I don't own digimon.

Characters: 02 Gang

World: '02′

Notes: My Christmas present for TottWriter. Please don't kill me.

Chapter 44

Makes sense in context

Within the digimon multiverse, there exist a huge number of alternate realities. Each one, its own unique spin on one thing or another. Even those worlds that hinge on a particular concept (Davis being evil, for example) all have their own unique spin on top of that.

And so we come upon the world where this particular story takes place, the computer lab from 02. For some reason though, it was just randomly floating in space.

There, we find Ken Ichijouji staring at his partner, Wormmon.

One would expect the digidestined to have adjusted this mess after all this time. And yet, there always seemed to be something new in store each day,

"So let me get this straight." Ken inquired as he stared towards his partner. "You and Veemon were playing checkers, only for a portal to suddenly pop in and stop your game?"

"Correct." Wormmon answered and moved to face the small rift within the abode they called home. "It tried to take Veemon too."

He took a deep breath and allowed his partner to lead him to the disturbance. In this case, that meant the far left corner of the computer lab. This part of the room wasn't anything that interesting, with its dreadful grayish blue carpet and plain white walls. Other than that, the red and black checkers from before were scattered about in that general area, making it a nightmare to traverse. Not that he really had any trouble doing just that.

Like Wormmon had told him, an ovaloid 'rift' had formed just above the checkerboard, ready to regurgitate something from a far-off dimension. At best, they could be treated to something nice, like a five star dinner or a proper world. At worst however, they could find themselves facing down an eldritch monstrosity or stuck within a magical death trap. You never could know with these sort of things. Which made it all the more imperative for the duo to get to the bottom of this.

"Where's everyone else?" Ken whispered and glanced towards his partner.

"They already went in." Wormmon whispered. "I told them to wait, but you know how they are."

Ken only sighed. He had hoped this wouldn't have been the case but alas, it was. Funny how that works out around here. Nonetheless, the digidestined took a deep breath and approached the portal, allowing himself and his partner inside.

Compared to where they had just left, the other side of the portal didn't seem half bad, In this case, it turned out to be a proper world. Well, if one considered a grassy mass of land as a proper 'place'. At the very least, it followed the laws of physics and all the other good stuff that made a world at least hospitable.
"Thank you, captain obvious." Ken whispered and took a step forward, watching his feet connect with solid ground. "Phew."

Wormmon then did the same, only far less graceful than his master. Not that the worm really cared about that. No, he was more of the person who just wanted to have an adventure every once in awhile.

"Ow." he whispered and made a glance down at himself. "Oh crap."

Ken then turned around, only to do a double take. Gone was the green worm digimon, having been replaced with a young girl dressed in a forest green sundress.

"What the fuck over?" he mumbled as the child looked towards him, her large blue eyes staring right back at him. The only other noticeable detail about his partner was the brown hair that reached down to her neck.

"Language!" his former partner whispered and stuck her tongue out. "You really suck at parenting."

Ken stared at her with a confused expression. She wasn't quite sure how to react to this, instead deciding to head forth into this world. It was probably better than just waiting around for something to happen. But which direction, exactly? He could go north and see where it took him. South was just a worthy option, even if that was where they came from. Even east and west had their advantages, whether those might possibly be.

"Okay then." he thought and made one more glance around the area, eventually deciding on his initial choice, north. "What's your name?"

"Kira." the girl whispered and cautiously approached Ken. "Can we finally go?"
The two finally headed off, quickly making their way north across the landmass. Of which, seemed to be endless land as far as one can see. Sometimes there would be a variation, but this was a rare occurrence that seemed to gradually come less and less common.

"Great. Now the author isn't even making sense." Ken thought as he gazed over the abyss once more. While it hadn't changed at all since the last time she had looked, it was still a good thing to check. "Thank you, captain obvious!"

Kira turned to her partner and shook her head. For as funny as she found Ken's current antics to be hilarious, it was starting to get old real fast. What they needed was some excitement.

So, it began raining down party hats and streamers.

"That wasn't what I meant!" Kira shouted as she watched it all go down. "This doesn't help at all."

The author didn't answer, instead possibly laughing at their mess. Even if he wasn't, the idea seem tempting.

But before either girl could voice a complaint, they came upon their next teammate. Well, calling them a 'teammate' probably was an overstatement. Especially when turned out the person in question was a large rock with a face painted on it.

"Uh hi?" Ken whispered, only for the rock to perk up.

"Hello!" the rock greeted and both Ken and Kira looked at each other. "I'm Davis!"

"You're not, Davis." Ken he stared towards the rock. "The last time I checked, he was a human, not a rock."

"And you're totally a boy." the rock answered back in a smug sort of voice, only to receive a kick from Kira. "Hey! Can't we all be friends here?"

"I guess." Ken whispered and made a glance towards his former partner. Kira did the same, possibly wondering what the fuck was even going on. "Do you want to join us on our journey?"

"I guess." Davis answered and 'whistled', watching a blob of water came come over in a single dash. "That's my partner."

"Oh." Ken whispered as he looked at the blob of water. While not anything impressive, it would still have some benefit to the team. "Does it have a name at least?"

"Frederick." the water blob answered and 'glanced' towards the digidestined. "That'll work."

Kira then turned her attention to the creature, possibly attempting to decipher some sort of meaning from this creature. Yet, she was unable to find any for this mon. So, she tried a second time and got the same results. For a third time, she made one more futile attempt and still came up empty-handed.

"Mom, can you tell this mean man to just shut up!" Kira announced and turned towards Ken.

"I guess, my child." Ken answered and turned her attention to the sky. "Can you please shut up?"
The sky did not answer, instead deciding to just ignore them for the moment. It was simply easier that way.

"Okay then." Davis added and turned his attention to Ken, who currently had Kira clinging onto him. "Aww…"

"Oh shut up."

"Swear!" Kira whispered and Ken sighed. It was just another wonderful day in this madhouse that never seemed to end. "Where's Yolei?"

Davis looked around and gave shrug.

"I have no clue." the rock answered as Kira got ready to kick him. "Probably off somewhere nice, like the bahamas."

The duo stared at him with a bit of confusion, unsure of how to react to all of this. While they could try shock, that didn't seem best for the moment. But for now, they would just have to wait.

Thankfully, that didn't take long. And by that, I mean a millennium in the space of a couple seconds.

"Wonderful." Davis announced as a mist-like figure approached. "There you are!"

The other two 'humans' turned their attention to the figure, watching it turn into some yellow haired short boy. Currently, he was dressed in a black t-shirt with a yellow cat face with a pair of yellow pants.

"Uh… hi?" Ken greeted as the boy stared back in confusion.

"This is definitely not an AR Field." the boy announced. "Will I or won't I? I will!"

It was at least an hour before anyone would talk to 'Yolei' again. Even then, 'Yolei' would do something to perpetuate this.

"Let's beat the gimmick out of her." Kira suggested.

"Why exactly?" Ken answered as she stared towards her daughter. While the idea seemed stupid, it was still worth a shot.

"What do you think we should do then?!" Kira shouted and took a deep breath. "All we've done at this point is stand around!"

Ken didn't answer, instead deciding to stare towards the void. There was something she wanted to say, but it wouldn't help. No, just saying it would do the opposite.

Yet, she did it anyway.

"This can't get any worse." she whispered. Of course, that meant things had to get worse. But how exactly, remained a mystery.

And then skeletons popped out of the ground to the tune of Sesame Street songs.

"Okay then." Davis whispered and curled up with his blob of water. "It'll stop eventually."

"And then what?" Ken shouted, taking a deep breath afterwards.

"We wait for Cody to show up."

Ken took another deep breath and stared back towards Davis.

"Then what?" the digidestined added.

Davis didn't answer, instead deciding to just watch 'Yolei' some more. Ken and Kira on the other hand, decided to play marbles with some pebbles and eggs they had found. Or would have, if the eggs hadn't suddenly hatched into grotesque blobs of flesh and the pebbles suddenly didn't become sentient.

"My turn!

"No, it's my turn!"

"You're both wrong! It's my actually my turn!"

With those things no longer causing trouble for them, Ken and Kira turned their attention to the random blobs of flesh. While they could just leave them alone so they could do whatever the heck they wanted too, this was not their style.

No, they instead decided they would just taunt the goop. Because you know what? Taunting stuff that you don't know the strength of really solves many a situation when it comes down to it. Truly, nothing but victory could come from this.

What followed was a long drawn-out fight where neither side really gained the advantage over the other. Only for it all to culminate in a random yet pointless explosion that didn't even harm anybody. All that, in the hope Cody would finally show up. Kind of pitiful when you think about it. They went through all that work, wasted all that energy and possibly pissed off an entire species, on the possibility that the author would suddenly just drop a character into this world whenever someone complained or just on a whim. But that isn't how things work. If it somehow were, the whole thing would just be a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Rarely does following such a path works out. But it is quite beautiful when it does.

Thankfully, the final arrivals appeared. Not because they had been willed into existence, but more of walked to their destination.

"Are you sure this is the place?" a voice whispered as a dapper looking boy walked up. He was dressed quite elegantly, judging by his pinstripe suit and matching slacks. A matching fedora sat on his head, going quite well with his faded eyes and light brown hair. Strangely, a girl was following right behind. Unlike the boy though, she was dressed in a dark cyan long sleeved sailor fuku with matching leggings and brown shoes. A pair of whitish silver braided twin tails hung down, going quite well with her bright red eyes. For some reason though, a sword of some sort hung on her back.

"Is that everybody now?!" Ken shouted, hoping to god that it was. It probably was, hopefully.

Before she could ponder that thought any longer, a bright beam of light shot down and knocked them all back a couple of feet. By some crazy miracle though, nobody was hurt. Even if it meant they still had deal with whatever caused that beam.

Shadow Spear!

Just as they got up, our heroes were forced to dodge something else. In this case, a barrage of spears coming from a sole figure out in the distance. At first, they looked to be about the same size as Ken. But as they got closer, the person seemed to grow bigger. By time they had finally reached the threat, it towered over them by a large amount. Or would have, if the author hadn't decided to change it at the last minute to Evil TK.

"For fuck sake, author." Evil TK announced and pulled his pistol out. "Can you please stop sticking me in stuff?!"

"Hey!" Kira answered and glanced towards the gentlemanly asshole, holding her hand out for another coin. Of course, Evil TK shot her for the heck of it. He then followed up this act up by shooting everyone else and ending the story prematurely. But I guess that's on me, the author.

Merry Christmas, I guess?