~Reflection~ Disclaimer: I've never claimed to own Digimon, have I? (G: *presses "Play" on tape recorder*/Recorder: *plays with Gaia's voice on it* I'm rich! I own Digimon! I’m rich!) Excuse me for a moment. *throws G and the tape recorder out the window* *** Chapter 11 Sinking fast below the horizon, the dying sun cast a reddish hue over the district of Tamachi. Its fiery glow flooded through a sliding glass door of the Ichijouji residence, whose youngest human occupant was currently working in silence in his crimson-colored room. While Ken busily typed at his computer, Wormmon huddled on the bed, half-afraid to come down, half-anxious to see what was occupying his partner. He had opted to stay where he was ever since Ken had come home, unceremoniously placed him on the bed, and set to work on whatever it was he was doing. The caterpillar-like digimon scooted over to the edge of the elevated bed and opened his mandibles to speak, but he then remembered how temperamental Ken had been acting lately and decided it would be best to wait until the boy was in the right mood before talking. He didn't have to wait long, though. A few minutes later, Ken closed the program he was fiddling around with and stood up. Wormmon figured that this was as good a chance as any. "Ken, what's wrong? You haven't been acting like the sweet, depressed kid I've come to love. Did something bad happen to you?" His eyes never leaving the computer screen, Ken muttered softly, "No, Wormmon, everything's fine. There's just some unfinished business I need to take care of." Activating the Digiport program on his computer, the indigo-haired boy pulled out his black D-3 and raised it to the monitor. Wormmon's antennae shot up. "We-we're going to the Digital World?" he asked in surprise. "No, of course not," Ken casually replied, still not turning around. The green digimon let out a sigh of relief. "I'm going to the Digital World alone, and you're staying here." "What?!" cried Wormmon, now extremely alarmed. Cocking his head to the side, Ken nonchalantly queried, "Can't a guy take a walk in the Digital World without his digimon worrying himself sick?" "But Ken--" "I know, I know…You're probably hungry, right? It being close to dinnertime and all…" said Ken, purposely missing the point. "I'll tell you what: you sit there and be quiet, and I'll bring you something back from Digitamamon's." Before Wormmon argue with him, the gray-clad boy yelled, "Digiport open!" and was gone in a flash. ~~~ Elsewhere, in Odaiba, a lavender-haired girl yawned and stretched in her barely long enough bed. A two-hour's rest was just what she needed to recharge. As she sat up and put on her glasses, the completely refreshed girl heard a faint knocking at her door. "Yolei, dinner's ready," called one of her sisters. Doing some more stretches and cracking some joints in the process, she yelled back, "All right, I'm coming, and don't you guys dare eat everything before I get there!" Hopping out of bed, Yolei quickly crossed her bedroom and was just reaching for the doorknob when the sound of someone loudly clearing his throat stopped her. "May I please join you this time?" politely inquired Hawkmon from behind her. Yolei's family still wasn't too comfortable with the idea of living with a talking bird from another world, and so the girl had thought it best that she keep him in her room as often as possible. "Hmmm…" She mulled over the thought for a few seconds before saying brightly, "Okay! I'm sure they've gotten used to you by now." Once again, the youngest member of the Inuoe household was about to join her family for dinner, this time with her partner digimon in tow, but then she heard a muffled beeping coming from her backpack. "Huh?" Yolei halted in midstep and turned to look at her bag. "Now who could that be?" She walked over to her backpack and rummaged through some folders to pull out a rectangular gray device. Yolei popped open the lid of her D-terminal and read the most recent e-mail on the screen. Yolei, I'm sorry to have to ask you to do this for me again, but could you possibly go to the Digital World right now and find Ken? He said he was just going for a walk, but something tells me that there's more to it than that. Please do this for me, Yolei. I know Ken hasn't been acting like himself lately, but that's why I'm so worried about him, as I'm sure you are, too. Please, Yolei. Please bring Ken back to me just like you did last time. Wormmon The bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity sighed before typing a message back. Hi Wormmon, Don't worry--I'm on my way to the Digital World right now. I'll bring Ken back to you, you can be sure of that, and I'll make sure he stays there with you, even if I have to tie him down to the bed myself. Yolei blushed as she typed this, but then she mentally slapped herself for thinking what she was thinking and continued with the e-mail. In the meantime, you'd better grab something to eat; I bet you're starving. See you soon, Yolei Immediately after she had sent the e-mail, Yolei popped her head out her bedroom door and called, "Never mind, you guys. I'll eat later. Something's come up." With that taken care of, she booted up her computer and activated the Digiport program. "Hawkmon, you ready?" "As always." "Then let's go! Digiport open!" ~~~ "Keep your eyes peeled, Aquilamon!" shouted Yolei over the rushing wind while she clung to the giant bird digimon's back with one arm. In the other arm, she held her red and white D-3 out in front of her face. "He should be pretty near." "No problem," the champion-level digimon responded, examining the barren landscape beneath them. This time Yolei's search had led them to a rocky wasteland where there seemed to be no sign of any life whatsoever. Right now they were flying close to a bottomless gorge wide enough for two airplanes to fly through safely side-by-side. Up above, the sky was quickly turning into a midnight blue, and a few stars could be clearly seen. Night was fast approaching, and in consequence, the temperature was dropping at a rapid rate. 'We had better find Ken soon before both of us catch pneumonia,' thought Yolei, hugging Aquilamon's feathery back. Not long after she had thought this, her partner digimon spotted a silhouette standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a particularly wide part of the gorge. "Look over there!" he called to her, nodding towards the shadowy figure. "That must be Ken!" she exclaimed in relief. "Let's fly in a bit closer." Aquilamon nodded and obeyed, now gliding mere meters off the parched ground and coming in fast towards their target. What happened next was a complete blur. Once they were close enough, something dark and cylindrical came flying straight at them. Aquilamon barely had time to yell, "Watch out!" and pull up to protect Yolei before it clasped shut around his right leg, eliciting a screech of pain from the huge digimon. "Aquilamon, what's going on?!" His anxious rider could scarcely hang on as the bird digimon flapped his wings wildly, trying to steady himself. "Aquilamon!" commanded a sinister voice coming from the cliff down below. "Bring that girl to me now!" "Wha--?" Yolei could hardly believe her ears. It couldn't be…could it? The giant brown bird digimon froze in midair, and his eyes began to glow red. "Aquilamon?!" cried Yolei, shaking the digimon's coat of feathers. "Are you okay?" "I will do as you command, master," was all the reply she got from the seemingly hypnotized digimon. Yolei gasped in terror. Immediately, Aquilamon flew up and looped around, twisting upside-down as he glided past the figure on the cliff. Her grip on his back already weak, Yolei couldn't hang on any longer, and so she fell hard onto the dusty ground and rolled a few meters before coming to a painful stop face-down near the edge of the gorge. "Now, go fly off somewhere far away in the Digital World until I send for you," ordered the same menacing voice. "Yes, master." Yolei barely managed to catch a glimpse of what had latched itself around Aquilamon's leg before he flew off. It reminded her of a Dark Ring, but whereas the ring had been short, this one was as long as a Dark Spiral and much thicker. In no time, she heard heavy footsteps approach her from behind and stop mere centimeters from her. Yolei wasn't given much of a chance, though, to flip over and look up at the person next to her for suddenly he pulled her up by her long lavender hair, forcing her to scream out in pain. Yolei instantly stood up as best she could on her sore legs and furiously yanked her hair out of whoever-it-was's clutches. As she whirled around to angrily yell in the person's face, that same person shot out his black-gloved hand, catching her throat in a vice-like grip before she could utter a word. Yolei coughed at the sudden lack of oxygen to her lungs but was now able to look upon the dimly lit face of her assailant. And whom she saw left her frozen in shock. *** Gaia: Look, Ma, I made a cliffhanger! G: Psh! Some cliffhanger! It's obvious to everyone who the other person is. Gaia: Be quiet and go back to your new job. G: (mumbling) Fine, fine, fine. *climbs up a tree with a pitcher of lemonade in one hand* More lemonade, Gwen? Gwen: *holds out glass* Thank you, G. It's about time you made yourself useful. G: *growls and pours out lemonade before turning to the indigo-haired boy next to her* How about you, Ken? Ken: AAHHHH!!! You must be some crazy author trying to poison me with lemonade so you can see me squirm and write it up in your next fanfic as self-torturing moment. *fends her off with a stick* You won't get away with it! Back, I say! G: *blinks and calmly turns to Gwen* Any progress? Gwen: Some. At least he talks in complete sentences now. G: *looks at Ken who has now turned to reciting monologues from Hamlet* I don't know whether to think of that as a good thing or a bad thing.