Chapter 11: Conundrum

It's been about 3 hours since Herpetomon and I got home. Herpetomon was now fully rested and feeding on another box of blueberries. We were staring at the TV, but I doubt either of us was watching. It would happen occasionally that both Herpetomon and I would sit and mope in a pensive mood whenever something was bothering us. Both of us were staring blankly, involved in deep thought.

"Herpetomon, how did you like digivolving? Did you like the form I made up." I asked him. He was in such deep thought it took him a second to respond.

"Oh, yeah, it was great, I felt so strong. It was like my will to save everyone made me stronger. Plus I was huge, that was awesome." Herpetomon said.

"I thought you'd appreciate that." I told him. "Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you something. Now this is very important."

"What happened?" Herpetomon asked

"When you were out in the woods last night a police investigator came to the house." I told him

"Oh crap, did he see me?" Herpetomon asked, startled.

"I'm not sure, all I know was that some people told him that they'd seen me around you. He even had a description of me. The good thing is I don't think he has much of an idea about what's really going on."

"Well that's good, but this means we'll have to be really careful from now on." Herpetomon said.

"Yes, if you go outside again and are seen try to lose whoever's following you so they don't link you to the house." I instructed.

"That makes sense." Herpetomon said.

"Well that's good, now I don't know about you, but I'm ready for bed." I said.

"Yep, me too." Herpetomon said.

I got up and got ready for bed, Herpetomon laid down then I shut the door. It was a cold and quiet night, but I felt a lot better with Herpetomon around.

I slept in. It was 8 when I woke up. Herpetomon was already up, he was sitting at my desk messing with the D-Gagdet.

"Good morning!" Herpetomon said in a strangely cheery voice.

"Hi." I said lazily.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked

"Yeah, what's with you?" I asked

"I dunno, I've been thinking, if we keep fighting I'll keep getting stronger, and soon I'll be able to digivolve again. I love the feeling" Herpetomon said. I got out of bed and got some cloths on.

"Good attitude! Yeah, you're going to be the best, a champion!" Herpetomon got me all pumped up "I can't wait, you were so awesome the other day."

"Yeah, I feel bad for the next evil Digimon we run into." Herpetomon said. I sat down on the bed and we sat for a while, talking and thinking. When mom and Dave woke up I went out to see them. They were all dressed to go out.

"Hi, where are you going?" I asked them.

"We're going to Nana's house." She said

"Now is that 'you' we or 'we' we?" I joked

"That is you, me and Dave 'we'" Mom said "Get ready we're going soon." I shrugged, too bad, Herpetomon and I were getting all pumped up too. I went back to my room and told Herpetomon the bad news.

"Awww, do you have to go?" Herpetomon asked in response to the news.

"Yeah, they won't give up, plus I really should go for a visit." I told him. "I want you to stay here, and remember, don't be getting into any fights even if the others are with you. I know it's hard for you to resist, but please, don't get into any fights." He looked at me sadly

"OK, I won't" He cheered a little as he said this "I'll just hang around here."

"Good, thanks, now I have to go." I said as I left Herpetomon in my room. Then I remembered Lyons, so I turned around and told Herpetomon "Oh, and if you do get yourself out, have the sense to tell the others about Lyons." I went to the kitchen to find Mom and Dave had already gone out to the car. This was going to be boring…

Character Shift: Nick

"Alright, come on, one more!" I told Fatomon. We'd been hanging out arm wrestling for the last half-hour. I had some rock music blasting in the background and there were potato chips all over the place. I rarely kept a very neat room, but this was excessively messy. Fatomon's weakness was that he couldn't turn down a challenge.

"I'm up for another, I'm surprised you actually bested me once or twice, but not this time!" Fatomon said as he readied his arm. I set mine down next to his and took his hand.

"Go!" We shouted. We were both unnecessarily excited, but we were also hyped up on soda and snacks. The fight was on! Our muscles tensed. I realized Fatomon was going easy on me, but it was still tough. I was starting to lose so I gave it everything I had, I took the advantage. Fatomon grinned, and slammed my hand down.

"Ha, in your face." Fatomon said. He leaned back in the chair.

"Yeah, well it's not like this is a fair game." I said "What are we doing anyway, I'm so hyper right now."

"Yeah, me too." Fatomon said "I wonder what the others are up to."

"I dunno, but help me clean this up would'ya?" I asked him. My room was totally messed up. Trash and food everywhere.

"Yeah. This place is a mess." Fatomon said. We got to work cleaning my room. Fatomon cleaned up the clothes, wrappers, and bags on the floor while I ran the vacuum through. After a half-hour the place was clean enough for me. Fatomon and I were tired so we sat at the kitchen table since my parents were out. I sat there in my blue jeans, red t-shirt, and 'poofy' blue vest. Outside it was gray and meekly raining. Down the street I could see there was a fine mist. The phone rang.

"You can get it." I said.

"Why me?" Fatomon asked "Won't people wonder who I am?"

"Yeah, I guess. I dunno, just get it." I told him, gesturing to the phone.

"OK." Fatomon said. My gaunt Digimon got up and went to the phone. He picked it up and looked very awkward with the phone in his hand.

"Hello?" Fatomon said into the phone, brief pause. "Oh hi, what's going on…He's at home…Ok, hold on." Fatomon walked over to me. "Here, it's Brendan"

"Oh, let me see." I took the phone from him and he sat back down. "Hi, B"

"Hey, I need a favor." He responded.

"OK, what's up?" I asked.

"Well I have to go to my nana's house for the day and I obviously can't bring Herpetomon so I left him at the house. What I need is that if you guys get into a fight I need you to keep him out of it. He'll probably show up, but he can't help you much without me around. I'm trusting you to keep him out of it." Brendan explained.

"Ok, that's too bad, but yeah if we get into a fight we'll keep him out of it." I assured him.

"Good thanks, I have to go, bye." Brendan said.

"Bye!" I returned. "He says he's out at his Nana's house and Herpetomon's at his house. He says that if we get in a fight today we need to keep him out of it for his own safety."

"Right, I understand." Fatomon said. As soon as he said this he jumped to his feet. "Speak of the devil, a Digimon's coming through."

"Oh great, give me a sec, I'll get ready." I told him, I ran upstairs and grabbed the D-Gadget and my jacket. I came downstairs and saw that Fatomon was already at the door. "We need to hurry before Herpetomon gets there, now let's go!"