Author's Note: Here's the next chapter of my little fic. Please R+R!!
Disclaimer: *sighs* Yeah, I don't own Digimon. Surprised?
Rating: PG
The next morning, Matt was awakened by the sound of his father ranting and raving as he rushed to get ready for work. Matt sighed, knowing that those were the sounds of a man who was running late.
"Matt!!" he hollered.
Matt sat up and slowly slid out of bed, last night's little excursion had left him beat. He groggily blinked his eyes, then proceeded with his normal yawning and stretching routine before he casually strolled over to his door and opened it. He was greeted by a tremendous force that knocked him off his feet, as his dad collided with him in the hallway.
His father bounced back up and apologized as he ambled down the hall in search of his briefcase. Matt shook his head and squinted his eyes shut a few times, trying to regain focus. He rubbed the back of his head and sat up on his elbows.
"Did anyone get the license of that truck??" he said dazed. Matt then began to stand up, a bit wobbly as his equilibrium started to return to him.
"I'm taking the carpool today Matt!" his father shouted. "Company policy, twice a month!" he added dryly, as if the whole thing was a terrible inconvenience. "Guess what!" he continued.
"What?" the blonde boy inquired, making his way down the hall toward his dad.
"You're in luck, your mother called and said she was dropping T.K. off here today, so you two could visit!"
Matt smiled, "Great! What time?"
"About 10a.m. right before she goes in to work!" he replied, sounding distant.
The sound of a car horn blaring outside caught Matt's attention. He glanced out the window. "Hey dad! I think your ride is here!" he called.
"Thanks!" his dad said as he whipped around the hall and barreled out of the front door. "Bye son!"
Matt raised his hand to wave, but realized the gesture was ineffectual and withdrew his hand. He happened to look down at the coffee table and saw his dad's keys lying there. He reached down and picked them up and ran for the door, but the sound of squalling tires told him he was too late.
"Ah well," he sighed and headed back to his room to get dressed.
A few hours later the door bell rang, and Matt leapt off of his bed and darted into the front room. He knew it was T.K. and his mom. Matt reached for the doorknob and began to turn it when the door flew open and his brother launched himself into Matt's arms. He stumbled backwards, trying to keep his balance.
"Matt!" T.K. shouted in delight.
"Whoa, hey kid!" Matt managed as his brother clung unassisted to him. His mother stood in the doorway giggling slightly.
"I take it you two are all set then?" she asked.
Matt gave her an awkward glance then somewhat grunted his reply, and turned his attention to T.K.
She nodded and started to shut the door when T.K. whirled around and chirped, "Bye mom!" She smiled at him, and then gave Matt a concerned look before turning to walk away.
He's still so distant, she thought. Even after that whole ordeal with the digital world. She recalled the night that the eight children had descended into the sky. She was generally concerned for the well being of her two sons, but Matt just seemed to shrug off her heart-felt intentions. She sighed as she entered the elevator.
Back in the apartment, T.K. was bubbling on and on about how much he had missed Matt and all the fun things they could do while their dad was at work. Matt gave him a lop-sided grin, boy when this kid got going there was no stopping him, he thought.
T.K. flopped down on the couch and started to ask Matt a billion questions about how his summer was and how he had been spending it.
"Slow down T.K.," Matt laughed, " I can only answer one question at a time."
After about an hour of light-hearted conversation, the two brothers heard a loud thud come from outside.
"What was that?" T.K. asked, "You sure got some noisy neighbors." He added.
Matt got up to investigate. He trotted over to the door and slowly peeked out. He saw just what he had expected to see, the same two strange neighbors from the day before. They were standing in the hall muttering inaudible sentences to one another.
"I want to see too Matt!" T.K. whined.
"Keep quiet for a minute squirt," he commanded as he strained to hear the conversation.
"Don't be so loud," the tall man whispered.
"Well, who was the one who forgot the detonation device?" the short man mocked.
"Detonation device?" Matt said quizzically. Something was not right here, and he began to put two and two together.
As the two men fumbled with their keys, the tall man continued, "You better hurry up with that lock, I want to get the fireworks going at that news station here soon."
"Why don't ya say it a little louder, I don't think all the neighbors heard," the short man complained as he twisted the key in the lock.
"Oh, calm down, there's nobody here right now. Everyone on this floor goes to work by 10a.m."
"Fireworks?" Matt whispered, an expression of both shock and realization spread across his face. Those are the guys responsible for those recent bombings, he concluded.
"What about fireworks Matt? I want to see fireworks!" T.K. squealed.
"Pipe down!" Matt reprimanded.
T.K. glared at the older boy and began to fold his arms and pout. Matt quietly shut the door and glanced back down at his younger brother.
"I'm sorry T.K. But this is important, we have to go warn dad." Matt apologized.
"Warn dad? About what? Is he in danger?" T.K. said, his little form beginning to tremble.
Matt brought his hand up to his face and began to stroke his chin in deep concentration.
"Hmmm…"he thought and looked down at his father's car keys. "We need to get there fast…and this is an emergency…" Without further consideration, Matt grabbed the car keys off the table and stuffed them into his pocket.
"You're not gonna take dad's car are ya Matt? You can't drive! You'll get in so much trouble." T.K. said wagging his finger.
"It looks easy enough, I've seen dad do it a bunch of times." He said trying to remain cool. He needed his brother to understand the urgency of the situation and why he was compelled do to what he was about to do. The older boy knelt down to be eye level with his younger sibling.
"Listen T.K." Matt explained, "Dad and the whole news station is in big trouble if we don't get down there and warn them in time. Those guys down the hall are terrorists and they're gonna blow up dad's building if we don't do something about it."
"We'll call the police," T.K. suggested.
"There's no time, and besides I doubt rather seriously that the cops are gonna believe that we know who the terrorists are without any evidence, and by then it might be too late. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to scare ya." Matt admitted.
T.K. thought about it for a while, he knew Matt was right, but taking their dad's car was wrong. They weren't even old enough to drive and if they got pulled over, well how would that look? Then again, he didn't want anything bad to happen to their father. After much thought T.K. finally looked up at Matt.
His brother caught the intensity of emotion in the little boy's trembling blue eyes.
"Okay Matt, let's go save dad." T.K. stated.
With that, Matt took T.K. by the hand and began to lead him out the front door.
"Shhh.." he said as he drew his index finger up to his lips.
T.K. nodded and quietly crept out of the apartment. They had made it half way to the elevators, when they heard the sound of footsteps and a door slam shut behind them. Matt stopped dead in his tracks and stood staring straight ahead. His heart began to race wildly.
"What's wrong Matt?" T.K. implored in a hushed whisper.
"Don't make eye contact." Matt muttered out of the side of his mouth.
The two boys then continued their brisk pace towards the elevator.
The shorter man looked up to see the two blonde boys making their way down the hall.
"Hey?" he said, jabbing the tall man with his finger, "Isn't that that kid…"
The tall man looked up and glared. "Hey kid!!" he shouted.
Matt didn't hesitate any longer. He grabbed T.K. by the wrist and hauled him into the nearest elevator.
"Get them!" the taller man screamed.
This was not good, Matt thought as he anxiously waited for the elevator to reach the bottom floor. He looked down at T.K. who seemed to be petrified by fear. Matt gently began to shake him.
"T.K.! T.K. it's okay, we're going to go help dad." Matt almost began to panic when his brother remained motionless. To his relief, the younger boy snapped out of his temporary paralysis and looked up at his older brother.
"I'm sorry Matt, I'm just scared," he said, eyes pleading for some kind of reassurance.
Matt closed his eyes and debated on what to say to his little brother. He thought about telling him that he was just as scared as T.K. was, but felt that that might throw the young boy into another panic. If he lied to him and told him to be brave, that might calm him down a bit and even give him an incentive. He decided on the latter.
"Come on T.K. you gotta be brave okay, if you want to help dad you gotta be brave." Matt coaxed.
"You mean like you," T.K. asked.
At that moment Matt felt like such a jerk, he shouldn't have even gotten T.K. involved, but he couldn't just leave him back there in the apartment by himself with those two creeps still roaming about.
"Yeah," he said biting his lower lip, "like me." Matt's stomach began to churn. What was he getting himself, not to mention his brother into?
To be continued…
Really hope you all liked this better than the last chapter, and I also hope I get more reviews! I love reviews, I live for them! lol. Next chapter coming soon! ^_~