***

Evil's New Claim

Part Five: Getting Down To Business

***

Standard Disclaimer Thingy: Plot is ALL MINE! MINE! MINE! Digimon, its characters, and whatnot, unfortunately, are not. If they were, I'd have a whole lot more money.

***

"This is where the base went down, all right," Daisuke noted, peering over the sand. "It looks the same as in our world."

"All right, so let's get moving," Miyako decided. "We'll split up and search it."

"Good plan," Patamon spoke up. "You three go together," he gestured with his front paws to Iori, Miyako, and Ken. "Daisuke comes with us."

Before anyone could reply, a loud sound came from the base, and all five humans and their partners were tossed to the ground.

***

Hikari took a deep breath and opened the door to the classroom. Trying to be as cheerful as possible, she stepped inside. "Hey guys!"

Koushiro waved absent-mindedly from his seat at the computer. Takeru smiled warmly. "Hikari-chan!" he greeted. "Glad you could come."

"Sorry I'm late," she added. "I had to drop a few things at home first." She set down her bag and opened it, releasing Tailmon, who stretched a few times and then looked expectantly at the visitors.

"Any food today?"

"The others ate before they left," Takeru informed her. "But we saved some snacks for you." He held out a few candy bars, and, satisfied, Tailmon began to munch them eagerly.

Hikari smiled politely at the visitors. "I'm Hikari, in case you didn't know," she stated.

The three – Miyako, Daisuke, and Iori – from the other world nodded politely. They hadn't spoken since she had come in, and Hikari couldn't help feeling as if something was very wrong.

There was a long moment of silence. Then Daisuke stepped forward. "Hi. You know me, but you don't, I guess. I mean, you don't know me. I'm Daisuke. But you knew that, because that much is the same." He stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you. Again."

Hikari nodded and shook hands, giggling slightly. "Nice to meet you, too." Daisuke blushed awkwardly, shook hands a bit too hard, and then stepped back, feeling as though he had humiliated himself.

Miyako sighed and pushed Daisuke away from where he was trying to hide behind her. "Hikari-san," she said politely, holding out a hand. "It's good to meet you."

Hikari, a bit nervous at the –san title, nodded politely again. "Miyako-san," she said. "Same here." The –san ending felt awkward on her tongue, but she managed to say it. 'This isn't the same Miyako,' she reminded herself. 'She doesn't know me.'

Iori bowed politely and introduced himself. "Hida Iori," he informed her. "I have heard much about you."

She smiled back. "I hope it was good," she joked slightly before shaking hands and bowing back to the younger boy.

"So – what's the plan?" Takeru spoke up. "Do you guys want to go to the digital world today or should we just all head home?"

"I say we go to the digital world!" Daisuke decided. "Home here probably isn't much different from home in the other world – boring."

"I agree," Miyako spoke up. "There's no point in us being here if we're only going to sit around. Let's knock down some towers!"

"Iori?" Hikari asked. "What do you want to do?"

The youngest Chosen shrugged slightly. "I suppose we'll go to the digital world," he decided. "There's really no reason for us to be here if we don't help out."

"Yea!" Chibimon called from Daisuke's arms. "Let's get going!"

"Is everything ready to go, Koushiro?" Takeru asked.

"Everything's fine," Koushiro replied pleasantly. He stepped aside to give the younger students easier access to the computer, and a few moments later, they were gone.

***

Elsewhere…

Daisuke picked himself up from the sand and stared at what remained of the base. The  building was now on fire. He barely had time to register a coherent thought before he was thrown to the ground again. A fiery attack came close to him, nearly singeing his hair, and he dived out of the way.

"V-mon evolve! XV-mon!" The flying blue dragon was able to move his partner out of the way just in time.

"Who's attacking us?" Miyako demanded.

"They are!" Iori shouted over the confusion. "Dark Tyrannomon!" He pointed at the base, which was now surrounded by about seven of the large dinosaurs.

"Now would be a good time to get out of the way!" Daisuke advised. "XV-mon! Let's get 'em!"

"Wait!" Miyako called. "We don't even know why they're after us!"

"Isn't it obvious?" he returned. "They want to stop us from getting in there!"

"They could have another motive," she noted.

"We don't have time to wonder why," Ken spoke up for the first time. "It's best to try to stop them before one of us ends up getting hurt."

Miyako was about to reply to that when another fiery attack shot directly at them, knocking her off her feet.

"Hawkmon evolve! Aquilamon!" The huge bird took to the air and fired its own attacks at the Dark Tyrannomon. "Blast Laser!"

Ken and Iori helped Miyako to her feet. "Well, that was uncalled for," she noted, frowning slightly. "Get 'em, Aquilamon!"

"There might be some dark rings," Patamon spoke up from atop Takeru's hat. "It would be advisable to shoot for them."

Daisuke looked blank. "Dark rings?" he repeated. "But don't there have to be dark towers in the area for that?"

"But there aren't any dark towers," Miyako observed. She pointed to the battle going on nearby. "Our digimon were able to evolve."

Patamon shrugged. "I don't know. There weren't any towers around last time, and that Kuwagamon had a dark ring."

"All right," Daisuke replied. "XV-mon! Look for the dark ring!"

"Help him out, Aquilamon!" Miyako agreed. "Aim for the rings!" The large bird swooped gracefully between the flames and fired his own attack at the dinosaurs.

"I'm not seeing any rings," he reported.

"You'll have to look closely!" Patamon called. "The last one was pretty well hidden." He looked down at his partner. "Shall I?"

"Digimental Up!" Takeru stated by way of reply.

"Patamon armor evolve! Pegasmon - the hope that gallops across the heavens!" The flying horse was able to easily dodge the flaming attack, and Takeru quickly dived out of the way as well.

Unfortunately, it headed directly toward where Ken and Iori were standing.

"Get out of the way!" Takeru shouted, the first time any of them had heard him speak. Ken dived quickly to avoid the attack, throwing Iori down to the ground as well.

"Armadimon evolve! Ankylomon!" The giant dinosaur was easily able to shield both humans from the attack.

"Wormmon evolve! Stingmon!" Stingmon launched into the air, flying directly at the dinosaurs and preparing to attack.

Ken stood up, dusting the sand from his school uniform and holding a hand out to Iori. "You all right?"

Iori nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

Miyako watched as the slightly disgruntled group of now-freed Dark Tyrannomon departed. "Boy," she commented. "That was a lot easier than I thought it would be."

"We still didn't get our questions answered," Iori noted. "We still don't know why they attacked us or who was controlling them."

"I have a feeling they were here as a diversionary tactic," Ken spoke up. All eyes were on him instantly.

"Diversionary?" Daisuke repeated. "Why?"

He pointed to something large in the sky behind the base. "Airdramon. Whoever sent them was also inside there. The battle was to distract us long enough so they could get away."

Iori frowned. "You think this world's Ken is with that person?"

"Most likely."

***

Elsewhere…

"Boy, that was a pretty boring day," Miyako noted as she walked through the streets in the direction of home.

"Same old, same old," Takeru agreed. "Knock down towers, come home, sleep, go to school, knock down towers. That's how it's been for the past few weeks now."

"You don't think it'll stay like that, do you?" Iori questioned.

The older boy shook his head. "I really doubt it," he replied. "I know there's another enemy waiting in the shadows, and it's only a matter of time before it shows itself."

"I wonder if that enemy here is the same enemy at home," Miyako mused.

"There's always some threat to the digital world," Takeru noted. "Otherwise, we wouldn't' be allowed to stay. The digital world doesn't let us in when it doesn't need us."

***

Ken cautiously pushed open the door to his family's apartment. It was quiet. Dark and silent.

'I hope they weren't too worried about me – him – while he was gone,' he thought to himself.

"Where is everyone?" he wondered aloud. "Mama?"

He entered the apartment and turned on the nearest light switch. "Dad?" he called as he slipped off his shoes. "That's strange. They're not here, but they left the door open."

"Maybe things are more different in this world than you thought," Wormmon theorized.

"Maybe," he replied, but didn't speculate. Quietly, he entered the kitchen and peered around. "So far everything looks the same."

He opened the refrigerator and noticed that his mother had arranged the drinks in exactly the same order as she always did. The cheese was on one shelf, next to the butter. The eggs were down below. The meat was in the drawer and the poultry in another. Leftovers from whatever had been eaten last were on the bottom shelf.

"Exactly the same," he mused, removing a bottle of soda.

The cups were in the same location. So were the plates, the silverware, the bowls. Everything. Frowning, Ken poured himself some soda and replaced the bottle in the refrigerator. As he drank the carbonated liquid, he scanned the counters and the front of the refrigerator for signs of where they might have gone. A circled date on the calendar or a note left, perhaps? But there was nothing.

'This is strange,' he thought to himself, draining the remainder of the soda and putting the cup in the sink. Cautiously, as though he were afraid some sort of monster might attack him, he crept through the apartment.

The living room was empty, his parents' usual spot at the sofa empty and the television darkened. Ken left the room darkened and crept down the hall to the bedrooms. He cautiously opened the first door, glancing into the master bedroom for a brief moment. It was empty, the bed neatly made and the pillows fluffed. He turned and opened the door to his own bedroom. It looked much the same as his own, but it, too was empty.

Flipping the wall switch, Ken entered the room and peered around. The bed was on the loft over his head, the computer on the desk at the wall. It had been left on, and the soft glow of the screen saver illuminated the papers left on the desk. A school bag, with books and papers was on the chair beside the desk, but everything else appeared normal.

Suddenly, a loud, harsh ringing sound broke the silence. He jumped nearly a foot in the air before he realized it was the telephone. Composing himself, he picked up the phone he kept in his room and spoke into the mouthpiece.

"Hello? Ichijouji residence."

"Ken?" His father's voice filtered through the telephone line. "Oh thank goodness, I was starting to get worried."

"I'm sorry, Dad, I just got in," he replied. "Um – where is everyone?" He decided changing the subject might help.

"I just called home to say that I'm running late at the office, but I think I'm going to leave now. No one else is home?"

"No. And the door was left open."

"Oh." Ken could hear the audible relief in his father's voice, but didn't understand why until he had explained. "Osamu must be taking a nap then. Go ahead and wake him up. He should know better than to leave the door open."

"Right." 'Osamu? I forgot about that. He's alive in this world.' Suddenly, Ken felt his knees go weak. He sank down into the desk chair, pushing the school books aside, heedless of the crash they made as they tumbled to the floor.

"So as soon as your mother gets home we'll head out to dinner," Mr. Ichijouji concluded whatever he had been talking about. "Ken?"

"Yes?"

"What was that crash?"

"Oh – I – some books. Just fell off the desk. I'll pick them up."

"Oh. Okay. Anyway, make sure you get your brother out of bed before your mother gets back from the store. She finds that he left the door open and she'll be pretty mad."

"Okay. Bye Dad."

Ken hung up the phone a moment later feeling very disoriented. He picked up the books from the floor and placed them in their proper places on the desk. "How am I going to explain this?" he wondered.

"You all right, Ken?" Wormmon questioned from where he was sitting on the desk. "You looked kind of scared for a moment there."

"Osamu's home," Ken replied. Before Wormmon could answer, the phone rang again. Prepared this time, he answered it on the first ring. "Ichijouji residence."

"Ken? That you?" Daisuke's voice was clear despite the distance between them.

"Yes, Daisuke. Is something wrong?" Immediately, a list of possible explanations ran through his mind. Perhaps Daisuke's family lived in a different apartment complex in this world and he didn't know where to go. Perhaps his parents had noticed some difference.

"No, I just wanted to check in," Daisuke assured him. "Everything seems to be the same in this world. Same apartment and everything. I haven't noticed any differences yet and neither have my parents. How's it there?"

"About the same," he replied, pleased at himself for sounding more serene than he felt. "My parents were out, but my father just called and should be home soon. I think he said we'll go out to eat tonight, since they were running late."

"What are you going to tell them about being missing?"

He shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "Last time, they didn't ask, I don't think, but I was too out of it to notice. I guess I just won't say anything." 'Osamu would never fall for that,' he chided himself, but paid no attention to his inner voice.

"Okay, great," Daisuke appeared audibly cheered by this. "I'm going to call the others now and make sure everything's fine there. I guess we'll meet tomorrow like we planned?"

"Right."

Ken hung up the phone again. 'Why didn't I tell him about Osamu? Why didn't I mention something about Osamu when we first planned this mission? I didn't even think of him. Why not?' The thoughts continued through his mind as he exited his bedroom and opened the next one.

Osamu's bedroom was set up in predictably the same manner as his own – and how he recalled his brother's to have been arranged in his own universe. Cautiously, Ken opened the door, tapping on the wooden frame in case he might be perceived as an intruder. "Osamu?" he questioned, and the name tasted strange on his lips. "Osamu?" he repeated, and it didn't seem so foreign now.

A groan came from above him, and he heard the bed springs creak as his older brother rolled over. Ken felt a shudder run down his spine. 'He's up there! He's really alive!" For a moment, he was frozen in time as his brain struggled to grasp this concept. He flipped on the light switch and heard and even louder groan from the bed above his head.

"What do you want?" Osamu was too asleep to even notice who had intruded on his nap. He buried his head in the pillows, shutting out the light.

"Osamu? Mom and Dad will be home soon. We're going to go out to eat."

"Great." The elder boy covered his head with the blanket.

"Dad just called, too. And Osamu? You left the door open before."

"You forgot the key, didn't you?" Osamu retorted without even turning his head. The rude intruder didn't respond, and so he shut his eyes again, blocking the light. 'Stupid, annoying little brothers,' he thought to himself as he tried to drift back into dreamland. 'Can't even understand when someone has to take a nap.'

It was a few moments more before he realized the reasoning behind his thoughts. Then, Osamu heaved himself over the side of his bed and landed gracefully on the floor below. He paused just long enough to grab his glasses from his desk and then launched himself into his brother's room. "Where have you been?" he demanded.

Ken was searching through a pile of school books on his desk. At Osamu's question, he looked up, questions in his eyes. "Here?" he asked.

Osamu shook his head and slammed his hand on the school book on the top of the pile. "Don't feed me that!" he replied. "Mom and Dad might have bought that last time, but I didn't! And I still don't!" A vein was beginning to appear on his forehead.

"I –," Ken began, backing up, clearly alarmed by his violent behavior.

"You disappeared for close to six months, Ken! SIX!" he was definitely yelling now. "And then, when you came back, we got no explanation as to where you'd been!" He frowned and peered into his brother's face. "What are you mixed up in?"

"Mixed up in?" Ken repeated.

Osamu nodded. "You're mixed up in something, I know it. Organized crime, maybe? Something bad. Something illegal." His voice was slightly calmer now.

Ken shook his head. "No," he replied.

His brother didn't let him  get any further into the explanation. He stepped forward. "If you've done something illegal," he warned.

"No, no!" Ken shook his head, anxious to calm his brother before he became more violent. "Nothing illegal at all!"

"So where were you?"

Osamu was astonished when his younger brother merely shook his head. "I can't tell you."

"So it is illegal."

"It's not!" the younger Ichijouji insisted.

"Then why can't you tell me?" he demanded.

"You – wouldn't understand."

Osamu frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't buy that, Ken," he replied. He pushed past his brother and into the room. "Where would you go for six months? And why?" He jumped on to the bed and peered down at his younger brother.

"I can't tell you." Ken repeated.

The elder boy was nearly infuriated now. "Why?" he demanded, slamming a fist onto the bed.

Ken winced as if it had been almost a physical blow. "You wouldn't understand."

Osamu shook his head in disbelief. "I don't buy it. I'm betting it's illegal." He flopped back on the bed and stretched his legs out.

"Ah!" a small voice shouted from the blankets. Osamu leapt up, startled, banging his head on the ceiling.

"What was that?" he demanded.

Ken was attempting to look indifferent and failing miserably. "What was what?"

"Oh no! Don't you start telling me I'm going nuts. There's something in here." He began to ruffle around in the sheets, searching.

"Osamu, no!" Ken shouted. His warning came too late. Osamu felt his hand hit something.

"Found it!" he declared triumphantly, closing his hand around the object. "Ah!" he shouted, leaping into the air again. "It bit me!"

Ken quickly ascended the ladder and pulled the offending object from his bed. It was a small green creature with a large blue eyes and a purple snout. "What – what is that?" Osamu demanded, still nursing a sore finger.

"He won't hurt you," his brother assured him, but the elder boy shook his head.

"Yeah right! He just bit me!"

"That's because you startled me," the creature replied. "I was in the middle of a nap." Osamu nearly fell off the bed.

"It talks?"

"Of course I talk," the strange creature answered, it's snout moving side to side as he spoke, as if it were really talking. "All digimon can. Well – most anyway."

"D-d-d-digimon?" Osamu repeated.

"It's okay, Osamu," Ken assured him. "Wormmon is my partner."

"P-p-p-partner?"

"Does he always talk like that?" the green creature questioned of Ken.

"No, it's just because he's scared," the boy replied.

"Why? There's nothing to be scared of."

"Well, he's never seen a digimon before," Ken reminded him. "Some people are quite scared when they first see a digimon. I've heard that Jyou ran around for quite some time, afraid of his own partner."

"Was he scary looking?"

"I don't think so. I think he was just afraid because he'd never seen him before."

The green creature looked slightly more assured now. Osamu gathered his courage and spoke. "Digimon – partner?" he repeated. "There are more of him?"

"There are hundreds – thousands of digimon," his brother replied. "Wormmon is only one type of digimon."

"Digimon," Osamu repeated.

"Digimon. Short for digital monsters," the creature identified as Wormmon explained. "Though I'm not sure I like the monster part. It sounds rather negative."

"I'll say," Osamu agreed. "Wait. I'm talking with you and you're here. Real."

Wormmon nodded, looking confused. "Yes."

"That means I'm not dreaming?"

"I woke you up ten minutes ago, Osamu," Ken reminded him.

Osamu rubbed his temples and sighed.

***

Standard notes: This is the sequel to my story "A Stranger Digiworld." If you haven't read that yet, it's advisable to do so. This one might stand on its own, but it probably won't. Read that one first. It's at:

http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=326235

If there's anything here that doesn't make sense to you – (like Osamu being alive in one world, and the skipping getting confusing)- my advice is…READ THE PREQUEL!

Some of the stuff in here is confusing, I'm trying to make it not. Hopefully it will make more sense now that they've switched. ^_^

sigh Sorry, everyone, if Osamu is written very out of character. It's kind of hard to write for a dead guy, but he has to go in here! Look for more dramatic stuff in the next part, when the visiting Chosen finally go after that evil person. Yeah, I know I said it would happen here, but I lied. You'll have to wait some more. ^_^