Title: Latent Epidemic
Rating: PG-13 - R
Pairings: Yamachi/Taito (Matt/Tai, Tai/Matt), Miora/Sorami (Mimi/Sora, Sora/Mimi), Kensuke/Daiken (Ken/Davis, Davis/Ken), Takari (TK/Kari), Yolei is single, Joe and Izzy are single, and Cody is married to a woman called Allison (Original Character).
Warnings: Yaoi, slash, het, basically male/male, and female/female relationships. If this isn't your cup of tea then it's best that you press the little button at the top of your screen that says 'back' and read something else.
Disclaimer: I don't own digimon. That honour belongs to someone else, and is something I can only dream of achieving. I am only borrowing the characters for a while with the promise to return them in one piece. Erm... well, I'll try and keep them in one piece anyway. uu
Well, this is the first digimon story that I've attempted.
I did post this before but one of my friends (and a few reviewers) mentioned that this was long and thought that I should split it up.
That said, Latent Epidemic has been split into chapters.
If you've already read this before then fine, but if you haven't I hope that this version is easier to read.
Thanks for reading this story, or at least getting to the bottom of the notes.
Sailor G
Latent Epidemic by Sailor Gaia
Chapter 2: Epidemic
Oh shit! Mimi started to panic as Sora collapsed in her arms. Screw going home, I need to go to a professional! She gently picked Sora up and laid her on the back seat before rushing into the drivers seat and hitting the accelerator. She set about dodging every car with a license plate to its name when something caught her attention in the back. Something red.
She gasped as she saw Sora's crest glowing brightly on her forehead. "Well, I can't take her to the doctor's now." She turned back to the road and narrowly missed lowering the pedestrian count. "So I'll take her to the next best thing."
Joe looked up sharply as someone knocked loudly on his door. He sighed and got up from his seat.
"If that's Mrs Osaka wanting me to change the light bulb again..." he reached the door and opened it. He jumped back just as a pink blur passed him. His initial thought was that Poromon had lost Yolei again, but this was too big to be Poromon. It was...
"Mimi!"
"Joe, thank god you're here." She was out of breath and was carrying an unconscious Sora in her arms.
"Oh my god what happened?" He had never seen Sora looking like that. "Is she okay? What happened?"
"WewereintheshoestoreandsuddenlySoracollaspedandIdon'tknowwhatiswrongwithher,youhavetohelp.AndIwashopingyouwouldtellme." (Translation: We were in the shoe store and suddenly Sora collapsed and I don't know what is wrong with her, you have to help. And I was hoping you would tell me.)
"Whoa whoa there Mimi. Slow down! I didn't understand a word you were saying."
She took a deep breath and repeated what she had just said. When she was finished Joe blinked and looked down at Sora. "Can you help her Joe? I didn't want to take her to a hospital because of her crest glowing on her forehead and you are the closest thing we have to a doctor who won't wig out when they see it." Mimi wrung her hands frantically and awaited Joe's response.
Joe blinked and started to lead Mimi towards the bedroom. "Put Sora on the bed, then go into the kitchen and have a cup of tea. It's in the pot by the kettle. Sugar is in the cupboard above the kettle."
Mimi placed Sora on the bed and tenderly brushed some of her hair out of her face. "But what will you do?"
"I'm going to go and call Izzy. Crests don't usually glow on your forehead." Mimi looked stricken and headed into the kitchen. Joe shook his head and reached for his phone book. "For once Izzy you had better not be on your computer."
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Izzy fumbled with the keys to get into his apartment. He quickly pulled the door open and dashed to the phone.
RING R-
"Hello?"
"Izzy, it's Joe."
"Oh hi Joe, what can I do you for?"
"I need you to come over here right away!"
The urgency in Joe's caught Izzy's attention and he dropped the stack of papers he was trying to balance on the table.
"What's wrong!"
"It's Sora, look Izzy, it'll take too long to explain over the phone. Just get down here as soon as you can!"
"Right! I'll be there before you can say 'prodigious'."
Izzy slammed the phone down and rushed out of the apartment.
Seconds later he rushed back in to retrieve his laptop.
Izzy Izumi can't go anywhere without his trusty laptop.
Joe put the phone down and shouted to Mimi. "Izzy's on his way. He'll be here soon."
Mimi came out of the kitchen carrying two cups of tea. Tear tracks were drying on her face and Joe felt a pang of sympathy for the child of sincerity. "Will Sora be okay?"
"That's what I'm hoping Izzy will help me work out." He said gently and lead Mimi to the couch in his living room. "I'll need his help if we are to figure out what is wrong with Sora."
Both jumped as someone knocked loudly on Joe's door, he rushed over and opened it. It was Izzy.
He had his laptop in hand and looked like he had run all the way here.
"Where is she?"
Joe pointed to the door across the room. "She's in there." Izzy nodded his thanks and rushed into the room. Joe turned to Mimi and said, "Mimi, there isn't much that you can do now. Why don't you go home and I'll call you when we've found anything new."
"No!" Mimi shook her head stiffly. "I'm not leaving here unless Sora is leaving with me."
Joe sighed. "Well then just make yourself at home."
Mimi nodded and sat back down on the couch. Joe rubbed his temples as he headed into his bedroom.
Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be a long day?
Yolei sighed as she stood outside the Lily Garden.
"Ugh! Where are they! Its gone three and no-one's here!"
She stamped her foot on the ground, drawing some stares from the people in the mall, and scanned the crowds again. Her red eyes brightened as she saw Ken and Davis moving towards her. "It's about time! What took you so long!"
"Sorry Yolei, we were held up."
"Yeah! The traffic today is a killer!" Davis bent over and tried to get his breath back. "I swear that mean old lady with the handbag had something against me!"
Ken laughed slightly and turned to Yolei. "Don't ask."
Yolei shook her head and looked at Ken.
"Have you heard from any of the others? I've been here for a while now and you two are the first people I've seen."
"Really?" Ken looked puzzled, "no-one turned up? I haven't heard from any one save you Yolei."
"Dude that's strange. Have you tried calling them?" Davis walked up to them and placed his hands behind his head.
"Davis we have PAGERS not mobile phones! You can't ring anyone on a pager!" Yolei had to really will herself not to smack Davis in the nose.
"I meant in a coin box. Geez, and people say I'm stupid." Yolei growled in annoyance and started moving towards an oblivious Davis with a murderous look in her eyes. Ken stepped front of Yolei and pulled Davis to the side.
"I wouldn't tempt fate Davis."
"What do you mean?" Ken raised a slim purple eyebrow at Davis' confused expression and tilted his head pointedly at Yolei. She was fuming in the corner and looked like she would make Davis eat his goggles if he said anything else that might be classed as an insult. "Oh right.. he he he." Davis laughed nervously and scratched his head with his hand. He might have been able to take on Malomyotesmon (AN: Is that the right spelling?) with the help of his friends but he still didn't like to face a fuming Yolei Inoue.
Despite Yolei having glasses she still had very good aim, and he had the bruises to show for it.
"Now what I don't understand is why no-one else turned up. I mean, this is a special occasion for the digidestined, particularly the older digidestined. They wouldn't miss it for the world." Ken had a look of concentration on his face, which Davis found incredibly adorable. He was about to put in his own comment when a moan and a thump was heard behind them.
They both swung around to see Yolei on the floor. Thankfully it looked as thought she didn't injure herself as she landed on her shopping bags. Clothing is a very good shock absorber. Both gasped and ran up to her as they saw what looked to be the crest of love glowing on her forehead.
"Whoa dude, what's with the glowing crest?" Davis reached out and touched the crest gingerly with his fingertips and was shocked that it felt warm to the touch.
Ken too reached out and touched it. "It shouldn't be glowing at all." He withdrew his hand and pulled Yolei into his arms. "We should take her to Joe. With any luck he will know what is wrong with her."
Davis nodded and picked up Yolei's shopping bags. As they walked out of the mall they drew some stares from the shoppers. Davis rolled his eyes and stared back for all he was worth. Ken looked down at Yolei with concern as she moaned. A look of pain was on her face and she was sweating. He really hoped it wasn't anything serious. Just you hang in there cousin. I'll have help for you soon.
The sound of the television became apparent as Mimi began to wake up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. The sound of knocking brought her further out of her sleep and she got up to answer the door.
"Ken! Davis!" She was surprised to see Ken and Davis at the door.
"Uh Mimi, what are you doing here?" Davis asked as they walked in through the door.
"I'm here with- oh my god is she okay?" Mimi rushed to Yolei's side and gasped as she saw the crest of love shining brightly on her forehead. "Oh god she has it too." She turned around and headed to the bedroom where Sora was being seen to. "Follow me." Davis turned to Ken, his face a mask of confusion. "'She has it too?' What did she mean by that?"
Ken shrugged and followed Mimi. "I don't know."
When they got into the room Ken gasped and almost dropped Yolei. Davis rammed into Ken's back and peered over his shoulder. "Whoa, what's up with Sora?"
Izzy and Joe looked up at the voice and their mouths hit the ground. Izzy regained his control first and rushed over to them.
"Here, put her down on the bed next to Sora." Joe shook his head and stood up. He reached into the wardrobe and pulled out a mattress.
"Put her on this. It'll be more comfortable that way." Ken nodded and placed Yolei onto the mattress.
"What's wrong with them?"
"I don't know Ken." Izzy shook his head and looked frustrated. "I've tried everything that I can think of. There's this new scanner that I have created with Joe, it is revolutionary and will tell you what is wrong with a person. It works best when connected to my computer as I've compiled a database of every illness and every disease ever discovered throughout history."
"Then... what's wrong?" asked Ken as he sat down next to Yolei.
"According to this there is nothing wrong with them!" Izzy ran his hand through his hair and sat down in front of his computer. "Joe could you please hold the scanner over Sora again." Joe nodded and held the scanner over Sora's body. Ken, Mimi and Davis crowded round Izzy's computer to see what he was going to do. "You see, this scan shows Sora's body. If there was an illness it would show up as black on here giving us the information needed to get rid of it. But as you can see... nothing."
Mimi leant in closer to the screen. Izzy was right. There was nothing black on this screen. Sora should be okay, but then why wasn't she. She looked over to the child of love and sighed. Why couldn't they just live a normal life?
All five conscious occupants of the room jumped when the phone rang. Joe handed the scanner to Ken, stood up and went to answer the phone. Seconds later he ran back into the room with a frantic look on his face.
"That was Matt. He says Tai has just collapsed and his crest is glowing too! Matt's going frantic and doesn't know what to do."
Izzy looked thoughtful as he said, "we have an epidemic here. I have to get over to check Tai, can Matt bring Tai over here?"
Joe shook his head. "You know how far Matt lives from us, and besides he doesn't have a car to drive."
"Yeah, theirs was totalled pretty harsh last month." Davis nodded in agreement.
"It didn't help that Paildramon flattened it." said Ken.
"What happened?" asked Izzy. "Why did you DNA digivolve?"
"Long story, I'll explain once this is all over."
"Right." Izzy nodded at Ken.
"I told Matt that we would go to them. Seeing as so many of us have fallen ill it would be better to go over there. Matt's place is a lot bigger than mine." Joe said as he turned to face the group. "Mimi you carry Sora. Ken you carry Yolei. We'll take our own cars and go straight there."
"What about me?" asked Davis.
"There really isn't anything you can do Davis. Just get in the car with Ken and Yolei."
Davis nodded and dashed outside. Mimi and Ken followed and set Yolei and Sora into the backseats. Davis sat down next to Yolei and Izzy sat down next to Sora. Joe sat in the front seat next to Ken and soon they were off.
Matt was frantic. It had been about twenty minutes since Tai had collapsed and it had seemed like forever. He knelt down by Tai's side and brushed his chocolate coloured hair out of his face. Tai shifted and a grimace of pain crossed his face. Matt had never felt so helpless. Here his koi was in pain and all he could do was sit and watch. He sighed and brushed his hand over Tai's forehead. He was burning up!
Well, at least he could do something now. He went into the kitchen and poured some water into a bowl. Taking a cloth he crossed back into the living room.
"Hang on Taichi, help is on the way."
He wetted the cloth and placed it across Tai's forehead. Tai sighed and moved in his fever induced sleep. Matt noticed the cloth was getting warm (already!) and placed it in the water again before resting it back on Tai's brow. He felt tears coming to his eyes and reached down to brush a kiss over his koi's forehead.
The sound of the doorbell reached him as he pulled away. He stood up and opened the door.
"Where is he?" the blur commonly known as Izzy ran past him and into the apartment. Matt blinked and pointed to the couch behind him. Izzy nodded and ran straight to the chair, laptop and something that looked like a medical sitcom prop in hand. Matt turned back to the other's at the door and felt a wave of fear wash over him.
"Are they okay?"
"It seems that they have come down with whatever Taichi has Yamato." Said Joe softly. "May we come in?"
"Oh yes of course," Matt snapped out of his stupor and let the others in. "I'll go and get some mattresses for those two." He disappeared into a room and reappeared carrying (or rather struggling) with two mattresses. Joe rushed to help him and soon Sora and Yolei were lying on the mattresses in Matt and Tai's living room. (To create enough space they had to move some of the furniture like the couch out of the way. And the potted plants, Tai always said they reminded him of the digital world, had to be moved into the kitchen.)
Matt and Joe moved over to where Izzy, Mimi, Ken and Davis were sitting. Izzy had the scanner up and running again while Ken held it over Tai's prone form.
"How bad is it Izzy?" asked Joe as Izzy stared intently at the screen.
"... as far as I can tell Tai appears to have come down with the same illness as Sora and Yolei. I just don't know what the illness is." he sighed and started typing on his laptop. "I've tried a number of different programmes but none of them have made a bit of difference. I've still got a few more that I could try but until one of them yields anything new we'll just have to wait."
"I just hope you figure something out soon Izzy 'coz we're dropping like flies here!" Everybody turned to look at Davis and gave him a weird look. He held his hands up in defence at their looks and said, "what! It's true!"
Matt shook his and turned back to Izzy. "Are you sure there isn't anything you can do?"
Izzy shook his head sadly and sighed. "All we can do now is make sure that their fever doesn't get too high."
"I'd better ring up Kari and let her know about Tai." Matt stood up and went over to the phone.
"Poor Kari, I wonder how she will take the news?" Izzy mused as he ran different programmes on his laptop.
"How are you two doing?" Joe asked Ken and Mimi as they stared sadly at their loves. Mimi didn't answer but the look of sadness intensified on her face. Ken blinked and looked up at Joe.
"Why did this have to happen Joe?" He looked as though he was trying to keep tears from falling down his cheeks. "What did Davis... what did we do to deserve this?" Joe felt uncomfortable as Ken broke down crying. He really hated it when people started crying around him. The sound of Ken crying set Mimi off and she started sobbing softly into Sora's hand. Joe didn't know what to do so he went into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of tea. Hopefully that would calm them down.
"Cody was in the middle of a court case, as soon as it is over he is going to get over here. Kari wasn't home so I sent her a message on her pager. Now all we have to do is-" Matt was cut off but the sound of the doorbell. He moved to the door and opened it. A panicky Hikari ran in through the door. "-Wait... what's wrong Hikari?" Before she could answer Matt was nearly ploughed over by his brother Takeru Takaishi, otherwise known as TK.
"There's a problem in the digiworld!" Kari gave TK a look as he blurted out what she was about to tell Matt.
"What!" Matt shouted.
"Just what he said. We got a call from Agumon saying that there was a problem. But before he could say what it was the TV went dead." Kari said. "What's wrong here?"
Matt suddenly felt really sad and stepped out of Kari's view. She gasped as she saw Tai lying on the ground and being checked over by Izzy. "What's wrong with him!" she cried and ran to her brother's side.
"We don't know Kari." was all Izzy could say to the distraught child of light. "I have tried several programmes but I haven't got anything yet."
Kari felt arms wrap around her from behind and settled into his embrace. It was TK, she knew that much. And she drew from his strength. He was stronger than her and she needed his strength in times like this.
TK kissed the top of Kari's head gently. He hated to see her in pain, and he knew exactly how she was feeling. He had seen those he cared about hurt so many times (so had she, they all had) and it didn't get easier. The pain just didn't go away.
Kari sighed and stepped out of TK's arms. "We have to go to the digital world and sort out the problem." She looked over to her brother and a sad expression crossed her face. "But someone has to stay here with them."
Izzy stood up and walked over to Kari. "I know you want to stay here, but somebody has to go to the digital world."
"Yeah! Let's do this!" Everyone turned to see Davis jump up from his place on the floor.
"We shouldn't just rush in there without some sort of plan. We shouldn't go in there blind." TK picked up his hat from the table. "Does the saying: 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread' mean anything to you Davis?"
"Oh shut up TE, and what does this have to do with angels anyway?" TK sighed and shook his head. Davis ignored what TK muttered under his breath and turned to the other digidestined. "The sooner we get into the digital world the sooner we can get back here and help our friends!"
"That's the attitude Davis!" Davis grinned and stuck his tongue out at TK. TK rolled his eyes and Matt placed Tai's laptop onto the small table.
"Here, you can use this to get into the digital world. Izzy and Joe will stay here. Ken, Mimi, Kari... I'm sorry to ask you to come but in case this turns ugly we need all the help we can get." Ken and Mimi nodded, and Mimi placed one last kiss on Sora's forehead.
"Alright!" Davis held his D3 out in front of the gate. The others held theirs out too and waited for the gate to open. "Digiport op-" Davis didn't get a chance to finish as a sudden wave of dizziness hit him and he fell onto Ken.
"Davis!" Ken quickly laid Davis on the floor and looked to Izzy. "His crest is glowing too."
Just like the other three, a crest was glowing on his forehead... or more specifically: the crest of Courage.
"That settles it. We need to find out what is going and we need to find out now." Izzy had a look of anger on his face as he looked up to the shocked digidestined. "Joe and I will stay here and find out what is wrong with our friends. TK, can you leave your D-terminal here. I'll call you on that as soon as we have anything new. Good luck."
TK handed over his D-terminal as the remaining digidestined nodded. TK held up his green digivice and said, "Digiport open!"
Soon Izzy and Joe were left with the four unconscious digidestined.