Chapter Seven

The streets were nearly cleared as Daisuke ran just a couple of meters in front of Veranmon. He chanced a glance behind him, and saw Veranmon powering up for an attack.

"Oh, rats!" he screamed. As he looked ahead, he saw a pair of eyes, and then he collided with the person they belonged to. They both fell over, but Daisuke got up and grabbed the boy he ran into.

"Run!" he yelled, just as Veranmon released a ball of energy at them. The energy ball detonated in the middle of the street, spewing up large chunks of asphalt.

"Get down!" yelled Daisuke to the other boy, and they both lay on the ground. Large chunks of asphalt pelted them on the back. The other boy rolled under a car, but Daisuke still lay in the street.

"Ow, ouch," he cried out as the asphalt hit him. "Oh! Ouch! Oh my pancreas!"

"We're here! We're here!" Sora called.

"Hang in their buddy!" yelled Taichi.

The rest of the DigiDestined ran up. Takeru grabbed Daisuke and pulled him to his feet.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked, holding up four fingers.

"'K' is for kookie," said the dazed Daisuke. "That's good enough…" Daisuke passed out.

"Snap out of it!" yelled Takeru

Daisuke passed in. "Never eat soap," he said slowly. "And when you're driving in a car, always go slow when you're turning." He passed out again, and then he passed in. "Any questions?" Then he passed out.

"Go get her, Agumon," said Taichi, and Agumon shot a "Pepperbreath" at Veranmon, who simply evaded it.

"Come on Agumon, you can do better than that," said Taichi. Pretty soon all of the Digimon began to attack Veranmon.

Daisuke woke up and saw Veemon.

"Veemon, it's you!" he said. "You came to rescue me!"

Veemon ran over and hugged Daisuke.

Just then, Veranmon disappeared in a bright red flash.

"Where did she go?" said Ken. "Can she just disappear like that?"

Daisuke and Veemon continued to hug.

"Okay Veemon," said Daisuke. But Veemon just hugged him tighter around the neck.

"Come on Veemon stop. That's too tight." Veemon began tightening his hug around Daisuke's neck.

"I can't breathe. Someone… help… me… *cough* help…"

"Oh no!" said Takeru. "Do you think Veranmon has taken over Veemon's body and is using Veemon to choke Daisuke?"

"Duh… *cough*," said Daisuke.

The other eleven DigiDestined grabbed Veranmon and pulled her, in Veemon's body, off of Daisuke.

"You're going to get it you fools," said Veranmon, in Veemon's body and voice. Veemon then fell to the ground and Veranmon appeared behind him. Then she mysteriously vanished.

Veemon rose and looked at Daisuke, and walked towards him.

"No!" yelled the others, and they all tackled him.

"No, wait! It's me it's me!" screamed Veemon. The others immediately got off of him.

"Sorry buddy," said Patamon.

"But where's Veranmon?" asked Yamato. Everyone looked at Koushiro, who was looking at Takeru's D-3, trying to find her.

"She's nowhere," he said. "She just vanished."

"How?" asked Taichi.

"She must have transported herself to the Digital World. Come on! We have to get back to the hotel and open the digiport in my laptop."

The DigiDestined kids ran back to the hotel, except for Daisuke.

"Aren't you coming?" asked Takeru.

"You guys go on, I'll catch up. Go on Veemon." With that Daisuke walked over to the car the boy he had run into earlier had hidden under.

"Are you still there?" Daisuke called. The boy crawled out from under the car and got up.

"Yeah," the boy said, in a surprisingly deep voice. The boy was wearing dark blue jeans held up by a khaki belt. He had a brick red short-sleeved T- shirt. It was completely brick red except for a white stripe that went across the chest that had two smaller black stripes inside it. He wore white sneakers with a stripe of gray at the toes, and a dark blue baseball cap with the letters "PH" on it in yellow outlined in white.

"Nice clothes," said Daisuke. "My name's Daisuke."

"I'm Colin," said the boy. "Thanks for saving me."

Daisuke tried to remember where he heard that name, but he couldn't.

"I didn't do much," he said. "I just ran into you, jumped on the ground next to you, got pelted by chunks of asphalt. Come to think of it, I didn't save you at all."

"Yeah your right," said Colin. "In fact, by running into me, you may have put me in more danger than I already was. That's okay, I forgive you."

"That's good. You know, you're a pretty nice guy."

"Thanks. Your pretty brave, running from that monster, yet still trying to help people out like that."

"Maybe, but I'm just a klutz at heart."

"Ha. Well it's almost midnight; I have to go home. Why don't we talk on the way there."

"Okay."

The boys walked down the sidewalk to Colin's house.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Daisuke?" asked Colin.

"No, although I have a crush, but she's taken by one of my best friends," Daisuke answered.

"There's a girl I have a crush on too. Her name is Angie, do you know her?"

Daisuke suddenly remembered where he heard the name.

"…Yeah…"

"Then you know what a kind, beautiful girl she is."

"…Yeah…"

"Thing is, I'm way too shy to talk to her. I'd like to ask Angie out, but I just don't have the guts. Do you know what I mean?"

"…Yeah…"

"I don't even know how she feels about me. We sort of know each other, but not that well. What if she hates me and I asked her out? Can you imagine how humiliating that would be?"

"…Yeah…"

"What should I do? Should I just go for it?"

"…Yeah…"

"You think so?"

"… Yeah…"

"You're right, If I don't take the chance, it'll never happen. I'll go for it. I'm still a little shy though, but who cares about shyness, I can handle it."

"…Yeah…"

"Yeah! Well we're at my house. Bye Daisuke, it was fun talking to you." Then Colin went inside his house, and Daisuke headed back to the hotel.