Chapter 34: Fireworks
"James, what is your… relationship with Jennifer?" Angela just seemed to pop the question on me one day while I was relaxing in my back yard. As it turned out, the System Restore had done far, far more than I had known it would. Most of the people who had died from the Daemon Corps and Armageddamon had been reconfigured right where they had been. The decimated cities had been repaired too, in better condition than before in some places. But, there were still questions. Not everybody had been reconfigured; there were numbers of people still missing across the globe, but whether they had been killed because of a digimon or otherwise was the question. The world had… broken down a bit while the Daemon Corp rampaged across the globe.
"What's it to you?" I was overjoyed to be in the company of a Digi-Agent for the first few days after I woke up, but it didn't take long for Angela to get on my nerves. While she was happy and friendly as can be with the others, it was almost like she thought me a slave. On the other hand, she had taught me all sorts of ways to use my powers and attributes.
"It's everything to me." Angela gave me a stern, commanding look, like she always did when I rebelled against her. "I'm afraid you're getting caught up in emotions and hormones."
"Of course I am! I'm a teenager; my hormones are raging." I laughed and leaned back on the grass, weakly hoping that she would just lay off.
"James, I forbid you to continue this with her." I let out another laugh that just ticked her off. "Humangemon! Have you any clue what the repercussions of your love for her might be?" I flinched as she shouted my 'Digimon Name' and sat up.
"Don't call me that. You know I can't stand it." Angela took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing.
"I'm sorry, but you know how I feel about your name, too. James, I'm worried that you're fooling yourself into believing that everything is back to the way it was."
"No I'm not. Things are much, much better." Our adventures had lasted almost exactly two months. A week had passed since I had woken up and it had been a few days since Chris, Kristen, and Joey had returned to their homes—it was now July 1st. Agumon and Tentomon had gone with their partners, incognito of course. There was still widespread panic that another digimon invasion would occur, so just the sight of Agumon or Tentomon would probably have the bombs dropping within minutes. Accordingly, I had to hide my own… irregularities? I had started wearing a faded, bluish-gray, button-up shirt over my wings, which were wrapped around my chest and stomach sort of like a girdle. To cover up the headband, I just let my hair grow out a little further and cover it up. Angela despised the way I tried to look normal, but she couldn't tell me to do otherwise so she just tried to ignore it.
"James, you aren't human. You will never be human again. If I just let you and Jennifer follow the regular road of love… well I'm not sure I want to go into the details of an 'intimate' digimon-human relationship." After a few seconds of letting it sink in, I let a disgusted look spread across my face. "Now do you understand?"
"You think of me just like any other digimon, don't you? Just some random creature made from data." Angela's eyes widened at the startling change of subject and she fumbled to save herself.
"No, no, no! That's not what I meant at all! But James…"
"Forget it! As far as you're concerned, I'm no different than Agumon or Tentomon or any of them!" I clenched my fists and energy began running through me involuntarily. "You bitch, you're so quick to forget I'm human. I was born human, so I'll always be human. I have a childhood, a coming of age, my own tragedies and triumphs, the whole shebang. I'm not some ageless, meaningless being that exists simply because of an unforeseen consequence."
"James, please, I'm sorry…"
"And quit calling me James, you don't really mean it." With that I ran out of the backyard gate, the energy that had been building up slowly discharging as I ran, boosting me along faster.
"Oh Jennifer!" I knocked on her bedroom window, floating upside down. It was late evening and the sky was a dark violet, the moon and stars just beginning to glow. She turned and saw me, laughing at my deliberately goofy position. She ran over and opened the window, backing up quickly to give me enough space to climb through—I had to close my wings up again and catch the ledge to fit through. I landed with a soft thud and rolled to a sitting position. She had been sitting around bored, leaning back in a chair. It was summer and school was out for more than one reason. Nobody could figure out what to do about making up all the time missed; the schools had closed while the Daemon Corps had been around.
"Smooth James, really smooth." She shuffled my hair as I sat on the floor and laughed again.
"Like Sunday morning." She gave me a kiss on the cheek and I blushed; I had finally given up and decided that I would never really get the hang of myself when it came to romance.
"So what are you doing here? You know my dad would probably get his baseball bat if he saw you."
"I just wanted to come and tell you a little something, you know; just a little surprise I'm getting ready for you." The teasing, sing-song voice I spoke in snatched her attention and her face brightened.
"What is it?"
"Nope, not a word. You'll find out soon enough though. Just don't make any plans for the 4th, okay?" Jen walked over and crouched down like she was going to give me a hug, but instead I found myself in a headlock.
"Tell me"
"Neve… ouch!" She tightened her interrogation hold.
"Tell me and I'll let you go."
"You know I could probably just toss you into the air like a stuffed animal."
"Yeah, but you wouldn't do that to your girlfriend, would you?" Check and mate.
"Oh come on!" The arm that I was leaning on slipped and I fell back on her… well… right on her chest to be exact.
"Get off of me you perv!" I hadn't meant too, but I couldn't keep from turning a cherry red. Jennifer shoved me off with another laugh, but stopped short when she heard footsteps coming.
"Jennifer? Who's in there with you? It better not be that weird Walls kid…" I heard a hall closet door open and shut and knew exactly what it was for: a nice, ole, wooden Louie. Jennifer gave me a 'dear-god-we're-all-gonna-die' look and I scrambled to the window. With a single kick, I threw myself out and flapped my wings, moving over the house to pick up my folded, button-up shirt. With another flap, I was off, headed back home with my planed surprise still on my mind. Jennifer's father opened the door and looked around, only to find Jennifer leaning in her chair, back against the wall, her feet pushing her off her bed.
"What's the baseball bat for dad?" He scanned the room again, but his eyes only came back to Jennifer, who was struggling to keep herself from looking smug in victory.
"Uh-huh. I KNOW I heard voices up here."
"Soooo, Christopher, Chris-ta-macho, Chris-ayia, my main man Chris… did you do what I asked?" I was tossing and catching a superball against the wall of my room, the phone held in my other hand. Hooray for unlimited long-distance!
"Yeah, but I'm not helping you any 'less you promise to never, EVER, call me all that crap again." I could hear Agumon shout at a video game in the background.
"Chris, don't you have a controller made for claws?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I promise. Exactly when does it start?"
"8:30 PM, but I'm not so sure about this. If I get caught with bottle rockets…" A brown, paper bag crinkled on the other end of the line and Chris just stopped in mid-sentence. "Are you sure this is even legal?"
"Of course it is… I think." Chris let out a broken, nervous moan. "Just chill out! Everything is fine, whether it's legal or not. Now remember, all you and Agumon have to do tomorrow night is start firing them off at 8:30 and I'll take care of the rest. It isn't like you're handling a professional fireworks show—I'm the one that's gonna be editing explosives over a city of what, thousands, millions of people?"
"What if the cops show up? And what about my parents! Legal or not, I know they won't like the idea of me and bottle rockets. Hell, I already have destructive ideas running through my head about what to do with them!"
"Don't worry; the only people that will see or hear them will be me, you, Agumon, and Jennifer. And you forget, there will be fireworks displays all over town, like the Hollywood Bowl for example." Chris opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. An eerie and uncomfortable moment of silence passed before he spoke again, a loud explosion sounding off from the video game in the background.
"Yeah! All right! I'm the best!" Agumon's cheers were so loud that Chris had to kick him to remind him to stay quiet.
"Why exactly did you get a hotel room, though? Why not just go to a fireworks display already set up?"
"Because this is more romantic and the fireworks will be a LOT more powerful than anything anybody else will be using." Chris let out the sarcastic laugh of triumph that I had almost thought he had forgotten how to do.
"Are you planning to end the date the way I think you are, Romeo?"
"What the hell are you talking abo… OHHHH!!! What!? Chris, you S-O-B!"
"You know it's on your mind." I could just imagine the smirk on his face.
"The hell it was! Jeez, thank god you're not the one with wings or Angela would have to chain, shackle, jail you, and throw away the key!"
"The majority of teenagers do it before high school's over…"
"I am going to murder you in your sleep; you know that, right?"
"It was worth it." Chris let out a laugh and hung up.
"James, if you don't take this stupid blindfold off right now, I'm going to make Armageddamon look NICE." It was eight o'clock in the evening on the 4th of July. With one tug, the blindfold fell off from Jen's eyes. We were on the very top floor of the Hollywood Roosevelt—the hotel we had stayed in when we first got to Los Angeles back during our journeys. An elegant table for two was set up on a spacious balcony overlooking the city of Los Angeles. The sky was crystal clear and the lights sparkled all the way to the ocean. Jennifer's eyes widened and she nearly collapsed. "Holy smack."
"Hey, that's my line!" She did a triple take between me and the get-up before looking around the room. Needless to say, the hotel room was friggin huge.
"HOW DID YOU DO THIS!!?" She jumped up and hugged me and I laughed.
"Oh, I've got connections." Not really. It had cost a pretty penny to pay for the room and the advanced room service… a pretty, imaginary penny. With just the right hacking, and just the right focusing, a little bit of cash had appeared from no where in a bank account that had appeared from no where. I get a romantic date, the bank gets a patron, the hotel gets money; good for me, good for the economy, good for everybody! It's amazing the shizz you learn when you're evil!
"I… I… hold on a second…" Jennifer leaned on a chair while she caught her breath. "You did all this!?" I nodded and she walked out on the balcony, letting her hand glide along the tablecloth as if it wasn't real. "James… I…"
"Not a word. It ain't often I'm all suave and romantic like this so you'd better get it while the getting's good." We sat down and started eating dinner. I had left the dish to the choice of the chef and I guess we got what we deserved—noodles. Well, spaghetti actually, but it's a type of noodle so, close enough. Chit-chat, laughter, really cheesy looks that belong only in a chick-flick, it was a good time. We finished eating right before 8:30.
"James, this is… too unreal."
"Oh," I stood up from my chair as I felt the first bottle rockets launch from afar, "you haven't seen a thing." My gloves glowed and the wind came to a complete stop. An instant later, the rocket exploded in a ring of brilliant color that stretched across the sky. Jennifer looked like her jaw was ready to drop any moment. After a minute of intense focusing, I had it set up so the rockets would super-blow by themselves. Jennifer got out of the chair and slowly walked to the balcony rail, gazing into the bursts of color and light.
"So, what do you think? Pretty good for a first-timer, or is it too flashy? I think…" Jennifer cut me off and I found myself lip-locked with her. There was a moment hesitation, but then… well… I can't explain it and I'm not sure I would want to if I could. It was like all my inhibitions and thoughts had just taken a nose dive off the balcony. My mind cleared and I couldn't think a single thing. We both sort of stumbled to the side and knocked the table out of the way as the 'Grand-Finale' started going off. Back into and across the hotel suite, and into the bedroom; I kicked the door closed with one foot and I'll just leave it at that.