Notes: Well, the Yumi's Excellent Adventure Arc is finished. Now it's time to go back to Ken/Jeremy and Odd/Davis.
Chapter 8Odd had secrets, more specific, a secret. It was a secret he wouldn't trust to anybody, even his friends. And as he met Davis after school that Monday evening he was willing to finally reveal that secret. "Um… Davis?" He said as Davis stopped by the snack machines. "I was wondering."
"Hmm?" Davis asked, as he looked over the soda machines, trying to pick out soda for him and candy for Demiveemon.
"My mother sent me my allowance, and I was wondering if I could take you out for pizza tonight?" Odd asked, flushing red. His voice squeaked and Odd cleared it, trying to sound calm, nonchalant you know?
"Odd, are you asking me on a DATE?" Davis asked, eyes widening.
"Uh… yeah." Odd smiled shyly. "I guess I am."
Davis grinned like a fool. He swept Odd into his arms. "I'd love to! Tonight you said? What time?"
"Um… Is six o'clock okay?" Odd asked, eyes widening.
"Six o' clock is fine!" Davis said, exhilarated. He leaned in and kissed Odd gently on the lips.
Odd flushed, responding to the kiss. He reached up to kiss back. Davis slid his tongue along Odd's lips. Odd opened his mouth, all too willing to be kissed. Odd's right leg curled up behind him.
Too soon, they pulled away. Panting, Odd leaned back against the wall. "That was wonderful." Odd sighed as he sat down against the wall of the shed.
"See you later." Davis grinned. "Meet you at the gate at six."
"Yeah." Odd said, still a bit dazed from the kiss. "Gate at six." He hugged his backpack to him, giggling to himself. "A date! I got a date!"
"What's got you so happy?" Ulrich asked. He and Jeremy had come by to get an afternoon snack.
"I got a DATE!!!" Odd said with a wicked grin. "I got a date tonight for pizza at six!"
"Congratulations." Jeremy said, rolling his eyes.
"Nice job." Ulrich thumped him on the back.
"So where is Yumi keeping herself this afternoon Ulrich? I thought you two would be hanging out together." Odd asked, still flushed from the kiss.
Ulrich rolled his eyes. "She's training with Renamon. And she wanted to make sure that the Guardians finished cleaning up the mess that X.A.N.A. made of their castle."
"Well then. Shall we head down to the factory until dinner?" Odd asked cheerfully.
"Let's do it then." Jeremy stuffed his snacks and soda into his backpack.
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Meanwhile, Davis, absolutely flabbergasted at Odd's response to him, swung into their dorm. "Guess what!"
"What?" Ken asked, from where he was hooking up his PC and Laptop.
"Odd asked me on a DATE!!" Davis exclaimed, slamming the door behind him so hard that the room rocked.
"You sure sound happy about it. Is that why you stopped being so glum about T.K. dumping you for Kari?" Asked Ken.
"Well, sort of. I don't want to talk about that." Davis went over to his dresser and fingered the pink triangle necklace that T.K. had made in Metal Shop for him. He looped it around his neck. "You know, I think I'll wear this tonight. What about you, are you ever going to get down to it and ask Jeremy out?"
"I don't really know." Ken sighed. "I mean, he's smart, he's cute, he's probably got a gazillion girls hanging onto his every word."
"Have you ever SEEN any girls asking him out." Asked Davis with a smirk.
"No, now that I think of it, I haven't."
"So ask him out!" Davis gave Demiveemon his cookies. "There you go buddy."
"YEAY!" Demiveemon opened the package with his tiny paws and stuck his mouth in. He polished off the cookies in two mouthfuls, burped, and sighed, lying back on the bed. "Yummy Davis, can I have more?"
"Sorry buddy, the rest are for me."
Wormon rolled his eyes. "Remember when you rejoined the Digidestined Ken? Remember how afraid you were that they'd reject you because you were the Digimon Emperor?"
"Yeah, I do." Ken thought back to that nightmarish time of his life. Made all the more real by Wormon's death and rebirth.
"Well, you didn't know if they'd take you in and you tried right? You got up the courage to try. That's the important part. How do you know if Jeremy will love you if you don't get up the courage to ask?" Asked Wormon.
"You're right." Ken sighed. "Look, I'll find the right time. I just need to find the right time alright?"
"Good enough." Davis grinned. He was digging through his clothes to find a good outfit for the date. "Let's see. Yumi wears a collar, but I don't think it looks good on me."
Ken chuckled. He dug through his own clothes. "You're about my size. Let's see… How about my old school uniform? I doubt that he'll recognize it."
"Naw, I want it to be my own… wait a minute. Ken do you have that jacket you wore the day Paildramon digivolved, the one with the blue fire and the fur ruff?"
"Sure, why?" Ken asked.
"Can I borrow it?" Davis asked hopefully. "I'll wear that, t-shirt, and my goggles. Then…" Davis dug out the leather pants that his sister had bought him for his last birthday. "This will be soooo perfect for it." He laid out the outfit and sat down to do homework with Ken. Time seemed to crawl by.
Finally the clock said five of six. Davis dressed and headed down to the gates of the school. Everybody else was at dinner, and Davis' stomach was growling. Odd was waiting for him. "Ready to go?" He asked.
"Sure." Davis said with his usual charming grin.
They walked towards the pizza parlor a couple of blocks down. It was good to have somebody he could talk, "Gay Talk" with. "So." Odd asked. "When did you realize you were gay?"
"When I met T.K., well, his real name is Takeru Takaishi. But he likes T.K. better. I saw him, and… well… I needed him… it took me awhile, and then when I met this Lesbian named Kathy, she gave a name for it, Gay. So soon after I asked T.K. out on a date." Davis snorted. "He liked me, for awhile. Then KARI found out about it. And to think that I almost liked her. But she convinced T.K. to go out with HER and not ME." Davis sighed, sipping his soda wearily.
"I didn't mean to upset you." Odd said kindly.
"So how did YOU find out you were Gay?" Davis asked curiously.
"Well when you're having wet dreams about your roommate, you KNOW there's something wrong!" Odd laughed. "Ulrich liked Yumi though, and he's practically got every girl in the school hanging off his arm when she's not with him. He downplays it though. And he's totally loyal to Yumi. You gotta admire a guy like that you know?"
Davis chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Not like T.K." He growled.
"Don't be bitter, you've got me now remember?" Odd asked, taking Davis' hand across the table.
"Yeah, you're right."
It was Davis who said. "Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?"
"Yeah, it is." Odd wiped his forehead dramatically with a napkin. "Weird ain't it? This place is usually as cold as the arctic circle. They keep the air conditioning up really high."
That was when the cry rose up from the ordering computer. "What the Hell?"
"What's wrong?" Asked the manager.
"A weird symbol just appeared on my console boss!"
"Jenna! The oven's up too high! It won't cool down!"
The cellphone went off. "Odd!" Jeremy cried, frantically into the phone. "X.A.N.A.'s activated a tower. I know you're on a date but isn't there anything you can do?"
"Jeremy, I think X.A.N.A.'s targeting me." Odd whispered into the phone "The climate control at the pizza place is going berserk."
"Oh Hell. Stand your ground. Yumi and Ulrich are heading in, and Yumi's bringing Renamon with her."
"Good. Great, my date ruined by X.A.N.A." Odd rolled his eyes.
"Sir at this rate the oven will catch fire!" Cried one of the cooks.
"Get everyone…"
Odd raced back to Davis just in time. "Davis we need to get out of…"
The oven exploded. Odd shoved Davis out of the way. He was burned slightly, certainly singed, and knocked out by an explosion that knocked the glass from the windows and doors. Davis was shielded from the worst of the shrapnel from the windows. Davis coughed, choking on the smoke from the fire. "Odd! Odd wake up!"
Odd was out cold, and at this rate the smoke and fire would kill them both. Davis had no choice. "It's okay Odd. I'll get you out of here." Davis pulled out his D-Chrono and D-tector Beta. "Execute, natural beast Evolution! ShiningMagnamon!" Davis became a shining, blue and silver version of Magnamon.
Odd's eyes fluttered open, weakly. "Huh? A digimon?"
"I've got you, relax." Davis said as he scooped Odd into his arms. Odd blacked out again.
Davis punched and kicked his way through the burning restaurant, choking on the smoke. Fire was his weak point, and now he had to confront a burning building! Could his date get any worse? And what was going on? Why had the oven exploded?
Another explosion rocked the building. Davis shouldered aside a falling beam, screaming in pain as it burned through his armor. It was a nightmare. Smoke stung his eyes. He was covered in blood, ichor and burns.
The door was hanging from it's upper hinge, but it was burning hot. Davis backed up two paces, and then, screaming in pain, he shoved the half melted metal and glass out of the way. Davis set Odd down at a safe distance from the burning building and devolved. "Come on Odd, wake up! Wake up!"
"Davis?" Odd asked weakly.
"I'm here Odd."
"Hurts…" He groaned. "The fire…"
"We're outside of it now."
"X.A.N.A. started it… beware X.A.N.A. He'll kill you… he'll kill us all."
"Who IS this Xana? Odd? Odd? ODD!" Davis cried. Odd had blacked out. Davis took his pulse, barely alive. Davis began to cry.
Odd knew it was too late. He could feel his brain, his body shutting down. He could barely move his mouth to speak. Suddenly he felt it. The rush, the pull of being dragged back into the past. Just a little longer Odd. He told himself. Just a little longer and he could start again.
Odd blacked out as he returned to the past, just in time to prevent a fatality. One thought echoed in his mind as he blacked out. 'Safe.'
Davis emerged in the past, fully human and gasped. "What the Hell?"
"DAVIS!" Demiveemon glomped him happily. "Davis how was your date? Wait a minute! It hasn't happened yet! What's going on?"
"I wish the Hell I knew." Davis shuddered.
"Let's go find Odd, maybe he will be able to tell us!"
"DAVIS!!" Ken came rushing over with Wormon under one arm. "Did you just sense what I did?"
"You mean total time distortion?" Davis asked. "You mean like one minute Odd and I are half dead from smoke and the next we're here safe?"
"Hey, I didn't hear that part. Why don't you tell us all about…"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!" Sissy shrieked, running across the yard.
Davis, Ken, Yumi, Ulrich and Jeremy came running. "ODD!" Davis cried.
Unscathed, without so much as a bruise, Odd lay unconscious on the ground. "Odd, Odd wake up!" Davis shook him gently. "ODD!" Tears were forming in his eyes. A single tear fell from his eyes, sparkling.
It landed on Odd's cheek. That was when he began to stir. "Uhng…. That Digimon…" He sat up. "Hey, where am I? I survived?"
"Barely." Jeremy replied. "Stay down. Sissy went to get the nurse."
Odd snorted. "And tell her what?" He asked weakly.
"What happened to you in that restaurant?" Yumi asked worriedly.
"I was rescued by a digimon. I passed out, and the next thing I know I'm dying and Davis is bawling his head off." Odd said weakly.
"You died?" Jeremy drew back, eyes round.
"No, I BARELY made it." Odd leaned against the snack machine. "Ooog my head." He rubbed it, annoyed.
"So I wasn't dreaming?" Davis asked, eyes round. "It really happened?"
"Yes, it did. We'll explain once Odd is safely in the infirmary." Ulrich said with a growl. "On the condition that you never tell anyone. When the Nurse asks Odd, tell her that you passed out, nothing else."
"Fair enough, we have our own secrets." Ken agreed, possibly the only one who could keep calm. "So as soon as Odd's in the infirmary we'll do a trade off."
"You mean you're…" Yumi's eyes widened.
"I'm a what?" Ken asked.
"Never mind." Yumi sighed. Renamon? Meet us at the park please.That was another thing that they were practicing, calling each other in case of an emergency. From the moment that Renamon had revealed that she was telepathic Yumi had been intent on not only developing her digimon's physical strength but her psychic power too.
The nurse came running with a stretcher, and, annoying enough, Jim. "What happened?" Jim demanded.
"I passed out." Odd rubbed his head. "Ow, that smarts."
"Easy, get on the stretcher, Jim and I will carry you to the infirmary." The nurse said, easing Odd onto the stretcher.
They left. "Alright what was going on?" Davis demanded.
"The park, now, or we don't tell you." Ulrich said tersely.
That was fine with Ken, that was where Wormon and Demiveemon were supposed to be at this time of day. He followed the other children to the park. Suddenly…
WHOOSH! Renamon leapt down from the trees.
"AHH DIGIMON!" Davis and Ken cried at once."It's okay Ken, she's friendly." Yumi said, scratching Renamon soothingly on the back.
"You mean you're a digidestined too?" Davis asked, eyes round.
"Yes." Yumi said with a soft smile. "This is Renamon, my digimon. She's a rookie, but she's pretty tall. We just became digidestined a few days ago."
"What kind of digivice do you have?" Asked Ken.
"D-Chrono." Yumi held her's out and glanced at Ken and Davis expectantly.
"Ditto."
"Same here."
They held theirs out for Yumi to see.
"Well, who are your digimon?" Yumi asked.
"Sorry I'm late Davis!" Demiveemon and Wormon ran over, leaping into their respective partner's arms.
"Hi there Ken! Guess what? There's another Digidestined at your school, she's named… Oh hi!" He said, just noticing Yumi. "You must be Yumi. Renamon told us about you."
"So what's your spirit form?" Asked Ken, curious. "Mine is Lancermon, and my beast spirit is CrimsonLeomon. I'm the warrior of Darkness by the way."
"I'm the warrior of Steel." Davis put in. "My digimon forms are Mercdramon and ShiningMagnamon."
"My digimon form is Suzakumon. I don't have my beast spirit yet." Yumi said shyly. "And I'm the warrior of wind."
"Alright! We've got our wind warrior." Davis and Ken gave each other a high five.
"So what saved us?" Davis asked.
Between Jeremy, Yumi and Ulrich they managed to explain about the factory, X.A.N.A. and Aelita. "So we're trying to work the bugs out of the virus that X.A.N.A. planted in Aelita and get the two new scanners up and running." Jeremy finished. "We were going to invite you to join us once the two new scanners were running. We need all the help we can get."
"I can't wait!" Davis grinned. "I'll get Xana for what he almost did to Odd! He was dying back at that fire!" He shivered, seeming to slump at the memory. "And the computer wouldn't be above killing."
"It sounds almost like the D-Reaper." Ken said thoughtfully. "Hmm… maybe the Wild Bunch know something about X.A.N.A. that we don't. I mean, they did create the digital world. Maybe they helped to create Lyoko too."
"Who's the Wild Bunch?" Asked Ulrich.
"They're the creators of the digital world. Even if they didn't help make Lyoko, whoever did probably did it based on their research in Artificial Intelligence." Ken mused.
"If you know anything about their research I wouldn't mind help." Jeremy commented. "I think you're smart enough to know how to deal with the Super Calculator."
"I might." Ken said with an engaging smile. "I think Izzy might be able to figure it out too."
"Well then." Jeremy was taking down notes on a pad. "Hey, wasn't Izzy involved in Kathy's attempt to infiltrate the super calculator room?"
"He might have been. Aside from missions I've kind of been cut off from the other digidestined." Ken sighed. "Oh well. Look, I'll ask if he has. You want somebody else up in the calculator room? I thought you did that?"
Jeremy sighed and shook his head. "Sometimes I wish that I didn't. I want to get to Lyoko like the others, but I know that I'm the only one who can use it. So I'm stuck. But if I can teach you, or maybe this Izzy to use it then I can go sometime."
"And what powers would you have in Lyoko?" Asked Ulrich pointedly. "Jeremy THINK about it. You know that machine better than anybody. You have experience with it. No offense to you Ken, but you don't know that machine like Jeremy does."
Jeremy sighed. "There was that incident when the tank destroyed Aelita's sketches. I still haven't figured out what happened."
"Teleportation." Yumi pointed out. "Plain and simple. I think it's because you use more of your brain than we do, even in Lyoko. The need was there, the power was ready, and you did it."
"But besides that." Ulrich pointed out. "Look, I'm a Karate black belt, and I fence saber. Maybe I can teach Jeremy some of that. Jeremy, if you want to get to Lyoko to fight you're going to have to train, and hard. I give it six laps of the track every morning, and then after school I'll teach you saber. It will be hard, but if we can find you a saber and a weapon then maybe you could come with us. Other than that…"
"Wait a minute, you said a saber?" Asked Ken. "I think I know where he can get one. Cherubimon's Tears!"
"What, the digimon cries swords?" Yumi asked.
"No no no!" Ken shook his head. "There are three holy swords in the digital world. There's one for each of the Holy angel digimon who gave their lives to protect the digital world. They have names, Seraphimon's Vision is a rapier, Orphanimon's Lyre is a dachi, and Cherubimon's tears is a saber. Kathy has Orphanimon's Lyre. T.K. has Seraphimon's Vision, and the only one left is Cherubimon's tears. But they also have spirit digimon in the handle. Jeremy needs a digivice or he won't even be remotely capable of using it. The attempt would kill him. But if we can convince Gennai to make a D-Chrono or D-Tector for him he'd be able to handle it no sweat!"
Jeremy's eyes were round at the possibility. "I could… I could get to the digital world? I could spirit evolve?"
"If the spirit in the hilt accepts you." Ken said worriedly. It was a lot harder than just that. "The Holy Spirit is a lot like a crest. And Cherubimon's tears is activated through displaying Serenity, one of the Holy Crests. Jeremy the odds of you lifting it are slim, even if you DID get the requisite digivices. The Holy Crests are almost obscenely powerful, and difficult to wield."
"How do we know that ours is a Holy Crest?" Asked Yumi, looking down at hers.
"There are three of them; Creativity, Nobility, and Serenity. They stand for the three Holy Angels." Ken explained. "Creativity looks like a crescent moon. Nobility is kind of… kind of like…" Ken drew Orphanimon's symbol on the ground with a stick. "Like that… and Serenity is a southern cross sort of shape." He drew that symbol as well. "They're incredibly rare, even rarer than the crest of destiny."
Jeremy took a deep breath. "But I'm willing to try."
Ken sighed. "That's all anybody can…"
His D-Chrono rang. "Hello, Ken speaking." He said, pressing a button.
"Ken! The dark masters… they've been sighted near Infinity Mountain. We need Imperialdramon to strike before they attack! Davis will meet you at the Digiport. See you there!" Gennai concluded his message abruptly.
"Oh great." Ken sighed. "Can you guys cover for me?"
"I'll come too." Yumi stood.
"No, you're still too weak. When Renamon Digivolves maybe, but the Dark Masters are unlike any digimon you will ever see again." Ken stood up. "Sorry Yumi, but it's for your own good."
Yumi sighed as Ken left. She was starting to understand how Jeremy felt.