Clenching her knuckles and gritting her teeth, Rika slowly stepped towards Takato, staring directly into his eyes.
Under her feral gaze, Takato somehow felt like a helpless, little animal, that was about to get caught by a predator.
"All right..." she whispered. "I got it. It was you who changed everything with this game. Fine. But you know what?"
She stepped up to him, so that their faces were directly in front of each other.
"You're going to fix all of that, you hear me? NOW!!"
Takato winced when the furious Hybrid girl screamed at him from that short distance.
"Rika... listen... I'm awfully sorry for everything I did. But... you have to understand... we simply can't use that game anymore."
"I hardly believe that it's just a game!" Rika barked.
"Well, whatever... but using it is much too dangerous. And I already tried to fix everything by removing all the changes I did... and it didn't work!" He firmly stared back into the fox-girl's eyes. "And I won't risk anyone to suffer just because we want to do some experiments. I'm never gonna touch that thing again!"
"Takato..." Rika growled dangerously. "I swear, either you get your butt over to that computer and turn everyone back to normal, or I swear, I'll make your life a living HELL! And don't you tell me we're friends. FRIENDS DON'T RUIN EACH OTHER'S LIFE!"
"Now listen here..." Takato grumbled, as he started to feel a rage that was at least as strong as Rika's. "YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SUFFERED FROM THAT DAMN THING! DO YOU THINK I WANTED TO TURN MY MOM INTO A DIGIMON?"
"Gee, I don't know..." Rika spat back sarcastically. "Perhaps this is all just some sick, perverted fantasy of yours..."
"Hey, hey, you two," Kai tried to intervene. "Don't you think you're going just a bit too far?"
"STAY OUT OF THIS!" the other two kids yelled at him. Kai winced and decided to shut his mouth.
"Well, fine!" Rika snapped. "If you don't wanna do it, I'm gonna do it!"
She walked over to the computer, pushed Kai to the side and sat down. The game was already running, so it only took her a few tries until she found the correct menu.
Kai was dumbfounded. "She... she can see the game as well?"
Rika nodded when she looked at her own profile. "Rika Nonaka... HUMAN!" she shouted and forcefully hammered her finger down on the mouse.
A message window popped up.
'Error! Only game masters are allowed to make any changes in the game. Please create your own game or wait until the next edition of the game arrives on the market!'
Rika looked like she was ready to blast the computer to pieces with a Flare Bullet.
Her head turned around sharply. "WHO'S THE DAMNED GAME MASTER OF THIS THING?" she yelled.
Takato calmly looked back at her. "I am."
Once again, she ran up to him, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and growled into his face. "Then go and fix it..."
"Two words, Rika!" Takato grumbled. "No. Way."
Rika raised her fist. "Why, you little..."
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" a loud voice roared through the room.
Takato and Rika jumped back in surprise, as the fully armored form of Mie Compsomon Matsuki entered the room. Behind her, Cubmon and Dachsmon were standing nervously.
Mie angrily stomped in-between the two children. "What the heck is wrong with you two?" she snarled. "Rika! Have you lost your mind? Do you know how close you came to attacking my son?"
Rika breathed heavily. She looked down at her furry hands, which both shivered. "I... I..."
"And you, young man!" Mie turned around to face her son. "What's the meaning of all this? Who started this fight? Don't we have enough problems without any of this?"
Takato breathed as heavily as Rika. He wanted to reply, but the words were stuck in his throat. Not saying anything, he let himself fall down on his bed.
Mie sighed. "Kai," she finally said, in a much calmer voice. "Can you tell me what's wrong with those two? They looked ready to go at each other's throats. What happened here?"
Before Kai could answer, a yellow-furred shape appeared in the window. "Rika!" Renamon said. "Why did you just run off like this? What happened?"
"Oh, Renamon!" Rika just sobbed and threw herself into the arms of her Digimon partner and currently sister.
Renamon was confused, but felt the need to stroke the head of the distraught, young Hybrid. "Can anyone tell me what's going on here?" she asked.
"It's... because of that game," Kai finally explained. "Takato and I are pretty sure that it is the reason for many of those changes that happened around here. I don't know if the game really changed reality, or if it just messed around with our minds, but all those weird events started to happen after we used it."
Jeri and Harmony finally came into the room as well. "I don't see any game," Dachsmon said in confusion as she stared at what looked like a screen of static to her.
"They are right," Renamon said. "I can see it too. And you mean that you made those changes with that computer program, without realizing what it did?"
"Well, I think so..." Kai replied. "We tried undoing all the changes we made with the game, but no matter which one of us tried, the game would only allow us to do small changes, and then only to a certain degree. We managed to turn Ai and Mako - you know, those two kids? - into Digimon, but shortly after that, the game turned them back into Hybrids, telling us that Digimon can't be Tamers of other Digimon."
"Okay, but what happened that made Rika and Takato so upset?" Mie asked. She still was angry at Rika, but as she saw how upset the young Hybrid was, she realized that there might be more to her actions.
"Well, I suggested that we might use the game to make several other changes, changes that might turn everything back to normal... quasi as 'part of the game', you know? But Takato wouldn't do it. He refused to use that program ever again. He... he was afraid that even more terrible things would happen if we continue to use it."
He sighed. "And when Rika arrived and heard that we were the source of all the changes, she got angry. She tried undoing everything by herself, but the game didn't let her. So she asked Takato to do it, but he still refused."
"I think I get it now..." Renamon sighed. "You know, ever since Rika digivolved into a Hybrid for the first time, reality seemed to break down all around her... and me. The two of us seemed to be the only ones that noticed the changes. But, just as you said... I'm not entirely sure just what exactly changed. The whole world... or just ourselves? And I think all of this... has been a little bit too much for Rika."
"You're not my sister!" the Kitsumon sobbed. "You're my partner and my friend! And I'm not a Digimon, I'm a Tamer! And Henry is supposed to be a boy, not a girl!"
Harmony once again winced when she heard that. "Rika... would you prefer me to be a boy? Just because... you only remember that boy? Because... I know nothing of that boy you're talking about. My whole family knows nothing about him."
"I killed him..." Takato murmured. "It's just as if I killed him..."
Mie sighed. She slowly started to understand how difficult the situation had to be for Takato and Rika. "All right, children... enough of this for now! We all go down now and eat something together, afterwards we'll all feel better. What do you say?"
That might just be the right decision, Kai thought. If we continue to ponder over a problem that might not even be solvable, we just continue to drive ourselves insane.
"Renamon, Kai... please watch those two, okay? Girls, could you please help me downstairs?"
"Sure, Mrs. Matsuki!"
"Of course, no problem!"
But just as everyone started to calm down for a while, Guilmon came running into the room, out of breath.
"Guys!" he shouted. "It's Kazu! He's in trouble!"
"What?" Renamon said. "What happened?"
"Kenta, MarineAngemon and Guardromon just arrived. They told me and Dad that some Commandramon have kidnapped Kazu when he was at school. They were also after Kenta, but MarineAngemon managed to save him in time. But Kazu got dragged off into a big van. They tried tracking it down, but they lost it."
'Oh boy!' Mie thought to herself. 'When it rains, it pours...'
----
Betamon scurried through the bushes of the garden, while his yellow eyes were gleaming. "Ai..." he chanted. "Where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are..."
He heard a short giggle coming out of the bushes next to him, which stopped abruptly.
The amphibian Rookie smirked. "Oooooh, wherever can Ai be? I can't find her! Oh, maybe I should give up, she's just too good in this game!"
He acted as if he was going to leave. "Why, why should I ever believe that she is... IN HERE!" And he pounced at the hidden Cupimon, tackling her to the ground playfully.
"Hahahahaha!" Ai laughed. "Betamon! Get off! You're too heavy!"
"Ooooh, but I managed to catch you, did I?" Betamon smirked as he sat down next to her. His paw reached out and poked her in the tummy.
"Teehee... stop that, it tickles!"
"Ohohohooh," he chuckled. "So our lil' Cupimon is ticklish, is she? Coochie-coochie-cooo..." And he started tickling her little ribs, until she squealed with laughter.
"Hahahahahahah! Stop it, Betamon! I surrender! I surrender!"
"HEY!" a loud voice yelled. "What do you think you're doing?" And a purple-colored foot kicked the green amphibian away.
Impmon snarled. "What were you doing to Ai? Never lay your hands on her again!"
"Impmon, stop that! We were just playing!"
Betamon plopped back on his tummy and tried his best to show Ai a hurtful expression. "(sniff, sniff) Ow... that hurt. Why did you kick me? I d-d-didn't do anything wrong... (sniff, sniff)"
"Awwww..." Ai said as she instantly was at Betamon's side. "Poor little Betamon... There, there, all is fine now."
"Get away from him, Ai!" Impmon shouted. "I don't trust that creep!"
Ai stared back at Impmon. "Why did you hurt him? We were just playing! He never did anything to you. So leave him alone, you big meanie!"
Impmon gasped. "A-ai?" He never imagined the little girl would call him that.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Mako's voice came out of a nearby tree. "Are we still playing?" The TinyDevimon fluttered down and landed next to Impmon.
"Impmon kicked Betamon!" Ai said accusingly.
"Really?" Mako asked, then he grinned. "Can I try as well?"
"Mako!"
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(Posted Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:32)
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