Chapter 27: Radar Love

"This is all that remains of the once expansive city of Los Angeles. The President has declared the entire state of California a disaster area, fearing that the other cities of the region will face the same fate." The sound of a television seemed to pound in my ears. I opened my eyes and saw one sitting across from a familiar looking coffee table. The television showed a picture of Los Angeles, or where it used to be. It looked like Hiroshima after it had been nuked. I pushed myself off the ground and stood up. On a couch opposite of the television was Gennai.

"Oh, it's good to see somebody is awake. Hurry up and pull that little 'pick me up' trick of yours on the others and go." Gennai looked tired and old. Bags stretched under his eyes as he slouched on the couch, gazing at the destruction of LA.

"Gennai?" I blinked a few times and kept looking at him. "What… what am I doing here?"

"Between that blast, the thin space between the worlds, and the protective power of the digivices, you all were thrown from the real world to the digital world. I saw what was about to happen and made sure that you all wound up here." Gennai spoke softly, without the strong, steady voice he had once yelled at us with for coming in with shoes. I looked back at the TV. It panned across where the Hollywood sign had once been in silence.

"Is that…"

"Yes, it is. You're all lucky that the worlds are so close; otherwise, you all would just be shadows.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I can't make them show it, but the heat and energy became so great at the epicenter that it left permanent shadows, carbon outlines, of those within a few miles of it."

"Did Chris' parents get out okay?" Gennai sighed heavily and looked down a little. "Should we tell him?"

"He's smarter than you all give him credit for. It will be the first thing he asks when you wake him up. Now go and work your charm like I said." Gennai was getting frustrated.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't you remember?"

"Yeah, rewriting Agumon's data. You want me to do that to the others?"

"As of right now, they are made up of data too. They may be a little more complicated, but it doesn't really matter how much you know about data, your energy and subconscious do the trick and you know that." I sighed and turned around. The others were scattered about the side of the living room, leaning against the walls. Wargreymon had devolved to Koromon and looked okay, so I didn't bother him. I leaned down to Chris and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, this is just like before." I focused and closed my eyes. Chris' data was mostly intact, except for one spot. "I wonder what that is supposed to be?" I focused harder and energy went into its place. A minute later, the data was repaired and I stood up. I kicked Chris and he mumbled before realizing what was going on.

"What the… Wargreymon!" He jumped up and looked around. "Where are we?"

"Gennai's house, just go over there. You need to see something." Chris gave me a weird look and jogged over to the couch, plopping down on it. I could hear Gennai whispering something to him, pointing at the television. I couldn't hear and turned away, moving on to the next person: Joey. His data was damaged more heavily, but healed just as fast. I stood up and nudged him. "Wake up short man." He looked at me and his eyes widened when he realized we weren't fighting Blackwargreymon. "Just go sit over there." He nodded, still looking around at Gennai's house in amazement. I heard Chris jump up, his voice shaky.

"No, no way man. I told them to get out of town and they did, alright! They're fine! They're at Aunt Janice's house! I'll just call them when I can!"

"Chris…"

"No! Shut up! You don't have any idea what you are talking about!" Chris ran in a stumbled panic down the hall, still screaming at Gennai. I sighed and moved on to Kristen. Her head looked terrible, bearing details that would have made me nauseous before our journey began. It took a little longer to repair her data, but when I was done and stood up, the blood that had been on her face remained.

"Wake up party girl." Kristen's eyes snapped open and she bent over and moaned, grabbing her head. "Yeah, you'll probably have a hangover for a while." I laughed weakly and helped her up. She walked over and sat down where Chris had been a moment ago; Gennai had followed him into one of the bedrooms. Tentomon had a deep hole in his back that was disgusting. I quickly repaired his data and picked him up.

"James? Where's Kristen?"

"Over there." I tossed him and he caught flight in midair, floating over to Kristen. I finally reached Jennifer. She was covered in bruises and cuts from the asphalt. I repaired her data without saying anything and she woke up.

"Where are we?"

"Gennai's, we were blown here by Lucemon and Blackwargreymon." She knew what always happened when Lucemon showed up.

"Are you okay?"

"Of course I am. I'm going through that 'invincible teenager' phase with a vengeance." I grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "As for Los Angeles though…"

We all sat on the couch awaiting Gennai's orders. Everybody was really depressed from the destruction of Los Angeles, but none more than Chris. He just sort of leaned back on the couch, slouched, in a lethargic state. If it wasn't for a pulse, I would have thought him dead.

"I know you all are… disappointed… at the loss of Los Angeles, but you need to move quickly. The worlds are close enough now that portals are forming anywhere between them and stronger signals are passing between, as shown by the television." He motioned to the TV, which was now turned off. "There are a few events that you should know about before going back though, that will come as very bad news. I'm afraid our time is almost up."

"What is it Gennai. What could be worse than what has already happened?" Kristen was frustrated and angry about losing.

"First of all, the Daemon Corps have almost advanced across Asia thanks to the counter-efforts of China."

"What? How so fast?" My voice rose in shock at how quickly Daemon had moved across the continent. "What happened?"

"With the blessing of the United Nations, China attempted to wipe out the Daemon Corp with nuclear weapons. However, they met the same fate as the fleet that Fuzenmon took out. The nukes all flew towards their targets for a while, but eventually turned around and hit major cities. If you think Los Angeles was the only place wiped out, you should see China and the rest of South and Southeast Asia. Beijing, Canton, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Delhi, New Delhi; nearly every major city was leveled. Daemon just sent a cleanup-crew to polish off whatever was left. After that, the cleanup force continued southeast towards Australia while the main force drove west towards the Middle East. Blackwargreymon and Lucemon haven't been seen or heard from since your fight with them."

"So how do we get back to our world? Do we have to go back to the gate at Myotismon's castle?" Jennifer shifted about in the couch, her back still hurting from the asphalt.

"No. Now that the worlds are close enough, you can simply get back through my computer. I've been able to reconstruct a gate through it." Gennai walked over to his computer and moved the mouse, causing the monitor to flicker to life. "Come over here and hold your digivices up to the monitor." We quickly rushed over, except for Chris who took his time, and pulled out our digivices. We held them up to the screen and sure enough, a computerized portal appeared, with a small screen showing where we would pop out.

"Where is that?" Joey looked at the screen.

"That's my room!!!" My eyes lit up at the sight of my TV, resting on a set of chest of drawers across from my bed, which sat under a window to the left side of the room. Posters and pennants cluttered the walls. "Let's go!!!" I yelled and the light on the screen beside the picture of the other side turned green. Instantly, we were all pulled through. I could feel wind blasting against me as we passed between the two worlds. When I finally emerged in my room, I had a split second to realize the impending disaster. I held out my arms to push my computer chair away, but it was no good. We all fell on top of each other, with me on the bottom. "Ow, my leg!" I yelled out under the weight of everybody. The chair finally slipped away and I fell all the way to the ground. "Please get off."

"Sorry!" Joey hopped off the top of the dog pile and everybody got to their feet. I got up last and looked around. My room was just as I remembered it, all the way down to the Marines poster I had gotten in sixth grade for doing some pull-ups at the state fair.

"Mom!? Dad!?" I yelled and ran out of my room, but nobody responded. I went into the living room and looked around. "I guess they aren't here." Everybody came out of my room and looked around. "Make yourselves at home! I'll just call my Dad's cell phone." Everybody sat down on the old, brown couches and just waited, wondering what to do.

"So where are we exactly?" Joey looked around. "This isn't anything like my home." The ceiling rose up far higher than what was needed in the living room, making it look cavernous. Huge windows filled the space between the ceiling and the doors on the ends of the room, letting in the light of the rising sun, which blinded Kristen and Tentomon on a love seat that faced the back. I picked up a cordless phone and walked into the kitchen, dialed my dad's cell phone, and waited as it ringed. Finally, he picked up.

"Who is this?" My dad asked in a frustrated, angry voice.

"It's me dad." I spoke coolly and leaned against the fridge. Silence ensued as he seemed to choke on words.

"James?"

"None other." What followed was a mixed flow of relief, anger, and tears from the other side of the phone that I couldn't comprehend. I could hear my mom shouting in the background 'Oh my god' and could hear her trying to snatch the phone from my dad, but other than that it was just chaos. Finally my dad calmed down enough to say one quick thing.

"I'll be right there." He hung up and I laughed.

"Okay guys, they'll be here in a few minutes." I smiled as I walked around the corner back into the living room. "You hungry? I promise you, we have no noodles here."

"You are impossible!" Blackwargreymon roared at Lucemon as the fallen angel kicked over a rock. "Why don't we lay waste to these lands!? We are more than capable!"

"Because," Lucemon talked calmly, unmoved by Blackwargreymon's impatient rage, "only Daemon knows how to directly tamper with data. If we show up again, the humans are sure to fire nuclear weapons at us, and you saw what they did to Asia. Only, we have no way of stopping them." Lucemon looked around at the ruin of Los Angeles. They were both sitting under an overhang that used to be the roof of a building. It was held up by two battered walls and a pillar on the open corner. Lucemon was deep in thought. Blackwargreymon growled to himself and sat in silence for a moment before talking again.

"What about the digidestined?" He hit a nerve.

"What about them?" Lucemon's voice lowered. He was still furious at me about the bullet. He had long since removed it and healed, but it bothered him that he could be hurt by a mere human, a digidestined, but a human nonetheless.

"They are the only thing that stands in our way! If we take them out now, it won't matter how many nuclear weapons the humans use, or even if we are destroyed. There will be nothing to stop his recreation!" Lucemon thought to himself for a minute.

"True, but they aren't in this world anymore." Lucemon closed his eyes.

"What!?"

"The worlds are close, very close. Our attack blew them to the Digital World. I can't tell where they are across planes of existence… yet. We'll just have to wait." Lucemon leaned against the pillar and crossed his arms and the two sat in silence for another handful of minutes. Suddenly, Blackwargreymon turned to the east. Lucemon opened his eyes and looked in the same direction.

"Did you feel that?" Blackwargreymon growled.

"Yes. It was a digi-gate opening. They're back. That Gennai character must still be alive in the Digital World."

"Then let's go!" Blackwargreymon ran outside and took off into the sky towards the east.

"Wait! Oh, that impatient fool." Lucemon leisurely stepped outside and opened his wings wide, taking off into the sky after Blackwargreymon.

"Guys, look at that friggin car." As we all walked out of the Burger King, I pointed out the convertible sitting parked right outside the door of the fast food joint. It was late in the afternoon and we had all gone out to eat after a teary reunion between Jennifer and her parents. Before we left, her dad asked me what my intentions were with her. I had laughed without thinking, not expecting the question, thereby crushing any hopes of him ever accepting me. "It's a 2004 BMW M3 Convertible." It was jet black with grey leather interior. The top was down and the car was decked with every feature I could imagine. It called to me.

"James, are you drooling?" Jennifer made fun of me as I stared at the car.

"Why would somebody with money for a car like that eat at Burger King?" Chris walked around the convertible, a confused look on his face. We had pulled him out of his lethargy, convincing him that we would get his parents back along with every other person that had been absorbed by Daemon… somehow. It may have been blind hope, foolish wishing, but it kept us going.

"I hate greedy people like this!" Kristen was going into one of her 'This is wrong' fits. "Look, he parked in the handicap and there are clearly no handicap tags or anything! And I don't think a physically challenged person would be worried about getting a car like this!" I got a wild idea.

"Let's say we teach them a lesson." A sinister grin crawled across my face.

"James, what are you planning on doing?" Jennifer saw how my expression had changed and became nervous.

"I say we spit on it!" Kristen yelled out and began to suck up to hock on the car.

"Oh no, I have a much better idea." I ran over and held my hands open, my fingers less than an inch away from the car. I focused and a few seconds later there was a loud pair of beeps.

"Hey, that sounds like the security thing on my mom's car!" Joey called out upon hearing the noise. Meanwhile, I hopped over the door and into the driver's seat.

"That was the security thing Joey." Chris leaned over and whispered in Joey's ear.

"James, what do you think you're doing!?" Jennifer whispered harshly at me as I gripped the steering wheel.

"No offense James, but that last ride in the jeep was really bumpy." Agumon recalled bouncing down the dirt paths in Korea.

"It's amazing the shizz," I focused and the car cranked up, "you learn when you're evil. Let's ride people." I lowered my shades and everybody looked at me like I was nuts.

"Hey! Hey, that's my car!" A man with a grey suit, sunglasses, and a buzz cut ran out, yelling at us, a little kid following close behind. Everybody forgot about the fact that we were stealing a car and jumped in, just so we could get away. Jennifer took the front passenger seat while everybody else jumped in the back.

"Hold on people, we're going for a ride." I backed out and the man ran towards us. I pressed the gas, whipped out of the Burger King parking lot, and pulled a hard right. The man gave up chasing us and pulled out a cell phone. I saw him dialing in the rearview mirror as we sped towards I-26. "Oh no you don't." I focused on the cell phone and could see the man throw it to the ground and stomp on it as we took a right onto the on-ramp.

"What did you do?" Chris turned around and shouted over the wind.

"It is a digital phone and I can manipulate digital coding so…" We got onto I-26 headed east and sped up some more.

"Oh my god we're guilty of grand theft auto." Kristen began to panic.

"No we're not." I laughed.

"Oh really? Why and how!? I already missed the tail end of a school year and now I'll have a criminal record!"

"Because he stole the car. Look below the steering wheel." Kristen stood up a little against the wind from behind me and looked over my shoulder. Some wires hung down below, snapped from a quick hotwire-job. "I don't think that guy was about to call the cops but I don't want anybody to be pursuing us." We passed by exit 103 and I changed lanes until we were on the far left, right beside the concrete median. Everybody calmed down and leaned back, relaxing as I cruised along, going sixty. As we passed exit 104, I looked in the rearview mirror for a split-second and then looked back at the road. I did a double take and called out. "What's that in the sky behind us?" Joey turned around and looked over the back of the seat as we passed under a bridge.

"I can't tell!" Kristen looked over her shoulder and squinted. When she finally made out what it was coming at us, she tried to talk, but was breathless.

"What is it!?" I yelled back over the wind. Joey answered for her.

"Blackwargreymon!" I turned my head and saw him gaining on us fast.

"Hold on!" I gripped the wheel harder and pressed the pedal all the way. The car surged forward and quickly passed over seventy miles an hour.

"What do we do?" Tentomon looked behind us as Blackwargreymon closed the distance between us. He was about a half-mile behind us, moving at an insane speed. The M3 kept going faster, past eighty. Cars ahead of me quickly moved out of the way. Cars behind us began to wreck as the distortion following Blackwargreymon pushed them out of control.

"Joey, do you think you can shoot from the backseat?" He understood what I meant.

"Absolutely!" He pulled out his digivice. "Spirit Code Activate! Digivolve to… Kumamon!" Kumamon leaned against the back seat, between Kristen and Chris, and rested his bazooka between the back headrests, aiming at Blackwargreymon. "Blizzard Blaster!" Snowballs flew out from behind us and pelted Blackwargreymon as he flew into them, not slowing the least bit. The car passed a hundred mph and we zipped past exit 106. Traffic began to get heavier as we approached Malfunction Junction, the spot where I-26 meets I-20. I began to weave in and out of traffic without slowing down. Kumamon slid back and forth on the back seat until Chris and Kristen braced themselves against the sides of the car and held him in place.

"Hold on tight!" Blackwargreymon was a quarter-mile away now. We passed by Malfunction Junction and accelerated above 120 mph. I didn't think at all, but just… drove. Left, right, straight, faster, right, right, left, right; I began to weave in and out of cars faster and faster, cutting it ever closer between them. I didn't really pay any heed to the lanes anymore, but just the interstate as a whole. As we rose past 135 mph, Kumamon digivolved again, deciding that his current attack was doing nothing at all.

"Kumamon digivolve to… Polamon!" Polamon climbed a little higher on the seat, nearly sitting on the trunk, so that he could use all of his barrels. The back end of the car sank down a little, gripping the road better, under the weight of the bear and the mass of steel mounted to his back. "Hailstorm!" Chunks of ice pummeled Blackwargreymon with twice the force as usual, like when two cars have a head-on collision. He slowed down a bit, but kept gaining. He was just three or four car-lengths away now as we passed exit 108; 145 mph…

"Cowards! Fight me!!!" Blackwargreymon yelled as he began to stop gaining on us, only a car-length away. Hail continued to pummel him endlessly as Polamon pressed down on the back of the M3. Jennifer turned and looked at me for a split-second before looking back at Blackwargreymon. She did a double-take and looked at me again.

"James? What are you doing?" Her eyes were wide and there was the sound of surprise in her voice, but I didn't really pay attention. Her voice seemed so far away, like it was being caught in the wind and blown away. The world was blurry again, slow and sluggish even though we were covering more than two miles every minute.

"Driving." I was blunt, never shifting my gaze from the road. I gripped the wheel so hard it hurt.

"You're focusing!" She pointed at my gloves on the wheel and I looked down for a moment. She was right—I hadn't meant to, but I was focusing energy into the car. "That's how you're driving like this!" I closed my eyes, normally a really bad idea on the highway, and focused, still driving. We had passed where I-26 veers off onto an exit and the interstate we were on changed to I-126, which heads straight into downtown Columbia. I could feel every part of the car, the engine pumping furiously as wisps of energy flew about it, eliminating friction. I didn't feel like I was driving the car, but like I was a part of the car. I opened my eyes and made a hard left over a few lanes to pass another car at the same time. The car's speed maxed out at 155.

"Jennifer, I need your help." I still didn't break my gaze. I quickly changed lanes all the way to the far right side of the interstate.

"Why? How?"

"We're running out of road." The interstate's end was about a mile away and at the speeds we were going, we would be there less than a minute. "Digivolve."

"Spirit Code Activate! Digivolve to… Kazemon!" The light cleared quickly. "Now what?"

"On my signal, blow everything you have straight up." I focused and energy poured into the engine, pushing it past its normal, physical limitations—kind of like a slow, continuous NOS boost. 165 mph…

"Ready!" The end of the interstate was right in front of us."

"NOW, HOLD ON TIGHT GUYS!!!" It all happened in an instant, but seemed like an eternity from my point of view. I nearly tore the wheel off to the left and the car turned sharply, lifting up on the two left tires; I was flipping the car.

"Hurricane Wind!" Blackwargreymon flew past us, not expecting my move. Kazemon blew straight up out of the top of the car, now facing the side, flipping us completely upside down and pushing us up from the ground. The car careened over the concrete barrier and finished and began to come back down. Everybody was pressed into the seats as we flipped, finally landing, facing the other direction on the other side of the highway. Blackwargreymon had stopped and was coming back for us as I sped back up.

"Christ man!" Chris yelled at me, gripping the seat tightly. I quickly cruised past the 160 mph I had reached before flipping and blasted down the highway.

"We need a plan! We can't just keep running!" Kristen screamed from the backseat, over the sound of cars screeching, Blackwargreymon roaring, and the car engine, which sounded like it was about to explode.

"You guys need to get out of here now." I yelled back. "Chris! Can you and Agumon take him?" I nodded to Blackwargreymon behind us.

"Yeah! Wargreymon is a match for him and with everybody else, we can take him easy! Right Agumon?" Agumon nodded and smirked.

"Good, everybody out, now."

"What!?" Everybody shouted at the same time.

"NOW!!!" I focused and energy blew out of the seats, throwing everybody from the car. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw bright flashes of light as everyone digivolved.

"Agumon warpdigivolve to… Wargreymon!"

"Kazemon digivolve to… Arashimon!"

"Tentomon digivolve to… Kabuterimon digivolve to… Megakabuterimon!" I gave one last yell as I cruised away.

"I'll meet you at the statehouse!" I looked back forward at my reason for ejecting them. "Bring it on asshole." I thought to myself and Lucemon smirked as we rocketed towards each other; I knew he could hear me. Most of the cars on the interstate had gotten off upon seeing the events taking place on it, leaving a clear straightaway between myself and the fallen angel. We were still a mile away from each other, both going at least 200 mph.

"I won't let you get away this time. This is the end for all of you. Duality!" The two orbs of energy stayed in Lucemon's hands, unable to go faster than he already was.

"Celestial Fist!!!" I focused more energy into the car and the entire M3 lit up, bright white flames erupting from all points on it, blowing in the wind. The car, now engulfed in light, and Lucemon's attack collided.