Mizumi was surprised, but the three pursuers never knew what attacked them. Like a firebolt, a boy leapt out of an old, rotten door that was on the wall right to Mizumi. Extending a hand before him, a flash of white and golden light escaped his hand, filling the alley with its pure, almost solid luminity. The three pursuers were engulfed by the luminity, and the young man's concentration was broken for a brief second.
"This way!" he said with a gentle voice, taking Mizumi's hand and pulling her into the building.
The girl realized that, even though that same hand had released an energetical intensity of imcredible proportions, it had only the human warmth of blood in it. Mizumi checked the boy as darkness surounded them. The girl realized he was the same boy she had met in the strange place at her father's office, even although she couldn't see his features.
"Don't think, just relax and let your body flow!" the boy said glancing at her briefly through the corner of the eyes.
"What?" she asked as the two climbed the, old, rotten stairs of what seemed a very old building of homes.
The boy slammed a door open, and pulled Mizumi along with him, into the house. The groans, the angered yells, and the hurried steps in the darkness told Mizumi that the pursuers were after her once again. There was no more thinking, for that sensation of energy rush filled her veins and body once again. With a luminic flash, the girl looked around, and found herself trapped in that mysterious world once again. The boy was next to her, bent over, with the hands placed on the knees and panting like a dog, but smiling gently at her.
"Are you ok?" the boy asked in a friendly tone.
"Who are you?" Mizumi inquired trustlessly.
"Oh, forgive my distraction, a lot of strong emotions. My name is Takeru." The boy introduced himself, bowing like a true gentleman.
"Aha... well, thank you for saving me but I think I have to get going." Mizumi pointed out, smiling tensely, and headed towards the same entrance through which the two had entered.
"No, no! Don't go that way." Takeru said slightly alarmed, jumping forward and gripping the girl's arm. "They can still be there, they know you are unexperienced." The young man explained.
"What... what are you talking about?" Mizumi shrieked tugging her arm free, and glancing at the boy as if he was crazy.
"I know it might sound odd at the beggining, but you'll understand, and you'll like it." Takeru said shrugging, never letting that gentle smile leave his lips.
"Of course it sounds odd! I've been pursued in the middle of the night by a group of sycopaths, and now I'm trapped in some odd situation with a madman, strange events take place around me, and you are still positive I'm going to act like all this havoc is rational?" Mizumi yelled, her face turning as red as her hair.
Instead of recoiling, or faltering, or acting in any offended or saddened way, Takeru broke into a sound laughter. That only exasperated Mizumi further, if that was possible.
"What is so funny?" Mizumi snapped furiously, clenching her fists.
"Nothing, only you talk just like your father." Takeru laughed loudly, looking at Mizumi with glee.
"What? You knew my father?" Mizumi inquired shocked, all the anger faded inmediately.
"Old Izzy? Yeah, he was a friend of mine when we were children!" Takeru explained shrugging, realizing that the girl, probably, knew nothing about their digital adventures.
"That is impossible! You must be around my age, and my father disappeared when I was five!" Mizumi argued crossing her arms in a thick headed way.
"Actually, I am forty one years old." Takeru explained, his eyes glinting with strange wisdom, as well it a peculiar youth.
"Stop toying with me!" Mizumi yelled, "I'm going home!"
"Wait, er... girl." Takeru enlarged her hand, but the girl was on the ready and evaded his touch.
"It's Mizumi, and why am I explaining anything to you?" Mizumi hissed venomously.
"Mizumi, listen. All of this has a very good explanation, really. Please, come with me and I will tell you everything." Takeru said staring at her with pleading, desperate eyes.
"Why should I?" Mizumi snapped inflating her chest and glaring at Takeru.
"Well, I have a million reasons. The first is now you are under the watch of all humanity, and specially those people. They will kill you if they find you. Second, I can show you how to deffend yourself. Third, your father will kill me if something happened to you!" Takeru said, looking slightly frustrated, but also calm, "Please..."
"Hum... I don't know..." Mizumi commented, staring at his open hand with mistrust.
"Lets make a deal. I tell you and show you all I know, and then you decide whether to believe it or not." Takeru said, his eyes glinting, and a more vivid smile appeared in his lips.
"You look very sure of yourself, don't you?" Mizumi said with a fake sneer.
"It comes with my charms." Takeru lifted his shoulders and inflated his chest.
"Charm's? You wish!" Mizumi snapped, glancing at the boy, "Well, fine, you show me all that, but know it's just so you leave me alone." The girl finished.
"Lets go then." Takeru said with a gleeful manner.
"Where?" Mizumi inquired as the boy began walking away from the exit.
"To a place you'll like." The boy said turning his head to look at the girl.
"Takeru, wait, I want to know what's going on!" Mizumi said with a desperate voice, her integrity collapsing.
"Don't worry, I'll tell you as we walk. First, do you know what we are?" Takeru inquired calmly.
"What we are?" Mizumi inquired trotting until she was next to him. "We are humans, as far as I know, homo sapiens!"
"Yes, that's just part of what we are. Let's see how I can make it simple..." Takeru glanced at the metallic ceiling for a few seconds, "We are what, in the past, were called Mages." Takeru finally explained with a bright smile.
"Mages? Now I really think you are bonkers." Mizumi muttered looking sideways.
"No, it's true. Lets say the mages evolved, ok? Nowdays we can't create balls of fire (well, we can, but that's not the matter), or resurrect the dead, but we can modify the reality. We have developed a Digital Spirit, and, digitaly, like in a gigantic virtual reality, we can create and errase things." Takeru explained excitedly.
"Matrix." Mizumi said absently. "My father spoke of a virtual reality called Matrix, he believed we lived in such virtual reality, and he wanted to know what was outside that." Mizumi explained more animated.
"Exactly. Izzy was wrong in one thing. He believed Matrix was the world, but not everyone can modify the world. Matrix is what we are, what the new mages are. We are Matrix." Takeru said more seriously. "We are called Digis, Digital Spirits. People fear us because we are more powerful than they, and we could rule them with ease."
"People fear what they don't understand." Mizumi commented absently.
"Exactly! They were so afraid of us that they created a secret organization, the ODE, Organization of Digital Extermination. The Agents are very prepared men and women very advance in tecnology, which's mission is destroy every Digi they find.
Now, lets see. We have a little problem, which is that, when being near any electronical object, the object reacts to our energy creating interferences. The Agents can detect that energy and always know where we are." Takeru said looking serious and somewhat afraid.
"What about now?" Mizumi inquired, terrified.
"Well, we have an advantage. We are part digital, so we can move across the digital ways, highways, paths, whatever. It's called the Line. Lets say we are data moving through internet." Takeru said extending his arms upwards to motion at the fantastic suroundings, "The Agents are humans. They can't come here, they can't detect us while we are data, because we are another part of the millions of data that move through the world."
"You are trying to tell me, that we are like Werewolves? Half human, half digital?" Mizumi inquired looking sceptic.
"I wouldn't have explained it better! Yes, and now you have discovered you are Digi. The ODE know as well, and will do everything to kill you, specially knowing you are inexperienced." Takeru said seriously.
"That is all very nice, but it doesn't explain why you know my father, or why you look twenty three years old, or so, while you say you are forty one." Mizumi said with cunning.
"I'd rather not talk about that." Takeru said looking away, a shadow of time seemed to extend a sombre veil over him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Mizumi said softly, feeling guilty.
"It's ok. Look, we are here!" that light, that gentleness, that eternal youth seemed to illuminate him once again, as he pointed at a small corridor with a luminic door.
The two youths exited through the door and emerged into a strange, dark room illuminated with candles, and various bulbs of weak voltage. Everything about the room was murky and strange, and Mizumi noted a coldness that, apparently, was herself. The walls were dark, oily, and full of dust, with thick tubes and large cables running here and there. Machinery of the most strange shapes and functions were situated in the form of tables and chairs. Various people were roaming about the room, making their things, or talking with one another.
"TK!" said a happy voice in the depths of the dark room.
"Chiyo!" the two embraced themselves and fell in a fit of laughter.
The woman was pretty, with gentle features, and noble ruby eyes. The woman's hair was black, and held in a ponytail. Apparently, she was much older than the rest of the people around, for many were Mizumi's age, and a few were teenagers, while Chiyo was nearing the thirtys.
"Who is this?" Chiyo questioned glancing at Mizumi trustlessly.
"Mizumi-chan, this is Chiyo-sempai." Takeru introduced with a smile.
"A pleasure." Mizumi said almost shyly.
"Mizumi? I know you! You are Izzy's daughter. My parents were friends with your parents. You were too young and you, probably, don't remember me, but I have been at your place a few times, how is Kenji?" Chiyo smiled with more delight, letting the coldness aside to act motherly warm towards Mizumi.
"Ke... Kenji? He... he is fine, like always." Mizumi stared at the taller woman with respect and a slight fear, like a small child.
"I would pay a visit, but..." Chiyo extended her arms to show herself in a gesture that clearly meant they were not welcome outside this sanctuary.
"Which place is this?" Mizumi finally asked, turning towards Takeru.
"It's an electrical power plant. We live here because it's one of the few places the Agents can't track us down. They detect the variations of energy, the interferences. Here, there are so many variations and so many interferences, the agents can't distinguish one from another." Takeru explained with a pride that clearly showed it had been his idea.
"But won't the Agents know of this?" Mizumi stated wisely.
"Yeah, but many Digis live in the country, where there is nothing electronical, and many others live inside the Line, but that last option is not a good one." Takeru said darkly at this last statement.
Mizumi decided not to speak, noticing the change of mood in the boy. Something very thraumatic must have happened to him during his 'change', during the 'awakening' of his digital spirit. Suddenly she felt like slapping herself, if being pursued by a group of assasins in potence, and being rescued by a dement with fairy stories wasn't thraumatic, then she was deffinitely insane.
"I'm sorry." Takeru said smiling at the girl, recovering that hopeful way he had of watching life.
"It's ok, I think all of us had a bad experience in life. I lost my father." Mizumi said looking at the boy with a saddened smile.
"I know." Takeru said placing a hand on her shoulder and pressing at it in a comforting manner, "Look, why don't you stay here for the night? Rest and tomorrow you can go back to your place. You need time to think about all this." The boy suggested with a gentle smile.
"A... all right." The girl said in a strangled voice, lowering her face until it was hidden by the loose strands of her flaming hair.
"What?" Takeru's smile faded, as he lowered his face and placed his finger under Mizumi's chin to make her look up, "What's wrong, Mizumi?" the boy asked worriedly.
"I... I don't want to be this way!" Mizumi looked up and glanced at Takeru's blurry image through her teary eyes.
"Oh, Mizumi!" Takeru took a hold of her shoulders and tried to force a smile at her, "Don't worry, it might be hard at first, but you'll eventually like it. It is a gift after all."
"Gift?" Mizumi spat frustrated, "It's a curse. I can't do a normal living, I have to stay away from all electronic device. I'm doing third of informatics! How am I going to finish my career? Speak with a cell phone? Go shopping!" Mizumi was enraged as she pondered all the things she couldn't do any more.
"You can do more than that! Now you have a new life, a better life. You can do all you wish, truly sail through internet. You can do things not even literature ever dreamed of." Takeru explained with a smile.
"I... I dont't want that life, Takeru sempai." Mizumi said through sobs, her spirits collapsing.
"Come here." The boy embraced her tightly, and Mizumi allowed him that fact of affection. "Listen, go to bed. Tomorrow I'll take you home, ok?" Takeru said pulling away to stare at her.
The woman nodded while rubbing the tears away from her cheeks. Rosy lips were pressed to avoid more crying, but she gave in to her exahustion and to all the strong emotions she had experienced in few hours. Takeru drove her past the murky, dark corridors, into a murky, dark room with a single, murky, dark bed. It looked so cold and uncomfortable, like the bed from a jail, or a really awful hospital. Mizumi didn't care about it as she layed, extremely tired, on the bed. The scent that came from the white sheets was a fresh, icy smell, which signalled that the bed cloth was clean.
"Sleep well, Mizumi. You have had a hard day." Takeru said softly while walking out of the room and turning off the light, never staying to listen a tired grunt from Mizumi's direction.
Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
"Do you remember how to enter the Line?" Takeru inquired glancing very seriously at Mizumi.
"Yes, I think so. I have to focus on entering, I have to imagine myself into the Line." Mizumi said timidly, she was rested but still felt a little dizzy from all the information she had gotten.
"Exactly. One more thing, just for safety. I think you should come to the Hideout for security, just to sleep. Also, come from time to time, I can show you how to use your gift." Takeru said smiling gently.
"Hum. We'll see about that last one." Mizumi said dryly and turned around, vanishing through the glimmering door and disappearing out of Takeru's sight.
"Oh, Mizumi, if you would just give it a chance." Takeru said with a sigh, staring fixedly at the point where Mizumi had disappeared.
Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
To Be Continued...
AN: Ok, here comes the third chapter. I know nobody is reading it, and I don't know what you people think about it. Please, I'd like to know how the story is going. I'll try to keep it up with the rest of the stories.