Chapter 5: The Storm Approaches

Alex had been trying to sleep peacefully for the last hour, and he probably would have succeeded were it not for the constant beeping coming from his laptop every thirty seconds. Someone had been trying to get him to respond to an Instant Messaging request, completely ignoring his away message which clearly stated that he was asleep.
It soon became obvious to Alex that, who ever it was, was not going to go away until he answered them.
With a groggy groan, Alex crawled out of his bed and walked over to the desk that his laptop was setup on, being careful not to trip over the network cable that ran across the floor, out the door, and across the hall into Ken's room.
Alex ran his finger over the touchpad mouse and had to squint his eyes as his laptop's display flickered to life.

SENTINEL IM
--------------------
Chat Session Established with OMEGA

ZERO What's up Marcus?
OMEGA Nadda much, just wanted to check in and se how things were going. I figured you'd be up.
ZERO Why would I be up? Do you realize what time it is over here?
OMEGA Yeah, it's like 0100 right?
ZERO 0108 to be exact. So what would I be doing up at 1 in the morning?
OMEGA Well, I figured your body wouldn't have adjusted to the new time zone yet. You know, the whole jet lag thing.
ZERO Yeah, except you seem to forget that I don't get jet lag.
OMEGA *sweat drop* Oh yeah, that's right. I completely forgot.
ZERO *Evil Glare* I bet you did. So, is there any particular reason you hauled me out of bed or were you just messaging me to be a pest?
OMEGA Well, yes there is a reason… the fact that I get to pester you is just icing on the cake. :-p
ZERO Remind me to cause you severe bodily harm when I get back. :-\
OMEGA Anywho, your woman IMed me on AIM about an hour ago, wondering where you are.
ZERO My WHAT?
OMEGA Your woman, Melissa.
ZERO Don't even go there. Melissa and I are just friends.
OMEGA Rrrrriiiiigggghhhhhtttttt. I've seen the way you two look at each other.
ZERO Whatever. Why was she wondering where I was?
OMEGA Something about needing to get some lab data from you so she could finish writing a report for Physics.
ZERO Aw Hell, I knew I forgot to do something before I left!
OMEGA Did you tell her you were going to Japan over break?
ZERO Not exactly. I told her I was going out of town.
OMEGA Well, speak of the devil.. She just signed on to AIM.
ZERO What's her SN?
OMEGA AlexsGurl
ZERO Please tell me that was a joke.
OMEGA LOL, yeah. It's MelVos.
ZERO Kewl, thanx. I'll catch ya later.
OMEGA Catch ya d00dz0r!

Chat Session Terminated

AOL IM
-----------

SentinelZero: Hey Melissa. It's Alex.
MelVos: ALEX!!! Where are you? I've been trying to reach you all day.
SentinelZero: Umm… Well, I'm in Japan.
MelVos: Japan? I know you said you were headed out of town for break, but I didn't think you were going overseas.
Sentinel Zero: Yeah well, it's kinda nice to get out of the frozen tundra that is Minnesota every once and a while.
MelVos: Wish you would'a brought me with you. :-(
SentinelZero: Sorry, I just needed some time to escape from my normal life. Other wise I would have brought you along.
MelVos: Really?
SentinelZero: Of course. :-)
MelVos: Ok, I forgive you then.
SentinelZero: For what?
MelVos: Not sending me the lab notes before you left.
SentinelZero: Oh yeah, those silly things. Heh. You have MS Word right?
MelVos: Yeah.
SentinelZero: Ok, here ya go.
Sending file PhyLab27.doc, 23 Kb
Finished sending file.
MelVos: Thanks Alex. I really appreciate it.
SentinelZero: Not a problem. Well, I'm going back to bed now; I'll see ya when I get back.
MelVos: Bed? What time is it over there?
SentinelZero: Well, it's just past 0115 now.
MelVos: Oh wow, what are doing up so early?
SentinelZero: Marcus woke me up. Which reminds me, if you run into him over break… kick him in the shins a couple of time for me.
MelVos: Shal do. :-)
SentinelZero: Thanx. Catch ya!

SentinelZero signed off 01:16:12

Alex yawned, then groggily walked back over to his bed and fell into the pillow face first.

Marcus leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh as he closed his eyes. Had he not sensed a dark presence heaving at the edge of his mind, he probably would have fallen asleep. "Yes Master?"
"What news do you have for me Marcus?"
"Everything is going according to plan so far. I'll begin to collect the children soon."
"You're certain the Sentinels won't interfere?"
"The Sentinels? No, Alex will keep them out of this."
"Why would he do that?"
"As far as Alex is concerned, this is nothing more than a personal matter between him and I. By the time he figures out what
"And what of Alex? He's proven himself to be a cunning warrior."
"Alex, I'll be able to deal with."
"Excellent. I have another task for you."
"I'm at your command."
"Daemon has taken his forces and gone rogue. The fool believes that he can succeed where I failed."
Marcus let out a descending whistle, "That's definitely going to make things a hair more difficult. However, it's nothing I didn't already predict."
"What have you done?"
"I have two agents that have infiltrated his ranks. Daemon doesn't know they are loyal to me and me alone."
"You don't mean those two idiots you created?"
"They may come across as incompetent, but if you look at their track record, they've actually been getting the job done. While yes, they have failed to eliminate the Digidestined; they have succeeded in preventing them from causing any major harm to our plans."
"How do you plan on dealing with Daemon?"
"I'm not going to deal with him at all. I'll just let Alex take care of him for us. Being that Daemon and his ilk are from the Negative Plane, this is an issue for the Sentinels to deal with."
"You realize that entails? I would like to recover as many of his resources as possible."
"Yes, but I don't think that there is any other way around it. We'll have to consider Daemon and all his followers as lost and move on accordingly. Were we to further divert resources to eliminating the traitor, it could possibly endanger our objectives. "
"Very well then, proceed with you plans. Remember, I'm keeping a close eye on you Marcus. If you betray me.."
"I won't betray you Master; I want to see Azulongmon and all of his cronies dead just as much as you do. I promised Jen that I would avenge her death against those responsible. If Azulongmon had told us everything that he knew, or more importantly didn't know, then I highly doubt that Jen would be dead."
"Alex knows all this, and yet he persists on aiding Azulongmon, why?"
"Because he promised Lauren that he would always defend the Digital World. And Alex has done just that. No matter how much he hates Azulongmon, he won't renege on his promise to her."
"You realize you might have to kill him."
"I know. So does Alex."
"Alex knows of our plans?"
"I think he does. Of the many things Alex is, blind and stupid he is not."
"Will you fight him?"
"Yes, and he will fight me. To the death if necessary. We may be friends, but we are also fighting for causes we believe in, those causes just happen to be opposed to one another. We respect each other enough to know that we can not change the others mind."
"Excellent. When will you have the first child?"
"By the day's end Master."
"Wonderful. Report to me when you have him."
"Yes Master."

Ken wandered into the kitchen, still half asleep. As was usual on Saturday mornings, Mrs. Ichijouji was busy cooking breakfast. Ken glanced at the clock as he walked over to the table; it was just a little after 0930.
"Good morning Ken dear. Your usual for breakfast?"
"That would be great. Thanks Mom."
"So, where did you and Alex end up last night?"
"We went over to Cyber Zone."
"You mean that Pizzeria/Arcade you and Davis like to hang out at?"
"Yup. It was a blast."
"Did you show Alex that game you really like?"
"Yeah I showed him Dance Dance Revolution, he did ok at it. The game that he really cleaned up on was Silent Scope 2."
"Now which one is that?"
"It's the one that you didn't like too much, the sniper game."
"Oh ok."
"Speaking of Alex, is he up yet?"
"Yes. As a matter of fact, he just left about tem minutes ago."
"Did he say where he was going?"
"Just mentioned having an old friend to go visit. All done, here ya go." Ken's mother placed a plate with Ken's breakfast on the table in front of him.
"Thanks Mom, you're the best." Ken leaned up and kissed his mother on the cheek and then went about eating his breakfast.

"I've been doing this far too often lately." Alex said to himself as he had finally located Sam Ichijouji's gravestone. "I mean, I'm only seventeen, for the love of god. I shouldn't have this many dead friends at this age." Letting out a deep sigh, Alex reached into his right pocket and pulled out a yellow crystal shard which he placed on top of the grave stone. The shard began pulsing with a faint, yellow glow. After a moment, a ghostly image of a young boy appeared in front of Alex.
"Hello Sam. It's been a long time."
The ghost smiled at him and nodded.
"Look, I know that I promised that I'd keep Ken as far away from the Sentinels and the Digital World as I could. But that's not possible anymore Sam. I'm sorry."
The ghost's smile faded into a disapproving scowl.
"Look, a lot has happened. Ken's already involved, to a very dangerous level. The only way I can protect him now is if I draw him closer to our side of the conflict. I have to make him a Sentinel. Besides, joining the Sentinels was Ken's idea, not mine."
The ghost crossed his arms and closed his eyes, as if thinking about something difficult. After a few moments, he opened his eyes and gave Alex a reluctant but approving nod.
"Thank you Sam. I'm truly sorry it's come to this, but it's the only way."
The ghost nodded his head again, and then faded from existence.
Alex collected the crystal shard from the top of the gravestone, "I'll be seeing you again soon enough. I just have a few things left to do, and then I can be with you and the girls again."

Davis was busy trying to track down Veemon so he could apologize to his partner. It took Davis most of the afternoon to track down his partner; he found Veemon sitting on a rock overlooking a deep canyon somewhere in the Notelrac Mountain zone of the Digital World.
Davis came up behind his partner and put his hand on Veemon's shoulder. Veemon angrily shrugged off Davis' hand.
"Veemon, please. Look, I'm sorry for how I acted yesterday. Throwing you through a Digi-port was completely uncalled for.."
Veemon quickly spun around and angrily interrupted Davis, "Yes, yes it was Davis. You have no right to treat me that way. I thought I was your friend."
"You are. You're my best friend in the whole world." Davis let out a deep sigh, "Probably the only one I have left."
"What happened yesterday Davis?"
"Kari and T.K. … they um… they're uh.."
"Together now?"
Davis could only nod his head.
"Lemme guess, you didn't exactly take the news well?"
Davis chuckled, "That would be an understatement. I just don't know if I can be around the group anymore with those two dating."
"Aren't you going to try and win Kari from T.K.?"
"I've been trying to come up with ways to do that ever since I found out they were together."
"And?"
"And I haven't been able to come up with a damn thing. I've been too worried about finding you."
Veemon turned to face his partner, "Really?"
Davis smiled for the first time since finding out about T.K. and Kari, "Truly."
"Well, maybe we can come up with something together." Veemon said with a mischievous smile.
"You sure you want to help me with this?"
"Of course! If you don't win Kari's heart, I haven't got a snowball's chance in a blast furnace to win Gattomon's heart."
"Partners?" Davis asked as he extended his hand to Veemon.
Veemon hopped down off his rock, took Davis' hand and gave it a gentle shake, "Partners."

Alex arrived back at the Ichijouji residence to find no one home. He headed to his room and booted up his laptop. After waiting a few moments to allow all the services on his system to start, Alex called up a Digi-port, setting the login location to node 00, the Core of the Digital World.
The Core was just as he remembered; a chaotic, whirling maelstrom of digital data. Everywhere Alex looked, he could see brilliant, pulsing streams of colored light; zipping about. The Core was a lot like space, in the fact that it was a zero-G environment. Alex floated steadily in the sea of data, trying to get his sense of direction straightened out.
"God I hate this place." Alex thought to himself as he struggled to fight the vertigo that was starting to set in.
A voice spoke up from behind Alex, "Alex! What are you doing here?"
Alex spun around to face whoever had just addressed him, "Gennai." There was a hint of disgust in Alex's voice as he said the old guardian's name.
"To what do we owe the honor of your visit?"
"I'm here to see Azulongmon."
"My I ask why you are here to see him?"
"No, you may not. Just do your job you little servant daemon, or I'll replace you with a very small shell script."
Gennai frowned, "Unfortunately, Azulongmon is unavailable just now."
"When will he be available?"
"It could be some time; he's meeting with the other three Guardians right now."
"I'll be back in three hours. When I return, Azulongmon is going to see me whether he's 'available' or not. So be a good little servant and run along and tell your master when to expect me."
"Just who do you think you are?"
Alex pulled out his D3 and called up the Gate program on it, setting the new login location for node 47, Acidem Plains. "I'm the only chance he's got to survive, and if he wants my help, he'll make himself available." Alex then vanished in a streak of teal light.

Marcus sat back in his chair and let out a sigh, "There, everything is ready for our little operation." He spun in his computer chair to face his partner, "Lichmon."
"Yes Marcus?"
"I'm going to need you to wait by login node 09 -- the boy we're after will login there."
"And once I have him?"
"Transport him back to the temple."
"What about Alex?"
"I'll worry about Alex; you worry about getting the boy to the temple. Now go."
Marcus opened a Digi-port on his computer and sent Lichmon through.

The Digidestined, minus Davis, had spent a relaxing afternoon in the Digital World indulging in their recently discovered favorite past-time, destroying Control Spires. Much to everyone's delight, especially T.K.'s, they had chosen to clear out the Acidem Plains, which had a much more enjoyable climate than the Angic Desert. They also chose the Acidem Plains for its sparse coverage of Control Spires because they were short handed today. Davis had canceled at the last minute saying that he had a family function to attend. Having made short work of all the Spires in the zone, the group had collectively decided that it was far too nice a day to log out just yet, and were relaxing in the shade of a tree to escape the mid-afternoon sun.
Ken sighed as he leaned back against the tree, "What a beautiful day."
"I know, we've been so busy saving the Digital World lately, we haven't had much time to enjoy it." Yolei commented as she rested her head on Ken's shoulder.
"Come to think of it, this is the first time we've HAD time to enjoy it since the gates to the Digital World reopened." T.K. remarked.
"It's too bad Davis couldn't make it today and had to miss out on all of this." Cody said.
"Alex too, it would have been nice to spend some more time with him" Kari said.
"Yeah, where is Alex, Ken? He said he was going to be here." Patamon asked.
"I don't know Patamon; he was gone by the time I got up this morning. Out seeing an old friend, my mom said."
Wormmon noticed that Gatomon had taken on a brooding look since Alex's name had been mentioned, "Something wrong Gatomon?" Wormmon asked.
"I don't know about Alex. I just.. I get a funny feeling from him. Like something about him isn't quite right. Same kind of feeling I used to get when Ken was around back when he was the Digimon Emperor."
Kari looked at her partner confusedly, "So you think Alex is evil or something?"
"No, not evil per-say; I don't know, I just feel very uncomfortable when he's around."
Everyone jumped to their feet in surprise as a teal colored streak of light rained down onto the field a few feet in front of them. Much to their surprise, Alex materialized from the teal light, wearing his usual all black attire and sunglasses. "Relax guys, it's just me."
"What WAS that Alex? I mean, how did you do that?" Cody asked.
Alex tilted his head in confusion at Cody's question, "Huh.. Oh! The whole 'beam me up Scotty' entrance." Alex chuckled a little to himself. "That's the Gate program. It allows me to move around the Digital World by jumping from login node to login node. It can also drop me anywhere within a ten kilometer radius of a login node, which is what you just saw. So, what're you guys up to?"
"Nothing much, just relaxing and enjoying the Digital World." Ken replied.
"We were actually just about to head home -- T.K. and I have some errands we have to run before dinner tonight" Kari said.
T.K. was about to give Kari a confused look when he remembered what Gatomon had said a few moments earlier.
Yolei let out a disappointed sigh. "I suppose I should get going too. I have some chores at the family store that I've been putting off for a while now that I should probably get taken care of."
After a short walk, the four Digidestined, their partners, and Alex arrived at login node 47 and logged out.

The group, including Alex, rematerialized back at in Yolei's room, where they had logged in from earlier in the day. Everyone except for Kari.
"That's odd, where could she be?" Ken asked.
"Well she should have come through the gate by now. Yolei, can you call up the camera on node 47?" Alex asked.
"Sure Alex, hold on a second." Yolei said as she planted herself in her computer chair and went to work on the keyboard. The image of the area surrounding node 47 soon appeared on Yolei's monitor, Kari was nowhere to be seen.
As the minutes ticked by, T.K. was began to get noticeably panicked. He grabbed the front of Alex's shirt. "Well where is she 'Mr. I know everything about the Digital World'. Huh? What did you do with her?"
Alex calmly grabbed T.K.'s wrists and rotated them outward, breaking the younger boy's grip, "I didn't do anything to her. And I have no idea where she is, but I can locate her if you give me some time."
"How much time?" Ken asked.
"A couple of hours."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Cody asked.
"Yeah," Alex shifted his gaze to T.K., "stay calm and have faith in my ability to track Kari down."
"That's it?!? We're supposed to just sit here and wait!"
"Yes, T.K. That's precisely what you supposed to do."
"Why? Because we'd be getting in your way or something?"
"Honestly? Yah. I have some tools at my disposal that will help me track Kari down, and if you were there asking me what I was doing every five seconds it would take me a lot longer to track her down. So, it's really up to you. You can stop asking me questions and let me go, or we can sit here and continue to argue while Kari remains wherever she may be."
T.K. was taken back by the bluntness of Alex's statement. As hurtful as it was, T.K. knew it was the truth, "I'm sorry Alex, I'm just worried. I hate feeling this helpless."
Alex placed his hands on T.K. shoulders reassuringly, "I know. We all would hate to be in your position. But if I'm right, and if who I think has her does have her; I'm the only person here capable of getting her back. Trust me, I will get her back, alright?" T.K. nodded his head. "Okay then, I'll be in touch as soon as I find out something."
Alex then turned and held his D3 up to the computer monitor "DIGI-PORT OPEN!" and was gone.
T.K. pulled out his D-terminal and began composing a message.
"T.K. what are you doing?" Ken asked.
"I'm send a message to Tai and the others, just incase Alex can't find Kari."

To say that Kari was surprised to be staring at a desert instead of Yolei's room when she came though the Digi-port would have been an understatement.
"Well that's odd." Kari located the login node and pulled out her D3, "Log out."
Nothing.
Kari stared at her D3 in bewilderment. It seemed to be working properly. She checked the D3's display to see what zone she was in; Zone 81 The Erihppas Desert. She'd never head of this zone before, nor could she recall it ever being on any of the maps of the Digital World that she had ever seen. She examined the T.V. that acted as the login node for this zone; it seemed to be functioning fine. She again held her D3 up to the login node, "Log out."
Again, nothing.
"Ok, I'm officially scared now."
Three Dark Terrormon erupted from the sand, encircling Kari.
"Ok, now I'm VERY scared now."
"I'm sorry for scaring you, but it was necessary."
Kari blinked, the voice sounded human. A figure appeared from behind the Dark Terrormon in front of her. For a brief second, Kari thought it was Alex. He was dressed exactly like Alex had been earlier, T-shirt, unbuttoned and untucked denim shirt, jeans, work boots, all black. He even wore the same Oakley X-metal sunglasses that Alex did. As the figure drew closer, however, she noticed that he was a good two or three inches taller than Alex. His hair was dark brown, and cut short and spiky. She also caught the glint of something silver hanging from his belt by his right hip.
"Who… Who are you?"
The figure grinned, "I'm surprised, knowing Alex I'm sure he would have at least mentioned me once or twice. I am Marcus."
"Alex said you're his best friend. How can you betray him like this?"
"I've betrayed him?"
"You're working with his enemies against him. How can you do that to him?"
"Oh, Alex is rather aware of who I'm involved with in the Digital World. As for your question as to why, well I'll leave Alex to answer that for you." Marcus said with a chuckle.
"What do you want with me?"
"With you? Nothing really. You're to be live bait for the one I'm really after. I promise you won't be harmed, and you have my word that I'll release you as soon as I have the person I want."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"Probably because you see me as some evil monster." Marcus looked down at his wrist watch, "Don't worry kiddo, you knight is shining armor will be along shortly and everything will be alright."

Tai was busy working on a term paper for one of his classes when his D-Terminal chirped to alert him to a new message. Much to his surprise, he had two new messages that had arrived almost simultaneously. Tai pulled his D-terminal out of his backpack by his chair and called up the new messages.

Tai,
Kari's disappeared. We were logging out and Kari never came through. Alex seems to think he has an idea of what happened and is going to try and track her down. For some reason I don't trust this guy Tai. I don't know what to do. Maybe we should get the group together and figure things out? I dunno. Please Tai, I need your help.

T.K.

Tai called up the second message.

Tai,
I have you sister. She is unharmed and safe for the time being. If you wish her to remain so, you will follow my instructions.
Attached to this message is code that will open a Digi-Port. You will enter that Digi-port with your Digivice alone. You will alert no one as to where you are going. Failure to comply with my instructions will have unfortunate consequences for you sister.
This message will delete itself five minutes after you open it. At that time you will not longer be able to open the required digi-port. I suggest you get moving.

The message was signed with a red Omega symbol.

Tai knew that he didn't have a choice. He couldn't take the chance that Kari would be harmed. He collected his Digivice from his backpack and used the code attached to the message to open a Digi-port.

Alex and Marcus are on a collision course for one another, Davis is wondering where he belongs, Tai is headed for trouble, and the rest of the Digidestined are seemingly powerless to do anything about it. Find out how things continue to play out in the next chapter of Winds of Change entitled "The Omega Factor."