Litanya: Much strangeness may come about in this chapter, mainly due to the fact that I was up until 5am partying after my school's formal. That was just a warning. Please forgive me for any typos etc. I do not own Digimon. The only things I own in this fic are the plot and the characters Entier, Emma, Steph, Josh and Melissa.

An Old Box

Chapter 12

Emma was bored. The digidestined of Nonsense was sitting in her bedroom listening to the radio, but she did not even register that music was playing. She could vaguely hear her brothers arguing over who got to play the computer, but for some reason she did not feel like getting involved. That, in itself, was a miracle. Usually she would have been arguing with them, taking her older brother's side in a war against her little brother. But now she was just… worried. What Entier had said about the Japanese destined was very true. Any one of them could wreak havoc across the islands of Japan without being able to stop. Normally she would not have been worried about it, but there was a little feeling in her stomach that was telling her that something was wrong.

"Emma, are you doing your homework?"

"Yes Mum, just doing my History essay," she lied, knowing that her mother would not bother her if she was 'doing homework.'

"Okay then," she heard her mother's footsteps retreat down the hall before she made up her mind.

'Entier won't care if I just go and check on them. Who knows, maybe I will have to save them from themselves,' for some reason Emma seemed extremely anxious to keep on the good side of Entier. It wasn't only because he was the strongest of all of the Victorian Digidestined, but also because she genuinely liked his personality. She loved all of the Victorian digidestined to pieces, although she wasn't entirely sure about Josh, but for some reason she always had to try to please Entier. She was musing about this when she realised that she would have to leave then if she wanted to get to Japan and back before dinner. She turned off the radio and within a second she was gone.

As soon as Ken entered the apartment, his lungs almost collapsed due to the amount of smoke in the room. He had only taken one small breath of the smoky air, but it felt like it was sticking to his lungs and squeezing all of the air out. He had a coughing fit that lasted for about two minutes before he managed to continue weaving his way through the furniture at the front of the apartment. He put all of the flames that he saw out with his 'gift' but the smoke was too much for him. His throat was burning and his lungs were begging for pure, plain oxygen. His coughing fits had grown so badly that he had to collapse to the ground each time to have the energy to continue. After he had been in the apartment for no more than seven minutes, he could not get himself back up off the ground to continue on. He hadn't even seen Sora or Tai and although he had tried calling out to them, he hadn't been able to make a sound. He suddenly thought that it wasn't a good idea to have gone into the apartment in the first place after all.

He crawled along on his stomach and quenched another set of flames.

"Ken is that you?" he looked up and saw Sora seated behind the flames he had just put out. By her side lay an unconscious Tai. Al least, he thought that it was Sora and Tai. His voice refused to work so he could not answer her verbally. Instead he just crawled over to her, happy to have achieved his goal at last. Now all they had to do was get out of the inferno. That is, if they could…

The room into which she had transported herself was covered in smoke.

'Oh oh, it looks like Entier was right when he said that they had dangerous powers,' Emma thought to herself. She quickly transported herself to the next room of the apartment before the smoke could settle in her lungs.

"Tai are you here?"

"Over here!" it was a girl's voice, but Emma transported herself there right away. Instinct was telling her that it was okay to use her 'gift' here. When she opened her eyes after 'teleporting' Emma found herself standing in a circle of flames. Two boys and one girl were on the floor in front of her, although one of the boys seemed to be unconscious.

"I'll get you all out of here," Emma was concerned at how injured the three teenagers looked to be. She was getting ready to transport them out when the girl spoke.

"No! There are people standing just outside the doorway, waiting for firefighters to come or for us to come out. If you just transport us out of there then they will know that we still have our 'gifts.'"

"Good point. I'll transport the three of you to the door, and then you'll be able to walk out. Will your unconscious friend be okay?" Emma could not recognise any of them because of the smoke, but she could tell that it was someone that she knew. Or at least she thought that it was.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. He has just inhaled too much smoke. Ken and I can make sure that he gets out alright. Thank you for your help."

"No problem. I'll transport you guys and then I'll go back to Australia and pick up Entier. Then we'll come back and we can all talk or something," Emma concentrated hard on getting them all to the front door. Within seconds the job was done.

"Thanks again. We'll see you later I suppose," Sora thanked her again, but Emma had already disappeared. Wordlessly, as Ken could not speak, the pair grabbed one of Tai's arms each and dragged him out of the apartment.

"Tai, Sora, Ken!" Kari cried as they emerged, exhausted, from the apartment. She immediately freed herself from T.K and raced to where Sora and Ken had placed her brother, before they too had dropped to the ground, "Is Tai okay? Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, Tai's fine, I think. He just inhaled a bit too much smoke," she winced as the wind brushed against a large burn on her left arm. The skin there was blistering and peeling and she only realised then how much her arm had been damaged. T.K looked down at the older girl, his gold eyes seeing the large burn and the pain that Sora was in.

"Sora look at your arm!" Yolie exclaimed before she realised that she should not have said anything. There was bound to be an investigation into how the fire had started and once the Police realised that a boy who had been in the room in which the fire had started had not been burnt at all, questions would be raised.

"Its fine," Sora murmured quietly, biting her tongue to keep from crying out. All that mattered was that they were all safe and going to live.

"What about you Ken? You haven't said a word the entire time," Davis pointed out, surprised at the lack of speech from their pink-eyed friend.

"He's suffering from inhaling too much smoke too. It attacks the voice-box and so he can't speak at the moment," Ken nodded in agreement with Sora's explanation and the conversation lapsed into silence. T.K bent down next to Sora's arm, grabbing it in his left arm as though he were just testing to see if it was alright. Within minutes the pain had disappeared from her arm, although the appearance of a bad burn still shone through.

"Thank you T.K," Sora whispered casually to him, as though she was asking him the time. He smiled and looked at his watch.

"It's two o'clock in the afternoon Sora. You were only in there for about half an hour I think," he knew how to play the game. They had to lie to protect themselves from persecution, because if people found out about their 'gifts' then they would be hunted down and killed for being 'dangerous.'

"Ken, Yolie, Sora, Davis, Cody and Kari it's nice to see you again," they whirled around to see who it was that was talking to them. It was Entier, with Emma walking beside him.

"Hey Entier, Emma," Davis greeted them, nodding at them in turn, "What brings you to Japan?"

"Well, I have always wanted to come here and so we decided to come here on a trip around the country. We're in Odaiba today and so we thought that we would stop in for a little chat," Emma replied cheerfully, managing to catch Sora's eye. She winked quickly and went on happily, "Japan is such a great country! I mean, Australia is better but the history of Japan is intriguing compared to young Australia's. That's what makes this place such a great holiday destination." Emma certainly knew how to waffle on to discard all suspicions that the listeners may have about her.

"Yeah, Emma and I have only been here for two days and we have already seen some amazing sights… hey, what happened here anyway?" Entier acted out his surprise well, as if he had only just realised that three of the teenagers before him were injured.

"There was a fire in our apartment. Tai was trapped in there for a while, and Sora and Ken went in to help get him out. They're all injured now in some way, so we have to wait for the ambulance to come," Kari explained, her small hand wrapped around her brother's. She was desperate to see him wake up.

"That terrible!" Emma exclaimed, her eyes as round as dinner plates, "How did the fire start?"

"We're not too sure. It started in Tai's room and he was the only one in there. We're going to have to wait until he is better to find out."

"We need to talk to the digidestined here that were 'experimented' on. It is vital information that we picked up regarding the technique 'Master' used. Josh, Steph and Melissa, the other three Victorian digidestined, are also here in Japan. We were wondering if you could all meet in the park tomorrow. We're all here until late tomorrow night, so if we meet tomorrow afternoon everyone should be able to come. Can we meet at this time tomorrow?" the Japanese destined exchanged glances.

"Yeah, I suppose that we can, and I know that we should," Davis answered for them all, taking charge because Tai was unable to. Emma's smile seemed to relax a little, as though she was relieved about something. That made T.K a little nervous as until then he had not realised that she had been tense.

"Can the destined that have not been 'experimented' on come too?" it was naturally Kari that asked this question.

"No, it would not be a good idea. What we are going to discuss may sound gruesome and torturous to those who have not experienced the 'experiments.' We do not want to scare anyone," Entier told her smoothly, making up a good excuse to keep them away. In the distance the wail of an ambulance siren could be heard coming closer and closer.

"We have to go now, but we'll see some of you tomorrow. We have a trip around the city to do yet, and I really hate ambulances. See you mates!" and with that Emma and Entier left the building.

"That was… weird," Sora admitted, watching the couple walk away. She had an idea what the meeting was going to be about, but she found the whole lie setting the meeting up strange. She had never met Emma before, until the girl had saved them from the fire, but even with that small meeting Sora had found her… nonsensical would be an appropriate word. She only hoped that the rest of the Victorian digidestined were not as strange as she was…

"Steph, come on! We've got to go," the two girls rushed out of their English class and breathed a sigh of relief. English was not their favourite class, but that was not the reason why they were rushing. They were going to have a meeting with Entier, Melissa and Josh before they left to meet the Japanese destined.

"Guys, don't forget about me!" Melissa called, stopping the two girls before they got to their lockers. Melissa had not had school that day as the VCE students had the day off after exams. Emma and Steph were IB students, which meant that they did not have exams and therefore, no day off. Emma and Steph packed the books they needed into their already bulging school bags before the three of them made their way to a deserted classroom. Melissa checked that they could not be seen before Emma transported them to the same park they had met at the day before.

"You girls sure took your time," Josh joked as they arrived at the park.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in why don't you? It's not fair, why did we have to go to school today?" Steph dumped her bag on the ground so that she could stand without leaning precariously backwards from the weight of it. Emma's bag soon followed.

"Well, as you all know, we are going to have a meeting with the Japanese 'experimented' on digidestined. I'm hoping that they can all make it," Entier turned the conversation back to the matter at hand, his grey-blue eyes reflecting the seriousness of the situation.

"What are we going to tell them? Are we going to tell them our plan to live in the Digital World where we cannot harm others?" Melissa seemed desperate for this plan.

"Melissa, remember that Matt wasn't 'experimented' on. That means that he would stay here," Steph reminded her, knowing of the crush that Melissa had on the blond-haired musician. Melissa turned a little pink, but she did not say anything. She knew that arguing on this point would be futile and time-wasting.

"We could do that, but not all of them have dangerous 'gifts'. Take T.K for instance. His 'gift' is of healing and therefore he poses as no threat to anyone here. If he decided to become a doctor, he could heal all his patients successfully and without suspicion. I have also noticed that he seems to be enamored with Tai's little sister Kari, who is one of the 'normal' destined. He may not be prepared to leave her behind. I think that we should give them a choice of whether they want to go or not," there was a short silence after Entier's speech whilst the others considered it.

"I agree with you," Emma said softly, gazing at the ground. For some reason she looked as though her mind was wandering, but it wasn't the same as when she was off in her 'other world.' Entier knew the reason behind her behavior, but he did not mention it. They had made their decisions; it was now time for the others to do the same.

"I agree with you too. I love the Digital World and all but… I don't think that I could leave Matt behind," Melissa seemed to be juggling her priorities inside in an inner struggle. Entier was not sure what she would decide when the time came.

"I personally think that it would be better if we were all away from where we could hurt others, but we could make exceptions for 'gifts' which are not very dangerous," Steph pondered aloud before she nodded, showing that she agreed. By her side Josh just nodded in agreement, he too deep in thought.

"I need to know your decisions now. Are you going to go to the Digital World for the rest of your lives or are you going to stay here?" there was a definite tone to Entier's voice. He had asked the question and he was not going to let them leave until they answered it.

"You know that I'll go Entier," Emma's voice again was soft, and also a little sad, "My 'gift' can prove to be dangerous… what if I accidentally take the steering wheel out of a moving car? That's not really my reason for going, but you know what that is anyway."

"I'll stay. My 'gift' is not really dangerous and I want to stay here with Matt. If things don't work out between us then… maybe I'll find my way there somehow," Melissa did not really want to part with her friends, but love can do that to some people.

"We'll be going," Josh and Steph answered at the same time. Josh stopped and let Steph continue, "We were talking about this yesterday. We knew this was going to happen for some reason. I love the Digital World and I want to get away from my crazy family, at least for a while, so leaving is the answer. Also, my speed is dangerous. What if… I know what I mean. We want to go." She finished simply, at a loss of how to explain why.

"Yeah, in the Digital World there are not many animals that I can speak to. That means I have only a small chance of losing my sanity. I think that leaving is the answer for us," Josh agreed.

"Alright, and I am leaving too. We'd better leave for Japan now. I'll explain on the way…" and with that Emma transported them away…

To be continued…

End of Chapter 12

Litanya: That concentrated more on the Victorian digidestined, but it sets up the rest of the fic I think. It is almost finished, I promise. Probably only one more chapter and an epilogue, but it might be longer or shorter or something. Please RR and I'll try to update as soon as I can. Oh and Steph, from now on the character of Emma probably won't be based on the real me, as you have probably seen in this chapter. But it is me in a way…