"So everything is saved and safe now right?" asked Chelsea.
"Yeah, Tyler, Scott, and 30 other personal finished the job late last night."
"That s good, now we just have to delete the virus right?"
"Yup, and Scott is working on that job. Meanwhile, Tyler is working off my laptop to download the rest of the files. Luckily the only people I had to give a vacation to was the records and game research technicians."
"Yeah, for awhile, I thought we for going to have to close down."
"Me too. But Scott is pretty sure he can contain the virus now that it can t attack our files anymore."
"But what if he can t?"
"Then we are going to have to replace all of our computers."
"We don t have that type of money."
"I know, I know. I tell you, this week has been nothing but a headache."
"There s the understatement of the century. But maybe everything will be better now."
"I hope so. Unfortunately, everything won t be okay. Not until this hacker digimon is caught and my secret will be safe again. Only then will everything be fine again."
"LAURA! COME QUICK!"
"Oh great. I wonder what is wrong now." Laura shouted as she ran down the hallway. "Tyler what s wrong?"
"Virus, now on your computer. Mutated again."
"What? Start making some sense before I have to hit you."
"The virus has changed again. Now it is on your laptop as well. But not only that, it is now eating everything on hard drives, rending them totally helpless. We have to replace every computer, unless we stop this virus soon. We already have to replace 50 computers."
"How the hell is this virus doing this? Excuse the language."
"Not worry about it. I know the feeling. Want to know the sad thing? We can t trace this bug. We don t know how it got on our computers or who planted it."
"Great, just fabulous. Can anything else go wrong? Just then, Lucky s cell phone rang."
"Hello, Laura speaking."
"Laura Li. I finally get to speak to you in person. Are you treating my pet well?"
"You. Why are you doing this to me? Laura said, walking out of the room so Tyler wouldn't hear the conversation."
"That s an easy question. You need punished for your crimes."
"And you re the person to give it too me?"
"Of course. I know all about you. Who would be better suited than me?"
"You know all about me huh? Try me."
The voice laughed. "Easy. You were born Laura Angela Li on May 11, 1987. You are DigiDestined. The bearer of the Crest of Unity. You and three other kids by the names of Brian, Christina, and Alex tried to defend the DigiWorld, but failed miserably. Years later, you along with the new DigiTeams successful captured a enemy that you let escape years before. Well, you thought you beat. After calling upon your abilities, you collapsed. You fought the Elders to live. They allowed you. Afterwards you started dating Matt, the bearer of the crest of Friendship. You two meet everyday at the Rose café. Need I go on?"
Laura was silent. 'It knows my whole life. Including more recent details.' Then something dawn on her. "Are you following me?"
"Of course. I must make sure you don t hurt any other people."
"I didn't hurt anyone."
"But you did. You killed your family. You allowed them to die. You need to be punished, severely."
"I won t let you win."
"You have no control. I am in charge. Which brings me to why I called."
"What harassing me wasn't your main reason?" Laura said sarcastically.
"No, that was an add bonus. I have a demand."
"What makes you so sure that I will do it?"
"You will. I wanted you to close Jenson Electronics. Permanently."
"What? No. Never."
"Why should you be allowed to live comfortable when the ones you hurt are still trying to recover. Close the business."
"What about the people I employ? It will hurt them if I close the shop."
"They have enough money to survive. Shut down or face the consequences."
"Never. Do you hear me? I will never close."
"I guess I have to show you how serious that I am. Don t say that I didn't warn you."
The call ended there. Laura clicked off her phone. "Oh man. What did I do now?"
************************************************************************
"So Lucky, what did you want to see all of us about?" asked Joe.
"How can I explain all of this? Okay, let me say this first, did you hear what happened at Jenson's today?"
Everyone shook there heads no.
"Well, they have a new problem. The virus changed again. It is now attacking their hard drive. They already have to replace 50 computers."
"What? Man, this digimon is playing some serious hard ball." commented Davis.
"How did you find all of this out Laura? Cody asked."
"I am going to explain that now. Before she could say another word, her phone rang. "Hold on a second everyone."
At the same time, another voice rang out. "MATT!"
"Hide me quick gang, it s Jun!"
Lucky gave a quick laugh and grabbed Matt s hand. No way was she going to let Jun think she could have Matt. "Hello?"
"Don t tell them the truth if you know what is good for you Laura Li."
The call ended there. Lucky hung up the phone in fear. The person was following her. It knew that she was going to tell the truth. She couldn't tell the gang now. How was she going to get out of this?
"Hi Matt. Davis told me that he was meeting people here. I figured that you would be here as well." Jun stated.
If looks could kill, Davis would have been dead.
"Yeah well, we all had something to discuss, PRIVATELY." Matt said, stressing the private part.
"Oh that s okay. I can keep a secret."
'Man is she dense.' thought Lucky.
"Who are you?" Jun asked staring at Laura.
"That s Laura, Matt s girlfriend Jun". Davis told her.
"Matt s girlfriend? I thought I was your girlfriend Matt."
"Ah…"
'Thank you Jun, you just solved my problem.' "So you're the Jun that Matt has been telling me all about. I have heard so much about you."
Matt gave Laura a curious glance. 'Trust me here Matt.'
"Matt has talked about me?"
"Non stop. I can t believe he s never told you. I must tell you everything. Come on, lets go to dinner and I'll tell you everything he s ever told me."
"Okay sure. Are you really his girlfriend?"
"Um," she glanced at the gang for help.
"She is my friend who is a girl. You know your brother confuses everything up."
"That's true. Come on Laura. Let's go."
Tai watched as the two walked off. "Did anyone else notice Lucky's attitude change?"
"Yeah, she had something really important to tell us about Jenson s and then she leaves." said Kari.
" It was that phone call she got. After it, she was a totally different person." observed TK.
"I wonder why she changed her mind. I would give anything to know what the caller told her. I mean, Lucky didn't even say anything except hello." Yolei explained.
"What is she so scared of though? The call couldn't have lasted more than a minute. What is she hiding that is so dangerous?" Matt asked.
"I don t know. But we have more important matters to attend too, like finding this digimon who planted that virus." Izzy explicated.
"How do we do that? "
"Well Cody, I was thinking that if I could get a look at that virus, then I might be able to trace it back to who sent it."
"Oh great idea Izzy. But one small problem. How do you plan on see that virus? Walk into Jenson s and say Hi my name is Izzy and I think your virus originated from the Digital World. May I check?" Tai said sarcastically.
"Well, I hadn't thought of that solution yet."
"Unfortunately, we don t have much time to consider a great solution. Jenson's is suffering and this virus could spread. We need to stop it soon, before it can do any more damage." said Joe.
"I'm just wondering something though. Why is this virus only affecting Jenson's? Why not other businesses? And how does all of this fit in with Lucky s sudden mood changes?" asked Ken.
Matt sighed. "I think you just asked the questions of the year Ken."
************************************************************************
At 9:30, the gang left for home. The meeting was a big disappointed. They left with more questions than answers. Matt could not shake the feeling that Laura held most of the answers. 'What is hiding from us now? Why won t she tell us?' Matt let out a frustrated sigh. Never had life been so complicated. Well, maybe during the Dark Master saga or Lady Myotismon ordeal. Okay, his whole life was complicated, even before he knew that DigiWorld existed. He need an aspirin. He also needed to talk to Lucky and find out why so split so quickly from the Rose Café. The past three days Laura had not been herself. '3 days? That is when all of Jenson s problems started. Now I know that Lucky is connected to Jenson's. But how though?'
A cold breeze swept down the street. Matt pulled his coat closer to him. Night had fallen on the city. 'Why must it get colder at night?' As if to make Matt even madder, it began to snow. Matt had to smile though. He remembered how Lucky said once that she loved the snow and winter. It was her favorite season.
Matt continued his walk home. He turned onto a dimly light road. He never did like walking on this road. To make matters worse, he could not shake the feeling that he was being followed. 'Man Matt, you need to calm down.' Still, Matt s pace continued to increase.
CRUNCH
Matt whipped around. No one else was on the street with him. 'You are so paranoid.' He turned back around and starting walking again.
'Run.'
Matt couldn't believe how nervous he was.
'Run.'
'Shut up subconscious. Everything is fine. We've walked this road hundreds of times. We'll be okay.'
Suddenly, a hand clamp onto Matt s mouth, while an arm pulled him against his attacker. Matt struggled with all his might, but found that he could not move. His attacker was too strong. Matt found himself being pulled into a back alley. 'God, please don t let me die here tonight.'
The figure forced Matt into the very back of the alley. It was a dead end. As soon as the two were in the back, the assailant slammed Matt s head into the wall. Matt let out a scream and crumpled to the ground. His head swam, but he knew that he couldn't pass out. Who knows what would happen if he did.
"Why are you doing this to me?" slurred Matt.
The figure didn't answer, but rather kicked Matt in the ribs.
'Okay note to self, don t ask questions.' he thought, gasping for air. It was becoming difficult to breath.
Matt didn't even see the second kick coming at him. This one connected with his head again. Before Matt could react, he felt his attacker slugging him in the face, stomach, and chest. It was becoming harder and harder to stay awake against the brutal assault.
Suddenly, the beating stopped. 'Thank god. He let me live.' Matt thought. Then he heard the figure laugh. Painfully, Matt turned his head to the side. He saw his attacker reach into his cape and pull out shiny object. A knife. Matt tried desperately to move away from his kidnapper. He couldn't move. It hurt too much. The figure straddled Matt s body, placing the knife a crossed his throat. Matt closed his eyes and prayed that this would all be over soon. 'Mom, Dad, TK, Laura, I love all of you.' Matt felt the knife being pushed slowly into his skin. Matt could feel the sticky warm liquid run down his neck. The figure leaned down next to Matt s ear. "Tell Laura she should have obeyed."
Matt opened his eyes and stared at the caped figure in shock. The aggressor got up and kicked Matt one last time in the head and fled. As soon as he was gone, Matt slowly stood up. Everything started spinning and he was having difficulty walking. After taking to two steps, Matt fell to the ground. 'I can t do this. Lucky.' Unable to maintain consciousness, Matt s world blackened and the white snow around him slowly turned dark red.
"Yeah, Tyler, Scott, and 30 other personal finished the job late last night."
"That s good, now we just have to delete the virus right?"
"Yup, and Scott is working on that job. Meanwhile, Tyler is working off my laptop to download the rest of the files. Luckily the only people I had to give a vacation to was the records and game research technicians."
"Yeah, for awhile, I thought we for going to have to close down."
"Me too. But Scott is pretty sure he can contain the virus now that it can t attack our files anymore."
"But what if he can t?"
"Then we are going to have to replace all of our computers."
"We don t have that type of money."
"I know, I know. I tell you, this week has been nothing but a headache."
"There s the understatement of the century. But maybe everything will be better now."
"I hope so. Unfortunately, everything won t be okay. Not until this hacker digimon is caught and my secret will be safe again. Only then will everything be fine again."
"LAURA! COME QUICK!"
"Oh great. I wonder what is wrong now." Laura shouted as she ran down the hallway. "Tyler what s wrong?"
"Virus, now on your computer. Mutated again."
"What? Start making some sense before I have to hit you."
"The virus has changed again. Now it is on your laptop as well. But not only that, it is now eating everything on hard drives, rending them totally helpless. We have to replace every computer, unless we stop this virus soon. We already have to replace 50 computers."
"How the hell is this virus doing this? Excuse the language."
"Not worry about it. I know the feeling. Want to know the sad thing? We can t trace this bug. We don t know how it got on our computers or who planted it."
"Great, just fabulous. Can anything else go wrong? Just then, Lucky s cell phone rang."
"Hello, Laura speaking."
"Laura Li. I finally get to speak to you in person. Are you treating my pet well?"
"You. Why are you doing this to me? Laura said, walking out of the room so Tyler wouldn't hear the conversation."
"That s an easy question. You need punished for your crimes."
"And you re the person to give it too me?"
"Of course. I know all about you. Who would be better suited than me?"
"You know all about me huh? Try me."
The voice laughed. "Easy. You were born Laura Angela Li on May 11, 1987. You are DigiDestined. The bearer of the Crest of Unity. You and three other kids by the names of Brian, Christina, and Alex tried to defend the DigiWorld, but failed miserably. Years later, you along with the new DigiTeams successful captured a enemy that you let escape years before. Well, you thought you beat. After calling upon your abilities, you collapsed. You fought the Elders to live. They allowed you. Afterwards you started dating Matt, the bearer of the crest of Friendship. You two meet everyday at the Rose café. Need I go on?"
Laura was silent. 'It knows my whole life. Including more recent details.' Then something dawn on her. "Are you following me?"
"Of course. I must make sure you don t hurt any other people."
"I didn't hurt anyone."
"But you did. You killed your family. You allowed them to die. You need to be punished, severely."
"I won t let you win."
"You have no control. I am in charge. Which brings me to why I called."
"What harassing me wasn't your main reason?" Laura said sarcastically.
"No, that was an add bonus. I have a demand."
"What makes you so sure that I will do it?"
"You will. I wanted you to close Jenson Electronics. Permanently."
"What? No. Never."
"Why should you be allowed to live comfortable when the ones you hurt are still trying to recover. Close the business."
"What about the people I employ? It will hurt them if I close the shop."
"They have enough money to survive. Shut down or face the consequences."
"Never. Do you hear me? I will never close."
"I guess I have to show you how serious that I am. Don t say that I didn't warn you."
The call ended there. Laura clicked off her phone. "Oh man. What did I do now?"
************************************************************************
"So Lucky, what did you want to see all of us about?" asked Joe.
"How can I explain all of this? Okay, let me say this first, did you hear what happened at Jenson's today?"
Everyone shook there heads no.
"Well, they have a new problem. The virus changed again. It is now attacking their hard drive. They already have to replace 50 computers."
"What? Man, this digimon is playing some serious hard ball." commented Davis.
"How did you find all of this out Laura? Cody asked."
"I am going to explain that now. Before she could say another word, her phone rang. "Hold on a second everyone."
At the same time, another voice rang out. "MATT!"
"Hide me quick gang, it s Jun!"
Lucky gave a quick laugh and grabbed Matt s hand. No way was she going to let Jun think she could have Matt. "Hello?"
"Don t tell them the truth if you know what is good for you Laura Li."
The call ended there. Lucky hung up the phone in fear. The person was following her. It knew that she was going to tell the truth. She couldn't tell the gang now. How was she going to get out of this?
"Hi Matt. Davis told me that he was meeting people here. I figured that you would be here as well." Jun stated.
If looks could kill, Davis would have been dead.
"Yeah well, we all had something to discuss, PRIVATELY." Matt said, stressing the private part.
"Oh that s okay. I can keep a secret."
'Man is she dense.' thought Lucky.
"Who are you?" Jun asked staring at Laura.
"That s Laura, Matt s girlfriend Jun". Davis told her.
"Matt s girlfriend? I thought I was your girlfriend Matt."
"Ah…"
'Thank you Jun, you just solved my problem.' "So you're the Jun that Matt has been telling me all about. I have heard so much about you."
Matt gave Laura a curious glance. 'Trust me here Matt.'
"Matt has talked about me?"
"Non stop. I can t believe he s never told you. I must tell you everything. Come on, lets go to dinner and I'll tell you everything he s ever told me."
"Okay sure. Are you really his girlfriend?"
"Um," she glanced at the gang for help.
"She is my friend who is a girl. You know your brother confuses everything up."
"That's true. Come on Laura. Let's go."
Tai watched as the two walked off. "Did anyone else notice Lucky's attitude change?"
"Yeah, she had something really important to tell us about Jenson s and then she leaves." said Kari.
" It was that phone call she got. After it, she was a totally different person." observed TK.
"I wonder why she changed her mind. I would give anything to know what the caller told her. I mean, Lucky didn't even say anything except hello." Yolei explained.
"What is she so scared of though? The call couldn't have lasted more than a minute. What is she hiding that is so dangerous?" Matt asked.
"I don t know. But we have more important matters to attend too, like finding this digimon who planted that virus." Izzy explicated.
"How do we do that? "
"Well Cody, I was thinking that if I could get a look at that virus, then I might be able to trace it back to who sent it."
"Oh great idea Izzy. But one small problem. How do you plan on see that virus? Walk into Jenson s and say Hi my name is Izzy and I think your virus originated from the Digital World. May I check?" Tai said sarcastically.
"Well, I hadn't thought of that solution yet."
"Unfortunately, we don t have much time to consider a great solution. Jenson's is suffering and this virus could spread. We need to stop it soon, before it can do any more damage." said Joe.
"I'm just wondering something though. Why is this virus only affecting Jenson's? Why not other businesses? And how does all of this fit in with Lucky s sudden mood changes?" asked Ken.
Matt sighed. "I think you just asked the questions of the year Ken."
************************************************************************
At 9:30, the gang left for home. The meeting was a big disappointed. They left with more questions than answers. Matt could not shake the feeling that Laura held most of the answers. 'What is hiding from us now? Why won t she tell us?' Matt let out a frustrated sigh. Never had life been so complicated. Well, maybe during the Dark Master saga or Lady Myotismon ordeal. Okay, his whole life was complicated, even before he knew that DigiWorld existed. He need an aspirin. He also needed to talk to Lucky and find out why so split so quickly from the Rose Café. The past three days Laura had not been herself. '3 days? That is when all of Jenson s problems started. Now I know that Lucky is connected to Jenson's. But how though?'
A cold breeze swept down the street. Matt pulled his coat closer to him. Night had fallen on the city. 'Why must it get colder at night?' As if to make Matt even madder, it began to snow. Matt had to smile though. He remembered how Lucky said once that she loved the snow and winter. It was her favorite season.
Matt continued his walk home. He turned onto a dimly light road. He never did like walking on this road. To make matters worse, he could not shake the feeling that he was being followed. 'Man Matt, you need to calm down.' Still, Matt s pace continued to increase.
CRUNCH
Matt whipped around. No one else was on the street with him. 'You are so paranoid.' He turned back around and starting walking again.
'Run.'
Matt couldn't believe how nervous he was.
'Run.'
'Shut up subconscious. Everything is fine. We've walked this road hundreds of times. We'll be okay.'
Suddenly, a hand clamp onto Matt s mouth, while an arm pulled him against his attacker. Matt struggled with all his might, but found that he could not move. His attacker was too strong. Matt found himself being pulled into a back alley. 'God, please don t let me die here tonight.'
The figure forced Matt into the very back of the alley. It was a dead end. As soon as the two were in the back, the assailant slammed Matt s head into the wall. Matt let out a scream and crumpled to the ground. His head swam, but he knew that he couldn't pass out. Who knows what would happen if he did.
"Why are you doing this to me?" slurred Matt.
The figure didn't answer, but rather kicked Matt in the ribs.
'Okay note to self, don t ask questions.' he thought, gasping for air. It was becoming difficult to breath.
Matt didn't even see the second kick coming at him. This one connected with his head again. Before Matt could react, he felt his attacker slugging him in the face, stomach, and chest. It was becoming harder and harder to stay awake against the brutal assault.
Suddenly, the beating stopped. 'Thank god. He let me live.' Matt thought. Then he heard the figure laugh. Painfully, Matt turned his head to the side. He saw his attacker reach into his cape and pull out shiny object. A knife. Matt tried desperately to move away from his kidnapper. He couldn't move. It hurt too much. The figure straddled Matt s body, placing the knife a crossed his throat. Matt closed his eyes and prayed that this would all be over soon. 'Mom, Dad, TK, Laura, I love all of you.' Matt felt the knife being pushed slowly into his skin. Matt could feel the sticky warm liquid run down his neck. The figure leaned down next to Matt s ear. "Tell Laura she should have obeyed."
Matt opened his eyes and stared at the caped figure in shock. The aggressor got up and kicked Matt one last time in the head and fled. As soon as he was gone, Matt slowly stood up. Everything started spinning and he was having difficulty walking. After taking to two steps, Matt fell to the ground. 'I can t do this. Lucky.' Unable to maintain consciousness, Matt s world blackened and the white snow around him slowly turned dark red.