According to Angel

By Jazz

Disclaimer: Puh-leeze.

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Part Three

*Reality check*

Angel's been having strange experiences of deja vu--but are they her own experiences, or her parents? As she gets closer and closer to the truth, the mysterious "Child of Light" will soon be revealed.

Don't remember whose kids are whose? Here's a reminder:

Kari and TK: Angel, and another on the way
Tai: Brad
Matt and Sora: Chino and Kara
Izzy and Mimi: Flora and Tina
Joe: Jason
Cody: Lei
Davis: Marcus
Yolei and Ken: Sam, Mari, and another on the way
(Tony doesn't have DigiDestined parents)

*Present day*

I turned the volume down low on the cassette player, shut the door, and put a towel under it. I crawled into bed, and began to play. I listened to the conversation I had heard only moments ago. My mother started out talking.

"Do you think she knows?"

"I don't know. I don't think I know anything anymore."

"She can't find out about Gatomon or Patamon or the others. We agreed on that when she was a baby. It's best if she never knows."

"What if she does, Kari? She's curious. She knows we know something. Angel's the kind of girl that won't give up something until she's got it. She's as stubborn as you. You know that."

"I just don't want her to go through the same things I went through! What if Angel falls into the darkness? There will be no one there to catch her if she falls! No one there to watch her back! The DigiDestined's jobs ended nearly twenty-five years ago! We can't go back into the Digital World! At least, not the way we are now!"

Crying sounds were heard. Mom spoke again, but it was more muffled this time. "I hate this. I hate that she doesn't know. I hate that one day, we might wake up and find that she's been beamed up just like I was, but this time, there won't be anyone to break her fall."

"I'm going to call Izzy, maybe find out what's going on. You go on back to bed. I'll be there in a little while."

"I don't want to go to bed without you."

"Alright, I'll stay in there until you fall asleep."

I pushed the stop button. That was when the conversation had ended.

I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, and rewound the tape. I played it again, and wrote things down as I went along: Gatomon, Patamon, darkness, DigiDestined, Digital World, Izzy.

In the words Gatomon and Patamon, they both had the suffix mon. I underlined it in both of those words. And then I realized something else.

In the dream I had, the terms Gatomon and Digimon were both used. They both had that same suffix. And, the words DigiDestined, Digital World, and Digimon all had the prefix Digi. Digi meaning Digital, or having to do with computers.

Digimon. That word echoed in my brain. What did it mean? Digital-something. Digital-Mon.

I walked over to my bookshelf and pulled open the dictionary. I opened it under "M," and continued turning until I got to the page I was looking for. I ran my finger down it until it stopped at the one word that stood out in front of me.

Monster.

Digimon. Digital Monster? It was the only one that made any sense whatsoever. Were those creatures--Gatomon, those sea creatures, Angewomon, and the horse-looking thing--were they Digimon? They were certainly strange and abnormal enough to be monsters. But Digital--controlled by computers?

Another word that I had written down sprang out at me. Izzy. Hmm...that name...it sounded so familiar. Where had I heard it? I was positive that neither of my parents had mentioned it before...or maybe they had, and it just slipped my mind.

I reviewed the rest of the list. Mom had said something about the darkness. What was the darkness? Obviously, it was a place that Mom had been, and she had not enjoyed it one little bit. Was that that dark ocean where we were in my dream? It must be...what else could it be? Whatever it was, she obviously didn't want me to go there. She had survived it, but would I? I wasn't sure.

I knew very little, but I knew that I was going to have to protect myself from some dangerous force at all costs. Something was after me and my family. And even though there was little I could do right now, I knew that in time, something would come up. I had to protect Mom, Dad, and the baby. They couldn't do it alone. And neither can I.

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Tony folded the blanket on the couch, exhausted. He had stayed up nearly all night, just sitting next to Angel. Making sure she slept peacefully.

The things I do for love. He sighed.

"Tony!" a voice in the master bedroom called. Tony stood, and sleepily walked down the hall.

"Yes, Grandpa?" he asked, stifling a yawn.

A tiny, short little man was sitting on the bed. "Did you finally get that friend of yours home?" he asked. He was as wired as hell. Although Grandpa Tanishi looked like he was a hundred and twelve, he was a very energetic person, standing at only about four feet and eleven inches tall.

"Yes, Grandpa."

"Good. What's her name, anyways?" he asked, although he knew very well what her name was.

"Angel Takaishi, Grandpa." Tony was nearly asleep by now.

"Takaishi?" he asked pleasantly. "I once knew a boy named Takaishi. A fine boy. A bit of a crybaby at times, but I imagine he grew out of it eventually."

"Was he an insomniac that had nightmares about evil creatures and beaches?" Tony muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Nothing, Grandpa."

"Very well, then." He studied the boy. "You may go to bed now. It has been a long day for us all. I assume you're pretty tired."

"You have no idea."

Grandpa Tanishi chuckled. "Good night, Anthony."

"'Night, Grandpa." Tony stumbled into his own bedroom, and shut the door. When he was certain that he was asleep, Grandpa Tanishi reached under his bed and pulled out a laptop. He logged into his e-mail account, and checked every box in his address book, in preparation to send an e-mail. He thought for a moment, composing, then began to type.

Greetings, DigiDestined!

This may come as quite a shock to you, since most of you haven't heard from me in nearly twenty years. But the times are changing rapidly, along with the Digital World.

Evil has not left. It never has. And, still today, it looms its shadow of darkness over the entire earth, planning to strike at any given moment.

I hate to do this. But it seems as though the services of the DigiDestined are needed once again. Dark Spires are rising, Black Gears, Dark Spirals, and Dark Rings are returning, and the cause of all this trouble is somewhat unknown. We need you twelve to please do what you can in order to protect the two worlds.

This is not a direct order. Please reply immediately to this e-mail address. I look forward to seeing you all again.

Sincerely,

Gennai

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I didn't go to school the next day. Mom stayed home with me, and Dad went off to his office at the Odaiba Gazette, where he was a reporter.

I woke up around noon, which was fine with me. I lounged around in my pajamas all day, eating junk food, watching TV, and surfing the Internet. I found that I was returning to my old self again, which was a relief.

Dad got home around four o'clock that afternoon. Mom and I were still in our pajamas, sitting on the couch, watching a very strange soap opera. It was about a girl that was engaged to this really rich guy that she was in love with, but was being very secretive because his ex-father got her drunk, married her, and seduced her while her brother was out on a boat with his fiancée, and her father blew up the boat, and she was cremated after her funeral. Strange, huh?

Anyways, as soon as Dad got home, he went straight to work. He said something about getting the article finished before Saturday so he could go to the concert. Whatever that meant.

He was back in his bedroom for nearly two hours. After awhile, Mom said she had to get some work done, too, and abandoned me to go to the family computer in the other room. I heard the Internet dial-up, and, a few moments later, Mom called out, "TK? TK could you please come here for a minute?"

"Hang on, I'll be there in a second."

"No, TK, please, this is important. VERY important. I need you to come here NOW."

"Alright, Kari, I'm coming."

You know that Britney Spears song, "I'm a Slave For You"? Sometimes I wonder....

My father went into the computer room. All was silent for a minute, as he was obviously reading whatever Mom had asked him to. After a few moments, I heard him suck in his breath.

"This is bad."

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"Well, duh, it's bad!" Kari said harshly. "We haven't spoken to Gennai in nearly twenty years, and now he wants us to come back? Why now? I can't go back into the Digital World the way I am now! And neither can Yolei. What's going to happen?"

"Shhh, Kari, calm down," TK whispered. "We don't want Angel to hear."

He led her back into their bedroom and shut the door. "Listen, I'll talk to the others and find out what's going on. You need to rest. Try not to worry."

"I don't want to rest! I want to help! I want to find out what's going to happen to us! And our children!"

"If you don't want to rest," TK said calmly, "I'll make you rest." He picked her up against her will, and dropped her onto the bed. She was hopping mad.

"I want you to stay here," he ordered. "I'll be back in a few hours." He was halfway out the door before she started after him. TK spun around and frenched her on the mouth hard, surprising her. She stumbled backwards, and TK made a mad dash for the door.

On the way out, he passed Angel. "Gottagobebacksoonloveyabye!" He opened the front door, and ran out.

Angel raised her eyebrows. Kari wobbled into the living room, a dazed smile on her face.

"What's with Dad?" she asked suspiciously.

"Hmm?" Kari only then realized her daughter was in the room. "Oh. He's just...being his romantic self."

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I rolled my eyes. My parents could be really sappy at times. Even worse than the stupid soap opera I was watching.

"You know what? I think I'll go take a nap," Mom said. She walked back into her bedroom and shut the door.

I held my breath and counted to one hundred. I was almost certain she was asleep. I crept over to the computer quietly, and logged back into my mother's e-mail address. Mom had gotten a disturbing e-mail, and it had frightened both her and Dad. If I was correct, it had something to do with what they were talking about the other night. And what they were hiding from me.

I opened her inbox. The latest e-mail had come from Gennai@digimonworld.com. Who the heck was that? I opened the mail, and eagerly read its contents.


Greetings, DigiDestined!

This may come as quite a shock to you, since most of you haven't heard from me in nearly twenty years. But the times are changing rapidly, along with the Digital World.

Evil has not left. It never has. And, still today, it looms its shadow of darkness over the entire earth, planning to strike at any given moment.

I hate to do this. But it seems as though the services of the DigiDestined are needed once again. Dark Spires are rising, Black Gears, Dark Spirals, and Dark Rings are returning, and the cause of all this trouble is somewhat unknown. We need you twelve to please do what you can in order to protect This is not a direct order. Please reply immediately to this e-mail address. I look forward to seeing you all again. the two worlds.

This is not a direct order. Please reply immediately to this e-mail address. I look forward to seeing all again.

Your friend and advisor,

Gennai

Okay, that right there? That's messed up.

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"I can't wait for the concert this Saturday!" Lei squealed.

Sam laughed. "Neither can I. But right now I'm supposed to be tutoring you in math. And so far, we've only done three problems."

Lei rolled her eyes. "I hate math," she said exasperatedly. "Everything about it sucks big donkey balls. Like I really wanna know what x means. Do we really need to know the Roman numerals? The only thing they're good for is figuring out what year a movie was made in the film credits. And metric conversions? Please. Do I really have the burning desire to find out how many centimeters are in a millimeter?"

"That's millimeters in a centimeter, and it's one thousand."

"Whatever."

"We really need to get back to work."

"Hey, I wonder how Angel's doing? Do you think she's okay?"

"I bet she's working on her math homework right now."

"No, she's probably sleeping."

"You're avoiding this."

"Am not."

"Are, too."

"Am not."

"Are, too."

"Am not."

"Are, too."

"Okay, maybe I am."

Lei and Sam looked up at each other, and smiled at their goofiness.

"C'mon, we really need to get to work," Sam said. He grinned again. "Read the question aloud, please."

"If the sum of 3x and 5x equals the sum of energy times the speed of light which is also known as matter over mass and is related to the hypoteneuse of a square, then what is four times 3x times the square root of seven?"

"Do they really expect us to answer that?"

"Nah, I just made that up." She giggled.

"Now all you have to do is dye your hair blonde. Please, read the real question this time."

"Alright, alright already." She pretended to grumble. "Find the volume and surface area of this solid."

"There now, see, that's not so bad now, is it?" Sam asked. He smiled at her a little bit, but her eyes widened as she looked more closely at the figure.

"Um, Sam..." she asked tentatively, trying to hold her giggles back. "What does this picture remind you of?" Lei held up the book, making him view the solid.

Sam stared at it for a minute. His hand clamped over his mouth. "Oh, my God..."

"Maybe we should skip to question five," Lei said hastily. She ran her finger down the page until she came to number five. "Um, find the square root of negative eight." She looked up at Sam. "Isn't it negative--"

He didn't let her finish. He cut her off with an opened-mouth kiss. Lei was surprised at first. Her eyes went wide. Then, she shut them and leaned into the kiss.

Sam opened his eyes, and pulled away. "I--I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I don't know what came over me...If you were offended, I'm really very sorry..."

"No, wait!" Lei said. She bit her lip. "I'm not offended. In fact--" she glanced down, then looked back up at him again. "I'm kinda glad you did."

She didn't wait for him to respond. She raised herself in her chair, and his lips met hers.

This time, though, they did not break away.

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Okay, everything in that e-mail was crap. I mean, totally confusing crap. What the heck are my parents trying to pull? Is this some kind of stupid prank? Were they leading me into some kind of stupid trap?

There was only one thing to do. I had to find out who this Gennai person was. I hit the "Reply" button at the bottom of thee screen. When the "Compose Message" screen came up, I hit the "Send" button. Whoever this guy was, he was gonna get a blank e-mail from my mom. Well, not really.

I waited for about ten minutes, then suddenly, a box popped up on the screen:

"You've got mail!"

I eagerly clicked on it, hoping for some kind of clue. I opened the message, and read its contents.

Mail sent to Gennai@digimonworld.com User and domain unknown.

There may be problems with our servers. Please try again later.

I leaned back in my chair and groaned. Back to the drawing board.

I sighed. Oh, well. As long as I'm online, I can at least check my own mail.

I logged into my account, and clicked on My Inbox. I had only one message. I opened it quickly.

I gasped as I read the return address. It was from Gennai@digimonworld.com! I read it eagerly.

Stop meddling in your parents' affairs, Angel. They will only make things worse.

I gasped again. Maybe this wasn't a hoax after all.

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A lot stranger and shorter than the last one, I know. But I am trying to budget my time carefully, you know. ^_~ Chapter Four should be coming up soon!