There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: Hey, I have something new to add to the list of things I don't own. Neither Digimon nor the concept of DigiChats is mine.

Gaia: Look! I get some practice in writing DigiChats in this chapter.
G: Ack! This better not turn into a habit. You know overdone those things are.
Gwen: No offense DigiChat writers. ^_^;
Gaia: Pardon the names, format of the chat, etc. I haven't been in that many chatrooms before.
G: Big surprise.
Gaia: Oh puh-lease, it's not like I don't have a life online or anything.
G: Just keep telling yourself that.
Gaia: That's it! *sets up the cannon and stuffs G into it*
G: Hey! It was just a jo--. *gets blasted to Mars*
Gaia: Aw, only Mars. Rats! I knew I should have put in more powder.
Gwen: ^_^;;;

***

Chapter 2 - Battle Preparations

T.K. Takaishi checked his e-mail for what had to be a record number of times that day. But still, there no response from Ken.

As soon as T.K. had come home this afternoon, Hawkmon had nearly bowled him over, telling him frantically that Yolei had been kidnapped. Ever since then, T.K. had been searching for the indigo-haired boy all day.

He knew that because Ken now went to the same school as them, the Digidestined of Kindness would communicate with them in person during the day and through chatrooms at night. Hence, the former genius found no point in carrying around his D-terminal and would wait until he got home to check his e-mails.

So, that meant if T.K. wanted to find Ken as soon as possible, he would have to go back to the school, but when he returned to campus, the blonde was forced to wait until Ken's soccer practice was over to have any chance of speaking to him. Then, the minute T.K. went to go get a drink of water, Ken had left for home, oblivious to his friend's desperate search for him.

The Digidestined of Hope didn't even want to remember what a nightmare it was trying to find him at the bustling Odaiba train station before he had given up and went back home to send the elusive teenager an e-mail.

Sighing, he returned to the chatroom the rest of his friends were in.

T. K. shook his head. Even though Davis had learned his name by now, the mahogany-haired boy would still jokingly call him anything but T. K.

At his desk, T.K. sweatdropped. He couldn't believe that Davis still had a crush on her after all these years.

"I don't know�Eaybe Davis is right for once," commented the orange digimon hovering at the T.K.'s side. "Ken never has been the type to come to us with his problems."

The blonde turned to face the little digimon who had decided to land on his shoulder. "I know he's right about Ken, but let's at least give Ken a chance to come to us. We still have a few hours left, so until then maybe we can come up with some battle strategies against Daemon, or at least a backup plan just in case�E#034; T.K shut his mouth. He didn't even want to think about it.

However, Patamon finished his thought for him. "Just in case Ken ends up turning into the Emperor again to save her?"

T.K. nodded his head solemnly. "Let's just hope he doesn't resort to that. Then again, I don't know if Ken even can. He's been over the Digimon Emperor thing for some time now; it doesn't seem possible that he can change back just like that." The tall boy accompanied this last part with a snap of his fingers.

"Like you said, let's just hope not," Patamon said as he and his partner turned their attention back to the chat room, which was now filled with hundreds of "i'm sorry kari"'s, courtesy of Davis.

~~~

Standing on the sandy beach, the Demon Lord silently gazed across the Digital World's vast ocean. Underneath the ebony night sky it almost reminded him of the bleak prison he had been kept in all these years.

Almost.

He watched as a hulking form in the water created an enormous splash by swiping a huge arm underneath the surface. It seemed as if his new minion had exterminated another pesky trespasser who had had the misfortune of coming to the wrong place at the wrong time.

At least in the Dark Ocean, there weren't as many pitiful, annoying digimon wandering around�End even better, no pesky, loud-mouthed--

"Yo, horn head!"

--humans.

He narrowed his cold eyes and turned to face the bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity, who was currently in the bony grasp of a Skull Greymon. Of all the humans in the Real World, how could Ichijouji possibly have feelings for this one?

"What is it now, you infernal Digidestined?" he snarled.

Not flinching at his tone of voice, which should have intimidated any normal human, Yolei hotly answered, "Well you do want me to live until Ken gets here, right? You could at least give me something to eat! I've been starving all day. And another thing, your little pet dinosaur here doesn't seem to understand that I've needed to go to the bathroom ever since I woke up a few hours ago. I'm practically wetting my pants here."

Daemon let out a low growl. Waving a clawed hand, he ordered the Skull Greymon, "Take her somewhere far from here and make her be quiet. I don't care how you do it, but make sure you come back with her--alive--before Ichijouji gets here. Understand?"

Yolei could have sworn that she saw the skeleton digimon's face twist into a more sadistic look and an evil gleam appear in his empty eyes.

For the first time since she had regained consciousness and realized her situation, the lavender-haired girl was frightened. "What do you mean 'make me be quiet'?"

The Demon Lord let out a rumbling chuckle and turned back to face the ocean as his new lackey stomped off to obey his orders.

Soon the roars of the waves drowned out the girl's frantic jabbering.

Just a few more hours, and all that he desired would be his.

Just a few hours...

~~~

After hours of debating whether he should dash for the door or wait until the Emperor had gone, Wormmon finally decided that any attempt to help Ken was better than just sitting around doing nothing.

The insect digimon was about to jump down and make a break for the door when the dark-haired boy stood up from the desk.

Every ounce of courage that Wormmon had mustered was gone like a puff of smoke, and he cowered back on the bed.

He simply watched as his possessed partner opened his desk drawer and pulled out a rectangular gray device that hadn't been used in years.

The boy pocketed the D-terminal and activated the Digiport program on his computer, all the while making one last check that everything was in order.

As he raised the black D-3 to the computer, the former Digidestined of Kindness sternly commanded without turning his head, "Remember, worm, don't even think of telling anyone about this. If I find out you've blabbed our little secret, Ken will have a nice little trip."

Hearing no response from the meek digimon, the Emperor muttered under his breath, "I'd give the insect two minutes before he starts squealing." Then aloud he called, "Digiport open!"

In a flash, he was gone, and Wormmon was left alone to start his tortuous debate anew.

~~~

T.K. anxiously drummed his fingers on the table and took another look at the clock.

11:32 P.M., one minute since the last time he had checked.

He turned back to the same chatroom he had been in all this time.

As soon as he read that, T.K. immediately went to check his mail and found that Wormmon had indeed sent them an e-mail.

"Oh, no! It's as bad as we thought!" T.K. exclaimed.

Closing the chat room and activating the familiar transportation program, T. K. raised his D-3 to the computer screen and yelled out, "Digiport open!"

However, instead of a bright, white light shooting out of the computer as usual, absolutely nothing happened.

"What's wrong with this thing?" T. K. looked at his D-3 and raised it to the screen again. "Digiport open!"

Still, nothing happened.

Suddenly, T. K. and Patamon heard a muffled beeping sound coming from the tall boy's top desk drawer. He instantly opened it and pulled out his old D-terminal, which registered he had a new e-mail.

Flipping it open, he read,

"Ken!" The Digidestined of Hope hissed.

No sooner had he said that when the phone rang in the hallway.

"Hello?" he heard his mom sleepily answer. "Oh hello, Kari�Ees, he’s here, just a mom�E#034;

Mrs. Takaishi didn’t have a chance to finish because T.K. had just then appeared and ripped the phone out of her grasp.

"Hello, Kari?" he hurriedly asked. The Digidestined of Hope tried as best he could to tune out his mom scolding him about his rudeness and at the same time listen to Kari.

"T. K., did you get the same e-mail?" Kari questioned from her end of the phone.

"Yeah, and I’m guessing you can’t get into the Digital World either."

"Mm, mm." T.K. could imagine Kari shaking her head as she mumbled this.

"Looks like we need to find another way in. Do you have another computer nearby you can access a Digiport from? I’ll grab Cody and see if we can use Yolei’s computer."

"Great! I’ll meet you at the T. V. to Yolei's Digiport."

"I don’t think so. Davis stopped carrying around his D-terminal about the same time Ken did. But if he’s going over to Ken’s place, he’s sure to hear about what happened from Wormmon. Then Davis can access the Digiport program on Ken’s computer and join us at Daemon’s location."

"’K, see ya." Both children hung up their phones at the same time.

"T. K." His mom had calmed down a bit after sensing that something was wrong. "What’s going on? Does it have to do with the Digital World?"

"I’ll explain later," T. K. hurriedly replied, going back into his room to grab his D-3 and D-terminal, not to mention Patamon, and then rushing out the front door.

"Wait!"

T. K. skidded to a halt halfway out the door and turned around to face his mom, who wore an extremely worried look.

She held out a coat to him and gently said, "Whatever it is, be careful, but don’t forget to come back before school starts in the morning."

A warm smile spread across the blonde boy’s face. "Thanks, Mom. Don’t worry—I will." He took the coat and was out the door with Patamon flying by his side before Mrs. Takaishi could blink.

The brunette woman shook her head and walked slowly over to the apartment door. She watched as her son disappeared down the dark hallway and whispered, "Good luck, T.K." before she quietly closed the door after him.

"Some things never change," she sighed.

~~~

"Hey, Ken, you in there?!" Davis shouted, banging on the door to the Ichijouji apartment.

His short, blue digimon partner tugged on his pants leg. "Davis, has Ken gone deaf?"

Davis paused a moment to ask puzzledly, "I don't think so. Why?"

"Well if he hasn't, I certainly have from all of your yelling."

"Very funny, Veemon, but now’s not the time for making jokes," Davis scolded his partner. "We’ve go to get in there and help Ken out."

Just then the door opened and an anxious Mrs. Ichijouji appeared. "Oh, Davis, it’s you. Kari called and told us everything, and since then we’ve been trying to open Ken’s door, but it won’t budge. I’m so worried about him, now that he’s--"

"Sorry, Mrs. Ichijouji, I don’t have time to chat." He ran past the babbling woman and made his way to Ken’s room, where Mr. Ichijouji was trying to use various keys to unlock his son’s door.

"Oh, Davis," he said quickly looking up. "Have you heard--?"

"Yeah, Ken’s locked himself in, but I’m about to fix that." With one of his best soccer kicks, he pounded the door open and dashed through. "Ken!"

"Davis!" cried a muffled insect-like voice from behind the door he had just kicked open.

The brown-haired boy swung the door back and sweatdropped at the site of a very flat Wormmon squished against the wall behind the door. "Oops, sorry, Wormmon. I guess I don’t know my own strength."

He pried the green digimon off as Wormmon chattered, "I tried to unlock the door myself, but I was never good at tasks that involved things taller than me. Enough of that, though, we’ve got to get into the Digital World and help Ken. The others are already there, but he’s--"

"Don’t worry. I’m on it," he interrupted the insect digimon. He then proceeded to pull up the Digiport program and raise his D-3 to the screen. "I’ll help him beat Daemon, no sweat. Just lead me to him."

"But Davis he’s become--"

"Digiport open!" The teenage boy yelled as a bright light engulfed him and the two digimon at his side.

***

G: (Panting) Hey, I thought you said this was going to be as short a chapter as the ones you wrote in "Reflection."
Gaia: It is. It's a short as one of my longest ones.
G: *face-vaults*
Gwen: By the way, what are you planning to do to Yolei?
Gaia: Pretty much the same thing I did in my previous story.
G: Geez, why do you pick on her so much? It's not like she's your favorite character. You're supposed to be torturing Ken, or Sam at least.
Gaia: Yeah, well, the way I see it, if she's going to be the one that ends up with my Ken-chan, she's going to have to earn it.
G:...
Gwen: That actually makes sense.

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