Twin Times.
Chaper two.
===
Rika woke up back in her bed.
What? I don't remember going back upstairs...fact, I don't remember much after...
A chill went down her spine as the image of the girl from the show presented itself in her mind.
Her head snapped towards the dresser next to her bed. She got out slowly and looked in the mirror caustiously.
Staring back was the face she had know for most of her life, as her own face. Now she also recognized the face as the girl from her favorite tv show. She gently stroked her hair, and pondered. That was the freakiest scare she had ever had in her life. discovering that there's a character out there which had her face, her voice, even her name. And it scared her more that she was cold to the core.
She shook her head. I know she's just a tv character, but still...does that make me a character too? It's too freaky...
She looked back in the mirrior, and cursed her purple eyes.
Looking towards her clock, she saw that it was nearly 12 in the afternoon. She had been out for most of the day. Her father must have carried her up here, after she had fainted in the chair.
Dang, I don't have much time! Brian and Tim are expecting me in half an hour!
===
Downstairs, Mr. and Mrs Burnes sighed with relief as Rika bounded downstairs for lunch. However, she ate quitely, a lot more than usuall.
"Rika..."
The girl started, but turned towards her dad. "Don't take it so roughly. She's just a picture on a screen. Plus, Knowing shows, she'll warm up as the season goes along..."
Rika smiled a little bit, and said "Thanks Dad." She quicky gulped down the rest of her sandwich, and bolted out the door. "I'm late for my play, see you in a bit!" she called behind her.
===
Running down the street, Rika Burnes wears her normal attire. A mango-colored button-up long-sleeved shirt, and tan khaiki shorts, followed by yellow sneakers, and a blue backback. Her hair is always loose, nothing tying it down. She nears the parkway where she and her guy-friends meet.
Every weekend, they would get together in the grass-covered ally to trade and play the Digi-battle game. Brian was usually the winner, but both Rika and Tim have had their winning streaks. She had never been able to beat the both of them in one meeting though.
"Hey! Over here!"
She located her friends and ran to join them. Brian Summers looked up from his hand and waved.
Spiky haired, he resembled a little bit like Kazu from the show. What surprised was that this time, he was wearing a green visor, exactly like Kazu's. He's taking this differently, she thought. Then again, Kazu's not cold and heartless...
She sat down between them, they were dueling at the moment. There was no telling what eithier one would pull on the other, but she never got tired of watching them. For a brief moment, she forgot about her predicament...
Tim looked up. "Hey Rika, how's the 'Digimon Queen' today?"
She instantly hid her face and muffled a gasp.
Tim saw this and instantly regretted his action. He had black hair, which had a bit of a red tint, and was wavy and long. Right now, it broke him up to see he'd made Rika uncomfortrable.
Brian watched the whole scene through his blue eyes intently. Then he leaned back a bit before speaking.
"I thought you had taken it differently, but I see..."
She looked up at him. "Does Kazu have your eyes? Your Voice? Your NAMe?? Yeah, there's the hair, but I've got the whole nine yards. And she's...she's..." she just about broke down.
Tim's brown irises contracted with worry, and leaned over to comfort Rika. He had always been the supporting arm for the group, and went out of his way to help people.
Brian was a bit taken aback. He'd seen Kazu, and thought he was cool. then came the revealation of the character Rika, and he'd made the connection. He had no idea this would be her reaction though...
"I'm fine, I think. I just need to clear my head." She looked towards the playing mat. "And I don't want to interrupt the battle."
The boys gave condoleances, and resumed the play. Rika watched with interest, as always.
I play the card game, that's for sure, but I don't think I'd be able to win a city tournament.
She took out her deck and started sorting through it, seeing her meager selection. No way I could.
"Gotcha!"
"Aww, where'd you get that Power Charger card?"
Brian held up the power option. "Boosts up 80 when in champion, coupled with Stingmon...let's just say your Ogremon never had a chance."
"Rika, you up for trade?"
Trading was one of the other things they did. The boys both had easy access to the card stores, but Rika was always low on money, buying a new shirt or top at every turn. Therefore, the boys had agreed to giving extras to the girl, whenever they found them.
"You'll like this." Brian laughed, holdening up an armored digimon card. "Rhinomon, comes from Patamon, plus egg of miracles."
Rika took the card, while Tim gave out a whole deck's worth of cards. "I won an auction online for a booster box of these cards. I've got all but one card of Booster series 3. These are the extras."
Both Rika and Brian oogled at the pile. "Umm, Rika, should you have any extras of those extras of cards I need, would you give to me?"
She chuckled, "Of course!"
She looked through the pile of cards, and found ones that she even traded out, right then and there, in her deck.
Then she came across...
She squeaked a bit, and held the card away from her.
Brian and Tim looked it over. "Bo-169...Tim, I thought you said that was a series THree booster box you got."
The other boy shrugged. "All the packages were the same. This may have been a slip-up." Then he smiled. "But seeing how serendipidous this is, I'll let you keep it Rika."
She looked at the card again. I'm not sure I even Want to keep it...still, it's a card I don't have.
Trading out Gabumon from her deck, she inserted the Renamon card in it's place...
===
Up against Tim first, Rika played with half her mind on the game. The other half was thinking about the character problem...
How did they come up with that? She looks and sounds just like me. Yet, she's my...complete oppisite. Dad may be right, and she'll soften up. But what about in the meantime? She seems like an evil twin, if she were real...
that's another thing that's scaring me. She's so much like me, yet she's not real. What does that make me? An imaginary form? Am 'I' real?...
And the worst thing, although she may turn to be like me in the future...what if I start becoming like her? It doesn't seem...
"RIKA!"
She snapped out of her trance, and saw Tim sitting in front of the mat, fuming. She thought she hadn't done her turn, but when she looked down at the mat she saw that the battle was over...
Unconciously, she had won. 1000 to 0.
She glanced at the card she used. It was the Kongoumon card, the one where when you offlined a digimon card, it's power was increased by 50. She saw she had very few cards left online...
Oh my gosh...
"Wow, never seen you accomplish those statistics before Rika. Never giving your opponent a chance." Brian stopped his commentary and stepped up to the board, while Tim got out of the way.
"Now let's see you try against me."
She smiled a bit. Brian was the toughest one to beat, but she had her victories now and then. They were always close-calls though.
Tim gathering up, the two started their match.
===
How did THat happen?
She was downright startled that she had won so cleanly and flawlessly. A perfect score. She wasn't even paying attention.
Oh, movie Lopmon eh? Wendigo can't be far behind, better play out Kabuteri...
She was paying more attention this time, seeing what she did. She didn't want to blank out.
The Rika in the show was a digibattle master. She didn't lose to anybody, I bet she could have won against Brian in her sleep.
He's deploying that power charger. Ready the black gears...
But I'm not anywhere that good. How did I win like that?...
I don't think I could tap into the powers of the tv world, suddenly learning skills and tatics, and personalites...She shuddered. That would be downright freaky...
Dang, he digivolved again. Movie Antylamon. Aha, here's MegaKabuteri...
Now, what do I know about that girl? Other than her being a genius and an Ice cube. She wears Very boyish cloting, and seems to wander around a lot. I haven't seen her house or her family yet...maybe there's stuff online by now. I can be well off that net strike now, I wanna find out as much as I can about the show now. Especially Henry and Terriermon...
Rika gave a giggle and blushed. Brian looked up in confusion, and seeing the 'vacant' sign in her eyes, decided against asking. He layed down his next card.
Control Spire. Don't have that one yet. And my deck's down to zero.
She took off all her cards, reshuffled them, and set them back down...she then saw an advantage...
She traded out her rookie, plus put down a crest tag, and the Crest of Friendship. Just for safety, she added her Flyaway card to the mix.
At any rate, it just doesn't make any sense. There's no way I could have thought to use that Kongoumon card to my advantage. It'd be rare that I'd get it anyways, all I have is the D-terminal...
"Rika..."
And even then, Kongoumon could have been beaten. Was I able to think ahead?
"Rika?..."
And all in all, I can't remember what happened in there. Did I cheat? No, if I had, the boys would have caught me. Besides, I don't Think I would cheat...
"Misus Rika...I can't think of the right last name, but will you please check your score?"
"Huh? Oh, sure." She snapped out of thoughtsville for the moment and looked at the mat. She had used the yellow rookie card against the Green ultimate, thus garning her 300 on top of her 600. Then there was the crest and tag she had used to get her an extra 100. summing it all up...
Reality slapped her like a wet mackeral.
She had 1000 points. And her eyes went slowly toward's Brian's counter. It read 0.
Brian however, was grinning like a complete goof. "Congrats! Another clean and leagal victory!"
She replayed the battle in her head. Yes, everything she had done was by the rules, so...
Then she glanced at the card in her battle zone...it was her newly accquired Renamon card...
She gasped. Her face was a mask of fear...
"Guys...I just won, 1000 to zero, against the both of you, at one time...."
She let this sink in for a moment, before speaking again, her voice cracking. "I've never done that before!"
The boys looked at each other, also with concerned looks on thier faces. "That IS very odd."
"Maybe you're becoming a bit more like..."
"The Digimon queen??" Rika almost shrieked. "You Think I'm actully becoming the Digimon queen??..."
"Ummm..." Tim was at a loss for words.
"I'm sorry...Rika. We can't really see it from your point of view...because neithier of us are in your situation...We'd like to try and help though...if we can..."
She hardly heard the brown-haired boy. Her mind was racing with new thoughts. What if the character Rika was a side of her, personified? If so, what side was it? Did seeing her on the tv, awaken the side withen herself?...so many thoeries at once, her mind was cluttered, and her pulse raced.
"She's taking it rather too seriously, don't you think?" Tim aked his friend.
"I dunno. If she thinks she saw a new side of herself, and it just showed through right now in her gameplay, I think she's pretty justfied in being freaked. After all, all the world's a stage and all that. It's just a part that was unexpected..."
Tim looked at him oddly. "Since when did you start reciting Shakesperhe?"
"That was Shakeshpere?"
"Guys,"
The two boys looked up.
Looking rather frazzled, Rika gathered up her cards, almost afraid to touch the Renamon card, but putting it up anyway. "I think I shouldn't play from now on."
"What?? But Rika..."
"I'm not sure what happened, but I think I DId turn into the character...It sounds silly, I know, but I can't shake the feeling...what if this happened when I Wasn't playing?..."
"Rika, calm down..." Brian put a hand on her shoulder...
She whirled around. "I told you, I'm not playing it anymore! I'm going to try all I can, to keep my self together! I don't need your help!" she snapped.
Tim and Brian backed up a coulple of steps.
The cold detirmination stayed in her violet eyes for a split-second, then melted away with fresh shock.
"I...I just snapped at you, didn't I?..."
Brian nodded. "And if I remember, you've done so before at me, eariler today. Although it wasn't as intense as you were just now..."
Tears started brimming her eyes. "You see?! It's already starting!" She turned away and simply said "I'll talk to you tomorrow...maybe..."
Then she ran off.
The two remaining children stood in silence for a bit, then Tim spoke up.
"She's like Rika in body, but I can see who she's the most like in the show in personalty."
"Oh? And who would that be?"
"Jeri, she's a whole lot like Jeri would be, trapped in Rika's body..."
===
Chaper two.
===
Rika woke up back in her bed.
What? I don't remember going back upstairs...fact, I don't remember much after...
A chill went down her spine as the image of the girl from the show presented itself in her mind.
Her head snapped towards the dresser next to her bed. She got out slowly and looked in the mirror caustiously.
Staring back was the face she had know for most of her life, as her own face. Now she also recognized the face as the girl from her favorite tv show. She gently stroked her hair, and pondered. That was the freakiest scare she had ever had in her life. discovering that there's a character out there which had her face, her voice, even her name. And it scared her more that she was cold to the core.
She shook her head. I know she's just a tv character, but still...does that make me a character too? It's too freaky...
She looked back in the mirrior, and cursed her purple eyes.
Looking towards her clock, she saw that it was nearly 12 in the afternoon. She had been out for most of the day. Her father must have carried her up here, after she had fainted in the chair.
Dang, I don't have much time! Brian and Tim are expecting me in half an hour!
===
Downstairs, Mr. and Mrs Burnes sighed with relief as Rika bounded downstairs for lunch. However, she ate quitely, a lot more than usuall.
"Rika..."
The girl started, but turned towards her dad. "Don't take it so roughly. She's just a picture on a screen. Plus, Knowing shows, she'll warm up as the season goes along..."
Rika smiled a little bit, and said "Thanks Dad." She quicky gulped down the rest of her sandwich, and bolted out the door. "I'm late for my play, see you in a bit!" she called behind her.
===
Running down the street, Rika Burnes wears her normal attire. A mango-colored button-up long-sleeved shirt, and tan khaiki shorts, followed by yellow sneakers, and a blue backback. Her hair is always loose, nothing tying it down. She nears the parkway where she and her guy-friends meet.
Every weekend, they would get together in the grass-covered ally to trade and play the Digi-battle game. Brian was usually the winner, but both Rika and Tim have had their winning streaks. She had never been able to beat the both of them in one meeting though.
"Hey! Over here!"
She located her friends and ran to join them. Brian Summers looked up from his hand and waved.
Spiky haired, he resembled a little bit like Kazu from the show. What surprised was that this time, he was wearing a green visor, exactly like Kazu's. He's taking this differently, she thought. Then again, Kazu's not cold and heartless...
She sat down between them, they were dueling at the moment. There was no telling what eithier one would pull on the other, but she never got tired of watching them. For a brief moment, she forgot about her predicament...
Tim looked up. "Hey Rika, how's the 'Digimon Queen' today?"
She instantly hid her face and muffled a gasp.
Tim saw this and instantly regretted his action. He had black hair, which had a bit of a red tint, and was wavy and long. Right now, it broke him up to see he'd made Rika uncomfortrable.
Brian watched the whole scene through his blue eyes intently. Then he leaned back a bit before speaking.
"I thought you had taken it differently, but I see..."
She looked up at him. "Does Kazu have your eyes? Your Voice? Your NAMe?? Yeah, there's the hair, but I've got the whole nine yards. And she's...she's..." she just about broke down.
Tim's brown irises contracted with worry, and leaned over to comfort Rika. He had always been the supporting arm for the group, and went out of his way to help people.
Brian was a bit taken aback. He'd seen Kazu, and thought he was cool. then came the revealation of the character Rika, and he'd made the connection. He had no idea this would be her reaction though...
"I'm fine, I think. I just need to clear my head." She looked towards the playing mat. "And I don't want to interrupt the battle."
The boys gave condoleances, and resumed the play. Rika watched with interest, as always.
I play the card game, that's for sure, but I don't think I'd be able to win a city tournament.
She took out her deck and started sorting through it, seeing her meager selection. No way I could.
"Gotcha!"
"Aww, where'd you get that Power Charger card?"
Brian held up the power option. "Boosts up 80 when in champion, coupled with Stingmon...let's just say your Ogremon never had a chance."
"Rika, you up for trade?"
Trading was one of the other things they did. The boys both had easy access to the card stores, but Rika was always low on money, buying a new shirt or top at every turn. Therefore, the boys had agreed to giving extras to the girl, whenever they found them.
"You'll like this." Brian laughed, holdening up an armored digimon card. "Rhinomon, comes from Patamon, plus egg of miracles."
Rika took the card, while Tim gave out a whole deck's worth of cards. "I won an auction online for a booster box of these cards. I've got all but one card of Booster series 3. These are the extras."
Both Rika and Brian oogled at the pile. "Umm, Rika, should you have any extras of those extras of cards I need, would you give to me?"
She chuckled, "Of course!"
She looked through the pile of cards, and found ones that she even traded out, right then and there, in her deck.
Then she came across...
She squeaked a bit, and held the card away from her.
Brian and Tim looked it over. "Bo-169...Tim, I thought you said that was a series THree booster box you got."
The other boy shrugged. "All the packages were the same. This may have been a slip-up." Then he smiled. "But seeing how serendipidous this is, I'll let you keep it Rika."
She looked at the card again. I'm not sure I even Want to keep it...still, it's a card I don't have.
Trading out Gabumon from her deck, she inserted the Renamon card in it's place...
===
Up against Tim first, Rika played with half her mind on the game. The other half was thinking about the character problem...
How did they come up with that? She looks and sounds just like me. Yet, she's my...complete oppisite. Dad may be right, and she'll soften up. But what about in the meantime? She seems like an evil twin, if she were real...
that's another thing that's scaring me. She's so much like me, yet she's not real. What does that make me? An imaginary form? Am 'I' real?...
And the worst thing, although she may turn to be like me in the future...what if I start becoming like her? It doesn't seem...
"RIKA!"
She snapped out of her trance, and saw Tim sitting in front of the mat, fuming. She thought she hadn't done her turn, but when she looked down at the mat she saw that the battle was over...
Unconciously, she had won. 1000 to 0.
She glanced at the card she used. It was the Kongoumon card, the one where when you offlined a digimon card, it's power was increased by 50. She saw she had very few cards left online...
Oh my gosh...
"Wow, never seen you accomplish those statistics before Rika. Never giving your opponent a chance." Brian stopped his commentary and stepped up to the board, while Tim got out of the way.
"Now let's see you try against me."
She smiled a bit. Brian was the toughest one to beat, but she had her victories now and then. They were always close-calls though.
Tim gathering up, the two started their match.
===
How did THat happen?
She was downright startled that she had won so cleanly and flawlessly. A perfect score. She wasn't even paying attention.
Oh, movie Lopmon eh? Wendigo can't be far behind, better play out Kabuteri...
She was paying more attention this time, seeing what she did. She didn't want to blank out.
The Rika in the show was a digibattle master. She didn't lose to anybody, I bet she could have won against Brian in her sleep.
He's deploying that power charger. Ready the black gears...
But I'm not anywhere that good. How did I win like that?...
I don't think I could tap into the powers of the tv world, suddenly learning skills and tatics, and personalites...She shuddered. That would be downright freaky...
Dang, he digivolved again. Movie Antylamon. Aha, here's MegaKabuteri...
Now, what do I know about that girl? Other than her being a genius and an Ice cube. She wears Very boyish cloting, and seems to wander around a lot. I haven't seen her house or her family yet...maybe there's stuff online by now. I can be well off that net strike now, I wanna find out as much as I can about the show now. Especially Henry and Terriermon...
Rika gave a giggle and blushed. Brian looked up in confusion, and seeing the 'vacant' sign in her eyes, decided against asking. He layed down his next card.
Control Spire. Don't have that one yet. And my deck's down to zero.
She took off all her cards, reshuffled them, and set them back down...she then saw an advantage...
She traded out her rookie, plus put down a crest tag, and the Crest of Friendship. Just for safety, she added her Flyaway card to the mix.
At any rate, it just doesn't make any sense. There's no way I could have thought to use that Kongoumon card to my advantage. It'd be rare that I'd get it anyways, all I have is the D-terminal...
"Rika..."
And even then, Kongoumon could have been beaten. Was I able to think ahead?
"Rika?..."
And all in all, I can't remember what happened in there. Did I cheat? No, if I had, the boys would have caught me. Besides, I don't Think I would cheat...
"Misus Rika...I can't think of the right last name, but will you please check your score?"
"Huh? Oh, sure." She snapped out of thoughtsville for the moment and looked at the mat. She had used the yellow rookie card against the Green ultimate, thus garning her 300 on top of her 600. Then there was the crest and tag she had used to get her an extra 100. summing it all up...
Reality slapped her like a wet mackeral.
She had 1000 points. And her eyes went slowly toward's Brian's counter. It read 0.
Brian however, was grinning like a complete goof. "Congrats! Another clean and leagal victory!"
She replayed the battle in her head. Yes, everything she had done was by the rules, so...
Then she glanced at the card in her battle zone...it was her newly accquired Renamon card...
She gasped. Her face was a mask of fear...
"Guys...I just won, 1000 to zero, against the both of you, at one time...."
She let this sink in for a moment, before speaking again, her voice cracking. "I've never done that before!"
The boys looked at each other, also with concerned looks on thier faces. "That IS very odd."
"Maybe you're becoming a bit more like..."
"The Digimon queen??" Rika almost shrieked. "You Think I'm actully becoming the Digimon queen??..."
"Ummm..." Tim was at a loss for words.
"I'm sorry...Rika. We can't really see it from your point of view...because neithier of us are in your situation...We'd like to try and help though...if we can..."
She hardly heard the brown-haired boy. Her mind was racing with new thoughts. What if the character Rika was a side of her, personified? If so, what side was it? Did seeing her on the tv, awaken the side withen herself?...so many thoeries at once, her mind was cluttered, and her pulse raced.
"She's taking it rather too seriously, don't you think?" Tim aked his friend.
"I dunno. If she thinks she saw a new side of herself, and it just showed through right now in her gameplay, I think she's pretty justfied in being freaked. After all, all the world's a stage and all that. It's just a part that was unexpected..."
Tim looked at him oddly. "Since when did you start reciting Shakesperhe?"
"That was Shakeshpere?"
"Guys,"
The two boys looked up.
Looking rather frazzled, Rika gathered up her cards, almost afraid to touch the Renamon card, but putting it up anyway. "I think I shouldn't play from now on."
"What?? But Rika..."
"I'm not sure what happened, but I think I DId turn into the character...It sounds silly, I know, but I can't shake the feeling...what if this happened when I Wasn't playing?..."
"Rika, calm down..." Brian put a hand on her shoulder...
She whirled around. "I told you, I'm not playing it anymore! I'm going to try all I can, to keep my self together! I don't need your help!" she snapped.
Tim and Brian backed up a coulple of steps.
The cold detirmination stayed in her violet eyes for a split-second, then melted away with fresh shock.
"I...I just snapped at you, didn't I?..."
Brian nodded. "And if I remember, you've done so before at me, eariler today. Although it wasn't as intense as you were just now..."
Tears started brimming her eyes. "You see?! It's already starting!" She turned away and simply said "I'll talk to you tomorrow...maybe..."
Then she ran off.
The two remaining children stood in silence for a bit, then Tim spoke up.
"She's like Rika in body, but I can see who she's the most like in the show in personalty."
"Oh? And who would that be?"
"Jeri, she's a whole lot like Jeri would be, trapped in Rika's body..."
===