My Little Big Sister
I don't own Digimon.
Sorry about the delay, people. My internet connection est sur le blink.
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Part Three:
Heart to Heart
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The hotel was plain but comfortable. Joe threw his medical kit to the end of the bed and sat down. "Well, we're here."
Hika snuggled into another of the beds, stretching out and laying her head on the crisp whiteness of the pillow. "Hmmmmmm. I think we should be safe here for tonight."
The Digidestined set about getting ready to sleep, but each one of them seemed distinctly distracted.
You really won't be around.
Tai gazed absently at his friends, then down at his still-unconscious little sister. She still hasn't woken, he thought. I hope Hika was right. On the bed, Kari was silent, lost in some distant dream.
TK came over and looked down at her. "Tai, is she any better? She's been like this for ages.""Not yet, TK," Tai muttered, strangely tense and untalkative. "Maybe later."
TK sighed and went to sit by the window, looking out at the stars.
"Don't you want to sleep, TK?" He looked around with a start. Hika was sitting on the bed next to him.
"I'm not tired."
"You're not worried about Kari, are you?" asked the older girl perceptively. "Me and Joe looked at her just before. She'll be fine."
"Yeah, I am." He looked awkward. "Well, she is my best friend, Hika." He paused. "It's just so weird not having her around and talking to me. I mean, I've got so used to Kari being with us already. She should be awake!"
Hika turned away, hoping TK wouldn't see the tears in her eyes as his words struck a painful chord.
We should be fighting side by side. I shouldn't be trying to figure out the world for myself. I've done enough of that.
You should be here.
"Hika, are you all right?" The little eight-year-old at her side looked up with a worried expression.
"I'm fine," she said. "Look, Kari'll get better. I promise you that."
Morning dawned on the city as though the night had never been there. Rays of sunlight filtered through a gap in the curtains and fell on Tai's face, stirring him from his dreams.Hika seemed to have slept well. As the group went down for breakfast she was in an excitable mood, exclaiming over the smallest things, even sliding down the banister- to the rest of the group's annoyance. "Breakfast! Oh gosh, there's even marmalade!" Her normal maturity seemed to have gone out of the window, but somehow it was a relief for them to see her behaving like a child. Her rucksack, complete with dangling cord, swung wildly as she whirled around the hotel's breakfast table, seemingly determined to sample everything.
"So we're going back to the Digiworld," said Tai in an effort to pull things together. "Any idea how to get there?"
"Actually, I've been working on it," nodded Izzy. "I ought to have a working link up by lunchtime."
Hika froze with a spoonful of cereal halfway to her mouth. Then, remembering herself, she laughed too loudly and started absently sprinkling sugar into her coffee.
Her sudden change hadn't gone unnoticed, though. Tai replayed the conversation in his head, trying to fight off the mounting sense of panic.
You really won't be around...
"Izzy?" he called. But the boy-genius had already gone back to his room.
It's nothing, he told himself. Forget it...
While Joe settled the hotel bill at the front desk, Tai watched constantly as Izzy tapped buttons on his slightly battered laptop. Formulae and commands danced on the screen. "That ought to do it! Someone get Joe!" TK ran for the lobby.
However, when Joe arrived his friend was shaking his head. "I don't get it. The thing just disconnected on me, and now I can't find the file I'm after..." He called up a program that threw coloured reflections on the Digidestined's faces as they watched.
"Looks like we're not going anywhere in a hurry. Hang on while I check the system..." Frowning, he put the scanning program through a series of tasks. "Ah! Gotcha. I've got a computer virus. This oughta sort it out."
Mimi was sitting drinking lemonade when she heard Izzy's voice call from the next room. "I think it's clear! C'mon, guys, we're late already!"
Izzy picked up Tentomon from the bed and grabbed the case for his laptop under the other arm. "OK, see you in the Digiworld!"
"Wait..." Tai hardly realised he'd spoken. "Izzy, don't you think you'd better keep an eye on things from this end? I mean, none of us knows how to sort the thing out if it goes wrong."
"You sound more like Joe," Izzy laughed. "OK, I'll wait here. But we'd better go!"
Tai snatched a glance at Hika, who was standing next to TK a few steps back. The dark-eyed girl gave him a look of silent puzzlement. Hoping her silence was a good sign, he stepped forward, his heart beating faster than he'd have liked.
A single flash of light transported Tai to the Digiworld. He looked around in relief and sat down to wait for the others.
"You next, TK," said Izzy, glancing down at the symbols on his screen. "OK. Now you, Mimi... Matt... Joe, take Kari... do you want to go next, Sora? It looks like the connection's slowed down a bit, so it might take a moment..."
Sora entered the link and waited. As Izzy had promised, it took a minute before she felt the jump between worlds, and she thought she saw a lit-up horizon in the distance.
Izzy nodded with satisfaction at a job well done, and picked up Tentomon again.
He had forgotten Hika. The girl had surprising strength for someone so small and quick, and she pushed Izzy out of her way with no apparent effort at all. The cord from her bag flying out behind her, she was gone.
Izzy sighed and stepped after her, pulling the cable on the laptop as he went. There was just no accounting for some people...
As he sat in the no-man's-land between reality and the Digiworld, he was sure he saw a dark shimmer from the corner of his eye. Turning, he took in his surroundings. Although the world was blurred here, there was a faint suggestion of computer circuits on the horizon. Izzy waited until he saw the dark flicker again. That darn virus! Thought I'd zapped it. Let's have a look.
Climbing to his feet, he clambered over the scenery in the direction of the disturbance. It wouldn't be obvious if I didn't know what I was after...Here we go. Right, I wonder how I can get rid of it? He stared, fascinated by the smokelike movements of the computer virus. It swirled and shifted before him...
-towards him, as he watched, unable to take his eyes away. Tentomon saw the danger too late. Izzy had told him something about trojans, viruses that looked almost harmless until you put them into operation...The little bug-Digimon buzzed frantically in Izzy's ear as the virus moved greedily in the direction of the gateway to the Digiworld. "Hang on, Tento!" Izzy yelled. "I think I can deactivate it if you give me a minute..."
Sora, the last to enter the Digiworld, hesitated and forced herself away from the digital transfer. "Izzy, are you OK?" Her voice seemed to add motivation to the hungry computer virus, which gathered speed and slithered through the workings of the connection, devouring circuits as it went. Tentomon shot into Sora's arms, pushing her into the Digiworld. Panicking, Izzy ran through a tangle of doomed decisions in his head before cutting a circuit almost instinctively, slamming the gateways that linked the two worlds to this connection... forever...-
...then it recoiled as Hika jumped out of nowhere, brandishing a disk in one hand like a weapon. "Izzy, connect this up! Now!"
The antivirus program that she had snatched from Izzy's computer case worked like a charm. An explosion of white light dazzled through the connection, eradicating the virus utterly and completely.
"Why'd you do that?" complained Izzy. "I was trying to study it, Hika!"
"Oh, were you?" His friend had an apologetic tone to her voice, but there was an edge to it that Izzy didn't like. "It was dangerous, Iz! You needed a hand. Now come on! The others'll be waiting for us."
Maybe it was dangerous, Izzy thought as the two of them entered the Digiworld. Hika's generally right. It's weird, we hardly know her, but she's acting like some sort of parent. Or maybe more like the little big sister I never had...
It's funny how easy it can be, Hika thought. Just one little thing, in the right place, at the right time... It'll get harder, though...
Then, with Tentomon buzzing behind them, they entered the wide digital landscape where Tai was anxiously waiting for them.
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I'll respond to my reviewers next chapter. Ongoing technical problems.
