Time for Izzy's emergency meeting...

Wednesday

"Did you get the email?" TK asked as soon as he walked up to Kari's locker. He'd missed lunch and had been itching all day to talk to the other digidestined about the eerie email he'd received.

She nodded with an obvious worried expression on her face. "How could he know anything? We've been so careful."

"That's the thing. I don't think he does." TK let his eyes wander to a group of chatting students down the hall. School was out, so the hallways were almost cleared, but it still wasn't safe for them to talk freely.

Kari raised an eyebrow. "So you think this isn't about them?" By them she meant the Digimon, but like TK, she was aware it wasn't safe to call them by name.

He shrugged bringing his eyes from the other students to Kari. "I don't know what it's about, but if it is about them than it doesn't matter because there's no proof left."

She looked doubtful while contemplating what he just said. "I guess you're right. I really hope he doesn't start telling everyone. I couldn't take it if things turn out like last time."

He grinned confidently, hoping to show Kari how sure he was that the investigator wasn't a threat. "Don't worry, it won't. Come on, we've got to get going to Izzy's meeting."

Joe, glasses askew and blue hair disheveled, paced around his dorm feverishly. He'd been doing what he does best: panicking.

"I know it's here. It has to be here. I can't have lost it! I just can't!" The college student mumbled to himself. It was a good thing his roommate wasn't around to hear him.

Three nocks came at the door in perfect rhythm. Joe yelled out, rather aggressively since he was being interrupted from his search, that he'd be there in a minute.

Not wanting to wait that long, whoever was on the other side of the door began kicking the bottom of it repeatedly.

"I said just a minute!" Joe stomped over, straightened his glasses, took a deep breath, and opened the door to reveal Tai with his leg reeled back for another kick and Matt leaning on the wall opposite the dorm.

Joe reluctantly opened the door knowing he had to let them in no matter what his state of panic. "Did you really have to kick the door?"

"You were taking forever!" Tai explained before ungraciously plopping down on the corner of Joe's bed. His and his roommate's room was perfectly cleaned and organized. It put Matt and Tai's room to even more shame. Everything was in its place. That is, except for…

"My paper, I was looking for it," Joe revealed while taking a few more glances around the room as if he expected it to suddenly appear. Tai and Matt took a good look at Joe. He was awfully frazzled, and even though neither of them would reduce themselves to such lengths to find some teacher's assignment, they knew Joe of all people must be panicking.

"Are you sure you didn't leave it somewhere outside of your dorm?" Matt suggested trying to be helpful.

Joe dismissed the idea. "Not possible, completed assignments go in the Completed Assignments Folder. I would've never taken it out of the Completed Assignments Folder if it was completed which it was because it was perfect and completed and now it's gone!" He had taken a few steps toward the now tentative blonde.

"Er…right."

"You can't print out another copy?" Tai called with his eyes now firmly attached to the ceiling.

"Well, I could, but that requires having to get it laminated again which cost 25 cents. Not to mention, there was a long line."

Matt blinked. "So basically this is about a quarter?"

"This is more than a quarter!" Joe whaled. "It's the principal!"

"Right, the pride that comes with laminating your homework," Matt remarked sarcastically.

Joe shot him a look before letting out a deep sigh and grabbing his car keys off his desk. The paper would have to wait. He knew his friends well enough to know they showed up for a ride to the meeting Izzy had called. "I'm driving?"

Both gave a brief confirmation before they headed out the door.

In the hallway, there was about three seconds of silence before Tai began to snicker. "You laminate your papers?"

"Don't you think the cosmos would look better next to the geraniums?"

"Huh?" Sora asked, only partly listening because she didn't want to lose count on the inventory of daisies. It seemed more people were buying those nowadays.

Mimi elaborated, "I just think that the geraniums would complement the cosmos, but you've got them shoved in the corner all sad and alone."

'All accounted for.' Sora turned to face Mimi who sat on a stool behind the check-out counter. Supposedly, Mimi was going to help anyone who needed checked out while Sora manned the floor, but the flower shop was closing soon, and the few lingering customers were beginning to depart. Sora frowned slightly studying the cosmos in question. "The flowers don't have feelings, Mimi."

"You don't know that," she chimed.

"I'll believe it when they start talking to me."

"Maybe they are, and you don't know how to listen."

Sora's attempt to show her annoyance through an eye roll was cancelled out by the amused smile that appeared on her face. "You sound like my mom."

She shrugged. "At least one of us does. Hey, speaking of your mom, when do you think she'll be back?"

"Who knows?" Sora's mom had been off visiting her dad in Kyoto for the past couple of days, the same couple of days Mimi had been staying at the Takenouchi's apartment for her spring break.

Mr. Takenouchi's work still forbid him from coming home to stay, so Sora had decided to take a year off before college to help her mother with the shop and keep her company.

Mimi paused before pressing, "Now could you move the cosmos?"

"Mimi!"

"What?" She asked innocently. After all, she was only being honest.

Sora shook her head slightly. She could never be mad at Mimi, but that girl sure did love to do things her way.

The telling ding from a bell on top of the door told of another customer. Sora was about to announce they were closed for the day before turning around to spot two familiar faces.

"Kari, TK, hi!" she called out motioning for them to meet her and Mimi by the counter.

They both smiled warmly, grateful to see their friends and get some answers.

"So where's everyone else?" Kari asked casually.

"Right here!" The unmistakable sound of Tai's voice filled the shop as he, Matt, and Joe entered. They made their way to the rest of the group.

Matt surveyed the room. "Now we're only missing the guy who called this meeting."

Mimi inquired, "Did the rest of you get that creepy email?"

There were a few nods of confirmation before Joe said, "It's probably why we're here."

"Do you think he knows?" Sora asked suddenly looking worried.

TK shook his head disbelievingly. "How could he?"

"Because we hold our meetings in public places like this."

The reply came from Izzy, striding through the door with an oversized pile of papers occupying both his hands. His eyes sweeped the room expecting someone to be eavesdropping.

Sora involuntarily tilted her head. "You said you wanted the meeting here, and besides, there are no customers left."

Izzy laid down his papers and began shuffling with them, too preoccupied at the moment to make eye contact. "Valid points but I was referring to your apartment. Your parents aren't here while mine are at my apartment and could easily walk in to hear us discussing monsters and the police and whatnot." Izzy took one more expectant look around the room earning an eye roll from Mimi.

"If it's that big of a deal, we'll go upstairs!"

The eight made their way upstairs and into the Takenouchi's kitchen. It was a quaint, cozy room. Mimi immediately hopped up onto the counter next to the fridge. Matt stood closest to the door with one arm draped around Sora's shoulders. Tai, Joe, TK and Kari, sat down around the table that Izzy leaned over while spreading out his various papers for everyone to see.

He took a deep breath and began; "Now I assume that last night at approximately 6:45 PM you all received an email from a man claiming to be Benjamin Mori, an investigator who has called us in for questioning with the assistance of the police?" There were a few nods of confirmation, so he continued; "Now if this man has approached us because of the Digital World, it is essential that we don't give ourselves away. Contact with him could be dangerous."

"So you do think this is about the Digital World?" Kari asked looking disheartened.

"That was my immediate conclusion. At first I was flabbergasted. As TK pointed out, there's no way he could know what the eight of us are involved in, but he must have figured something out. I emailed him back-"

"You emailed him back?" Mimi cut in.

Joe questioned, "Didn't you just lecture us about not contacting him?"

"I needed more information…" Izzy trailed off with the slightest bit of guilt in his voice.

Matt shook his head solemnly. "Izzy, your thirst for knowledge better not be the end of us."

The redhead ignored the comment. "Anyway, my point was that his reply was very vague. He said he had 'dug up some dirt' on us which I took as it's something from a very long time ago, and that got me thinking-"

"Oh this can't be good," Tai muttered a bit louder than he had intended.

"-that he must have come across something from back when digimon were all over the news. I took the same route as the investigator, searched around, and found these." He motioned to the papers spread out across the table. "These are articles, reports, scripts for news shows, and everything else that mentions monsters running amuck in the past eight years."

The digidestined seated at the table skimmed over the papers. Most headings mentioned monsters, damage, or violence, but a few were unreadable and obviously not in Japanese. Some had action shots of rampaging digimon or panicking people.

Joe sat back wrinkling his nose disbelievingly. "Wait, the sovereigns spent all this time thinking it over and erasing people's minds, but they never even bothered to get rid of the physical evidence of Digimon?"

Izzy shrugged. He had asked himself the same question. "They couldn't enter our world. The sovereigns only knew of what was happening in the Digi-World. They don't archive events, so they probably didn't consider us keeping records."

"That's one of the Poi brothers!" Kari exclaimed spotting a picture of the eldest brother watching his digimon fight.

Izzy placed his finger on the picture she was referring to. "Precisely, at one point or another, us digidestined have all gotten caught on tape or by a photographer. Even though no one here has ever communicated to the media, we can still be linked to the 'monster attacks' because we had to be nearby if our digimon were fighting."

Sora squinted her eyes still not entirely convinced. "By that logic, they would have found tons of digidestined around the world. Why wouldn't he have tracked down the 02 team or the international digidestined?"

Izzy placed the finger that was on the picture to his chin. He had been so caught up in figuring out how they were discovered that he didn't stop to think about why no one else was. "Not sure, maybe he's going off of something that only we were involved in."

"So something back from the first adventure?" Tai suggested.

"Possibly."

Joe reminded, "We didn't get any news coverage back then compared to after 02."

"Yes, but we were also a lot less careful about not being seen. Do I have to remind you all we ascended into the sky via a giant rainbow beam?"

Tai sat up straighter to address the others, "Alright so somehow he found us, and now we have to make it through questioning. I don't think anyone needs reminded that we can't tell them anything. No matter what happens, we all promise to keep the Digital World a secret?"

Izzy nodded adding on, "Everyone has to be exceedingly careful. We can't let this guy know anything."

Matt snorted, "You're one to talk. You're a horrible liar!"

The redhead folded his arms defensively. "I am not! I'm not even the worst liar here."

All eyes turned to Mimi who had an indignant look on her face. "Hey, I can keep a secret!"

"We know, Mimi," Tai assured, "but if someone asks you a direct question about the Digimon, there's no giggling or fidgeting, got it?"

She nodded vigorously. "I know! Don't worry, I can handle it."

Satisfied, Tai addressed the group again, now watching the clock on the wall of the kitchen, "Good so I've got a class that starts… uh, about 20 minutes ago, so we should get going. Izzy, anything else?"

Izzy shook his head. "No, I'll see you all tomorrow at the police station."

Thanks for reading!

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