Part 4 - Mike's Digi Shack
"Pleaaaase?"
"No."
"Aw, come on…"
"No!"
"Riikaaaaa…"
Shameless beggar…
If the average person saw Takato and I walking down the street, they'd instantly 'know' that I was the one in charge. I lead, he follows. I raise my voice slightly, or give it an edge, and he backs down, no questions asked.
The truth of the matter is that Takato only submits because he wants to. We enjoy spending time with each other, and he knows that one of the ways I enjoy myself is by asserting my superiority over other people, especially him. We have a lot of the same interests, if highly different skill levels, but he objects at first and backs down just to make me happy. We both know it, and know the other knows it, but I still get a happy little glow inside when he lets out that meek little 'yes Rika', and goes with whatever I have planned.
But on the rare occasion that Takato wants to do something I don't want to, however, I don't stand a chance. But I try, damn it.
Maybe I just need to give myself a little pep talk.
Okay Rika, you can do this. Stay firm, be confident, and, whatever you do, under no circumstances do you look directly in his eyes…
When Takato really wants something, like he does right now, he begs. He's a natural pro, and his being around BlackGuilmon only helps him perfect his technique. The real trick is his eyes. Somehow his eyes make it look as if he'll die unless he gets his way.
I stamp my foot in frustration, looking skyward to avoid him.
"Look, Takato, I don't care if you go, but I certainly…"
He lets out a small whimper, which he could only have learned from BlackGuilmon, and I look down out of instinct, directly into his eyes.
Crap.
"Uuuuaagh! Alright already, I'll go!"
The expression of despair instantly fades and is replaced by a look of joy.
Deceitful little…
He runs up and pulls me into a tight hug, before running out of the room.
Great…
I really don't want to go.
I didn't want to go to the digimon convention. I still maintain that Renamon is a girl's best friend, but guys gawked at me enough when I was fourteen, I don't even want to think about how many of them will now that I'm nineteen.
"Hey Rika!"
I rolled my eyes and turned around.
"Yeah Takato?"
He grinned at me.
"I'm doing this for your own good. You should really defend your title…"
He tossed a scrap of paper at me. I unfolded it. It had a couple of flashy digimon pictures on it, and a lot of text. A portion was highlighted, so I read that first.
'Returning this year to the tournament is Jamie Carter, the one and only Digimon King! He offers all comers the chance to dethrone him!'
I arched an eyebrow. I glanced at the tournament date and saw it for today. Registration would be over in two hours.
This kid's dead.
I grabbed my deck and hurried out the door. Takato already had the car warmed up. I ran around to the other side and slid in, hurrying to put my seatbelt in place.
"Where are the others?"
He shrugged as he pulled out of the driveway.
"They took the van we rented out there already."
"So we're late?"
"Essentially."
I grinned at him.
"Convention center Gogglehead. Step on it."
"Yes Ma'am!"
Funny thing is though, no matter how much I don't want to go with him initially, he always finds some way for me to enjoy myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're full of it Mako."
"I am not! You can even ask Ai, she was there!"
Doroon was kind of an odd looking guy. He had dark blue hair with rings of gray in it, all spiked up, which makes it look weird, because his hair has a blue-gray-blue-gray pattern in it. Horizontally. And just to throw anyone off, his eyes are yellow.
He says it's natural, and I believe him. His hair is actually soft, not stiff like you would expect in spiked hair. And besides, Doroon isn't the kind of guy you would associate with dyed hair and colored contacts. Doroon is a quiet kind of guy, but still often goes pranking with Impmon and me.
Doroon turned to look at Ai, who naturally blushed. She replied, but you had to listen to hear her.
"He's telling the truth…"
Doroon's eyes widened. If there's anything in life that's constant, it's the fact that Ai is completely incapable of lying to Doroon.
Especially for me.
"Wow."
The doors 'dinged' then, and we got off the subway car and made our way to the street. Impmon jumped off the roof of the car and followed us up, staying high to avoid being seen until we reached the street, where it was easy enough to pretend he was in costume and make our way over to the convention center. I grinned over at Doroon.
"You should have seen Davis. He was soooo cool!"
Doroon and Ai just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I sneezed suddenly, calling the attention of the man in the booth named 'Mike's Digi Shack'. I had been trying to slip past unnoticed, largely because so many other people noticeably avoiding it as well.
And when in Rome…
Contrary to popular belief, I'm not quite that stupid. In any event I tried to hurry out of the guy's immediate line of sight.
"Hey, you there, in the goggles!"
Oh boy…
Since 'in the goggles' described half the people here, I wasn't the only one who stopped. The short, balding man singled me out by pointing though. Veemon ducked into the crowd.
"You, get over here. What's your name, son?"
I gulped a little.
"Dav…"
Oh that's smooth Davis. Tell him your real name and make him think you've completely flipped your lid.
"Okay, Dave. You're going to be today's contestant."
Contestant? That doesn't sound so bad…
"What's the prize?"
The little man grinned and held up a card deck.
"This deck. It has all sorts of super rare cards!"
I grinned.
This might not be so bad after all…
"Great."
He pointed over to a door as he continued.
"You see that door? Through that door is an obstacle course. In it are five rare cards you need you get. If you get them all, you get the deck. We'll be watching on the monitors to see your progress. Oh, and take this."
He handed me a small box with a button under a collapsible lid.
"What is it?"
"It's in case you want to quit."
Oh…
Oh well, what's the worst that could happen?
I walked over and went through the door, going down the stairs. As the door closed, I heard something I didn't like.
"Don't worry, folks. A competent medical team is standing by."
Card 1:
Two minutes later I was standing in front of the first card. I'd had to climb over some man-made hills, and walk around a patch of mud just now, but nothing too serious. I looked at the card in front of me. I looked around. I still saw nothing.
Too bad I didn't look up. Hindsight is 20/20 is suppose.
I grabbed the card. When I did, I heard a rumble above me. I looked up, and ran as a gout of flame shot down over my position.
Whew…
Huh? Is something burning?
I looked back. The fire was eating it's way through my shirt.
"AHHHHH!!!!!"
I ran and dove into the mud pit, finally understanding why it was there. The fire went out pretty fast.
Oh man…
I lay there for a moment, just letting my back soak up the coolness of the mud. Then I got up and decided to press on.
I've been through worse, right?
Card 2:
After several more generic obstacles, I came to a long hallway. I looked at it skeptically, especially after the fire thing from the first card. The card was near the door out of the hall, hanging by a thread above it.
I took a cautious step out into the hall.
Nothing.
Another step nothing.
I went on like this for several more yards, but nothing happened.
Deciding that the flamethrower in the first part was enough to make anyone else who had played quit, I jogged towards the card.
Out of nowhere, something cold and wet hit me in several places. I went down in pain. Then I rolled over and looked up. There was slush being fired out of what looked like pitching machines all along both sides of the hallway.
Fantastic.
I lay there for a moment, thinking. Then I was cursing in pain because the machines were flinging the stuff down now.
I got up and made a dash for the front, ripping the card off the string as I passed, being pelted all the way. I slammed the door behind me and leaned there, gasping for breath.
It can't get much worse, right?
Card 3:
It just sat there on the table. I could just reach out and grab it right now.
Surely they don't think I'm that stupid.
I looked up, down, side to side, behind me and under the table. For the life of me, I still couldn't figure out what the trick was.
Well, they've already set me on fire and smashed me with slush. What could be more painful, right?
Apparently being electrocuted while still wet from the slush is quite a bit more painful. When I lifted the card, two nubs shot out from under it, attaching to my chest, completing the circuit for the tazer.
I lay on the ground for a few minutes before pushing myself into a sitting position. Then I sat there for a bit before forging ahead.
Card 4:
Oh there's no way this is right…
It was a big room. Really big. There was absolutely nothing in it, except the card, which was on the ground in front of the customary door out. I sighed. No matter what happened to me, quitting was not an option. I had too much pride at stake here.
I guess the only thing to do is to go in and see what's there.
I took a few cautious steps in, ready to bolt out of the room if need be.
Five feet…
Ten feet…
Fifteen feet…
Twen…
At this point I fell about five feet, into the bottom of a hole. Short enough for me to pull myself out of, but high enough to make the drop hurt. Grumbling, I pulled myself up onto the ledge and lay down on my back recovering. This was really beginning to wear me down. I rolled away from the hole to get to my feet.
And fell into another hole.
"DAMN IT!"
Card 5:
There's no way in hell I'm falling for this again…
Like the previous room, the room was large, but almost completely empty. The only things I could see were the card, which was on a pedestal bathed in a shaft of light, and the other door out, and presumably to safety.
The other thing the two rooms held in common was that I would have to walk into it in order to find out what the deal was.
Five feet…
Ten feet…
Fift…
There was a smacking sound as I ran right into something. Feeling around, I felt kind of like a mime, because there were walls there, I just couldn't see them.
This is gonna be a long day…
About a half hour of cursing later I had finally made my way to the pedestal. I looked all around, inspected the pillar carefully, and even made a mock grab for the card.
Nothing happened.
I sighed, and prepared for the worst, like machine gun fire or something.
I took the card.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, a klaxon blared and the walls illuminated green and went up.
Huh?
I… won? Nothing bad is gonna happen?
Then, from above me, I heard a scream. I couldn't tell what the words were, but the person was angry, and they were female. Instinctively, I looked up, but I saw nothing but the grating the light was pouring in through high above me.
Then, the light blanked out suddenly as I was covered in a chunk fluid that smelled suspiciously of puke.
I wiped it off my face and looked around. Seeing nothing, I let out a scream of pure rage as if to counter the one that had tricked me before.
Sufficiently sated for now, I headed for the door. I was almost there when the door burst in and five guys in white uniforms burst in.
I took aim and let loose with my fist, laying one of them out. The others slowly backed off, then turned and ran for the exit. I wandered out.
When I got up the stairs, the bald guy was looking at me like an I was an idiot.
"Why did you punch out that Paramedic?"
"They were Paramedics?"
The guy looked at me incredulously.
"You didn't know they were Paramedics?!!"
I looked at him strangely.
"I thought the last obstacle was to take out some karate guys or something."
The guy just stared at me for a second, so I moved on.
"You know, a lot of that stuff was downright dangerous. That actually wasn't too bad. But did you really have to dump puke on me?"
The manager looked embarrassed for a second.
"Actually, that wasn't supposed to happen. It was a freak accident."
Great. My lucky day.
He then directed me to a hanging shower where I washed off. When I got out, there was a new shirt waiting for me along with the rest of my stuff. It was blue, and had plain black lettering that read:
I cheated death at Mike's Digi Shack
I put on the other clothes, including my new shirt, which was really the least they could do since they ruined my other one, and walked out onto a stage. There were instant cheers and applause from all around as I walked out.
Well, except the Paramedic team, one of them with bandages over his nose, flipped me the bird, but I could see where they were coming from.
As the applause died down, the manager came up to me and handed me the deck. He spoke into a microphone.
"Dave, in five years of doing this, I've never one seen anyone win. Congratulations. Now get out of here."
I put the deck in my pocket and walked down the stairs. When I finally managed to ditch the crowd, Veemon joined up with me again.
"You're the bravest guy I know Davis."
I looked down at him, and thought about all I'd just gone through for a deck of cards.
"I'd better be."
"Pleaaaase?"
"No."
"Aw, come on…"
"No!"
"Riikaaaaa…"
Shameless beggar…
If the average person saw Takato and I walking down the street, they'd instantly 'know' that I was the one in charge. I lead, he follows. I raise my voice slightly, or give it an edge, and he backs down, no questions asked.
The truth of the matter is that Takato only submits because he wants to. We enjoy spending time with each other, and he knows that one of the ways I enjoy myself is by asserting my superiority over other people, especially him. We have a lot of the same interests, if highly different skill levels, but he objects at first and backs down just to make me happy. We both know it, and know the other knows it, but I still get a happy little glow inside when he lets out that meek little 'yes Rika', and goes with whatever I have planned.
But on the rare occasion that Takato wants to do something I don't want to, however, I don't stand a chance. But I try, damn it.
Maybe I just need to give myself a little pep talk.
Okay Rika, you can do this. Stay firm, be confident, and, whatever you do, under no circumstances do you look directly in his eyes…
When Takato really wants something, like he does right now, he begs. He's a natural pro, and his being around BlackGuilmon only helps him perfect his technique. The real trick is his eyes. Somehow his eyes make it look as if he'll die unless he gets his way.
I stamp my foot in frustration, looking skyward to avoid him.
"Look, Takato, I don't care if you go, but I certainly…"
He lets out a small whimper, which he could only have learned from BlackGuilmon, and I look down out of instinct, directly into his eyes.
Crap.
"Uuuuaagh! Alright already, I'll go!"
The expression of despair instantly fades and is replaced by a look of joy.
Deceitful little…
He runs up and pulls me into a tight hug, before running out of the room.
Great…
I really don't want to go.
I didn't want to go to the digimon convention. I still maintain that Renamon is a girl's best friend, but guys gawked at me enough when I was fourteen, I don't even want to think about how many of them will now that I'm nineteen.
"Hey Rika!"
I rolled my eyes and turned around.
"Yeah Takato?"
He grinned at me.
"I'm doing this for your own good. You should really defend your title…"
He tossed a scrap of paper at me. I unfolded it. It had a couple of flashy digimon pictures on it, and a lot of text. A portion was highlighted, so I read that first.
'Returning this year to the tournament is Jamie Carter, the one and only Digimon King! He offers all comers the chance to dethrone him!'
I arched an eyebrow. I glanced at the tournament date and saw it for today. Registration would be over in two hours.
This kid's dead.
I grabbed my deck and hurried out the door. Takato already had the car warmed up. I ran around to the other side and slid in, hurrying to put my seatbelt in place.
"Where are the others?"
He shrugged as he pulled out of the driveway.
"They took the van we rented out there already."
"So we're late?"
"Essentially."
I grinned at him.
"Convention center Gogglehead. Step on it."
"Yes Ma'am!"
Funny thing is though, no matter how much I don't want to go with him initially, he always finds some way for me to enjoy myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're full of it Mako."
"I am not! You can even ask Ai, she was there!"
Doroon was kind of an odd looking guy. He had dark blue hair with rings of gray in it, all spiked up, which makes it look weird, because his hair has a blue-gray-blue-gray pattern in it. Horizontally. And just to throw anyone off, his eyes are yellow.
He says it's natural, and I believe him. His hair is actually soft, not stiff like you would expect in spiked hair. And besides, Doroon isn't the kind of guy you would associate with dyed hair and colored contacts. Doroon is a quiet kind of guy, but still often goes pranking with Impmon and me.
Doroon turned to look at Ai, who naturally blushed. She replied, but you had to listen to hear her.
"He's telling the truth…"
Doroon's eyes widened. If there's anything in life that's constant, it's the fact that Ai is completely incapable of lying to Doroon.
Especially for me.
"Wow."
The doors 'dinged' then, and we got off the subway car and made our way to the street. Impmon jumped off the roof of the car and followed us up, staying high to avoid being seen until we reached the street, where it was easy enough to pretend he was in costume and make our way over to the convention center. I grinned over at Doroon.
"You should have seen Davis. He was soooo cool!"
Doroon and Ai just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I sneezed suddenly, calling the attention of the man in the booth named 'Mike's Digi Shack'. I had been trying to slip past unnoticed, largely because so many other people noticeably avoiding it as well.
And when in Rome…
Contrary to popular belief, I'm not quite that stupid. In any event I tried to hurry out of the guy's immediate line of sight.
"Hey, you there, in the goggles!"
Oh boy…
Since 'in the goggles' described half the people here, I wasn't the only one who stopped. The short, balding man singled me out by pointing though. Veemon ducked into the crowd.
"You, get over here. What's your name, son?"
I gulped a little.
"Dav…"
Oh that's smooth Davis. Tell him your real name and make him think you've completely flipped your lid.
"Okay, Dave. You're going to be today's contestant."
Contestant? That doesn't sound so bad…
"What's the prize?"
The little man grinned and held up a card deck.
"This deck. It has all sorts of super rare cards!"
I grinned.
This might not be so bad after all…
"Great."
He pointed over to a door as he continued.
"You see that door? Through that door is an obstacle course. In it are five rare cards you need you get. If you get them all, you get the deck. We'll be watching on the monitors to see your progress. Oh, and take this."
He handed me a small box with a button under a collapsible lid.
"What is it?"
"It's in case you want to quit."
Oh…
Oh well, what's the worst that could happen?
I walked over and went through the door, going down the stairs. As the door closed, I heard something I didn't like.
"Don't worry, folks. A competent medical team is standing by."
Card 1:
Two minutes later I was standing in front of the first card. I'd had to climb over some man-made hills, and walk around a patch of mud just now, but nothing too serious. I looked at the card in front of me. I looked around. I still saw nothing.
Too bad I didn't look up. Hindsight is 20/20 is suppose.
I grabbed the card. When I did, I heard a rumble above me. I looked up, and ran as a gout of flame shot down over my position.
Whew…
Huh? Is something burning?
I looked back. The fire was eating it's way through my shirt.
"AHHHHH!!!!!"
I ran and dove into the mud pit, finally understanding why it was there. The fire went out pretty fast.
Oh man…
I lay there for a moment, just letting my back soak up the coolness of the mud. Then I got up and decided to press on.
I've been through worse, right?
Card 2:
After several more generic obstacles, I came to a long hallway. I looked at it skeptically, especially after the fire thing from the first card. The card was near the door out of the hall, hanging by a thread above it.
I took a cautious step out into the hall.
Nothing.
Another step nothing.
I went on like this for several more yards, but nothing happened.
Deciding that the flamethrower in the first part was enough to make anyone else who had played quit, I jogged towards the card.
Out of nowhere, something cold and wet hit me in several places. I went down in pain. Then I rolled over and looked up. There was slush being fired out of what looked like pitching machines all along both sides of the hallway.
Fantastic.
I lay there for a moment, thinking. Then I was cursing in pain because the machines were flinging the stuff down now.
I got up and made a dash for the front, ripping the card off the string as I passed, being pelted all the way. I slammed the door behind me and leaned there, gasping for breath.
It can't get much worse, right?
Card 3:
It just sat there on the table. I could just reach out and grab it right now.
Surely they don't think I'm that stupid.
I looked up, down, side to side, behind me and under the table. For the life of me, I still couldn't figure out what the trick was.
Well, they've already set me on fire and smashed me with slush. What could be more painful, right?
Apparently being electrocuted while still wet from the slush is quite a bit more painful. When I lifted the card, two nubs shot out from under it, attaching to my chest, completing the circuit for the tazer.
I lay on the ground for a few minutes before pushing myself into a sitting position. Then I sat there for a bit before forging ahead.
Card 4:
Oh there's no way this is right…
It was a big room. Really big. There was absolutely nothing in it, except the card, which was on the ground in front of the customary door out. I sighed. No matter what happened to me, quitting was not an option. I had too much pride at stake here.
I guess the only thing to do is to go in and see what's there.
I took a few cautious steps in, ready to bolt out of the room if need be.
Five feet…
Ten feet…
Fifteen feet…
Twen…
At this point I fell about five feet, into the bottom of a hole. Short enough for me to pull myself out of, but high enough to make the drop hurt. Grumbling, I pulled myself up onto the ledge and lay down on my back recovering. This was really beginning to wear me down. I rolled away from the hole to get to my feet.
And fell into another hole.
"DAMN IT!"
Card 5:
There's no way in hell I'm falling for this again…
Like the previous room, the room was large, but almost completely empty. The only things I could see were the card, which was on a pedestal bathed in a shaft of light, and the other door out, and presumably to safety.
The other thing the two rooms held in common was that I would have to walk into it in order to find out what the deal was.
Five feet…
Ten feet…
Fift…
There was a smacking sound as I ran right into something. Feeling around, I felt kind of like a mime, because there were walls there, I just couldn't see them.
This is gonna be a long day…
About a half hour of cursing later I had finally made my way to the pedestal. I looked all around, inspected the pillar carefully, and even made a mock grab for the card.
Nothing happened.
I sighed, and prepared for the worst, like machine gun fire or something.
I took the card.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, a klaxon blared and the walls illuminated green and went up.
Huh?
I… won? Nothing bad is gonna happen?
Then, from above me, I heard a scream. I couldn't tell what the words were, but the person was angry, and they were female. Instinctively, I looked up, but I saw nothing but the grating the light was pouring in through high above me.
Then, the light blanked out suddenly as I was covered in a chunk fluid that smelled suspiciously of puke.
I wiped it off my face and looked around. Seeing nothing, I let out a scream of pure rage as if to counter the one that had tricked me before.
Sufficiently sated for now, I headed for the door. I was almost there when the door burst in and five guys in white uniforms burst in.
I took aim and let loose with my fist, laying one of them out. The others slowly backed off, then turned and ran for the exit. I wandered out.
When I got up the stairs, the bald guy was looking at me like an I was an idiot.
"Why did you punch out that Paramedic?"
"They were Paramedics?"
The guy looked at me incredulously.
"You didn't know they were Paramedics?!!"
I looked at him strangely.
"I thought the last obstacle was to take out some karate guys or something."
The guy just stared at me for a second, so I moved on.
"You know, a lot of that stuff was downright dangerous. That actually wasn't too bad. But did you really have to dump puke on me?"
The manager looked embarrassed for a second.
"Actually, that wasn't supposed to happen. It was a freak accident."
Great. My lucky day.
He then directed me to a hanging shower where I washed off. When I got out, there was a new shirt waiting for me along with the rest of my stuff. It was blue, and had plain black lettering that read:
I cheated death at Mike's Digi Shack
I put on the other clothes, including my new shirt, which was really the least they could do since they ruined my other one, and walked out onto a stage. There were instant cheers and applause from all around as I walked out.
Well, except the Paramedic team, one of them with bandages over his nose, flipped me the bird, but I could see where they were coming from.
As the applause died down, the manager came up to me and handed me the deck. He spoke into a microphone.
"Dave, in five years of doing this, I've never one seen anyone win. Congratulations. Now get out of here."
I put the deck in my pocket and walked down the stairs. When I finally managed to ditch the crowd, Veemon joined up with me again.
"You're the bravest guy I know Davis."
I looked down at him, and thought about all I'd just gone through for a deck of cards.
"I'd better be."