Amanda sat down on the couch and picked up her laptop
Amanda sat down on the couch and picked up her laptop. Ace looked over at her and scooted closer, looking at the screen. "Hey, uhm do you know anyone named Kronos?" he asked as he looked up from her screen.
Amanda nodded slowly. "I got a strange message from him or her the other day, asking me if I wanted my own dragon…" she smiled slightly and blushed. "so I figured it would be worth a shot…and still no dragon. Why?"
Ace sighed as he flipped his phone open again and showed her the text message. "Well, I was looking at your laptop and he messaged me asking if I wanted my life to be better…Something doesn't feel right about this."
--
Digital Disaster:
Chapter 2
Night had fallen some time ago, leaving the majority of the house pitch black. Ace had fall asleep in one of the guest rooms Amanda had set for him, and she was in her own bed sleeping soundly. Everything was peaceful and quite, well until Amanda's laptop hummed to life down on the couch where it was left. The screen flashed white, slowly materializing a creature…a dragon. The dragon blinked slowly, reaching up to rub his emerald eye with one of his claws. He was a small dog-sized red dragon with black tiger stripes decorating most of his body. A row of black spikes runs down from the top of his head to the tip of his spaded tail. He folded his wings and scratched his head as he took in the strange sight.
"Where am I?" he muttered as he sniffed the air, trying to pick out the scents of the house. "Right, I'm supposta find someone…er…ugh, this would be so much easier if I had something to eat. I can't believe they sent me here with out food…" the dragon grumbled. He shook his head and slowly walked up the stairs, smelling two people in two separate rooms. He pushed the first one open and cast his emerald eyes on Ace as he slept. The boy was on his side, half cuddling his pillow. This wasn't who he was looking for. Logically, his search was about to end as he entered the other room. There was Amanda, sleeping soundly, turned just slightly on her side. He smiled and walked over to her, watching her as she slept before plopping down on the ground and closing his eyes.
"I found my partner…" he whispered as he drifted off to sleep, sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest.
However, over at Ace's house things were quite different. The lights were all on, at least those on the first floor. Ace's mom, Tracee was lounging on the couch, holding a bag of ice to her face as his father, Tony lit up another joint, taking a hit. The TV was on, showing some random historical show. The two always seemed to find random shows to watch late at night, or at least have going on for background noise. He lounged back and held the smoldering joint out towards his wife. She took it sighed lightly. A thin layer of smoke clouded the room as she lifted the joint to her lips.
"Hey….where's Ace?" she asked in-between hits.
"He's probably on that computer thing. Ace! Get your ass down here!" Tony yelled, but there was no reply. Usually Ace would have slammed his door or turned up the music, or done something. "Eh, he's not home…"
"Oh…" Tracee replied as she passed the joint back to Tony and held the ice against her face. She closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep. However her little nap was interrupted by a loud crack. She opened her eyes and sat up as Tony looked towards their front door.
"What the fuck is that?" he growled, rising to his feet. He wasn't a small man, well not in mass. For a man around 5'7, he had large shoulders, arms and…a gut. The crack was heard again as the smoke slowly moved to a central location and proceeded to spin in a clockwise motion. Behind the smoke, a black barrier appeared, cycling along with the smoke, followed by a pair of red eyes….
"Now do what your partnerr desires!" a voice yelled out as the eyes narrowed slightly as a black figure emerged from the portal and roared angrily.
The next morning, beams of sun light shone through the blinds in Amanda's bedroom. Amanda tossed over to her left side, clutching her blanket tightly as a low beep filled her room. It steadily grew louder until she reached her hand out and smacked the clock, shutting the alarm off. The girl groaned lightly as she sat up, yawning as she did. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around her room, orienting her self as to where everything was. She crawled out of bed and over to her closet where she kept her uniforms. With out giving it a second thought, Amanda took off the shirt she had slept in, tossing it aside. The shirt landed right on the dragon's head and he woke up. He pulled it off and looked over at Amanda as she pulled out a uniform shirt.
"Partner!" he yelled out suddenly, scaring Amanda half to death. She looked over at the dragon, wide eyed and screamed, holding her shirt against her self.
"What's going on? Are you ok?! Ah!" Ace yelped throwing her door open, obviously awoken by her scream. He looked at the girl, blushing lightly as he cast his eyes down towards the floor. Amanda turned and met his gaze, her cheeks turning pink.
"Ah! Get out both of you!" she yelled, holding the shirt against her with one hand and pointing to the door. Ace backed up and the dragon opened his mouth to protest, but Amanda whacked him on the head. 'Out!" she yelled again, shoving the dragon out and slamming the door behind them both.
Ace looked down at the dragon, blinking a bit as he poked him in the head. "What the heck are you?" he asked, still poking him. "And how did you get in her room?"
The dragon growled lightly but didn't stop Ace. "Name's Dramon, I'm a Digimon and she's my partner!"
Ace looked at him with a blank stare. "What ever you are, I wouldn't recommend watching a girl unchanged. It's a good way to get killed," he nodded as he sat down against the wall. Dramon followed Ace's lead and sat down. The dragon digimon looked over at Ace and smiled.
"So uhm…what's there do around here?" he asked as Amanda opened the door, stepping out into the all in her uniform. Ace looked up at her as she looked down at him. Their eyes met for a moment causing both of them to blush and look away.
"So, we should probably get going to my house so I can get dressed and grab some stuff so uhm I can crash here for a few days." Ace said, rising to his feet and looking aside. Dramon just sat there for a second.
"Yeah, of course," Amanda replied with a smile. She brushed some hair behind her ear, keeping it out of her face as she looked down at Dramon with a puzzled look. He had mentioned something about a partner before she shoved him out of her room.
"Wait, wait! There is business to attend to!" Dramon said, standing up and looked at Amanda. As if on cue, a small ball of light floated out of Dramon's chest and settled on Amanda's left wrist. It took a form as it wrapped around her wrist, like a watch. The light faded, revealing something that resembled a watch. But it wasn't a watch, no it was quite different. For one, it was colored in blue and white, white for the base, blue for the highlights. It had a screen in the center with two round buttons on the left of the screen, two on the right and one larger, more oval one under the screen. The strap and the outside of the screen had similar markings, some sort of alphabet and on the other side was the same symbol on Amanda's computer, the D with the monster head coming out of it..
"That's you Digivice Omega. It's pretty cool, it's basically a link between you and me, because…well, I'm your partner." He smiled and stuck his hand out to shake hers. Amanda reached down and took the dragon's claw in her hand. Could this be real? Her own dragon…so then that message came true. She smiled and just stared at Dramon.
"Pleasure to meet you…" she said with a smile. Amanda looked over at Ace who had a puzzled look on his face.
"So where did you come from?" Ace asked, addressing Dramon. He was aware he attempted to explain before but, he really wasn't paying that much attention.
"I'm not sure really…" Dramon replied, scratching his head in thought. "I mean, Digimon come from another reality, another world but. I don't know if I've ever been there. Actually, I can't remember much of anything except this strong desire to find Amanda…"
"Really? Hey, do you know a Kronos?" she asked, thinking back to the message she had received a few days ago, and of course the one Ace had gotten last night. Dramon shook his head.
"No…why?"
"Oh…well never mind then." Amanda sighed, frowning. She looked up at Ace who was looking at his phone.
"Uhm, we should get going. School starts in about an hour and I still need to get changed." Ace said with a small smile. It was pretty awesome that there was a real dragon in their presence, but they had school, and if it wasn't for the test today, he probably would have skipped, though Amanda most likely wouldn't have.
"Dramon, could you stay here for the day?" she asked half smiling at Dramon.
"Er, I suppose so…is there anything to do? Food maybe?" he asked as his stomach growled loudly. Dramon smiled innocently, holding his stomach snickering a bit.
"Oh, I don't think we have anything in the house…" Amanda sighed. She and Ace did have to order pizza last night to eat, and they finished off the box. Well Ace did mostly. She looked up to Ace for any ideas or help but he was no where to be seen. She looked into his room across the hall but he wasn't there.
"Here we go…" he said, climbing up the stairs with a phone in his hand and a menu in the other. "Take this, this and this…" he said, handing Dramon the phone, menu and a twenty. "Order something that is smaller than the number in the corner on the bill and when they come to deliver it, put the cash under the door and wait till they leave to eat. I don't know how easy it'll be to explain a dragon…er Digimon."
Dramon looked at the three things and nodded slowly trying to figure out everything. But he was sure he'd get it. How hard could this all be?
"Yeah, we'll be home around two." Amanda added as she walked down the stairs. Ace followed after and the two closed the door behind them, leaving Dramon alone in the house. He picked up the phone, dialed the number and just starred at it.
"Hello, Ben's Deli. What can we get you?"
"What can I get with a piece of paper with a two and a zero on it?"
"You mean a twenty? Well let's see…"
Twenty minutes later, Ace and Amanda stood outside of Ace's house, both just staring at it. Ace sighed as he walked up the driveway slowly, doing his best to be as quiet as he could. Amanda looked down as she walked, almost ashamed and embarrassed to be here. She knew about Ace's parents from their chats and after what he told her last night, she wasn't at all thrilled about meeting them. Amanda stepped up the first step towards the door before she was tugged back.
"Oh no, we're not going in that way. They're probably sleeping in the living room…" Ace whispered. Amanda stepped down and followed him. Ace climbed the fence in the back hopping over it. He then climbed up to his little side roof and into his window, leaving Amanda there. She sighed and leaned against the fence, looking up at where Ace vanished.
Ace tossed the shirt he was wearing on the floor of his room as he put on a clean undershirt and then his uniform shirt. He grabbed a bag out of his closet and quickly and quietly filled it with socks, boxers and spare clothing. Just before he left, he snagged a tie out of his closet and stepped out of his window onto the roof. Ace climbed down, then over the fence, landing gracefully next to Amanda.
"So how do I look? Not bad huh?" he asked, holding his tie in his hand. Amanda looked him over and nodded.
"Eh, S'alright…" she said with a smile. "So, let's get going."
Later in the morning, Ace sat in the back of his English class, scribbling in his notebook. Everyone else had the book they were reading open on the desk looking through the pages. Ace had other things on his mind, more important than some book about a coming of age story. All these stories are all the same anyway, bad thing happens, person grows up and all becomes amazing. Yep, same boring stuff, he thought as he stared at what he had written on the top of his notebook. It was a crude drawing of the symbol that was on Amanda's laptop and her new Digivice, what ever that was. He wasn't sure why but he felt a strange connection to that symbol and just stared at it.
"Ace, could you come here for a moment?"
Ace looked up, snapping out of his daze at the sound of his name being called. In the doorway stood the school's principle, Bro. Roy and even one of the guidance counselors, Mr. Spencer. He rose slowly and moved to head over to them.
"Uhm, bring your things…" Bro. Roy said. Ace grabbed his book and bag, and walked to the front of the class, feeling everyone's eyes on him as he did. It was awkward, but he didn't seem to mind. He calmly walked out of the classroom and the door closed behind him.
"Am I in trouble?" Ace asked, looking over at the principle with a puzzled look on his face as they walked down the hall towards his office in silence. Bro Roy looked over at Mr. Spencer.
"No." Bro. Roy said as they arrived at the office. He opened the door, allowing Ace to step inside and take a seat. Ace sat down and looked at Bro. Roy as the principal sighed. From the other room, the offices, two detectives stepped into the room, nodding to Bro. Roy and Mr. Spencer. One of the detectives sighed lightly, looking at Ace as he sat there.
"Ace, you're parents were…found murdered in their home this morning. It seemed that some animal had been in there, but there was no sign of forced entry or…traces of the beast." The detective said as he pat Ace's shoulder.
"What do you mean? How is that possible?" Ace asked. This was big news really. But he wasn't sad, not really. He hated his parents. They were miserable excuses for human beings and all. What he was feeling however was a mix of confusion, surprise and yes, even a bit of joy.
"We're not sure. Nothing was taken from the house, and well quite frankly, we're stumped." The detective admitted, shaking his head.
"Do you have a place to stay Ace? A friend, relative?" Mr. Spencer spoke up rather suddenly. Ace looked up at him. Well, I could stay with Lee and his family, or Kaze…or Nathan…wait, Amanda is already putting me up. Yeah I guess I can stay there, I don't think she'll kick me out, and well, it'll give me a chance to get to know her better, Ace though.
"Yeah, I do. I'll be fine." Ace said, standing up and walking towards the door.
"Well, either way, take the day off…" Bro. Roy said as Ace opened the door and stepped out into the hall. He shut the door and his eyes as he processed everything over in his head.
"So, whats up? Why did you get pulled out of class? Finally set fire to the locker room or something?"
Ace opened his eyes at the sound of Nathan's voice and looked at his three friends all standing against the wall, waiting for him.
"How did you know I was here?" Ace asked.
"Ah I saw you get pulled out of class…" Kaze spoke up. He shrugged and looked at Nathan. "Then I texted these two and hell, we've all been on a pretty long bathroom break. We were so close to just going back to class, but here you are."
"Oh…kay well glad!" Ace smiled.
"So, after school, what do you say we head over to my place for some Soul Cal?" Nathan asked as Ace started to walk off in silence.
"Where's he going?"
The others followed after him, talking among themselves, or even talking to Ace but he was in his own world. Was it really possible that the Kronos was involved? With out Ace's parents, his life would be better. At least in his mind it would be…
"Hey, what's she doing here?" Nathan said, snapping Ace out of his daze. He stopped walking, just shy of the stairs and looked back at his friends, then over at where they were looking. Amanda stood against the doorway, looking at Ace with a half smile on her face.
"She's waiting for me…" Ace spoke up, walking past Lee, Nathan and Kaze.
"What do you mean? In one day you suddenly became her friend or something?" Lee asked as he adjusted his glasses.
"Actually, turns out she's been my friend for a long while." Ace replied, turning to look at his friends.
"So, you're going to ditch us for her?" Lee said, narrowing his blue eyes at the girl and crossing his arms over his chest.
"I need to talk to her. And you know something? She's pretty cool so…yeah, I'll catch you guys later or something." Ace replied with a shrug of his shoulders, turning his back to the three boys. Amanda blinked a few times, looking at the angry face of Lee, and the confused ones of Nathan and Kaze. She would have said something, but Ace was already on his way down the hall. She smiled gently at them and jogged down after him.
"You didn't have to ditch them…" Amanda whispered as she caught up to Ace. The brown haired boy just shrugged, looking at the floor as he walked.
"Yeah well, I need to talk to you. Seems my parents were killed last night by some animal or something. There was no trace of anything in the house other than my parents…I almost wonder of that "Kronos" had anything to do with it."
"Why would you say that? He asked if you wanted your life to be…better…" she said slowly. "Wait, you think, you think you're life would be better with out your parents?" she gasped, stopping in her tracks.
"Yeah…" Ace replied as he turned to look at her. His eyes met hers as she shook her head. He had no feelings of sorrow in him. No, in fact he didn't feel any different about life. What did upset him was this Kronos being. There had to have been a connection between Dramon's appearance, and Ace's parents' death. They both happened on the same day and for all he knew, or at least thought, they happened at the same time.
"I got the day off, so is it ok if I head back to your place? I don't want to impose or anything.." Ace spoke up, breaking the silence that had befallen them. Amanda shook her head, obviously leaving what ever daze she was in.
"Yeah, heh that's fine. Just make sure Dramon hasn't done anything stupid while we've been gone."
"Aye Captain. I'll see you after school…" Ace replied before heading up the stairs, leaving Amanda in the hall all alone. She closed her eyes and stood there for a moment, sighing.
Ace walked down his street with his bag slung over his shoulder. There was a fast way to get to Amanda's house from school, but he wanted to see his house, just to confirm everything. He stopped as he neared his driveway, looking at the police tape that had sealed off the area. His eyes traveled along the first floor of the house catching a massive blood smear on one of the living room windows. So it all was true…I wonder what could have done this, Ace thought, giving the house one last glance before turning and heading back towards Amanda's house. He kept his hands in his pockets as he walked, mostly in silence since he was alone. Though every few blocks, he'd stop and look around almost feeling as if he were being watched. But he was alone on the road. Not even a car had passed him, not since he had left his house. He crossed another street, just down the block from Amanda's and stopped as a few bushes off to his side rustled.
"Hello?" he said, turning to face the bush as it shook. "It's probably just a cat or a raccoon…But knowing me and my luck, it's going to be some thing that's going to eat my face." Ace took a step towards the bush, slowly. It shook again, a bit more violently "Oh God, please don't eat my face. I like it just the way it is…" he whimpered as something leapt from the bush and tackled him to the ground. "AH! Don't eat my face!!" Ace yelled as he closed his eyes and shielded his face with his hands.
"Eh, it probably doesn't taste very good." Dramon muttered from his spot ontop of Ace. The boy opened his eyes and looked at the Dragon Digimon.
"What the…Argh Dramon!" he growled and shoved the Digimon off of him. "What are you doing out anyway?"
"I got bored in the house and smelled you coming so I figured I'd come say hi! So…uhm, where's my partner?"
Ace grumbled as he dusted himself off and straightened out his shirt. "Oh, she's in school still. I'm just awesome and get to leave early. But still, we should get you home. Who knows what people would do if they found you."
"But there's no one here…" Dramon said looking around. "No scents, nothing, it's like everyone left." Ace looked around. The street was empty. No cars, no people…heck even the birds were quiet. The two stood there, looking around for a moment before their eyes met. Ace nodded, as did Dramon and the two started to walk back to Amanda's home. Though before they could reach the home, a loud crack echoed and a random shot of electricity fired out of the middle of the road. Ace turned to look at it as the swirling black portal appeared.
"That's a Digital Gate…" Dramon announced almost as if on cue. "It's a passageway between my world and yours. I wonder what's coming out though…" Dramon turned his head to the side, trying to look into the gate as a fireball flew out and pelted him in the head, knocking him over. From inside the gate, a pair of red eyes shone against the black background before the rest of the figure emerged. It stepped onto the pavement, and the gate closed up behind it. The creature, a dinosaur like thing, stood about waist height with dark red skin. He had a single line of green spikes down his back and black tribal markings on his body. The creature looked over at Ace, narrowing his eyes a bit. Flames spewed out of the corner of his mouth just as he opened it.
"Demi Blast!" the dinosaur yelled, firing his ball of fire at Ace.
"Doragon Flame!" Dramon called out firing his own flame ball. The two impacted in the air, canceling one another out. "Ace, get out of here! I can take this punk down."
"Right!" Ace called back as he dashed down the street. The dinosaur turned his head in Ace's direction and fired his attack again and again. Each ball of flame landed just in front of him.
"Hey! I'm your opponent here!" Dramon yelled as he spread open his wings and took to the air. The dinosaur Digimon paid him no attention as he fired once again at Ace. This one exploded under him, sending the boy flying and skidding across the cement.
"Ace!" Dramon yelled on in concern. The dino Digimon seemed intent on taking Ace down and walked towards him, now with a clean shot. "Inferno Force!" Dramon yelled as his he opened his mouth. White energy collected in front of his mouth before being concentrated into a beam. It fired down at the Digimon, impacting on him and exploding. He roared out in pain as he went fling on his side, crashing into a tree and snapping through it and crashing into the side of a house. The tree fell onto the street between Dramon and Ace. Dramon watched as the dinosaur slowly rose to his feet once again. There was no way a child level Digimon should be able to get up after a hit like that…
"Eliminate the pest! Evolve DemiTyrannomon! Become Dragonmon!" A voice yelled out as DemiTyrannomon nodded. He closed his eyes as a cocoon of black light encased him.
"Ace are you ok?" Dramon asked, running over to Ace. The boy nodded as he looked sat up. His pants were ripped and blood covered his knees. His shirt was charred a bit from the flames.
"I'm fire Dramon. Er where's that other Digimon?" Ace asked. Dramon looked over at the cocoon just as it shattered revealing a large black dragon. It looked like your typical medieval dragon, standing on all fours. It had a twin row of spikes that originated from his head and split down his back, ending just before his whip like tail. It roared out, spewing flames high into the air before looking at Ace and Dramon.
"Oh crap…" Ace muttered as Dragonmon opened his mouth. A light emitted from the back of his throat, followed by a stream of fire. The flames flew out of his mouth and down towards Ace and Dramon.
Ace closed his eyes, not wanting to witness his own death…but the flames never came. He opened his eyes slowly, looking around the dark void of where he was. There was nothing there, no Dramon, no city…anything, just Ace and Ace alone.
"So you're the one that was chosen? Are you going to surrender so easily?"
Ace looked around, spooked by the voice that echoed all around him. He slowly and painfully rose to his feet, wincing from the stinging in his legs. "Who's there?" Ace called out.
"Unlike Dramon, you're partner was corrupted…"
"Where are you? What are you talking about?"
"That Digimon is your partner. Hmph, humans…I'll never know why we trust our fate to you."
"Show you self!" Ace called out, getting a little freaked by this whole thing.
"As you wish…" Before Ace a faint amount of light pierced the darkness on the floor and a cloaked figure rose up slowly. He was dressed in a red cloak, with a red pointy hood and a pentagram emblazoned on it. The Digimon stood above Ace, probably twice his height. "I am Daemon, Demon Lord and guardian of the Digital world along with my Angelic counterpart, Slash Angemon."
"Demon Lord? So you're like evil? Does this mean I'm evil?" Ace asked. Daemon reached his right arm into his hood and sighed, holding his face.
" No. Listen to me carefully. The digital world is always kept in a state of balance. Light and Dark if you will. Slash Angemon and I rule our respective sides and do what we can to keep the world in harmony. For as you know, light can not exist with out darkness. However, the balance has been disrupted by two beings, Kronosmon and Enchantressmon. Together they have rallied both holy and dark Digimon, as well as the various other groups to their side and plan to take over the Digital world. All who have opposed have been killed and we're on our last leg. That's why you and Amanda were chosen."
"Chosen? So…you're not Kronos? We've gotten messages from him…."
"Of course, he knows who you both are and attempted to kill you. We were able to keep Dramon free and send him over here, but DemiTyrannomon, well as you can see…we were unable to save him. But you can. You're his partner."
"Just how am I supposta do that? I don't even have a Digivice and in case you haven't noticed, he's a giant dragon and I should be dead by now!" Ace yelled a bit in panic. Daemon sighed and shook his head.
"Why couldn't you be calmer or something…and just wait till I give it to you!" Daemon grumbled as a black light curved around Ace's left wrist. It took the form of the same thing Amanda had, a Digivice Omega. His was colored black on the interior and red on the highlight.
"Yours has special features added in by Slash Angemon, one to control your partner. The first one is called Stamina Drain. It will drain your partner of his energy and reduce him to his child stage. The second is well, when exposed to your digivice, he should be cured. So, good luck human!"
Ace looked up from his Digivice. The darkness had subsided and he was back on the street next to Dramon. The flame had subsided and the Dragon stood there in confusion.
"Right…let's do this. Dragonmon, as your partner I command you…stop!" Ace yelled standing up and pointing his finger at the digimon. Dragonmon roared and stomped towards them. Ace flinched but kept his finger pointed at Dragonmon as if something were supposed to happen.
"Ace, what the heck are you doing?" Dramon yelped, tugging on Ace's shirt.
"Oh, wait...Stamina Drain!" Ace yelled, slamming his head on the Digivice. A reddish aura formed around Dragonmon's body and quickly formed a beam into Ace's digivice. Dragonmon halted in his tracks, swaying as he stood. It was only a matter time before he collapsed.
"Whoa, hey when did you get a digivice?" Dramon asked poking at it.
"Stop that!" Ace grumbled, swatting as his claw. Dramon snickered and looked up as Dragonmon collapsed on the ground as the last bit of aura was sucked into the Digivice. He lost his form and quickly reverted to DemiTyrannomon, leaving Ace and Dramon standing there looking at the collapsed Digimon.
"You think it's ok?" Dramon asked sniffing the air and slowly walking towards DemiTyrannomon.
"I think so…" Ace replied. The two stood over the collapsed digimon, with Ace attempting to resist the urge to poke him. He gave into his urge and poked the sleeping dinosaur in the head. DemiTyrannomon grumbled and opened his eyes slowly. He blinked a bit, looking up at Ace and Dramon with his green eyes.
"Uhm hello! I'm DemiTyrannomon and you must be Ace!"
Ace smiled and shook his head. "Nice to meet you… come on you two, let's get back to Amanda's." The three of them walked off the street and into Amanda's house. Ace looked back out the window to see everything back to normal. People were walking up and down the street, cars were driving and birds were chirping.
"Well, that was weird…" he muttered and took a seat down on the couch.
Amanda returned later in the afternoon when school was over. She dropped her bag on the floor and looked over at Ace.
"I'm glad to see my house in one piece!" She smiled.
"Yep! Well what can I say? We the three of us came close to leveling it." Ace chuckled, leaning back over the couch to look at her.
"Three of you?"
"Yep!" Ace smiled holding up his left wrist. "I got a partner too!"
--
To be continued...