* * *

"So, Jonathan, why'd you back out?" asked Anne. "It's not like you to miss a battle."

He shrugged and said, "I dunno. I guess it just gets so…repetitive. I mean, we find a Digimon, Penmon Digivolves, we attack, it dies, Penmon absorbs its data, end of story. It gets kind of boring after a while."

Anne couldn't help but agree. It DID get sort of repetitive sometimes. "But," she thought as she saw Kamemon playing with Penmon, "at least Kamemon never gets boring." She then straightened up and said, "Oh, I don't think you know what you're missing, really…"

"What?" he said sharply. "What d'you mean by that?!"

"Maybe you'll just have to battle next time and find out for yourself." She often took great pleasure in teasing Jonathan.

"Oh…fine. I'll battle next time. Promise. Or my name's John Cleese."

"Well, who knows? Maybe you really are related to him." She couldn't help but grin at the look on his face and lay back down on the grass of St. James Park.

Jonathan was about to argue when something caught his eye. Penmon didn't look right. "Are you okay?" he called out to him. Penmon was looking at something in the sky. He then looked at Jonathan and said, "We shouldn't be here."

Anne looked skeptical but Kamemon had the same worried look. She started to say something but sighed and said, "Fine. See you later, Mr. Cleese."

"I AM NOT RELATED TO JOHN CLEESE!"

Anne lied on her bed, thinking. What was it that made Penmon act so strangely? And especially Kamemon. Something was up with the Digital World, she knew it. Come to think of it, the sky DID seem somewhat strange this morning…

"Kamemon?" she asked.

"What? Is something wrong?"

"No, not really… What did you see back at St. James Park?"

"I just didn't feel safe in that place. Like something was watching me, y'know? It was really weird."

"Oh, I see. Me and Jonathan were watching you, if that's what you meant—"

"No! I meant that something really, super, ultra-powerful was watching me! It was really intimidating, feeling like that, because when someone feels like that, something really, really bad happens to them!"

"But…what could possibly want to destroy you?"

Kamemon looked skywards again. "I don't know…but it definitely wants to destroy me."

* * *

Just seconds after she saw the blinking sign on the computer, a voice screamed in her head, "Get out of the way!" She didn't take time to ask why, but she heard a loud gunshot and something razed the spot where her head was moments before. It was time she shouldn't be here. She quickly glanced around and spotted someone in the stairway holding a smoking gun. She took her position on the floor as an advantage and ducked past whoever was in the stairwell—and painfully rolled down the stairs.

"GET BACK HERE!"

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. She had no time to think, she had to hurry, if she didn't hurry her head would get blown off, but she had to get the disk. Did she have the disk? Yes she had the disk. NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! Sooner or later, she was going to be shot, and if she was shot anywhere near her head, that would be bad—

A sudden pain streaked across her right arm as she heard another gunshot. Luckily, he only clipped her. She hissed in pain, but no more, for she had to stay ahead of him, no matter what. No doubt it was whoever owned the Threadfall program, which wasn't good, since he would be very mad, and she knew how mad some people could get, especially if something they owned was involved… Suddenly, there was a clicking noise. He'd finally run out of bullets! Now she might be able to get away safely…

"OH NO, YOU DON'T!"

She was wrong. With no other choice, the man discarded his gun and tackled her head on, sending both of them onto the floor and the disk flying. It was just a few inches away from a stairwell. She quickly reached for it, but the other guy got to it first… NO! She abruptly punched him hard in the chest, grabbed the disk, and suddenly they were both teetering on the edge of the stairwell. They both—painfully—tumbled down the stairs, sending the disk flying again to a safe landing at the bottom. She groaned in pain, but kicked him swiftly in the chest and yelled, "GET OFF!" Then she bolted away.

She started to take steps three, four at a time, anything to put enough distance between her and that other guy. He was not one to be toyed with, nosiree. At long last, she reached the doors, shoved them open, and nearly collapsed on the sidewalk. But she couldn't stay for long. She hadn't effectively knocked that person unconscious and she knew it. She breathlessly called for a taxi and hurriedly climbed into it when one came. "Take me to the nearest airport," she gasped. "Step on it!"

* * *

Anne woke with a start. The phone started ringing, right by her ear. She jumped up and glanced at the clock. 9:00 AM. She wearily picked up the receiver and answered, "Hullo?"

"Hey, Anne!" It was Jonathan. "Listen, sorry if I woke you up, but you HAVE to see this!"

"See what?" she replied. "And, yes, you did wake me up."

"Oh, just you wait, this is really weird! Just hurry up!" Click! He hung up. Anne stared at the phone for a few minutes and, groggily, got out of bed. After she got dressed, she found that Kamemon was already wide awake.

"Kamemon?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Could you PLEASE try to be more careful this time?"

"This time what?"

"I need a lift to Jonathan's house."

"Okey-doke!"

When they finally got there, Anne swore her stomach was somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. She HATED going through Bedford Street, but it was the quickest way to get to Jonathan's house without risking your life in the busy London traffic. "What is it this time?" she protested.

"Well, you know that 'activity log' sort of thing I showed you yesterday?"

"Yes," she said coldly, remembering the sick, twisted things these people had done. "How could I forget?"

"It has something very interesting in it. Or, at least, I think YOU'LL think so." She groaned as she leaned in to get a closer look."

26/09/01

Digital anomaly detected in building

Project Threadfall accessed

Intruder detected

Project Threadfall successfully downloaded; foreign object

Foreign object? This probably meant something like a disk, or something. She easily recognized the name Threadfall as the periodical event in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. But "Project Threadfall"? Was this some new device they would use to destroy Digimon? And then there was the Digimon in the building. How could that happen? But there was something below it that caught her eye…

*WARNING*

Project Threadfall has just been stolen. If you have seen or heard anything suspicious on the night of September 25, 2001, report to Yamaki immediately. Those who know anything about the crime and do not report it SHALL BE PROSECUTED.

That seemed harsh. Somebody broke into these guys' headquarters and apparently stole something very important. Was that good or bad? Good, because that meant they wouldn't be able to use it. Bad, because somebody else might improve it. Or, even worse, it could be whoever was trying to destroy Kamemon… She just stared and said, "Oh. CRAP."

"What?" said Jonathan suddenly. "What's wrong?"

"Somebody's trying to destroy Kamemon. Maybe, whoever stole it…"

"Oh, relax. Why would anybody want to destroy someone as innocent as him?"

"You have a point."

"As always. Who d'you think Yamaki is?"

"How should I know? Judging by what it says, he might as well be a secretary—"

Suddenly, the screen blacked out. Jonathan jumped up and said, "What?! What the frig is going on?!" But, just as suddenly as it turned off, it turned back on again. Only, there was nothing but white on the screen. "I don't like this, not one bit…" Then words started to slowly appear on the screen. Anne and Jonathan glanced at each other and read what it said.

You ignorant fools. You really think you could just prance around our files without a care in the world, without our suspecting it. You're dead wrong. I should have perfect reason to believe you're just children with no idea what you're getting into. These foul creatures you call 'Digimon' are no more than data that know nothing but death. Or maybe you're the disgusting thief who tried her bet to eliminate me. Whoever you are, this is a warning. Hypnos is not to be taken lightly. I am no different. I advise you give up before we are forced to take matters into our own hands.

"Hypnos is not to be taken lightly…" repeated Anne, breaking the silence.

Jonathan looked worried. "Do you think…"

"Nah," she said. "The original place was Japanese anyway, so they must be somewhere in Japan. How could anybody in Japan be a threat to us while we're in London?"

"That's not what I meant. D'you think they might be the ones who are trying to kill Kamemon?"

Then she remembered with a jolt the conversation she had with Kamemon last night. "No… It—it couldn't be…"

"Don't deny it, Anne! You know it very well could be!"

That was the last thing she needed to hear. As much as she thought Kamemon was an annoyance, she couldn't imagine life without him. "Er… I think I have to go now…"

Jonathan sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, but you have to face the truth. It's not like he's going to last forever. But I promise you, I'll do whatever it takes to save his life."

"Or your name's Michael Palin."

"Would you STOP that already?!"

* * *

What a horrid day. She leaned back in the chair, waiting for a flight to London, and reminisced what had happened in the last five hours. She didn't like that person. As frail as he looked, he certainly could pack a punch. She absently checked the bullet wound he'd been so thoughtful of to give her, which was nothing more than a small cut that could've easily passed for a papercut. She realized, with some pride, that no HUMAN would be able to do that. The natural healing abilities of her digital self immediately set to work to stop the bleeding and numb the pain mere seconds after the bullet clipped her. Right now, she couldn't feel anything.

It then occurred to her to contact the Master about this. But when she fumbled around for it, realization began to sink in as it hit her like a slap in the face.

She left the communicator by the computer in the building!