his watch. "Tai and I. Not even three hours ago. Izzy said he was on the verge of a breakthrough." He looked to Ken. "What do you know about the program?"
Ken seemed caught off guard, suddenly aware that he had information the rest of them didn't. It was certainly the first time TK had heard about a new program and by the look on Mimi's face it was news to her too.
"I helped him with the initial coding, but after that I couldn't keep up," Ken admitted. "It's amazingly complex."
"But what does it do?" asked Mimi.
"Well, what he hoped it would do," said Ken, lowering his voice as every computer club member leaned in, "is use images gathered from the prefrontal cortex to create physical matter."
"The prefrontal cortex?" said Joe. "The part of the brain that stores memories? He made it sound like he could just dream up something and make it happen."
Something clicked, a sharp stab that made TK suck in a breath of air before he spoke. "Like the world Oikawa brought us to?"
Ken gave a solemn nod. "Exactly. Izzy thought the data he had gathered there could be used in a constructive manner. The program started with memories because they were more accurate than dreams. I'm not sure how far he got."
"That's crazy," muttered Mimi.
TK took his shot, barely flinching when the vodka burned his throat. Only Ken noticed.
"Something bad happened to him," Joe said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. His glasses bounced over his knuckles. "That's the only explanation. Do you know how many people would want to get their hands on something like that?"
"Or digimon," TK said. The liquor was already washing over him, dragging him down. He pulled out his D-3, unconcerned with the onlookers. "I need Patamon."
It was a new voice that responded, "He's coming."
The four digidestined turned around to find Cody hammering out lines on his D-terminal. Frazzled hair reached from his forehead, like he had just spent a long time running. And despite the heavy jiggle of what was obviously a digimon in his backpack, he looked up at them, his young face grave.
"So are the others," he added. "The ones on duty in Digiworld are already searching. Where is everyone?"
"Scattered," said TK.
Upon hearing the low heat rising in TK's voice, Cody's brow furrowed, but that just as well could have been a reaction to the state of his battered face. Cody didn't say anything, however. Just got down to business.
"Where's Davis?"
TK didn't answer and Ken hesitated long enough that Cody switched gears.
"Tai?"
"Probably wherever Sora went to," said Mimi.
Cody responded by typing another line into his D-terminal. "Kari's with him," he said. "I have a laptop. Let's see if there's a room we can meet in."
They followed Mimi through the throbbing crowd in search of the others and Cody flanked TK's side.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
TK gave a nod with a smile even though it wasn't fooling anybody.
...
...
The party was over.
It had stopped the second Matt had came bounding by Kari's side, blue eyes immediately flickering away when he saw her. If that was how things were going to be...
Sora could deal.
What she couldn't deal with was the diligent silence. It stayed steady as Tai began to pace back and forth while Kari explained what little she could. And when Tai started cursing at Izzy, Matt did absolutely nothing to calm him down. All it usually took was a word, a harsh coax, and Tai would jump on the right track. With the silence, he started losing control.
"Why didn't he just come? I could've looked out for him. I knew something was wrong. He hasn't been right since… I should've—"
Sora couldn't stand it. "Tai. We need to find the others."
He tugged at the front of his hair until it stood up with the rest of it. "Right."
Sora turned to Matt, eyes burning. For a second, he saw her. Then Yolei came tumbling between them.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew… ohhh…" Yolei's voice trailed off as she caught sight of Kari. For a second, she stood there, chewing on her bottom lip, gaze darting back and forth between Sora and Tai as if she expected them to read her mind.
"Everything okay?" Sora asked.
"It's Davis," Yolei gushed, looking relieved and nauseated all at once. "He's um," she looked to Kari again, "um, uh…"
"Had too much to drink?" asked Tai. He gave Matt a nudge in the ribs. "Slamming those things back worse than you before a Wolves' concert."
Matt glared, but the silence continued.
Yolei's pointer finger flung in the air in affirmation. "I could deal, but um, seeing him sick is making me sick." She did look a little off. "I think I'm still drunk."
"I'll help him," said Sora. "Matt, can you fill Yolei in?"
He met her eyes then and Sora suddenly wished she hadn't called him out. His gaze was so cold it hurt. She didn't wait for him to break the silence and luckily Yolei was already filling it in, shouting directions to Davis behind her.
The hallway widened into a great room and Sora found a line of teens waiting outside a closed door. Without apology, she cut to the front and was about to knock when she heard her name.
Mimi appeared out of nowhere, clinging to her arm. "Izzy's missing!"
"I know," said Sora. "Kari told us."
"Where's Tai?" asked Joe.
Sora pointed down the hall. "I'm going to see if I can get Davis," she said, noticing TK tug down the rim of his cap in attempt to hide his face. Maroon blotches surrounded a bandage on his brow and Sora had to use all her self-control not to mention it. "We'll be there soon."
"I'll help," said Ken.
"Of course. You guys go ahead." Sora gave him a grateful smile. A glare for TK even though she was sure he was only part to blame.
He sunk under her gaze and followed the others.
"They were fighting, huh?" Sora asked Ken.
"I think it had to do with a lot more than Kari," Ken said, looking after TK's retreating back. He gave a gentle rap on the door. "Davis?"
A low unghhh came muffled through the wood. There was the sound of a flushing toilet and a loud thud before the door clicked.
They found Davis on the floor, arm still draped over the toilet bowl.
"Oh, honey," Sora cooed, squatting beside him. Wordlessly, Ken joined her and together they hoisted him off the ground.
"Jus leave me," Davis moaned, head flopping between them.
Ignoring him, they pushed past the line and the hushed comments that followed.
Davis wept like a scolded child. "Stop yellin at me."
"You took those shots when I wasn't looking, didn't you?" asked Ken.
With a shake of his head, Davis's mouth betrayed him. "Yes." He looked up at Sora with droopy lids. "Ken hates me."
"You know that's not true," said Ken.
The arm draped over Ken's shoulder tightened in an embrace and Ken got a face full of breath.
"Love you, maaannn," Davis sang, stumbling and dragging Ken's neck at an awkward angle.
"Watch your feet," said Sora.
Ken looked at her over Davis's hunched back. "I should get him home. He's not going to be any help like this."
Davis let out a dry sob. "I'm soooo ground-dead."
"Why don't we let him sober up a bit first?" Sora stopped and they leaned against the wall for a moment so she could send Tai a text.
Where are you?
An answer came back almost immediately: bedroom end of hall
And then, had 2 threaten sum couple with a 3some 2 get them 2 leave.
With an involuntary eye roll, Sora relayed the information to Ken. They half pushed/pulled Davis to the room and with a knock, she found herself falling into old habits.
"Digi Digi."
It was Mimi who answered, "Mon mon," and opened the door. She looked near tears. "It's not the same without Izzy."
The room was filled with the digidestined, half of them some degree of drunk, beat up, or avoiding her gaze. Sora dragged her eyes away from Matt's back to give Mimi her best motherly smile.
"I know."
Mimi bopped Davis's head with an empty plastic cup, frowning. "Bad."
He made a noise between a whimper and a moan which fizzled out the moment he saw Kari. She and Tai were standing over Cody's laptop and her eyes had gone wide at the sight of him. With a sudden bout of coordination, Davis swung around Ken's back.
"Hide me," he begged.
Sora gave his arm a gentle tug and Ken had to do a weird sideways shuffle in order to deposit Davis on the bed. He splayed backwards and immediately shot back up, head hanging between his knees.
Sora sat beside him, rubbing his back and moving her feet when he spit on the ground. She could see TK from the corner of her eye, staring at the wall.
Inching over to make room, Yolei said, "Ew, please don't puke again."
"Enough," snapped Tai and suddenly all attention was on him. All the panic had subsided and his commanding presence seemed to dictate the room. "I don't want to hear anything that isn't about Izzy and how we're getting him home."
"Here here!" called Motimon, who was situated in Cody's lap. Upamon bounced anxiously by his feet.
"Motimon, can you explain what happened?" asked Sora.
"I didn't see much," his nasally voice answered. "I had fallen asleep, and when I woke up, Izzy was just gone. And his computer...there was this energy, like a digiport, but different. I just knew Izzy had gone inside, but when I tried to follow, it shut down. His computer doesn't even work anymore." His little pink hands wrung together. "It's like everything in it disappeared."
"We're getting a signal from Izzy's digivice in this area," said Cody, pointing to a dot on the map of the digital world. "It's in an uninhabited zone not far from Gabumon's area, so he's already on his way to check it out. Palmon should be there shortly as well." His finger moved across the screen. "The closest digiport isn't for miles. The rest of the digimon will be waiting for us there. We haven't been able to get ahold of Gennai yet."
"No surprise there," Joe muttered.
"Thanks Cody," Tai said, pulling out his digivice. "Let's get going."
"That's it?" Matt interjected. It was the first time Sora had heard him speak since she'd seen him and it struck her so sharply that she couldn't take her eyes away.
"For now," Tai answered. "I'm not wasting any time. The quicker we act, the better. Once we're with our digimon we can figure out a better game plan."
Digging through a bag and pulling out a bottle of water, Joe said, "We're going to need supplies." He passed it to Yolei, gesturing to Davis. She put it in front of his face, but he shoved her hand away with a groan.
"And to inform our families," added Ken.
"We split up then," said Tai, already lifting his digivice. "I'll scout the area and we can rendezvous at the digiport in three hours."
Cody lifted his D-3. "I'll come with you."
"I'll go," said TK. Matt must have already been fussing over him, because he avoided looking in his direction.
Matt gave Tai a nod and Sora suddenly felt like everything was going too fast. They needed time, so much more time.
"Wait a minute," she said.
They turned to her and the ground shifted beneath her feet.
The world became pixels. A tunnel of code exploded around her. They were spinning: weightless bodies between worlds, jolted by the familiar vertigo of being downloaded.
Until it stopped. Sora felt sick. It was as if something had grabbed her by the heart and yanked it out of her chest. It pounded outside her body, thrumming in her ears, ready to burst—
Then there was silence. For a moment she could feel nothing. Not her heartbeat or the chest it should have beat in. Her entire body, it's aches and pains: gone. Nothing but her thoughts, hanging in space.
Darkness came and it was only then that Sora realized the digiport had never been opened.