Kari stared dumbfounded at her brother. 'This better not be one of his sick jokes', she thought to herself. 'Because if it is, I'll strangle him'. Kari shook her head. What WAS happening? No one could get him to say anything or DO anything in the last 20 minutes, then all of a sudden, mom pops in and asks if they want supper and he's back alive!
"Tai….." Kari said in a mere whisper. Her older brother turned and looked at her. "What happened?" she asked even softer this time. Tai closed his eyes and stood up, taking a few steps towards Kari. His sister looked at him and Tai looked back at her. T.K. and Gatomon took this as a sign to leave the room to let them talk. Quietly, they escaped out the Kamiya siblings' bedroom.
"Tai, what just happened? You scared me half to death!" Tai sighed. He looked down for a second, then he looked back up at his sister's face, his brown eyes solemn and sorry. Kari returned the same face back to her brother, except with an added tone of worry.
"I'm sorry Kari. I was just really deep in thought, wondering about things, pondering about things. I never meant to hurt you."
"But you were ignoring me!…. A-and….. You scared me."
"I know, I'm sorry. It's just… I don't know what came over me. I was thinking too much about Sora and Matt again….. that's all. I'm really sorry Kari. I never did mean to hurt you." Tai pulled his sister into a hug, where she let some more tears flow down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry Kari. I'm sorry." Tai whispered. Kari loved to hear her older brother's soft and apologetic voice. It sounded like a soft breeze, flowing throughout her entire body, cooling and soothing her.
The two Kamiya siblings eventually let go of each other. Kari stared up at her brother while he stared down at her. Tai smiled his trademark grin and put one of his hands in his pocket. He lifted his other hand and scruffled Kari's hair.
"I'm sorry. Don't worry. I'll never do that again. Ever." Kari giggled.
"You better not." Tai smiled. Finally his sister was happier now. Taking this as an opportunity to eat, he slapped Kari's back gently and gestured to the door.
"Want to eat supper now?"
"Sure, that'd be nice." The two Kamiya siblings left the room silently, turning off the lights. The room grew dark, save for the bright glow of the computer monitor.
It was a quiet late supper that night. No one spoke, no one fidgeted, and no one made jokes over the table. They were too busy eating their supper, trying to forget about the day's events. Well, T.K. was trying to at least.
He looked over at Tai. He seemed normal enough, devouring his supper without thinking twice about neatness and manners. But something didn't feel right. T.K. squinted at his friend. 'What happened earlier must have affected Tai somehow.' T.K. thought to himself. 'But he seems pretty normal….. I'll ask him about it later.' T.K. broke out of trance for a second to realize that Tai was looking back at him.
T.K. blinked, then looked up at the ceiling. 'But then again, whether he answers or not is another question. He's so stubborn half of the time. And according to Kari, that's not a good thing since he tends to bottle up all of his feelings….. Oh Tai….. What are we going to do about you?' The young teen pondered in a world of his own.
A couple of minutes later, Tai was finished his supper. He dropped his fork onto the plate and wiped his mouth with a nearby napkin on the table. The teen grabbed his plate and stood up.
"Thanks mom. That was some really good supper." All of the table's occupants watched as Taichi left the table, plate in hand. He gently put the sink and cutlery into the sink, turned around, and walked into the living room.
T.K.'s eyes steadily followed his every move. 'Here's my chance'. The blond haired boy pushed back his plate.
"Not hungry T.K.?" Mrs.Kamiya asked. Tai looked at his mom, then T.K.
"Not really. I ate something earlier. Thanks for asking. And I have to agree with Tai, that was quite the meal I've had in a while!" T.K. replied with a grin. The young blond took his plate to the sink, as well as his cutlery, and washed it clean.
'I should ask him now…..' He thought to himself as he turned off the tap. T.K. lingered in front of the sink for a while longer before wiping his hands dry. He walked into the living room, swiftly passing by Tai.
'Maybe I'll ask him later, when I know what to say…..'
The dark room had reawakened with light as soon as Tai entered the room. He flipped on the light switch before seating himself in front of his computer. Tai's eyes stared at the computer screen, looking at what was currently on the screen. 'Hmm…… Interesting……' His hand flew to the optical mouse.
"Ah, well, finally I get to explore the Digidestined's computer….. Geez, that took a long time to get control of his whole body. Almost cost me my mission. It was a close one, a VERY close one. Damnit, I nearly lost my cover. Curse the long process. Oh well, that's done with now. I need to focus on the next part of my mission."
Tai swiftly moved the cursor over the 'exit' button and clicked. In an instant, the window had vanished from the screen. He repeated this process with each new window he found until he came to two particular windows.
"Hmm, What's this? And e-mail from….. Ah, it's from one of the other Digidestined kids." Tai laughed quietly as he read through the e-mail message once again. He quickly absorbed all of the information he was getting from it, storing it for later usage. When he finished reading it, Tai laid back in his computer chair.
"Well….. I better stop snooping and actually commence on the next part of the mission." The teen went back to his original position at the computer and closed down all of the other windows that were left open. Once that was done, he pointed the cursor at the middle of the computer screen and held down the right mouse button. Tai's free hand flew to the keyboard and furiously typed something.
The computer beeped. Tai looked up from the keyboard to find a swirling image on his computer screen. Tai smiled and let go of the right mouse button. The swirling purple vortex enlarged itself into a wide window screen. The background was black and the top of the window bar was coloured (colored) a dark purple.
"Time to work on the portal." He muttered to himself as he placed his fingers on the keyboard. Clickity click. The soft tapping of the keyboard echoed throughout the room, sounding like music to Tai's ears. After a few minutes, he stopped typing and looked up at his progress.
"Oh boy, this might take a while….." The teen sighed and continued to type away.
"T.K.?" The soft voice broke T.K.'s concentration.
"What is it?" he asked, leaning against the living room wall with his arms crossed. The young girl looked into T.K.'s eyes, hoping to find out what was bothering him. If there was a contest about hidden feelings and finding out who was feeling what, Kari would definitely win it. She could see through T.K.'s defensive shield. Something troubled him and that troubled her.
"What's bothering you?" she asked softly. T.K. looked away from Kari, into the hallway.
"Well….. It's just….. I don't know. That thing that happened earlier…..." Kari cringed when he brought that old topic back up. Well, at least T.K. was more open then Tai.
"What….. What about it?" Kari asked while gently placing her arm on him.
"I….. I don't know. I'm going to go talk to him right now." He said. T.K. brushed Kari's arm off of his and walked into the dark hallway. Kari could hear his soft footsteps from the living room. They sounded like thunder to her. For everything seemed to be out of hand today.
Digimon flying out of nowhere, Tai ignoring her pleas and cries, T.K. acting like a non-talkative stranger. Kari sighed and plopped down on the couch beside her. She put her hand to her forehead and relaxed. She needed some time to think.
"Ah, finally, done." Tai said in triumph, leaning back in his chair. He watched as the work he did slowly dissolved away from the screen. When it had fully dissolved, a blank window appeared. Tai leaned forward and squinted at the window, trying to read the message that was on it.
A sudden roar from outside brought Tai's attention to the window sill.
In the sky, a portal had formed. From it's swirling core, a dark figure emerged. It looked as if it had tore it's way through the portal and had a tough time doing it.
The figure was a creature with a sleek black body and vicious blood-red claws. Wings fluttered on it's back, keeping it afloat. It roared violently as it lashed it's tail into the air.
The creature looked straight ahead of itself and straightened it's wings. With a powerful flap, it thrusted forward into the night sky, disappearing from view. Tai smiled. 'It worked' he mouthed to himself.
"Tai." The voice startled him. "Whoa, sorry, didn't mean to scare you." Tai turned and looked at the doorway. It was T.K.
"Oh, it's only you T.K. Sorry about that, I just thought I heard something outside."
"Yeah? Well….. Can I talk to you?" Tai threw his arms into the air.
"Go ahead. Shoot." T.K. gulped.
"I meant….. In the living room….." Tai's expression turned from a happy one to a more sad one.
"Um, sure." The teen said getting up from his spot. He quickly looked backwards at the monitor to find that the small blank window had disappeared from the screen. 'Good' he thought following T.K. out of the quiet bedroom. Since he was the last one out, he also shut off the lights.
Tai looked around the living room to find that no one was there. He could hear his mother cooking something in the kitchen, but that was it. 'Kari must be watching TV with dad in the master bedroom.' He thought to himself.
T.K. silently walked to the balcony doors and pushed aside the drapes. He stared out into the dark, empty night sky and sighed. Odaiba was so beautiful at night. The city lights were like holes in a blanket of darkness that wrapped the city. T.K. smiled for a split second before frowning again.
He felt Tai's presence creep up from behind him. T.K. took a deep breathe and let it out. 'It's now or never.'
"So, How are you feeling Tai?" There was a small pause of silence.
"I'm fine."
"That's good" The blond said back, still admiring the city. Tai sighed behind him.
"Look, if this is about what happened earlier, I'm sorry T.K. I'm alright. I'm okay. I'm fine. I've just done a lot of….. Thinking….. In the last couple of….."
"Months?"
"Yeah…… Months. It's…... I don't know. It's been hard to….. adjust I suppose. If that's how you want to put it." T.K. turned around and put a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. The brown haired teen looked at T.K. with a hint of sadness in his eyes. T.K. nearly wanted to punch his light's out. Or just anything else would do. Tai was their leader at one point. He was strong, brave, and wild. To see him be so degraded hurt him.
But he couldn't do anything to help Tai out. And that made him really frustrated. So T.K. did the only thing he could do, talk to him.
"It's alright Tai. I know everything will come out in the end. You've always pulled us through some tough times, I'm sure you can do that for yourself as well." If only I believed in my own words. T.K. knew better. They both knew. What T.K. said wouldn't come true. Tai was too deep in wounds to heal right away, but yet, he smiled.
"Well, I guess you're right T.K….." The brown haired teen trailed off. The blond couldn't help but feel the slightest bit guilty for bringing up the most hated topic of the day.
"Yeah. Why don't we take our minds off of this topic if it's hurting you….." Tai would have obliged, if he weren't that down himself.
"Alright….. Say, you said something about seeing a Digimon earlier?" T.K.'s ears perked up.
"Yeah. When you were….. Thinking about something….. There was some kind of flying black digimon in the sky. I didn't get to see what it was though. I'm suspecting it's some kind of virus type though."
"Did you go after it?"
"No!" T.K. almost yelled back in frustration. "I couldn't leave Kari alone inside of the house. Besides, I didn't have Patamon with me." Tai rubbed his chin and started to pace around the room.
"Hmm….. Do you know what happened to it?"
"No." T.K. replied in a calmer tone of voice. "It flew away. I never saw it again."
"Then we should go after it." Tai said getting his coat.
"No, wait!" The brown haired teen stopped in his tracks and looked back at his friend. "It's probably taken care of already."
"Yeah, you're right. I bet one of the other Digidestined's already beat us to it. Knowing that there's a digimon out there, they probably told Izzy. And knowing that Izzy knows that there's a digimon out there, he'll probably want to tell us. So therefore, I expect Izzy will probably be giving us a call sometime soon." As if on cue, the phone rang, loud and clear inside the apartment.
The two wore grins on their faces. 'So predictable' Tai thought to himself.
"Well? Aren't you going to answer it?" The brown haired teen nodded and walked over to where the phone was. He rubbed his hands a few times before answering.
"Hello?
"Hi. This is Izzy. Can I speak to Tai please?"
"I'm speaking Izzy."
"Oh, sorry about that Tai. But we have a major issue on our hands! Can you get Kari near the phone too?"
"Whoa, slow down. Yeah, hold o-"
"Right beside you" Tai jumped. 'Where did she come from?!?!?'
"Okay, well, that makes T.K., me, and Kari here."
"Prodigious! This is great!"
"Yeah yeah, give us the details about the digimon Izzy."
"You knew about them?! Where were you then?!" Izzy heard soft quiet muttering on the other end of the line.
"Er, It's kind of hard to explain. We'll tell you about it later."
"Okay. Well, anyways. Joe, Gomamon, Tentomon, and I fought and defeated that digimon that was out there earlier, preventing it from causing anymore harm. We didn't see anymore of them out there, but there has to be something going on. I mean, it's not like you see random digimon popping out of the sky ready to destroy things everyday."
"True. So then, are you saying that we host a meeting at my place and try to sort this thing out?"
"Yes, if you wouldn't mind."
"Sure, that'd be fine!"
"Prodigious! I'll call everyone else up….. Well, Joe and I will. See you there soon Tai! Kari! T.K.! Bye" Tai heard the reassuring click of the phone hanging up on the other end of the line before hanging up his own.
"Well? What did he say?" T.K. asked. Kari looked up at her older brother whilst he looked down at both of them.
"We're holding a meeting here. Kari, can you tell mom and dad please?"
"No problem!" she said before taking off down the hallway.
"T.K., help me move the couches." T.K. nodded and followed his tall friend back into the living room. 'Well, he seems normal enough. Ah, I was probably over-worrying about the situation….. But one can never be sure, especially with digimon floating around outside. So I guess for now I'll keep a close eye on him.' T.K. stopped where he was and watched as Tai went to one end of the couch. The blond boy followed suit and went to the other end of the couch. 'A close eye on him…..'Well then, there goes the third chapter. Ah, bah, you know,
back when I first started writing my fanfics, I actually had a feel for the
characters. I could tell what they would have said, what they would have
done,..... Oh, I should dig out my tapes. I don't have that feel anymore, which
is probably why the characters seem weird, twisted, and deformed. But I try to
keep to tradition. Sorry about that everyone.
Well, anywho, now that THAT'S done, I should work on Chapter 4 of Preserving the
Future (note the should), Unwell Identity, Capturing in a New Domain, and a few
other miscellaneous stories I have started (which are not posted up yet). So,
yep. I'll be busy writing.
And one last thing. I've been thinking about the spacing and such in my stories.
Should I leave it like it is now? Or should I get rid of the indents at the
front (for easier reading maybe)..... Well, I'll think on it.
And lastly, please R&R! Thanks! And thank you for the kind and inspiring
reviews so far battraven, Litanya, coolhead15, redvind, and Taichi Kamiya.
You've all inspired me a great bunch to write more. ^_^ Ah! Long author notes at
end of chapter! ..... Keep on writing!
