The modest green station wagon drove up onto the third level of the cool parking structure and found a nice spot just to the left of the entrance. Kari stepped out of the driver's side, and TK emerged from the passenger's, clenching a thick notebook, the little black book and a few sharpened pencils. He looked around the lot, not quite getting his bearings. "Where is it again?" he asked.

"Over there," Kari replied, pointing out at a pale blue building they could see between the concrete supports. "It used to be where they trained new police officers."

The two of them took the stairs down and out of the structure and crossed the street. The building was actually very small compared to the others around it, only going up three stories, but over its glass doors, a sign boldly displayed the name "Sound Mind and Body School of Kendo" in faded orange symbols. TK whistled as he looked at the sign. "How'd Cody get so many students that he needed a 3-story building?" he asked out loud.

"He must be a good teacher," Kari replied, pushing on the door.

They walked into a warm, hazy world of blue-matted floors and whitewashed walls, the air thick with the mingling scents of styrofoam and sweating body. On the far wall of the chamber, which took up nearly the whole length of the building, it seemed, hung a framed, faded photograph of an old man with squinty eyes, a thin moustache, and a stern expression. There were at least twenty-five students in the room, but only two of them were out on the mats; the rest were seated near the doorway, watching.

As far as TK and Kari could guess, there was a sparring match going on between the two; they were moving around in circles, jerking back and forth in anticipation of what the other would do. Finally, the shorter one moved in and swung, but the taller one was ready; he hopped left, and with a powerful cry of "DO," swung his wooden shinai and swatted his opponent in the shoulder. The shorter one drew back a ways, and both of them lowered their weapons and bowed to each other.

Kari chuckled quietly. "Looks familiar, doesn't it?" she whispered to TK.

The taller one looked up and studied the newcomers for a few moments, then turned to the students. "That's all for today," he said. "Keep it all in mind for next week's lesson." TK blinked; that voice sounded familiar, too.

"Yes, Sensei!" all of the students spoke in unison, and got on their feet, heading for a flight of stairs in the back.

The tall one turned to TK and Kari. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" he asked, reaching up and pulling off the helmet.

Kari smiled. "Hi, Cody," she said. "How've you been?"

Cody smiled at his old friends. TK had to stop and think for a moment when he saw him. Cody's appearance had certainly changed from the period he was writing about; his salad-bowl haircut now came down to the base of his neck, and a hint of a moustache was forming on his upper lip... and his smile was friendlier, too. "How nice to see you both," he rumbled in his low, 34-year-old voice. "I haven't been called that in a long time."

"Yeah, sorry we haven't been around in a while," TK apologized. "What's it been? A year? More than that?"

"Don't worry about it; you're visiting now," Cody replied, placing his helmet on a bench near the door. "So, what brings you here? When we talked last, it didn't sound like your children had any interest in kendo... Has one of them changed his mind?"

Kari scratched her head. "Err, actually, we came about something else..." she said. "Can you talk for a while, or are you busy?"

Cody nodded. "I always have time for my friends," he replied. "Besides, today is a lighter day. That was my last class. Please, wait in my office: that door on the right. I'll go change out of this armor and then we'll have some tea."

Cody went down the same stairs his students had. TK and Kari put their shoes on a mat beside all the students', then walked into the small office. It was a very traditional-looking room with a small, short table in the middle and cushions for seats. Various trophies-- some colored silver, many gold—stood on long wooden shelves along the wall. There was also a tiny sink and stove against the window that looked out on the parking structure. A picture of the same elderly man from outside hung over the shelves.

As soon as they had looked around, Cody came back in, dressed in a more relaxed-looking white uniform. "Please, sit down," he said, and then moved to window, poured some water in a teapot and turned on the stove. "What do you like? Green? Something spicier?"

"Green's fine for me," Kari replied.

"Me, too," TK agreed. "So, Cody... How's running this dojo? Is it very stressful?"

Cody paused for a moment. "I must admit, I didn't expect it to be placed on me as suddenly as it was..." he said, "but it isn't too excruciating. Sensei... my grandfather left everything I needed to run it properly, and the older students who studied under him are more than willing to help me out."

"Well, you look like you had enough time to try growing a moustache," Kari giggled, motioning to the peach fuzz. "Trying to look more like a sensei?"

Cody chuckled. "I've been trying for months, but it's hardly grown at all... It must just be how my body is."

"It'll get there," TK said. "I mean, your legs sure did. Man, remember when you only came up to my chest? Unbelievable!"

They all chuckled about it for a moment, and then Kari glanced at the picture over the shelves and got quiet. "So..." she said softly, "do you miss him?"

Cody's expression softened. "...Yes," he replied, staring out the window. "Ever since he passed, it's like the soul of the dojo itself has gone..." He paused for a moment, then turned back to them. "But the students work just as hard now, if not harder. I'm proud of all of them."

TK smiled and chuckled. "So, you think we'll see your picture up on that wall someday?" he asked.

Cody laughed, surprising the other two. "Oh, good heavens, not for a long, long time," he said, shaking his head but still smiling. "A picture of me doesn't even deserve to sit on the floor in the same corner yet."

"Maybe one of your students will put one up," TK suggested.

"Ah... some day perhaps," Cody replied, "but for now, it just wouldn't feel right with some other face looking down on us."

They all took a few sips of their tea before Kari decided it was time to speak. "Well, Cody, I have to tell you we didn't just come to visit," she said, putting down her cup. "TK's started writing... about our adventure."

Cody's smile lessened, and he set his cup down as well. "So..." he said to TK in a more solemn tone, "you're going to do it?"

"Yeah... After the first book was such a hit, the publishers said they wanted more... and, well..." TK stammered, Cody's look making him feel like he was saying something vulgar. "I... Well, there was so much that went on, though... I don't think I have all the details I need. Can you help us?"

Cody was silent for so long, TK worried he was going to throw them out of the building just for mentioning it. The kendo instructor stood up and stared out the window for a few moments, and then peered over at the picture of his grandfather. Finally, he sighed and returned to his seat. "If the whole story is to be told," he said slowly, "then I'll gladly help you."

Kari smiled at him. "Thanks, Cody," she said. "I know it'll be hard."

TK got out his notebook and flipped to a blank page. "Whatever you want to talk about, go right ahead," he said, clicking some lead into his mechanical pencil.

Cody folded his arms and meditated for a few moments. "All right..." he said. "Well..."

CHAPTER 31

TILT

Mimi groaned as she finally stepped onto the balcony where Yolei's apartment was. Why did this girl have to live so high up?... or at least, why did the elevator have to be full of smelly older people when she needed to use it? Well, maybe it could have been partly her own fault for carrying such a giant duffel bag with her, but she needed it all for the lesson. After all, her reputation rode on whether she could pull this off; if she could make this scrawny geekette look like a prom queen, the entire female half of the school would be hers to command!... and the boys would follow shortly after.

Hauling the pink bag down the balcony, she walked until she found a door with a sign marked "Inoue." The symbols were hastily painted and it was hung slightly askew, much like her charge, she thought... but at least it wasn't surrounded by dropped-off stock, like she'd expect of a convenience store owner's place. She stopped, took a deep breath and knocked on it.

No sooner had she done that than a terrible thought washed over her: what if the whole family was like Yolei? A whole set of gawky, reeking nerds?! Would they all smell like BO and make pop culture analogies she wouldn't get? Would they try to sell her that crap they had in their shop? Ugh, she would have to wash herself off twice after she got away from—

The door opened and out stepped a shining figure of masculine beauty, complete with fluffy blonde dyed hair, gleaming glasses and a hypnotic jangle of earrings. "Oh, hello," he spoke with a tongue like a silver harp, a friendly smile crossing his lips. "Can I help you?"

Mimi could have melted into a strawberry-pink puddle right then and there; was THIS gorgeous creature related to Yolei?! "Uh, ummm...." she squeaked, "I came... um... I'm here... uh... Yolei?"

The heavenly vision blinked, his smile still present, but showing that her words puzzled him. "Yolei... Uh... Oh, do you mean Miyako Inoue?" he asked. "Are you sure you don't mean Momoe? Or Chizuru?"

"Uh... huh!" Mimi murmured, having seen the mouth move but only hearing half the words. "Y... Yo... uh... Miyako..."

The youthful god scratched his head, then shrugged and glided inside. A few seconds later, Yolei appeared, still dressed in the same horrid getup she was always in. "Hey, Mimi," the purple-haired girl said.

Mimi's daydream abruptly died and her smile fell away. "Not following lesson 2, I see," she sniffed.

Yolei scowled. Being insulted within three seconds of meeting up? That had to break a record somewhere. "...Come on in," she grumbled, stepping aside.

Mimi entered half-expecting a messy, schlock-ridden home, but was pleasantly surprised; the living room was amazingly clean, and the decor was tasteful and—dare she think it—refined. Two girls sat on the couch watching the television, while the delicious figure that had greeted her at the door lounged in a chair, reading a fashion magazine. One of the girls looked up. "Hey, Yolei, who's your... woah," she trailed off as she looked at Mimi.

"Is that who I think it is?!" the other one gasped.

"Ooh!" she eeped, grabbing at Yolei's arm. "Aren't you going to introduce me?!"

Yolei looked at Mimi, then at her two sisters, who looked flabbergasted. "U-um..." she mumbled, "well, Mimi, these are my sisters, Chizuru and Momoe... and that's my brother, Mantarou. Guys, this is, uh, Mimi Tachikawa."

The two sisters exchanged stunned looks, while Mantarou gave a friendly half-wave and went back to his magazine. Mimi was beaming like a lighthouse, loving every moment of this; she was a celebrity already! If these beautiful, fashionable people belonged to the Inoue gene pool... what had gone wrong with Yolei?

"Uh... Well, c'mon," Yolei muttered, pulling her now-slightly-unwanted guest towards her door. "We can talk in my room... What's in the bag?"

As they went into the hallway and the older siblings disappeared, Mimi turned her attention back to her duty. "OK, we're covered being clean and wardrobe," she said, resuming her authoritarian tone, "so now you need to learn to pretty yourself up: makeup, jewelry, hairstyles, everything that'll finish your ensemble."

Yolei gawked at her as if she'd said they were building spaceships out of cucumbers and then zipping off to Neptune. "What?!" she asked. "I can't buy any of that crap! I'm still broke from last time!"

Mimi snorted at the insult. "As it so happens, I have plenty of leftover last-year items," she stated, motioning to the bag. "They'll work fine until you can buy some better stuff."

Yolei bit her lip, hoping all the obscenities her brain was shouting wouldn't burst out of her ears. "Let's... just go in," she grunted, motioning to the door at the end of the hall.

"I have to say, I do like your apartment," Mimi said, twisting the doorknob pushing inward. "The way you are, I expected it to be a--"

Her voice stopped cold and the duffel bag dropped onto the ground. Splayed out around her was a human cesspool. Wrinkled, dirty clothes hung across a dusty television and any furniture that had a spot for them, some of the garments being what they had bought at the mall. Teetering pillars of manga, CDs, game cartridges and sketchbooks rose up from the floor with no particular pattern or reasoning, looking like they'd collapse with one breath. Old plastic food containers, plates and utensils littered the floor in semi-organized stacks, some only looking half-eaten. Teeming rivers of black wires connected to goodness knows what ran through the dusty gray carpeting. Toys and models of robots and fantasy-looking characters in swimsuits stood or lay on the desk between schoolbooks and a computer with a grungy keyboard. The bed was not only unmade, but also covered with unwashed sheets laced with mysterious, vile-looking stains. Off to the side was a heap of old clothes and magazines, upon which sat the little pink Digimon unfortunate enough to have Yolei as its partner. "Hi, Mimi," he said, nodding politely. "Good to see you!"

An unholy smell of body, waste and filth thrust itself into Mimi's nostrils, and Yolei saw her pupils dilate. Before she could ask what was wrong, Mimi's cheeks inflated and she clamped her hands over her mouth. The girl charged past her and disappeared. The only sounds she heard next were the door being thrown open, and then loud, continuous retching from the balcony.

"Hey, Yolei!" Momoe's voice came. "I think your friend needs an aspirin or something!"

Yolei just folded her arms and grunted. Here she went again.

***

The school day done, Izzy returned to the sanctity of his room, flanked by Tai, Matt, Davis, TK, Kari, Cody, and their respective Digimon. "Boy, I thought class would never let out," Tai admitted.

Matt nodded, setting his saxophone case against the wall. "The last period's always the one that stops time, isn't it," he replied. "I don't see what European history has to do with me."

"Yeah, I hear you there!" Davis chuckled, trying to get a smile out of Matt, but failing. He quickly turned to Izzy instead. "So, Izz-meister, what's the news? Any new Crests pop up while we were cookin' the books?"

"...That doesn't mean what you think it means," Cody grumbled.

"Books? Ewww!" Upamon huffed, making a face. "They're terrible raw; why would you want to cook one?"

The other Digimon stared at him. "You ate a book?!" Gatomon asked, amazed in a bad way. "Those're only for reading!"

Upamon sagged. "I thought it was a sandwich..." he muttered.

Demiveemon cocked his head to one side. "So... how'd it taste?" he asked.

Izzy cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "Let's see if anything's happened," he said, and hit a button on his computer. It snapped out of sleep mode and the screen lit up, showing the map of the Digital World they had assembled. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. No little lights flashed or beeps sounded, as they had often enough recently. Izzy scratched his head. "Nothing?..." he asked out loud.

"You're serious?" TK asked. "Nothing again?"

Kari looked around at her friends. It had been four days since they had escaped Arukenimon's motel trap, and nothing had happened in the Digital World since. While Davis, Yolei and the others seemed relieved for the break, it only made her more nervous... but of her friends, only Cody looked serious... but then, he was always serious; was she worrying too much?

Izzy hit some more buttons and looked over the readouts. "Well, control spires have been activating and de-activating, but no new ones have shown up..." he reported, "and there're no new Crest fragments, either." He turned around and looked at his younger friends. "Looks like you guys are off the hook this afternoon."

"Well! Sounds pretty sweet to me!" Davis laughed. "I caught up with homework the last three days; today's a good one for soccer! Hey, coach, how about a little one-on-one, huh? Actually, two-on-one, with Demiveemon playing, too..."

Tai smiled, but shook his head. "Sorry, Davis," he said, "but I'm going into the Digital World to help fill in the map with Matt, TK and Kari."

Davis's jaw dropped at the mention of 'TK and Kari.' "WHAT?!" he demanded.

"Why do you think we came over here with you?" Matt asked, pulling his Digivice out of his pocket.

TK and Kari both started pulling their D3s out. Davis had to act fast; he couldn't let those two be alone together again! "Hey! Wait! I'll come too!" he protested.

Demiveemon's oversized ears drooped. "Aww, but Davis, I wanted to play soccer!" he complained.

Davis's face got hot as everyone turned and looked at him. He bit his lip, seeing that he was defeated. He really, really, really didn't want Kari to go off with TK yet again... but it wouldn't make much difference if she thought he was a jerk to his little partner. "...Oh, all right," he surrendered. "We'll go play soccer."

"Yayyyy!" Demiveemon laughed, leaping up into Davis's arms.

Cody frowned at the computer screen. "It's been four days," he spoke up, mirroring Kari's concerns. "Where has Arukenimon gone? And where's her partner?"

Demiveemon giggled from his perch. "I bet we scared 'em off!" he laughed, making little fists. "Paildramon to the rescue!"

TK shook his head. "I wouldn't think that," he said. "They're probably waiting for a good chance to sneak up on us."

Upamon sighed and looked out the window. A thin, gray blanket covered the sky that afternoon, just like it had for the past week. "I wish something would happen soon," he lamented. "This November month is so gray and... blah!"

Kari couldn't help but smile at the little yellow ball. "You'll feel better when it starts snowing," she promised.

Upamon's ears jerked up immediately. "Snow?!" he asked, bouncing. "Ooh! I can't wait! I can't wait!!!... What's snow again?"

"Back on Arukenimon," Matt broke in, looking at Izzy, "what do you know?"

Izzy looked away from Matt's gaze, slightly ashamed. "I... nothing much, I'm afraid..." he admitted.

Tai raised an eyebrow. "You've checked Davis and Yolei's D3s, and there wasn't anything?" he asked.

"I looked through the database that Gennai helped me make," Izzy said, motioning to the old laptop next to the computer and the blue and red D3s sitting on top of it, "but nothing in there looks like them... and since the D3s aren't the same as our Digivices, I can't just stick them in and add data... Maybe they don't even hold stuff like that."

"So you don't have anything?" Matt grunted.

Izzy frowned at him. "No, I don't," he replied, "but I will say this: if Arukenimon put up as much of a fight as Davis says, then I assume she's an Ultimate-level creature, at least... and Mummymon too."

"Ultimate, huh?" Tai asked, looking at Demiveemon. "Looks like you'll be getting a workout, Demiveemon; we're counting on you even more now."

Demiveemon looked eager enough, but Kari sighed sadly. "Two Ultimates against our one..." she said. "I wish Gatomon could Digivolve again, so at least we'd have the same."

"You and me both, sister," Gatomon replied, her ringless tail waving around crossly.

TK, Tai and Izzy looked as if they were wishing the same thing for their own partners. Matt scowled and looked away.

"Hey, don't sweat it!" Davis said to them, grinning. "Once we get those Crest thingies working, you'll be stompin' spiders right next to Paildramon!"

Cody felt just as badly as the older Digidestined. Whether he became Digmon, Submarimon or Ankylomon, Armadillomon couldn't do much against a pair of Ultimates. He wanted to be able to fight the new enemies himself. If his partner could get up to the Ultimate level, then maybe they wouldn't have to rely on that treacherous Digimon Emperor for backup.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," TK said, finally getting his D3 out, "but I'd rather go explore than stand here moping. How about it?"

Tai perked up right away. "Yeah!" he agreed. "C'mon, we've got plenty to do!"

Matt nodded. Izzy hit some buttons and the DigiGate program appeared on the screen.

Kari did, too. "OK..." she said quietly. She and TK raised their Digivices, and the gate opened. In a flash, only Izzy, Davis, Cody and their two Digimon remained in the room.

"Better put down some pillows or something," Upamon spoke up. "There's gonna be a people pile later on!"

Cody looked over at the D3s. "Oh, how is the research going?" he asked Izzy.

Izzy sighed and shook his head. "I haven't made much headway," he admitted. "I was able to copy over all of the data I could before, and with my American friend's help, I want to figure out exactly which part of the coding opens up the Digital Gate. I know it's in what I have... That's how we came to help you before."

"Damn..." Davis swore, more impressed than frustrated. "Sure wish I could learn computer like that. Between you two and Yolei, I feel like all I've got is a head fulla melty bubblegum."

"If any comes out your ears, can I have some?" Demiveemon asked.

"You have your own talents," Izzy assured the younger boy, reaching for the D3s. "They come in handy pretty often, from what I've seen... Here's yours back, and Cody, could you drop Yolei's off on your way home?"

Cody scratched his head, a bit embarrassed. "Actually, I've got a kendo lesson in half an hour," he said, "so I won't be able to do it until this evening... and if something happens..."

Davis cackled and snatched both D3s from Izzy. "Chillax, you guys!" he said. "We were gonna play in the park near Yolei's place, anyway. We'll drop it off on our way home."

"Well, as long as you get it back to her," Izzy said, going to the door and opening it for the boys. "Have a good lesson, Cody."

Cody and Davis left, taking their partners with them. Izzy walked back to his computer and sat down, typing up an e-mail. As easygoing and optimistic as his friends were, he couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency about his own job. The sooner his overseas friend and he cracked these mysterious new Digivices, the better.

***

Yolei really didn't know what to say as Mimi returned to the corridor, looking absolutely green. All she could do was twiddle her thumbs and wait for the imminent explosion.

Mimi took a few deep breaths, then looked at her charge. "Well..." she grumbled, her voice shaking, "it looks like I was wrong." She picked her duffle bag up.

Yolei's shoulders sagged. This would be the end of it, she figured; Mimi would give up and leave, and she would have to go through life Ken-less... maybe even sans boyfriend completely.

"Before we can cover makeup," Mimi said, tossing the bag into a corner, "we have to sterilize this mess."

On one hand, Yolei was glad Mimi wasn't stomping out the door. On the other hand... what mess? "What do you mean?" she asked.

Mimi's face went from green to red in record time. "What do I...?!" she huffed, yanking Yolei's door open again. "LOOK at this junk! It's an absolute disgrace!"

Disgrace?! Junk?! Yolei's face went red as well. "That's not junk!" she snapped. "Those are some of the best games, manga and models in the whole continent!"

"They're junk!" Mimi retorted. "You HAVE to clean this room!"

"Why?" Yolei demanded. "It's my room!"

"Why?!" Mimi snapped, her voice rising in pitch. "I'll TELL you why! A: NONE of my lessons matter if you change back into the slob queen as soon as you step in here! B: If you invite a guy back to your place while it looks like this, he's going to be jumping out your window! C: What kind of girl... no, what kind of human being can LIVE like this?!"

Yolei was genuinely stunned. Had she hit her head during the last Digital World romp, or was Mimi actually making some sense? Maybe she had been shirking in coming up with new outfit styles... and Ken was a refined genius; this sort of room would never impress him. The last argument... Well, she lived like that, and she was fine... but the first two stuck. "I... Oh... Ugh," was all she could say.

"Now," Mimi said, closing the door for fear of the smell escaping, "go get a broom, a duster, and a lot of garbage bags. We've got work to do."

Hanging her head in shame, Yolei plodded off towards the kitchen to gather the supplies.

***

Humming a merry little tune, a blue-cloaked stranger pushed a needle through a blood-red cloak and pulled it through, making a complete stitch. What a lovely day it was; the sun was bright but the air was cool, the grass smelled fresh and green, and the control spire he sat against was warm. "What a perfect day for sewing," he remarked, pulling the needle through once again.

The grass behind the spire rustled. "Forget that," Arukenimon's voice snapped. "Are you finished yet?!"

Mummymon bit the remaining thread free of his needle, then offered the cloak to the air. A hand shot around from behind the spire and snatched it away. "About time," she grunted.

"I'll start on your hat now," he replied, pulling his cane out of the grass. He painfully dragged himself to his feet, clawing into the spire for a grip with his free hand. He hobbled over to the jeep, plucked the tattered purple hat out of the back seat, and lurched back to the spire, wheezing all the way. He slowly lowered himself back into a sitting position with a long sigh, then took a spool of purple thread out of his pocket and threaded his needle with it. "Three and a half days I worked on that cloak," he remarked as he jammed the needle into the hat, a faraway smile crossing his gray face. "I think I made it even better than before. It brings out your subtle grace and... mature femininity."

Arukenimon just snorted. "Don't get too attached," she muttered. "It'll just get ripped up again the next time we fight them."

Mummymon sighed sadly at the thought; that was most likely true. "Ah, well... Then I shall make it even better the next time," he vowed. "But... why must you change? Why not just stay in your natural form?"

"Ugh, if only I could," she grunted, "but I can only create Spirit Needles when my hair is this vile human texture... so I don't have a choice. There's no shape I less want to be in, but if we're going to get rid of those children..."

"I don't know..." Mummymon replied, finishing up one hole patch and moving onto the next. "We did well enough on our own... Do we really need more Spire-Born?"

Arukenimon's fist flew around the corner and clubbed him in the head. "Did you SEE what they did to me?!" she hissed. "If you had bungled any longer, I'd have been spider-flavored Swiss cheese!"

Mummymon tried to both nurse the bump on his head and sew, but could only do one thing at a time. At the risk of another bump, he went back to sewing. "Besides," Arukenimon went on, "we HAVE to keep sending minions against them. It's the only way we'll win."

Both of them were quiet for a long while. Mummymon finished up the hat and offered it, and Arukenimon snatched it. She emerged from behind the spire, back in her cloaked mystique. "Ah... Lovely," Mummymon said, smiling at her. "It does my heart good to see them worn so well."

Arukenimon just looked away, grumbling. Mummymon once again dragged himself to his feet, wheezing and making little gasps of pain. "Have you picked up any Crest energy yet?" she asked, looking back at him.

With a tremendous groan, Mummymon pushed himself off the spire and leaned heavily on his cane. "No," he replied, actually sounding cross. "It's like the blasted little things know we're looking for them... and I haven't--"

Suddenly, a loud, lively song burst in from nearby, making them both jump; the jeep's radio had suddenly turned on. "Hey, hey, HEY, guys and gals!" an announcer roared, sounding like he had an IV full of coffee. "Lookin' for some rides? Some food? Some super-awesome fun?! Then COME ON DOWN to PINBALL CARNIVAL, the most jumpin' fun park in the DigiWorld!!!"

The little radio crackled with a chorus of cheering kid voices as Arukenimon and Mummymon moved closer. "PINBALL CARNIVAL has the most rides per triangular feet of anywhere!" the announcer belted. "You'll go flyin' so high and fast, you'll wonder where you left your eyes! There's even a casino for the grownups, with REAL money!!! The fun starts UP when the sun goes DOWN, so get ready to party-hardy all night long in a WHIRLWIND TORNADO of sound and light! Conveniently located on the SOUTHEASTERN COAST of Server Continent! TONS of FREE PARKING!!!"

An annoying song started playing. Arukenimon banged on the radio and it turned off. Mummymon looked at her, his eye shining. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Yeah..." she replied, frowning. "Whirlwind tornado... That's redundant."

Mummymon grinned at her wickedly. "It looks like we're taking a little trip," he mused. "Think you can conjure up five new control spires if I do the same?..."

***

Tai cried out himself as he lurched back and grabbed Agumon's flailing arm, hoisting him back up onto Nefertimon with Kari and himself. "Be careful!" he chided. "If we fall here, we're sunk!"

"Aww..." Agumon groaned as he looked bitterly down at the dark blue waves. "It's bad enough we can't Digivolve on land... but why'd we have to come to the ocean today? I can't do anything out here!"

"Couldn't Joe and Gomamon have done this place?" Gabumon asked from his spot behind Matt and TK on Pegasusmon's back.

Tai shook his head. "Joe has a big med school test coming up," he explained, "so Matt and I said we'd do it today."

Kari looked down, but all she saw was rolling water and the tiny reflections of their flying partners. "Where exactly are we?" she asked.

"We left File Island and headed south..." Matt thought out loud, "so we should be reaching the southernmost part of the ocean."

"Is there a reason we're going all this way?" Pegasusmon asked, looking over his shoulder at his riders. "There wouldn't be any spires to destroy; Ken never got this far."

"Something else," Tai said. "Remember that weird floating island we found in the west?"

"The one with the blizzard around it?" TK asked.

"Yeah," Tai replied. "We obviously can't go any further west... so I thought we'd try south. Maybe there's another edge with another weird island."

"And the ocean's a great place to explore, anyway," Nefertimon said. "There's no chance of running into the Resistance out here, or Arukenimon."

"Could there really be another edge?" Kari asked, looking at her brother. "Could the Digital World really be flat?"

Tai was about to respond when TK looked down and gasped. "Woah! Stop!" he yelled. Pegasusmon and Nefertimon slowed to a hover, and everyone saw why TK sounded so freaked. Just up ahead, the ocean became a waterfall that spanned the entire horizon, gazillions of gallons of water pouring down into a black abyss. Amazingly, though, the sea showed no signs of a current going towards it; there was no telling that the drop-off was there unless you saw it from the air. All that lay beyond the waterfall was a haze of brownish-gray clouds.

"Woah..." Pegasusmon gulped. "Is this like what you saw?"

"Good grief," Kari managed. "It really is the end of the world!"

"We'll see," Tai replied. "Nefertimon, can you or Pegasusmon swish those clouds around any?"

Nefertimon and Pegasusmon flapped their wings. The clouds dissipated just enough to reveal a small floating island with a giant Egyptian pyramid on it, and streams of golden sand pouring off into the void.

"Wow!" Agumon exclaimed. "It's a flat mountain!"

Matt stared through the clouds, then looked at Tai with visible surprise. "How about that, Tai; you were right," he said.

"Yeah, I... Hey!" Tai smirked.

"I've seen some weird stuff here, but I never expected THIS," TK said, shaking his head in amazement. "Should we check it out, Pegasusmon?"

"No, wait!" Gabumon cried. "Remember what happened to Sora!"

TK, Kari and their partners looked at their older siblings. Tai and Matt exchanged glances, then nodded to them. "OK... but go slowly," Matt urged.

"And turn back if it gets ugly," Tai added.

"Right," Kari agreed. "OK, Nefertimon!"

The two Armor Digimon started into the smoky clouds, and the air got hot almost instantly... too hot. Suddenly it was like the party had flown into a fired-up brick pizza oven. "Holy!..." TK rasped.

"Agh! Oooogh!" Gabumon gasped, trying to flail his furry coat off.

"Turn back! Turn back!!!" Kari wheezed.

Not having to be told twice, Pegasusmon and Nefertimon whirled around and flew back over the ocean, their bodies coated in sweat. "Oh, my...!" Nefertimon managed. "I thought I would melt for a second."

TK's clothes were drenched completely in sweat. He pulled off his hat and wrung it out. "What's up with these crazy places?!" he demanded. "I thought the Digital World was round, like the real one... but this...!"

"Yeah, what does it mean, Tai?..." Agumon asked, then looked up at his partner and cried out.

Tai's large fluff of hair had drooped completely down over his head, making him look like a dead palm tree. He reached up and pulled it away from his eyes, spitting some loose ones out. "I don't know," he grumbled, "but let's not try that again."

"We should ask Gennai about it some time," Nefertimon suggested. "Why don't we go see him now? We could ask him about my tail ring, too."

Matt looked at his watch and shook his head. "No time today," he reported. "We spent half of it getting here..."

"It's just as well," Pegasusmon said. "After a furnace blast like that, I'm ready to call it a day."

"Yeah..." Tai replied, fishing out his cell phone and taking a shot of the mysterious cloud curtain. "We'll have to come back some other time... For now, let's get back home."

"Kari, can we fly low on the way back?" Nefertimon asked. "I need to cool off."

"Fly as low as you want," Kari replied, glad her friend suggested it.

***

"Eeeyuck!" Mimi squealed as she unearthed a slice of pizza that had taken on the same color and texture as the gray shag carpeting. "How can you forget where you leave your food?!" With one swift motion, she chucked it into the nearest garbage bag, along with the paper plate it was on and the three socks that had been draped over it. She didn't know why she was actually helping clean this pig sty, but it was a feeling akin to seeing a traffic accident; she couldn't just walk away from it without doing something. Besides, she figured as she stuffed another sock ball into the black bag, it was part of her duty to show this girl how to live properly.

On the other side of the room, though, things were going in almost the opposite direction. Yolei grumbled to herself as she went through the bags Mimi had already stuffed, pulling stuff back out. How dare that glitz-hungry gremlin treat her treasures like this! Sure, she could stand to clean the place up, but Mimi had no idea of the value of some of her things! She bit her lip as she fished out her limited edition "Galaxy Tot" model. So what if it was missing an arm! She was going to glue it back together... eventually.

"Yolei, why are you digging in there?" Poromon asked as he fluttered near her. "Aren't you supposed to be putting things IN instead of--"

She panicked and grabbed him, clamping her fingers down on his beak. "Do NOT let her hear you!" she hissed, looking desperate. "Look, if you hide everything I ask you to, I'll buy you a whole sushi platter!"

Poromon didn't like the sound of that; it sounded like Yolei wasn't making any effort towards cleaning the room up... but a whole sushi platter... He sighed crossly. "My tummy likes it, but the rest of me doesn't," he said.

"Then listen to your tummy," Yolei replied, stuffing the model in his beak. "Get that somewhere safe!"

As Poromon disappeared into the closet, Mimi gave another disgusted cry. Yolei turned to hear, very much annoyed. "NOW what?" she grunted.

Mimi was holding a ratty-looking demon doll as far from her body as she could, with only two of her fingers. "This thing smells like old cigars!" she complained.

Yolei scowled. "Of course it does," she muttered. "The guy I bought it off of was a heavy smoker."

"And you didn't run it through the wash?!" Mimi snapped.

"I can't wash that!" Yolei argued. "The eye decals would fall off! I paid too much to mess it up like that!"

Mimi looked at her with utter disbelief. "You actually PAID for this?!" she asked.

"That's a limited edition Desdemona plushie!" Yolei replied, feeling the rage inside her boiling over. "It was a promotional item for the release of 'Razor Fangs VI!' They only made a hundred of them! Collectors would kill for one of those! So what if it smells bad; I've GOT one!"

Mimi was unimpressed by the spout of information. "If you spent as much on your looks as you did on this crap, we wouldn't even be doing this!"

"CRAP?!" Yolei yelled, letting her spittle shoot out of her mouth wherever it wanted to go. "IT'S NOT CRAP!!!"

"Maybe it's cool to nerds, but if you're trying to get a boyfriend, it's just pathetic!" Mimi rebuked, tossing the doll back on the desk and frowning at her. "What's wrong with you? You don't dress well, you eat horribly, you don't keep yourself clean, you leave trash everywhere, you spend your money on toys... You're just a backwards slob! No boy in his right mind would want you!"

Yolei bit her lip, her fists clenched. As angry as she was, Mimi had drilled her points home enough that she was starting to hear the reasoning. Maybe... maybe she was totally right... and with that, every insult that had ever been hurled at her came back sounding true, too. She really had reeked, and lived in a filthy way, and even her favorite hobbies now looked shameful. After all, what would Ken say if he saw a room like hers? He probably wanted a clean, fresh girl with refined, genius-worthy tastes. With a room like this, the best she might get was a neanderthal. In response to Mimi's stabbing, all that escaped her was a whimper.

Poromon, who had quietly crept back in when Mimi was yelling, looked up at his partner, not knowing how to respond. He had never seen her look so poorly, and it scared him.

"Now stop acting like a baby and keep cleaning," Mimi snapped, turning to the closet behind her. "What's in here?"

"That's... for clothes," Yolei muttered, not really feeling like looking up.

"Oh, this'll be fun," Mimi grumbled as she grabbed the sliding door and pulled it back. "If it's for clothes, why is everything all over the—AAAAGH!!!"

Yolei hardly jumped at the shriek. Now what nasty little tidbit was she going to be bawled out about? She waited ten, then twenty seconds, but nothing came. That was weird; usually Mimi was a motormouth when it came to pointing out her faults. Puzzled, she looked up. "...What?" she asked.

Mimi turned to her, clutching the dusty, pink cowgirl hat that the Crest Fragment of Purity had been in. Her hands were visibly shaking as she clutched it. "I..." she stammered, looking down at it. "It's... my... my..."

Yolei looked up. "Yeah..." she agreed. "Izzy said that was yours."

She scowled at Yolei. "Why do you have it?!" she demanded. "How'd you find it?! Where?!"

Yolei swallowed hard. Once again, Mimi's mood had changed from irate to sad to genuinely angry, and she was actually feeling scared. "I... w-well..." she tried, "w-we found it in a marsh... It was blowing around, and we caught it... There was a piece of the Crest of Purity inside..."

"I... you..." Mimi spluttered, not seeming to take it well. "I want this back! It's mine! You... you can't just...!"

"We were going to give it back anyway," Poromon spoke up. "Right, Yolei?"

"Yeah..." Yolei agreed. "That's why I asked if I could bring it back."

Mimi looked at her, then down at the hat, an uncomfortable silence filling the room. Her glare gave way to something that looked like sadness mixed with longing. "Are... are things going well... there?" she asked quietly.

Yolei did a double take; Mimi actually wanted to know about how they were doing in the Digital World?

Poromon cleared his little throat. "Well, we have quite a mystery on our hands right now," he said. "Do you remember that Golemon from the last time you were there? The one that was all black on the inside?"

Mimi nodded slowly. Poromon glanced at Yolei. "Should I keep going, or do you want to?" he asked.

Normally Yolei couldn't get a word in around Mimi, so she seized the opportunity. Explaining everything as best as she could remember, she told the cheerleader about the Spire-Born, the hunt for the Crest fragments, Ken, the Resistance, and the mysterious woman who had turned out to be a giant spider and had a walking Egypt exhibit for a sidekick. As she talked, Mimi kept her eyes on her, being the most attentive that Yolei could ever remember. Mimi must have secretly still cared about Palmon and the others, she reasoned; why else would she ask?

"So, to sum it all up, we've got two Crest pieces, but Arukenimon just called in reinforcements, so Paildramon is gonna have his hands full. The faster we can get the older kids' monsters to Digivolve again, the better," Yolei came to her conclusion. "So... any questions?"

Mimi's eyes were wide with amazement, but they quickly shrank back and she looked away, a good deal of worry visible... or was it something else? "It's started again..." she whimpered.

"Huh?" Poromon asked. "What do you mean?"

Mimi shook her head, looking back at Yolei. "Haven't you ever thought about what'll happen?" she asked. "Whether it's even worth it?..."

Yolei blinked, confused. Worth it? What was this "it" Mimi talked about? Did she mean whether she thought they could beat Arukenimon? Or was this some dig at her personally, and whether she could handle the same kind of trouble that Tai and the others had gone through on their adventure? Sure, she hadn't had the best start-- wetting her pants on her first trip in, for example—but she wanted to think she could mix it up with the baddies just as well as TK or Kari. "Sure it is!" she replied, defiantly making a fist. "We'll whip old spider hag's butt clean out of town!"

Mimi looked away again, her expression downright sad; that must not have been the right answer, Yolei thought. Could whatever she meant by that question have something to do with why she burned her bridges with the other Digidestined? "Uh... What did you mean by 'worth it,' exactly?" she tried.

Mimi just sighed and her expression changed back to peeved. "Forget it. Now let's get back to work," she snapped. "I have to be home by 6, and if this place isn't totally clean, I'm sure it'll all grow back."

Yolei fumed; so much for getting deeper into the Mimi mystery.

"Now, then," Mimi went on, tossing Yolei a half-full trash bag, "you keep going on the floor. Your sheets need a major wash, and I don't think you're capable of doing it."

Yolei looked up in horror as Mimi started for the bed and grabbed a corner of the blankets. "No, WAIT!" she started.

Mimi yanked the sheets, but the whole mattress slid off of the frame, revealing a whole layer of books. "Oh, not MORE of these!" Mimi yelled, grabbing one in a huff. "How can this garbage possibly be--"

Suddenly, she noticed the cover and her eyes bugged out. Yolei bit her lip, looked down and waited, her face growing hot; just what would Mimi say now, having discovered her hidden cache of adult doujinshi?

Once again, there was a heavy silence. After about thirty seconds, Yolei looked up. Mimi was flipping through the book, her cheeks as red as Yolei imagined her own were. She noticed Yolei staring at her and quickly slammed it shut. "Uh... You should find another place for these while we clean the bed," she said calmly. "How about your desk, with a cover over them?"

"Err... Y-yeah," Yolei stammered, moving to the bed and grabbing a stack of the books. The more she got to know Mimi, the more of an enigma she turned out to be. She went ballistic at the state of her room and laughed at her hobbies, and yet hardly made a peep at these raunchy books?

***

"Whoo!" Davis panted as he scooped up the soccer ball with his foot, kicked it into the air and then caught it in his backpack as it fell. "Now that was some hardcore playing!" His whole body was soaked with sweat, so tied his jacket around his waist instead of putting it on. As hot as he was, though, he grinned from ear to ear; he hadn't had that much fun in a long time!

Demiveemon, on the other hand, looked like a wreck. He wobbled back and forth, his little pink tongue hanging out. "Ooohhh..." he groaned. "Davis... I feel sick..."

"Hey, I told you to let go of the ball," Davis said, scooping the little Digimon up. "Not my fault you held on all the way down the hill!"

"Urp!" Demiveemon burped. "Is that how it feels when you fight with Yolei in the pond?"

Davis jumped. "Aww, crap!" he exclaimed, spinning around in the other direction; they had to give Yolei's D3 back before they went home! "Thanks, little buddy," he said as he jogged towards a tall set of buildings on the other side of the street.

"Thanks? For crap?" Demiveemon asked, raising an eyebrow.

His fatigue from playing starting to kick in, Davis took the elevator up to the fourth floor and walked to the Inoue apartment door. When he knocked, though, it wasn't Yolei who answered; it was one of her doofy older sisters, and not the one Jun was friends with. She stared at him for a moment. "...Oh, you're Daisuke, aren't you?" she asked.

"Is Yolei here?" he asked.

The girl blinked. "...What, is she having a play date or something?" she asked, glancing down at Demiveemon. "Or are you just dropping off a present? Is it that doll?"

As Demiveemon tried his best to stay still, Davis gritted his teeth. Why did he have to go through these crazy siblings every time he came to Yolei's place? "May I please..." he growled, "speak with Miyako? Like, now?"

"Huh! I'd watch that mouth if I were you," she replied. "You're not going to get a girlfriend like that."

Davis was going to reply that if he wanted a girlfriend, he wouldn't be at this apartment building, but the girl had gone back inside already. He sighed wearily and just rolled his eyes. Having one older sister was bad enough, but how did Yolei put up with two? Maybe that's why she was always in a bad mood.

***

Both Yolei and Mimi were surprised by an acute rapping sound at the door. "Hey, Miyako!" Chizuru's voice came. "Jun's brother's here! Sounds like he wants to talk with you!"

"What?!" Mimi asked, turning on Yolei crossly. "Don't tell me you double-booked?!"

Yolei's blood froze. She couldn't let Davis know she was getting attraction lessons from Mimi! She'd never hear the end of the jokes... and what if it got back to Ken? He might get weirded out, and her chances with him could be totally ruined! Her mind raced; what could she do to get rid of him?

"Hey!" Chizuru's voice came again. "You awake in there?!"

"Yolei, shouldn't you go see what Davis wants?" Poromon asked. "It might be important."

Mimi tapped her foot impatiently. "Well?" she asked. "What's this about?"

Yolei thought fast. "I'm busy!" she told the door. "I'm, uh, storming a troll garrison with my, er, guild! I need to focus!"

"All right," Chizuru replied, and walked off. Yolei sighed; she sure dodged a bullet on that one. "So," she said, turning back to Mimi, "let's keep going, huh?"

Mimi wrinkled her nose. "Why are you friends with that potty-mouthed little twerp, anyway?" she asked.

Yolei hesitated, then laughed. "Ha ha ha! Yeah, he is pretty stupid, isn't he? I wonder myself sometimes!" she agreed, hoping it would get her back in Mimi's good graces.

"Yolei..." Poromon complained, looking disappointed.

***

Davis wasn't expecting Yolei's sister to show up at the door again. "She says she's busy," she said. "Something about storming a troll garrison... Sorry."

Davis lowered his head. "...Thanks anyway," he said. "I'll come back later."

As soon as the door shut, he let out a particularly nasty cuss. "Yeah, you WOULD be playin' yer stupid games when I'm blowin' my valuable time trying to drop off your stinky Digivice!" he snapped at the door.

"Um, couldn't we have given it to Yolei's sister?" Demiveemon asked.

Davis shook his head. "That'd be the perfect way to let the whole damn high school know we had them," he grumbled, "an' I don't wanna be gettin' grilled over these things! I get in trouble for enough already!"

Demiveemon's ears sagged again. "Why didn't she want to see us?" he asked sadly.

Davis said nothing else. He stared at the door a moment more, then spat out the side of his mouth and stomped off.

***

Shooting little sharp breaths, Cody shuffled around the floor, his shinai raised and jerking around, ready to strike the target... which, in his mind, was the Digimon Emperor. One with a heart as wicked as his couldn't just change like that! He saw himself cornering the wretch, exposing him to the world, and raining justice down upon him for all his deceit and violence.

Unfortunately, his real opponent only saw what his body was doing, and it wasn't pleasing. "Iori!" his grandfather snapped, forcing the boy out of his thoughts and back into reality. "Your technique is very poor today!" he went on. "Your footing is off, and your strikes are unrefined!"

Cody suddenly realized how much he was losing himself to his thoughts, and stepped back. "...I'm sorry, Sensei," he apologized, bowing. "I will try to do better. May I try once more?"

"If you can't focus your thoughts," Chikara replied, "then you have no business sparring! Now, once again!"

They both struck new combative stances and the match continued. Cody thought hard for something that wouldn't make him lose his temper as much... After a moment, he decided to envision Arukenimon; the spider woman was a fiend, to be sure, but he could keep his cool when dealing with her. For about forty-five seconds, he was able to focus... but it didn't last. As he tried to keep focused on Arukenimon, he kept thinking of how much worse the Digimon Emperor was... and then he was right back to swinging away at the treacherous boy. He swung powerfully, but the force jerked him forward, and he stumbled, crashing down onto his face.

His grandfather stepped back, a disgusted grunt escaping his lips. "What is the matter with you today?!" he demanded. "Never have I seen you so sloppy!"

Cody slowly pulled himself up into a kneeling stance. "I'm sorry, Sensei..." he said again, his voice full of shame. "Please, let me try again."

Chikara regarded him for a moment, then set his shinai on the ground next to him. "We should call it a day," he said.

Cody looked up, greatly upset. "No!" he insisted. "I can do better! I promise!"

Chikara shook his head. "No," he repeated, "I think we should focus more on the mental side of kendo. Take off your armor; we won't be using it again today."

Half angry and half ashamed, Cody pulled off the pads and knelt down before his grandfather, who looked him over sternly. "Now," Chikara said in a somewhat softer tone, "Your motions during our sparring have shown that you're angry about something... very angry. Even your mother has noticed it in your attitude at home. What's wrong?"

Cody looked down at the floor. How shameful that his emotions could be seen so easily!... but it wouldn't do to try hiding it from his grandfather. After all, lying was one of the most shameful acts of all. "...Yes," he said quietly. "I'm angry. I've been angry for a few weeks now..."

"Why?" Chikara asked.

Cody thought about how he could describe things without mentioning the Digital World. "There's a boy," he began. "He's committed innumerable wrongs in the past, but now he seems to want to repent... and though I'm certain he's not sincere, many of my friends are starting to believe him..." He looked up at his grandfather. "That's why I'm angry."

Chikara was silent for a while, seemingly meditating on what he had heard. Cody waited, wondering just what he would say. Finally, he looked at Cody again. "Is this anger towards this boy..." he began, "or towards your friends' opening up to him?"

Cody looked at him, surprised and irritated. "What does that have to do with this?" he asked.

"You trust your friends," Chikara continued, "but you don't trust this boy... and yet, they do. However strong your feelings are, they have no bearing on how your friends feel, and you can't influence them to see things in your way... That, I think, is why you're angry."

Cody hesitated, then stared at the floor again. Could that really be why he was mad? He didn't trust the Emperor at all and he was sure it was all a big ruse... but he hadn't been seeing eye-to-eye with his friends lately, either... Maybe his grandfather was right. After all, he always had been before. "...What should I do?" he asked. "Do I have to wait for that boy to betray them?"

Chikara shook his head again. "Perhaps... perhaps not," he said. "A human being is very complex; he can be of one mind one day, but then change overnight, for better or for worse... but that isn't what you should worry about for now."

Cody raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked.

"Your test now is to learn acceptance," his grandfather said. "You have to accept that your friends want to reach out to him, even if you do not. Even though you disagree about this, you must strive to keep your friendship alive... It would be a tremendous shame to lose it to this."

Cody sighed. As much as he would deny it, he really did enjoy hanging around Davis, TK and the others... and it wasn't helping the team at all to be squabbling with them... He saw what his grandfather was saying, but at the same time, he couldn't ignore the threat that the Emperor possessed. "But if I'm a pacifist about it, terrible things could happen!" he argued.

"Yes, they could..." Chikara nodded, "but if you've wasted all your energy being worked up over it, what will you have left to react with?"

Cody had no rebuttal for that. He just silently stared at his feet again.

"I think that's enough for today," Chikara said, reaching into his duffle bag and pulling out a pack of prune juice. "Reflect on what's been said. You'll know what to do."

As his grandfather sucked at the juice, Cody turned and stared at the wall, thinking hard. Maybe he really was being too harsh on his friends... and their desire to see something good in a bad situation had brought about some positive results before... but he just couldn't shake his feelings about Ken Ichijouji. Even if Arukenimon was acting independently, he was sure Ken would stab them in the back the first chance he got... and when he did, Cody's retaliation would be swift and deadly.

***

The Gardromon flipped another page of his magazine, not bothering to look up. With the afternoon sun hanging overhead, there was little more to Pinball Carnival than a large wooden fence and his little box outside the gate. He loved this security job; he could do whatever he wanted as long as the sun was in the sky.

He heard the sound of a car driving up and stopping, but he paid it no mind. Suddenly, his reading light disappeared; three shadows had fallen over him. Someone coughed, presumably to get his attention. "Sorry, park's closed," he said without looking up. "Come back when it's nighttime."

"We're not here to play," a sultry but sharp female voice came. "We're here to work."

The Gardromon looked up to see a human woman in red, a hunched old fellow in blue, and a large, gray, ball-shaped shadow behind them. "'Zat so?" he asked, looking them over (especially the woman). "You don't look like fun park types."

"Ah, yes," the blue one rasped. "It's our first day, you see, and we haven't gotten into costumes yet..."

The Gardromon looked at them again, then shrugged. "OK, go on through," he said, turning back to his magazine. "Go see the manager; he'll sort you out. He's in the green trailer behind the casino."

"Thank you, kind sir," the blue one said, and he followed the other two through the gates. As soon as they were out of earshot, though, his attitude changed. "Ha! What a wretchedly stupid guard," he cackled.

Arukenimon just snorted. "I don't see why we had to talk our way in," she muttered. "We could have destroyed him easily."

"True, true..." Mummymon said, "but we also don't want to cause a commotion. If this is going to be a good trap, then we can't have it looking suspicious with a dead guard. Am I right?"

Arukenimon just shook her head and folded her arms.

Mummymon glanced over at the silent, round Digimon that followed them. "Besides," he said as his mouth curled into a wicked sneer, "this one will cause all the violence we need."

***

"...So I rubbed it in his face AGAIN, and when he got pissy, I threw him in the pond!" Yolei finished her anecdote as she helped Mimi stretch some fresh sheets over her bed. "I can't believe he still says crap like that when he knows what I'll do to him!"

"Yeah, you'd think some boys were monkeys with how dumb they can be," Mimi giggled. Suddenly, she looked around with surprise and delight. "Hey! Look! We're done!" she announced.

Equally surprised, Yolei looked up. Mimi was right; her room was clean. All the laundry was properly stored in her dresser and closet, all of the video games were put away under the television and the desk, all of the books were back in the bookshelf, and the remaining refuse was gone. The balcony door was open just a crack, allowing a cold yet clean breeze of air into the room. "Well... how about that," she said, feeling pleased, but also uncomfortable. The room didn't look like hers any more.

She wasn't the only one who looked upset. Poromon just stared at the clean, bare rug where his nest used to be. He had worked hard to turn that pile of rubbish into a comfortable sleeping place! "Now where will I bed down at night?!" he demanded, looking at the girls.

"Relax," Mimi said with a wave of her hand. "I'm sure Yolei can come up with something."

Yolei shifted her weight uncomfortably. "Um, right..." she muttered. "Well, uh, you can sleep with me in the bed for a while... until I can think of something else."

Poromon huffed and looked away.

"So, uh," Yolei said, turning to Mimi, "now that the room is clean, do we start the lesson?"

"What?! No way!" Mimi said, holding up her arm and showing her watch. It read 5:15 PM. "There's no more time today... and I need a hot shower after what we did."

"Oh..." Yolei replied, sagging a bit. "Sorry."

"We'll just save that for another day," Mimi said, walking to the corner and collecting her duffle bag and hat. "If this place is back to how it was when I come again, though, you're finished."

"Err... right," Yolei muttered.

Mimi walked toward the door, but then stopped. "Hey... I have to ask," she said, turning back to Yolei. "Where'd you buy those manga under your bed?"

Yolei looked up in shock; Mimi wanted to know something like that?! "Oh, uh... Well, I got them at, uh, Boss Bookstore, down on 6th Street," she answered.

Mimi raised an eyebrow. "The one by the hair stylists'? How?" she asked. "They don't let minors in there..."

Yolei's cheeks went red. "Uh, my brother..." she admitted. "I give him the money and he buys 'em."

Mimi blinked a few times. "...Wow," she said. "Must be nice to have an older brother."

Yolei shrugged. Not as nice as Mimi probably thought, but he did come in handy for procuring forbidden merchandise like those adult manga.

"Say..." Mimi went on, looking at her charge with a sly grin, "is he seeing anyone right now?"

Yolei almost bit her tongue. "ACK!" she gurgled. "Uh, uh, uh, YES! Yes, he's seeing... LOTS of girls!" she spluttered, flailing for any excuse to keep Mimi from testing the waters in her own gene pool. "Dozens! Dates 'em by the truckload! He's got a new one over every weekend! I don't even bother learning their names anymore!"

Mimi rolled her eyes, obviously not buying it. "Oh, really?..." she muttered. "Well, I'd better go. Call me next week and we'll set up another lesson."

Yolei opened the room's door and Mimi walked out. As she watched, Mimi walked past the couch where Mantarou sat, produced a slip of paper, handed it to him with a wink and kept walking.

As Mantarou stared at the little slip of paper, Yolei turned and relentlessly banged her head against the wall.

***

Izzy leaned back in his chair, taking a break from his European history textbook to look out the window. He could see the sun creeping away behind the cityscape out his balcony window. The day was ending; the others should be back soon.

As soon as he thought that, the computer beeped loudly. He shoved his swivel chair away as the screen flashed, and avoided being buried in the pile of limbs that appeared on his floor.

"AGH! Get offa me! GET OFF!" Patamon's muffled shrieks came from somewhere inside.

Matt was the first to get free of the mess. "...Nobody's gotten around to fixing that, I see," he grumbled.

Izzy helped the others get untangled. "How far did you go today?" he asked when they were all sitting on his bed.

Tai and Matt turned over their cell phones. He almost dropped them because they were so warm and sticky. "Good grief," he said as he plugged Tai's into his computer, "where did you go to get them like this?"

"Would you believe the ocean?" Kari asked.

Izzy blinked as the downloaded data told him the same thing. "No way. How did you get that sweaty flying over an ocean?" he asked.

"'Cuz we found the end of the world," Patamon coughed, "an' it's really hot and dusty."

Izzy turned around, puzzled. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Patamon began to explain when the computer beeped three times. Izzy whirled around and opened up the Digital World map. "It works!" he declared.

"What?" Gatomon asked, her tail swishing. "What's going on?"

"I programmed my computer to give a signal whenever a Crest's energy signature is detected," Izzy replied, turning to them, "and one just came up!"

The others ran to the screen. Surely enough, one of the gray squares on the southeastern edge of the Server Continent was flashing pink. Kari noticed the color and felt even sicker. "That must be part of mine..." she murmured.

"Why'd it come up so late?" TK wondered, looking out the window at the twilight.

"No time to lose," Tai said, looking at his younger friends. "Call the others!"

***

Davis sighed and sank back into the couch, his eyes watching the television but his brain hardly registering what was on. Playing with Demiveemon had tired out his body, and the pre-algebra homework had tired out his brain; now he was looking forward to not using either for a few hours.

Unfortunately, Jun had other plans. "Gimme that!" she exclaimed, snatching the remote out of his hand before he could clench it. "There's a special I wanna watch!"

"Aww, what the hell?!" Davis huffed, his body too relaxed to make an adequate grab. "I don't wanna be sittin' here watchin' some stupid crap!"

Jun sniffed. "Shows what you know!" she said, and pressed the button.

Davis braced himself for a bunch of tone-deaf teenagers butchering pop songs... but to his surprise, a calming, smooth stream of saxophone music floated out of the television, followed by a black-and-white photograph of a man playing the instrument. Beneath him came the words "Charlie Parker: The Bird Who Would Be King."

"...Huh?" was all he could say. "What's this?"

"Documentary," Jun replied, sitting down next to him. "Now shut up!"

As a soothing narrator began describing what life was like in 1920-era America, Davis just looked at his sister, not knowing what to think. Jun liked loud, peppy rock music, didn't she? What was she doing watching this?

He was about to ask her when he noticed his door swing open, and Demiveemon scrambled out of it, waving to him frantically. "Oh, uh," he spluttered, quickly shooting up, "I just forgot, I, uh, I hafta write something about, uh... pelvises for tomorrow. Gotta go!"

Not sticking around to see if she bought the excuse, he quickly pushed Demiveemon back into his room and shut the door. "What're you doing?!" he demanded. "If she finds out you're real, she'll freak!"

"Sorry!" Demiveemon said, rushing over and pulling the open D-Terminal off of the bed. "TK just sent us an e-mail, though! New Crest piece!"

"Wha...?" Davis asked. He read over the message and groaned out loud. "Aww, man! Now?!" he groaned. "There's school tomorrow!"

"Yeah, but shouldn't we go anyway?" Demiveemon asked. "Those things're important, and what if Arukenimon gets to it first?"

Davis sighed, defeated; his little buddy was right. "...Fine," he grumbled. "Lemme just grab my D3--"

His eyes fell on the red Digivice on his desk and he stiffened up. Yolei didn't have her D3; he did. "Shit!" he swore, grabbing both Demiveemon and it and rushing out of his room.

"Hey, where're you—" Jun began, but the front door slammed before she could finish. She just shook her head and turned back to the documentary. Little brothers. Go figure.

***

Ken squinted at the setting sun and grumbled crossly. He had been wandering around all afternoon, trying to get a fix on the control spire activity his computer had picked up... but he hadn't been able to find anything. Now that night was coming on, he thought about giving up and going home; his parents would worry if he didn't show himself for dinner.

Suddenly, the area up ahead of him lit up in every color imaginable, and exciting music filled the air. The lights whirled and spun around, with the sound of delighted shrieks following them. Ken was baffled for a second, but then he realized what it was; a fun park! He had been to one of those a long time ago. A smile briefly came to him as he remembered the fun Sam and he had riding on the roller coaster and the bumper cars... That had been one of the happiest nights of his life before... His memories trailed away, and he shook his head. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have a quick look before leaving.

As he walked closer to the park, though, his eyes spotted a run-down yellow jeep near the entrance, and his smile quickly disappeared. He ran over and looked inside, and his suspicions were confirmed; the seats stunk of decaying flesh, and there was a sewing kit with several spools of red thread in the back.

Scowling, he looked at the car, then over at the carnival. It looked like he would be going in after all.

***

"Damn! Crap! Drat!" Yolei spluttered as she tore through her desk, undoing almost everything she had gotten done with Mimi that afternoon. She just didn't get it! She always left her D3 right next to her D-Terminal, but now it was nowhere to be found! How could she help the others if she couldn't reach the Digital World?!

"Yolei, calm down," Poromon grumbled, still upset with her about his nest.

"Calm down?!" she huffed. "My D3's gone again! I can't--" Suddenly, she remembered something and scowled. "Mimi!" she declared angrily. "SHE took it!"

"I don't think so," Poromon replied.

"She did before!" she huffed, scrambling for her cell phone; she was going to give that princess a piece of her mind. "She was just using me to get to my Digivice! ARGH!"

Poromon shook his head. "Calm down," he said. "Stop and think back to the last time we came home."

The phone clenched in her grip, Yolei hesitated, thinking hard. What had happened last time?... They had come back from Arukenimon's motel trap, and then... "...Oh," she said quietly as she shut the phone. "Izzy has it."

"That's right," Poromon said, glad that he had calmed her down. "Now--"

"IZZY has it!!!" she yelled, grabbing him and dashing for her door. "We gotta get over there!"

She burst out of her room and startled her TV-watching sisters as she raced past, jamming her bare feet into her shoes. Deciding to bound down the stairs instead of take the elevator, she threw open the door and charged out of the apartment...

...And right into something soft that went "OOOOFFF!!!" Davis staggered backwards and banged against the balcony railing, yelling as he grabbed on. "What the hell, Yolei?!" he demanded, easing his grip on the bug-eyed Demiveemon. "You coulda knocked me right off!"

"Sorry, Davis," Poromon apologized in a squeezed voice, "Yolei isn't--"

"Can't talk!" Yolei huffed, starting to turn for the stairs. "Gotta--"

Davis quickly yanked her D3 out of his pocket. "Chill out! I brought it!" he announced. "Now, can I--"

Before he could finish asking if he could come inside and warp in with her, the red Digivice had vanished and the door slammed shut. "Hey!!!" he yelled.

"Yolei! Wait!" Demiveemon squeaked, rushing up and banging on the door with his little knuckle-less arms. Suffice to say, it didn't make enough noise.

Davis swore loudly and kicked at the wall. Now he had to run all the way back home to his own computer! Dealing with Yolei was getting to be a real pain in his ass.

"Davis!" Demiveemon said, looking up at him. "Maybe Cody or TK will let you use theirs!"

Davis jumped up at the suggestion and tore off down the balcony, headed for Cody's place. Maybe he wasn't out of luck yet!

***

At first Ken was surprised when the guard station's portable TV lit up and two of the other Digidestined appeared, but then he realized this was probably part of his enemies' plan. "So..." he addressed them, "there's a Crest piece here?"

Kari, TK and both of their Digimon looked at him, surprised. "How'd you know?" Patamon asked.

Ken motioned to the yellow jeep parked nearby. Gatomon wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, if we're after a Crest, they will be too," she grumbled.

Ken was going to say that if Arukenimon and Mummymon were here, it also meant there was a trap somewhere, but the TV flashed again, and two more kids and their Digimon appeared... and one of them was that little boy who always gave him the evil eye.

"Sorry I'm late!" Yolei panted, then noticed Ken and dropped Hawkmon, beaming. "Hi, Ken!~" she giggled.

Cody scowled at the Digimon Emperor; why was he always around when they were trying to find a Crest piece?

Yolei heard the noise behind her, then turned and yelped with delight. "Ooh! They've got fun parks here, too?!" she exclaimed. "This is gonna rock! Let's get going!" She started for the gates with the zeal only a giddy schoolgirl can muster.

"Wait a second!" Patamon piped up. "Where's Davis? We shouldn't go in without him!"

Yolei stiffened up and turned around slowly.

"I sent him the message..." TK said, looking down at his D-Terminal with uncertainty. "...Didn't I?"

"I'm certain he got it," Hawkmon said, then frowned at his partner. "Don't you agree, Yolei?"

Yolei looked away, keeping her mouth shut. She probably should have let him use her computer... but she hadn't thought of that when it came up. Besides, she couldn't let him into her freshly cleaned room; how many hours of sarcasm and taunting would she have been put through if he had gone in?

"Yeah, it went to him; my 'sent mail' folder says so," TK said, putting his D-Terminal away. "What's keeping him?"

"Maybe it's a bad time," Armadillomon suggested. "He coulda ate some bad veggies an' got stuck on the potty."

"Or maybe he's doing homework," Kari said. "The teacher did give out a lot today..."

"Or he could just be playing with his airplanes," Cody muttered.

"Hey, give him more credit than that," TK said. "He's always shown up before..."

Almost as soon as he had said that, the TV flashed again, and out tumbled Davis and Veemon. They pulled themselves to their feet, panting hard. "Huuuugh... I... I'm here!..." Davis gasped.

"What took you?" Gatomon asked.

Davis glared daggers at Yolei. "Well, we would have been here on time, but SOMEONE just slammed the door in my face when I gave back her D3," he growled.

"What?!" Kari asked, looking over at Yolei, who bit her lip and stared at her shoes.

"Yeah, then I had to try TK's and Cody's, but nobody came to the doors... so I had to run all the way back to my place!" Davis finished. "God!!!"

Veemon coughed and rubbed at his midsection. "I thought only Davith's sister could squeeze me that hard..." he muttered.

Hawkmon sighed. "I'm very sorry about that," he apologized, "and I'm sure Yolei is, too..."

Yolei glared at Davis, not looking very sorry at all; he had the nerve to badmouth her in front of Ken?! "Oh, yeah?" she huffed. "Well, why didn't you say something?!"

"I was gonna," he snapped, "but it's kinda hard talkin' through wood!"

"So talk faster!" she rebuked. "The door was open long enough!"

"I mean yer stupid HEAD!" he snarled.

That was enough. With a roar, Yolei charged at him, and the two of them started grappling and swatting at each other's limbs, grunting and cursing. The others didn't know what to think; this argument seemed more malicious than earlier ones, and they weren't sure how to react. "Hey! Davith!!!" Veemon tried.

"Please, stop it!" Patamon pleaded.

"Good grief..." Cody muttered, shaking his head.

Hawkmon harrumphed and put himself between the two pre-teens. "All right, that's quite enough," he said sternly. "You're making a scene!"

Davis and Yolei stopped and looked around. Surely enough, a few Digimon coming in and going out of the carnival were watching them worriedly. The Gardromon fingered his billy club, seemingly ready to swat them away with it. They let each other go and stepped back, folding their arms and grumbling to themselves.

"We ain't here fer fightin' each other," Armadillomon pointed out. "There's a Crest somewhere in this team park... so we hafta be a team!"

"Theme park," Cody corrected him, "but I do agree about not fighting."

"Theme park?!" Veemon asked, finally having the chance to see where he was. As he turned around to the flashing lights and the delighted shrieks of the carnival, his eyes almost popped out of his head with delight. "WOAH!!!" he yelled. "Davith! What IS this?! It looks... AWESOME!!!"

"It's a park where people go to have fun, with lots of rides and food," TK said, looking up at it with a little hesitation; he had been at a fun park in the Digital World once before, but it had been anything but enjoyable; if Tai and Patamon hadn't saved him, he would have had lost all of his memories there.

Gatomon looked over at a box of maps by the gate. She took a handful and passed them out to the others. "This could help us narrow where we should look," she said.

The kids looked over the maps. The fairgrounds were a lot bigger than they looked from the outside. It was shaped like a parallelogram with a wider top than bottom, and the inside was split into three main areas: the Pinball Midway, for rides; the Chance Game Alley, for the game booths; and the Casino for the older set of tourists. "Hoo boy," Armadillomon whistled as he looked at it. "Anyone else thinkin' 'needle in a haystack?'"

Ken looked over the map carefully. "Splitting up would cover the most ground," he concluded. "Arukenimon would most likely expect you to stay in a large group after how you got separated in the hotel."

Kari put her map down. "Yeah, I agree..." she admitted. "We don't have enough time to check it all out together... and I'd rather stick to the games, myself."

"OK, so who's going where?" Patamon asked.

TK looked around at his friends. Davis and Yolei certainly wouldn't make a good team; each was still grumbling about the other. Cody certainly didn't look like he wanted to go with Ken; he had been glowering at the armored boy since he had appeared... and Ken didn't look like he wanted to go with anybody. He sighed; this could be tougher than he thought. "OK, uh..." he tried, "Davis, why don't you go to the Casino... and Ken, could you go with him?"

Yolei looked up angrily. "What?!" she demanded.

"Fine by me," Davis snorted. Ken just nodded.

"OK, then..." TK went on, "Cody, how about you take Yolei and scope out the Midway, and Kari and I'll look at the games?"

"All right," Cody said, nodding.

Yolei felt like throwing her glasses on the ground and stomping on them. Why did Davis get to be with Ken again?! He'd had him all through the stupid hotel! What a waste of an afternoon of cleaning!

"Should we head in?" Gatomon asked. "I'm gettin' anxious standing out here."

"Yeah," Kari agreed. "C'mon, TK, let's go."

As soon as she said that, Davis felt sick. The awful truth hit him like a ton of bricks: if he was partnered with Ken, then he WOULDN'T be with Kari... but TK WOULD! And this was a carnival! "H-hey, wait! TK, you wanna trade partners?!" he spluttered, but TK, Kari and their Digimon disappeared inside, out of earshot. "...Aww, SHIT!" he snarled.

"Hah!" Yolei scoffed as she followed Cody and their Digimon towards the entrance. "I hope they start makin' out in a photo booth!"

Davis's whole body sagged. This day was going so horribly, he could rip all his hair out. What had he done to be smacked with such a rotten fate?!

"Uh, Davith..." Veemon's voice came to him as a hand jerked at his pant leg.

"What?!" Davis snarled; couldn't he even have a good mope?

"Ken's goin' in," Veemon said, motioning towards the gate. Surely enough, the gun-toting youth was already walking inside, looking around as if he was expecting snipers.

"Son of a... HEY! Wait UP!" Davis yelled, grabbing Veemon and racing after Ken. "C'mon! We're supposed to work together on this!" he snapped as he caught up.

"Then don't slow me down," Ken replied curtly.

The boys walked through the gates into a dazzling world of flashing lights of all the colors of the rainbow. The whirling rides were covered with them, as were the booths, and even the ground had sparkling symbols and numbers painted on it. Just like any real-world fair, hundreds of Digimon of all sorts wandered around, eating the goodies, playing the games, and counting the colorful tickets they had left. In this bright and colorful atmosphere, Ken had a hard time keeping his stony glare; this looked just like that park from his memories.

"Wooooahhhh!!!" Veemon drooled, his eyes growing as wide as saucepans; with all the flashing, whirling activity around him, he couldn't keep from being excited. "Davith! Can we try some of the rides? Can we? Huh?!"

Davis, however, didn't look in a good mood at all, and didn't bother to answer his partner. This place could ruin his chances with Kari completely, if TK got his hooks too far into her... He had to make sure that didn't happen! This day was not going to get any worse!

"It looks like the Casino is in the middle of the carnival," Ken said, looking over his map. "If we walk right up this main drag, we should--"

"Hey! Davith!" Veemon's voice broke in. "Where're ya goin'?! Come back!"

Ken looked back and saw the goggle-headed boy disappear into the crowd in the game alley. Veemon called after him, but he didn't come back. "What..." the blue Digimon murmured, looking at Ken with both worry and disappointment. "Where's he goin'?..."

Ken's jaw locked and a scowl fell over his face. "...Come on," he grunted, taking Veemon's hand and leading him into the crowd.

***

An irritated snarl escaped Arukenimon's lips as her binoculars picked out the six children coming into the carnival. Did those little pests always have to show up so quickly? She had hardly had any time to search for that Crest fragment without dealing with them... She stuffed the binoculars back in her robe and crossly jerked her hat down. Well, hopefully Mummymon would be back soon, finished with the trap they had prepared. As feeble as he was, he worked pretty quickly.

"Arukenimon!" a voice came from the ground. "Are you still there?"

Speak of the devil... With the same death-defying grace she had shown the kids at the hotel, she gracefully leaped from the top of the casino tent and landed... and almost instantly her face twisted into a frown. Mummymon had returned... with a corn dog and a wad of cotton candy in his free hand. "Ugh! What's the matter with you?!" she demanded. "Can't you take this seriously?!"

"'Serious' is hard to do at a jaunty carnival like this," Mummymon replied, sticking his cane in the ground and taking the cotton candy. "Would you like some?" he asked, offering it to her.

Arukenimon folded her arms and gave a sharp, angry sigh. "Why would I want to eat something that looks like it came out of my own abdomen?" she scoffed.

Mummymon beamed at her analogy. "Well, in that case..." he said, and took a big bite out of it, a smile appearing across his full, chewing cheeks. "Ohhh... it's so good!"

"Is this what you were doing?!" Arukenimon snapped. "Buying treats when I told you to get ready?! They're here!"

"Don't blow a gasket, my dear," he replied, swallowing loudly. "I've set everything up, and our new companion has learned his role exceedingly well... I was just feeling a bit peckish."

"Then start on the next phase," she stated. "Stop dawdling and go!"

Mummymon grumbled something and turned around, only to stiffen up with a terrified gasp. Standing in front of him was a Gazemon clad in white face makeup and a big, red bubble-shaped nose, with a frizzy green wig, a yellow hat, and ruffled orange overalls. "Oh HELLO nice Mister Man with the matching blue coat and FEZ!!!" it exploded with joy and gusto.

With a bloodcurdling shriek from their master, Mummymon's legs leaped up by themselves. Faster than they ever went before, they spun him around half way, tripped over his cane and launched him face-down into the dirt.

As the clown skipped away, Arukenimon pried the gooey pink mess out of her hair and hurled it on the ground. "An Ultimate-level, undead Digimon..." she huffed, retrieving her hat and jamming it back on. "You really fool me sometimes!"

Mummymon looked over his ruined, dirt-coated carnival snacks and whimpered quietly.

***

The noise level doubled as Cody stepped onto the Midway, where the flashing lights and shrieking riders made it seem like the roaring, spinning, flipping machines were gigantic living beasts. He scratched his head and looked around, trying to make sense of the confusion. "Where could a Crest piece be in all of this?" he asked out loud.

"Boy, I don't know," Armadillomon said, looking around. "I ain't got a clue wheresabout to start!"

Hawkmon looked around and noticed a booth decorated in blue and white stripes. There was a large, black, metal drum behind the counter, and a bored-looking Geckomon clerk was pulling mysterious pink and blue clouds out of it for the other fairgoers. "I say, what's that?" he asked, but none of his friends heard him in the din.

He fluttered over and stood on the counter, looking into the strange spinning barrel, where the clouds seemed to appear out of nowhere in almost spider-web designs. What a perplexing device! "My goodness! " he exclaimed. "What--"

The clerk jerked around violently, surprised by the sudden voice. Hawkmon flinched, lost his balance and fell into the drum. The clerk looked around for a moment, and seeing nobody, shrugged and went back to work. Must have just been a passerby being loud.

"Yolei, you must have some ideas," Cody said, looking over at his teammate. "Where do you think we should look?"

Yolei didn't look at all like she belonged at a carnival with the sour face she wore... and she was still muttering to herself. After all that backbreaking, soul-smashing work she'd done that morning, she should have been paired up with Ken! "Argh!" she huffed out loud. "Why did Davis always get Ken?! Where's the justice?!"

Cody's face turned angry as well. "Ken again?!" he demanded. "Why can't you see..." Suddenly, he remembered his grandfather's advice from earlier, and grew silent. He really had no excuse for spitting this anger at her; he couldn't control what other people she liked.

Armadillomon looked up at him; it wasn't like his partner to stop in the middle of a sentence. "What's wrong, Cody?" he asked.

Yolei was looking at him, too. "Yeah, what's up?" she asked, annoyed. "Spit it out."

Cody stared at his feet for a few moments, then took a deep breath. "All right..." he said slowly, "I understand... that you would rather have been paired up with someone else..." He paused and looked up at her. "As it stands, though, we're working together... so let's do our best to find that Crest fragment. All right?"

Yolei felt pretty crummy after hearing that; she never thought that her griping might be hurting Cody's feelings. "...Oh, OK..." she said. "Sorry I'm being such a stick-up-the-ass."

Cody just shrugged, accepting her apology.

"...Yeeeah, OK," Armadillomon said, trying to break the awkwardness. "So, where d'ya think we should look?"

"Maybe we should try looking around the rides?" Cody asked Yolei. "It could be in the dirt, or even part of one of the machines."

"Yeah, yeah, it could be..." Yolei started, but just then her tummy growled loudly. Her cheeks flashed red as Cody and Armadillomon looked at her. "Oh, yeah!" she exclaimed. "I haven't eaten anything since lunch!"

Cody blinked with surprise. "You didn't have dinner?" he asked.

"I, uh, was busy," she replied sheepishly.

"Guess I could use a munch too," Armadillomon said. "What sounds good?"

Yolei looked around and spied the blue-striped booth. "Ooh! Cotton candy!" she said, pointing. "If we're checking this whole place out, I need to get my sugar buzz on!"

Cody was going to ask if she needed any money, but Yolei was already over at the booth. To his surprise, she quickly came back with four wads of cotton candy, two pinks and two blues. "Hot damn, what a deal! I had enough to get one for everyone!" she laughed. "Here you go, Cody; maybe you should hold Armadillomon's for him, too... Hey, where's Hawkmon?"

Cody looked at one of the remaining pink wads. "Um, Yolei," he said, "there's something odd about that one."

Puzzled, Yolei turned the cotton candy around in her hand and saw that it had a break sticking out of it. "What the?!" she gasped.

The wad shuddered and then flew apart, revealing a sticky, flailing Hawkmon. "Ugh! Yuck!" he spat, flicking pink every way. "If I wanted to become a cloud, I'd have flown through a real one!"

"Woah!" Armadillomon said. "You went through the cotton candy machine?!"

"Don't remind me," Hawkmon grumbled, kicking more fluff out from between his talons. "That's one experience I do not wish to relive."

"...Can I still lick you?" Yolei asked. "I did pay for it."

Hawkmon leered at her. "That's another one," he quipped.

***

As stealthily as he could, Davis picked his way around behind the game booths, his eyes darting back and forth in search of his prey. He knocked over a garbage can and stepped in some discarded nachos, but he wouldn't let that stop him; he had to see just what TK and Kari were doing together!

Suddenly, he spied the swishing white tail of Gatomon and ducked behind a porta-potty, peeking out with just the tips of his eyeballs. They were standing at a booth run by a big yellow bear, and TK was chucking baseballs at pyramidal displays of milk bottles. "Yeah, that's real tough," Davis grumbled. "I could do that blindfolded! You ain't so cool, strawhead!"

"DAVIS!!!"

He whirled around in alarm, only to see Veemon and a very angry-looking Ken. "Jeez! Do that again, why don'cha?!" he huffed. "I only got halfway to the heart attack!"

"Sorry, Davith," Veemon apologized.

Ken wasn't amused. "What's the matter with you?!" he demanded. "You just abandoned your Digimon!"

"What?! No, I didn't!" Davis huffed. "I just had to check on something!"

Ken wasn't buying it. "This place is huge and crowded! He could have gotten lost!" he snapped. "And what about Arukenimon or Mummymon? What if he'd run into THEM alone?!"

Davis's anger pushed itself onto a back burner as he realized that Ken was right; running off in a place like this just to spy on Kari was pretty irresponsible. He hung his head. "Sorry, Veemon," he apologized. "I didn't mean to ditch you like that."

Veemon brightened up. "It's OK!" he exclaimed. "Buy me a pork chop on a stick and we'll call it even!"

Davis smiled at his little friend. Ken just turned away. "Let's go," he said. "The Casino is where we need to be."

"Yeah..." Davis agreed and started to follow, but a noise from behind made him turn around. TK must have knocked down one of the milk bottle displays, because the booth operator was handing him a big stuffed toy that looked like Matt's Digimon. Kari, Gatomon and Patamon all looked ecstatic. "Aww, man..." he groaned as he looked at it. "I bet he'll give that to her..."

"Why?" Veemon asked. "She's not thinkin' of tradin' Gatomon in, is she?"

Ken grunted sharply. "Hey," he spoke, "can we focus on what we came here for?! Dealing with Arukenimon is more important than your petty teenage angst."

Davis gave him a hurt look. "Aww, c'mon, Ken," he pushed, "you know what it's like; you've had a thing for a girl before, right?"

"No," Ken replied bluntly. "Now come on. We're wasting time."

Davis sagged, looking like he'd just heard he'd been kicked off the soccer team. Ken sighed; maybe he was being kind of rough on him... and Wormmon wouldn't appreciate that. "I, uh..." he tried in a softer tone, "I'm sure you... uh... can find some way to get her attention... later."

Davis looked up, showing some relief, but mostly surprise. "Heh heh... Wow," he chuckled.

Ken raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked.

"Well..." Davis went on hesitantly, "that's the first time I've ever heard you say somethin' that wasn't focused on what we're doin'."

Ken thought about it for a moment. "Uh... I guess it was," he admitted, a bit surprised, himself.

***

"Ooh, boy oh boy!!!" Patamon squealed with delight at the giant toy. "You're so awesome, TK! Can I have it?"

TK looked at the massive toy Gabumon and scratched at his head. "Uh... I don't think we can carry this around; we've got a job to do, after all," he said, then turned to the Monzaemon vendor. "Sorry, but can you take this back?"

Noticing Patamon's disappointed look, Kari put a hand on the counter. "Hang on," she said, "can we leave it here and come back when we're done?"

"Sure," the Monzaemon agreed, and took the toy and hid it under the counter. "I close up around 2, so come back before then."

Patamon did a little somersault in the air. "Yayyyy!" he cheered. "Thanks, Kari!"

Gatomon smiled. That was Kari, always thoughtful and charismatic.

The group thanked the carnie and broke away from the booth, looking around at all the other games. "Man, we've got a lot of work to do..." TK said.

Kari scratched at her forehead for a moment. "Maybe we should narrow our focus," she suggested, "only try games that would offer a Crest as a prize."

"So, uh," Gatomon thought out loud, "maybe one that gives out little shiny things? Jewelry?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," TK agreed. "Let's start with that."

The four companions walked down the main spread, checking out lots games that looked enticing, but whose prizes were too large to fit the profile of a Crest piece. Despite their lack of luck, though, TK found he was enjoying the adventure. Even though he knew the others were around the carnival, he was glad of the time he was spending with only Kari. "So, uh," he tried to strike up a conversation, "have you gone to a lot of these things in the real world?"

Kari chuckled a little and gave him a tired look. "Well, a few," she said, "but I never have a lot of fun..."

"What?! But look at this place!" Patamon exclaimed. "The rides! The noises! The food! How can you not have fun?!"

Kari looked both embarrassed and a little sad. "I got sick on the rides every time," she admitted, "so usually all I do is sit with Mom or Dad while Tai has all the real fun."

Gatomon blinked. "Wait, you get sick?" she asked. "But we're always flying and you've never gotten sick!"

"And you rode in Whamon with all of us, too," Patamon pointed out.

Kari shook her head. "It's not just the movement," she said. "It's the machines shuddering, too, and the lights flying all over the place... not to mention both you and Whamon stay right-side up."

TK scratched his head; no wonder Kari wanted to stay in the gaming alley. "Well, there had to have been something you liked," he tried. "Did you go to the arcades? Most fairs have those, with the claw games and pinball... Heck this place definitely has a pinball arcade; it's named Pinball Carnival!"

"Yeah, did you try those?" Patamon asked. "I bet you had fun there!"

To their dismay, Kari shook her head again. "No, I didn't," she said. "I'm terrible with almost every video game, ESPECIALLY pinball. Yolei would say I'm a bona fide 'n00b.'"

"What?" Gatomon asked. "But what about that system hooked up to the TV our apartment?"

"That's Tai's," Kari replied. "I've played it a few times, but I've never gotten very far..."

She looked pretty crummy just thinking about it. TK felt bad about where the conversation had gone; he had to cheer her up. His eyes fell on a nearby game booth. Players were trying to throw basketballs into hoops, and the prizes sitting under glass at the counter were small, shiny trinkets. What luck! "Hey, why don't you try that one?" he suggested, pointing at it. "They might have the Crest piece, and I did play the last one..."

Kari looked at the game hesitantly, but TK and both Digimon were smiling at her, encouraging her to try. "...OK," she agreed; maybe she'll be better at a game that wasn't electronic. She walked over to the booth and signaled that she wanted to play. The vendor gave her three small basketballs. She picked one up, concentrated on the hoop, and threw it.

***

With one last spinning loop-de-loop, the shining red roller coaster tumbled down the track, gradually slowing to a stop. As soon as the mechanical seat restraints lifted up, Yolei stumbled out, lurched towards the nearest trash can (which had a large cover the shape of a laughing clown's head) and vomited into it loudly, pausing only to get in a few mad gulps of air before another bout came.

Cody, Hawkmon and Armadillomon got off the ride and calmly walked over to her crumpled state. "Good heavens!" Hawkmon exclaimed. "Is this what her brother meant by his phrase: 'praying to the porcelain god?'"

"Naww, can't be," Armadillomon replied. "This clown's metal... and ain't no gods what'll thank ya fer that kinda prayin'."

Cody shook his head. "You really shouldn't have eaten all that junk before we started checking the rides," he scolded Yolei. "The merry-go-round, the ferris wheel, the swinging pirate ship and then the roller coaster... How did you think you wouldn't get sick?!"

"Guggghhhh..." Yolei groaned, pulling herself out of the clown's maw, trails of pink and brown slime plastered on the corners of her mouth. "How... how can you NOT be sick?!..." she retorted. "You rode 'em, too!... That coaster was way... WAY more twisted than anything in the real world!... Urp!"

Cody thought about it, then shrugged. "Maybe it's because I'm smaller, and my center of gravity is different," he suggested. "On the other hand... maybe it's because I didn't have a cotton candy and two corn dogs beforehand."

Yolei's cheeks bulged and she thrust her head into the clown's mouth again, the horrible noises made even worse by the can's echo.

Cody just shook his head, a faint smile coming to his mouth. As serious as their mission was, and as ridiculous as Yolei was being, he was having a great time. Before this trip, he had only been to a theme park once, with his father, the summer before he had been... He shook his head again. Until now, hearing about carnivals only gave him the sad reminder that his father could never take him to one again... but now he had new, happy memories of fun park exploring, eating, and riding with Yolei, Hawkmon and Armadillomon. He couldn't help but be glad with that knowledge.

Yolei pulled herself out of the can again, finally empty but still green-faced, and sagged onto a nearby bench. Hawkmon perched down next to her. "Perhaps the next ride we try should be one that doesn't move so much," he suggested.

"Yeah," Armadillomon agreed. "I think that clown's had enough."

Cody looked around in search of a slow-moving ride. His eyes picked out a small, dumpy-looking shack in the shadow of the other rides, the words HAUNTED HOUSE splayed across its door in dripping black paint. It certainly looked the part of a haunted house, but oddly enough, it wasn't attracting any visitors. "Would that one be all right?" he asked Yolei, pointing at it.

Yolei looked over the shack for a few minutes, then shivered. "Ugh... If you really want to," she grumbled, wiping her face on her sleeve, "but if there're any zombie Mekanorimon, you'll be carrying me back out on a stretcher."

The four friends walked over to the dumpy place and opened the door. As they walked inside, Yolei instantly felt relief. It was an extremely low-budget haunted house: obvious rubber bats dangled from strings taped to the ceiling; bloated orange trash bags with triangle eyes littered the floor instead of glowing jack-o-lanterns; and cardboard cutouts of werewolves and vampires just stood around the halls, begging to be kicked over. "Heh heh..." she snickered, walking up to a bat and swatting it. "Did the sign outside say 'haunted' or 'half-assed'?"

Armadillomon guffawed as he bumped a statue of an overly cute, smiling witch. "They oughta put Cody's mom in here. She's way scarier than any of this stuff!"

"Ho ho ho!" Hawkmon laughed, walking behind a wolfman cutout and finding a boombox that the workers had forgotten to turn on. "I do agree, Armadillomon. Why, I dare say, Mimi is more terrifying than any of this!"

"Amen to that," Yolei laughed nervously. "Hah... Yeah."

As the others went further in, heckling the decorations like a bald man in a comedy club audience, Cody's scowl returned to his face. Suddenly he felt very edgy and suspicious. If this was made to be such a silly attraction, then why were no other fairgoers coming in?

"Hey, Cody!" Armadillomon's voice came from up ahead. "Whatcha waitin' fer? They got some funny stuff in here! C'mon!"

Cody walked down the hall and met his friends in a room made to look like an Egyptian tomb... if the ancient Egyptians had used cardboard, crepe paper and styrofoam. The pillars were square-shaped and still showed their product logos, and all the papery "treasure" scattered around was spray-painted a pasty yellow that made it look more like old teeth than gold. A large cardboard sarcophagus lay in the center, shaped with the creepy face the Egyptians were known for.

"Oh, my goodness!" Hawkmon chuckled. "I do believe we've found the tomb of Pharaoh Cornflakes!"

Yolei looked at the sarcophagus and almost died laughing; instead of traditional hieroglyphics, the sides were adorned with Japanese kanji, none of which made any coherent sentences. "Oh, GOD!" she cackled. "This is a hoot!!!"

Cody was even more nervous upon entering the Egyptian room; something was definitely not right. "We should go," he said. "I don't think--"

"Look at it! LOOK AT IT!" she roared, looking at the coffin's base. "It even says 'Made in China!' HAH!"

With that laugh, she smacked the lid with her palm. It popped off the sarcophagus and, to their shock, out jumped Mummymon! Before any of them could react, they were all wrapped up tightly in decaying yellow bandages. "Wonderful!" he cackled as he stood over the squirming masses. "I've got big plans for you!"

Leaning heavily on Obelisk, he grabbed their bandages with his free hand and started dragging them away. The kids and their Digimon thrashed around with muffled angry yells, punching and twisting to break free, but it was no use; for moldy old paper, the bindings held together like steel. "Don't bother," he said to them, "those won't break until I let them. Besides, you deserve it, making fun of my haunted house! It's not like I'm made of money... and it did work well enough to catch you, didn't it?"

***

Past the game alley and a few dozen snack booths lay the large, ruby red casino tent. This area looked more sultry than the other parts of the carnival they had seen; the neon lights were dimmer and bent into shapes of Digimon, and there weren't many lower-level Digimon; mostly Champions and a few Ultimates, but a few tough-looking Rookies too. Veemon coughed at the sudden haze of smoke in the air. "Phlaaaugh!" he coughed. "It smells like Davith's balcony here!"

"Must be where the older crowd hangs out," Davis suggested, glancing at a few Goblimon leaning against a porta-john, puffing away on cigarettes.

"Yuck!" Veemon coughed, waving away the smoke. "If this is growin' up, I'll stay a kid!"

The Goblimon looked up crossly, and the threesome decided it was time to move along. As they made their way towards the casino, Davis suddenly had an irritating thought. "Hey, what if we can't get in?" he asked. "We're kids, after all."

Ken stopped and thought for a moment, then looked at Davis. "Let me handle that," he said. "Just hide Veemon."

Veemon looked up. "Hide me?" he asked. "Where?"

Davis looked down at him. Veemon was way bigger than Demiveemon; could he pull this off? "One way to see," he muttered, grabbed Veemon and stuffed him into the front of his shirt. Instantly he regretted it; he looked like he'd lived for a month on only cheeseburgers and gravy.

It was no bed of roses for Veemon, either; he was way more cramped than usual, and his face was pressed against his partner's navel. "Ugh!" he grunted. "Davith, when was the last time ya cleaned out yer belly button?!"

Ken approached the casino entrance with Davis hobbling along behind him. A big Frigimon wearing sunglasses stood in their way, its arms folded. "No kids in the casino," he barked as they came up to him. "Go on back to the rides!"

Ken shook his head. "We're not kids," he said calmly. "We're adults."

"Bull," the Frigimon replied, his brow furrowing behind his shades. "You half-pints better scram, or you'll make me mad."

Davis felt like backing off; he didn't feel like wrestling angry snowmen tonight. Ken didn't move. "Have you ever seen an adult human?" he asked.

The Frigimon hesitated. "...No," he said.

"Then how can you say we're not adults?" Ken went on. "You've never seen one."

The big lug scratched at his ear. "Uh..." was all he said.

Ken frowned. "Maybe I should talk to your boss," he said. "I'm sure he'd love to hear you're throwing out two paying customers."

"Uh, no, no! It's fine," the Frigimon panicked, scooting aside. "G... go on through, gentlemen."

Ken strode past the bouncer, never having lost his cool. Davis was stunned at the performance. He wished he could have those kinds of talents; he would love to shoot Jun down like that.

They walked into a smoky, cramped atmosphere full of whirring machines and flashing numbers and symbols. Rowdy Digimon jostled with each other and threw colorful coin-like objects onto the roulette wheels, green card tables, and even in front of the dartboards. "Whew..." Davis remarked as he tried not to bang into anyone. "This joint is jumpin'!"

He looked around for a moment, then opened his shirt and let Veemon out. "Ugh... Thanks," Veemon coughed. "I don't know which was worse; outside or inside!"

Davis rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll clean out the belly button when we get home," he grumbled.

Ken looked around, partly surprised that none of the roughnecks had noticed the Digimon Emperor in their midst, armed to the teeth. "Remind me," he said to Davis, "what are we looking for?"

"A piece of Kari's Crest," Davis replied.

Ken raised an eyebrow. "And what does it look like?" he asked.

Davis opened his mouth, but no answer came. He wasn't exactly sure of that himself; these little pieces could be in almost any shape, like the lightning bolt piece of Tai's Crest they had seen. "Uh... I don't know," he admitted, "but it'll be little, and Kari said it was pink."

"So... some tiny pink thing," Ken summarized, making Davis see how ridiculous his description sounded. The raven-haired boy sighed and scratched at his head. "This is going to be a difficult search," he muttered.

"Hey, Davith!" Veemon spoke up. "If it's really little, maybe someone's playin' these games with it!"

Davis looked at Ken. "Hey, he could be right," he said. "Let's start winnin' some chips! It mighta got mixed in here by mistake!"

Ken frowned, but the idea was a good one. "We don't need to waste our time on chance games," he said, "but let's go ask about it where they sell them."

The boys made their way through the crowd until they spotted a counter in the corner with a neon sign over it reading "TOKENS." A Meramon stood behind it, a mysteriously fireproof bow tie around his neck.

Davis and Ken walked up, making sure to keep Veemon behind them to keep attention off of them. "Excuse me," Ken spoke, "but do you have any pink-colored chips, or have you given one out tonight?"

"Nope," the Meramon replied curtly; he looked as if he'd been at this job for some time already and wasn't in the mood for silly questions. "Chips only come in red, white, blue and green. How many do you want?"

Davis rummaged around in his pockets and came up with a few yen bills. "How 'bout five of each?" he asked, putting the money on the table.

"Davis," Ken warned, "we don't have time to play."

"Yeah," Davis replied, "but maybe someone found it and it's a prize on one of the games... or maybe someone's usin' it as a chip but didn't get it here! It's worth a shot, right?"

Ken was about to reply when the Meramon let out and angry yell. "Hey!" he snapped at them, pointing at the yen. "What kind of junk is this?!"

Davis frowned at him. "Whaddya mean?" he retorted. "It's money!"

"The hell you say!" the Meramon said, sweeping it off of the counter with a wave of his fiery hand. "We don't take anything but DigiDollars!"

Both Davis and Ken looked surprised; the Digital World had its own currency. "DigiDollars?!" Davis asked. "Since when?"

"This is a Resistance-friendly establishment," the Meramon replied, "so we use their new currency. If you ain't got DigiDollars, then beat it."

Davis stamped his foot. "Resistance?! Screw 'em!" he snapped. "Look, buddy, we're lookin' for somethin' really important, and--"

The Meramon wasn't even listening. "Hey! New guy!" he yelled over the boys' heads. The whole room seemed to shake as footsteps thumped towards them. Davis, Ken and Veemon turned around and saw the biggest, grayest, roundest Digimon they had ever seen. It towered over them with a goofy, grinning face, its fingers twitching on its stubby red-gloved hands.

"Get rid of 'em," the Meramon said, turning away from the boys. "Don't care how."

At that, Davis and Veemon were scooped up in the creature's right hand, and Ken was snatched in the other. The goofy-faced monster silently plodded towards a darkened exit in the tent.

Davis struggled and swung himself around, but the Digimon's grip was just too strong. "This is frikkin' bogus!" he yelled. "Our dough's just as good! What the hell?!"

"If you want dough, I can get you bread! Or, or muffins!" Veemon pleaded. "C'mon, buddy! Whaddya say?!"

Ken glared up at the gray hulk. For something with a face like that, it was too quiet. Something wasn't right...

***

Kari swore she had thrown that dart hard enough, but it bounced off of the balloon target like it was made of felt. "Better luck next time," the carnie said, "now move along; give someone else a turn."

She groaned and stepped away from the booth. This was the sixth game she had tried... and also the sixth game she'd lost. "Sorry..." she apologized to the others, who were waiting nearby.

"No, it's fine... It, uh, it didn't look like that one had the Crest on the prize counter either..." TK replied, forcing a smile. To tell the truth, he was getting annoyed. Kari's apologies after every game she screwed up was grating on his nerves.

"It's been fun anyway," Patamon spoke up, sensing the tension. "I mean, it was awesome when you hit the carnie instead of the targets at the 'Cream-A-Cat' booth!"

"I'm just glad it wasn't me," Gatomon replied, rolling her eyes.

Kari didn't look very cheered up. "Um... Let's try something else," TK suggested, motioning for them to start walking.

"But what's left to try?" Patamon asked, looking around. "I think we've played everything."

Gatomon noticed a large, red and black-striped tent at the end of the path with a neon sign in front of it that spelled out 'Pinball Arcade.' "We haven't been in there yet," she said, pointing.

"Yeah," TK agreed. "How about it, Kari?"

Kari sighed at seeing the word 'pinball.' Why would her friends even suggest trying something she knew she was horrible at? Still, she couldn't leave a spot unchecked when a Crest was at stake... especially if it was hers. "...Well, all right..." she said, "but you play this time, TK."

As they walked to the tent, the flap ruffled, and a familiar figure stepped out. Kari's depression changed to shock as the red-robed Arukenimon smirked at her, and the others jumped back as well. "Spider lady!" Patamon huffed, puffing himself up.

"Are you children enjoying this little carnival?" she purred, playing with a lock of her hair. "Good... You look far more acceptable here than gallivanting across this world."

Gatomon's eyes narrowed. "If you think you'll stop us from finding the Crest," she hissed, her claws emerging, "think again!"

"Oh, dear me," Arukenimon cooed, "the little kitten is so frightening!" She straightened up and frowned at the feline. "However, I'm a fully-grown woman and I'll do whatever I please, thank you very much."

"Fine, then," TK said, reaching for his D3... but something tight and smelly wrapped around him, pulling him to the ground.

Kari and Gatomon whirled around in horror. Both TK and Patamon were bouncing around in a swath of bandages... and at the other end was a grinning Mummymon. "Ho ho!" he laughed. "That was far easier than the fishing game!"

Gatomon's ears flattened against her head and her fangs glistened in the colorful lights. If she acted fast enough, she could slash the boys free, and then if Kari had her Armor Digivolve...

Kari, however, wasn't so optimistic. "No... Don't, Gatomon," she told her partner. "We're outnumbered."

Gatomon looked at her, lowering her claws. "Then... what do we do?" she asked. "We can't just give up!"

"Violence?" Arukenimon asked, the smirk returning. "Relax, kitten. We can completely avoid unpleasantness this time... We just want your partner to play a little game."

"Yes," Mummymon agreed. "If she wins, you can all go free this time."

Kari felt sick at Mummymon's words. They could all go free? Did that mean they had caught the others, too?!

Gatomon's glare narrowed. "And what if we lose?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing much..." Arukenimon replied. "She'll just have to come with us... oh, and everyone else will die, of course."

Kari felt even sicker. Gatomon's white face had gone pink. "What kind of choice is that?!" she yelled.

"My, my... So loud and spoiled," Arukenimon said. "Think hard. You're not exactly in a position to negotiate."

Kari heard TK's muffled yells behind her and bit her lip. Arukenimon was right; they didn't have any way to slip out of this. They must have known she was terrible at these carnival games. That's why they wanted her to do it; they were sure she'd screw up. She shut her eyes, wishing this were just a bad dream, like all the others.

"Come on, now," Arukenimon purred. "Why spend so much time debating an inevitability?"

Kari sighed. She couldn't say no to this. As much as she knew she'd lose whatever sick game they were planning, she had to go through with it; her friends' lives were at stake. "...Fine," she growled, glaring at the silver-haired woman. "What is it?"

Arukenimon smiled in a way that neither Kari nor Gatomon liked. "Good..." she said. "Then step into the arcade. Mummymon, get things ready."

Mummymon grinned. Letting out various pained moans, he dragged the still-squirming TK and Patamon away, vanishing behind a tent. Kari wanted to charge after him and knock him down (how strong could he be if he was groaning like that?), but Arukenimon beckoned her towards the arcade tent, and she knew that was where she had to go. "...C'mon, Gatomon," she muttered, starting towards the entrance. With a grim look, Gatomon followed.

Much to their surprise, the large tent had nothing in it but a wooden platform only long enough to hold three or four people, equipped with a few amplifiers and a mysterious control panel. "...OK, so what's the game?" Gatomon asked.

"Oh, just a little something that will show off this carnival's best feature," Arukenimon replied, stepping up onto the wood. "You did realize how it's shaped, didn't you?"

"Not really," Kari replied crossly. "I didn't know there'd be a quiz."

Not amused, Arukenimon swiftly grabbed Kari's arm and yanked her onto the platform. She turned to the control panel, grabbed a green lever on the side and pulled it all the way down, then snapped it off with a twist of her hand.

The whole room instantly started shaking, and the tent around them fell away, exposing the night sky. The platform shot upwards about seventy-five feet, then rolled backwards to give Kari (who was now gripping the platform's railings with white knuckles) a full view of the carnival grounds, which were rising off of the ground and starting to tilt forward. A universal scream rose up as hundreds of fairgoers tumbled down the new slope and landed in a heap on the grass below. Kari now understood what Arukenimon had meant about the shape: the gates looked like flippers; the Midway was a spinning, sparkling obstacle course; and the Casino tent had a huge scoreboard on its top flashing "Hi-Score: 20,000." She felt even sicker. The whole carnival was a gigantic pinball table!

A white flash shot up from beneath and landed on the platform, making it jiggle so violently that Kari grabbed onto the railing again. Mummymon whirled around and reverted to his blue-cloaked facade. "Everything is all set, my dear," he reported.

"Good," Arukenimon smirked, grabbing a small speaker off of the controls. "Isn't this a simple game, little girl?" she asked, her voice booming across the night sky. "Just beat the high score, and everybody goes free."

Kari looked over the carnival, her arms shaking from both nerves and how high up she was. To add to her troubles, she could hear all the Digimon patrons down below, and they weren't happy. Some were screaming, some were crying, and many were swearing up at her captors and her; she caught the words "humans," "invade," and "Resistance" more than once each.

"What a delightful audience," Arukenimon observed. "Just think; you're putting on this show for them as well."

Kari turned to her, scowling. "Where are my friends?!" she demanded, hearing her own voice being broadcast on the amps. "I want to see them!"

Arukenimon smirked. "Oh, they're playing too... in a way," she said, glancing at Mummymon. "Show her."

Mummymon stabbed a red button on the control panel with his cane, and the cover over the lower-right part of the board slid away. Kari gasped. Trapped inside five clear balls were her friends and their Digimon partners! They all looked around, dazed and confused... then frantically started pounding on their enclosures. "Hey! Lemme outta here!" Davis's voice crackled through the speakers as he pounded from the rightmost ball. "I had my shots!"

"Davis!" Kari cried, looking down at the balls.

"What the?!" Davis's voice came. "Kari?!"

"Of course, we can't let you children have all the star roles..." Arukenimon cackled, pushing a yellow button on the panel. A flashing yellow star in the middle of the board slid away, and a massive, gray ball of a Digimon emerged pounding its fists together, its goofy grin not making Kari feel any better. "Meet Bigmamemon," Arukenimon said. "He'll be, ah, livening things up while you play."

"Anybody else hear that?!" Davis's voice came again. "I know I heard Kari!"

"I don't see her..." Hawkmon's voice said. "Yolei, do you?"

Kari grabbed the speaker on the panel. "I'm up here, you guys!" she yelled into it.

Everyone in the pinballs looked up. "What the...?" Veemon asked. "What's goin' on here?"

"Oooogh..." Yolei groaned; she was in the ball right beside Davis. "Someone tell me this is just a bad dream!"

"I wish I could..." Kari sighed, "but... I have to try and beat the high score on this thing, or Arukenimon's... Well... I have to try!"

The shaking in her voice didn't make any of them feel better. TK winced in his ball. Kari was bad enough at these games without being this nervous.

Cody, who was in the second ball from the farthest left, wasn't going to take any chances. "Armadillomon," he said, "get us out of this ball!"

Armadillomon curled up and threw himself at the shell, but bounced off without doing any damage. "What in tarnation?!" he huffed, and tried again, to no avail. He rammed, slammed, bashed and crashed at least a dozen times, but nothing happened; the ball remained intact.

"You're wasting your time," Ken said from his own holding, the ball in the middle. "These things are most likely unbreakable."

Cody scowled at the Digimon Emperor, but Arukenimon's laugh echoed over them. "Clever little Emperor!" she cried. "You would know just how I think! Yes... Those balls are made of a transparent Digizoid alloy; something that only a handful of materials can even scratch. If you want to be free of them, you'd best pray your friend here has a few happy accidents on the pinball table."

Cody gave a frustrated grunt, and Davis swore. Kari swallowed hard. She didn't blame them for that. Her winning any game like this was a long shot. It would take a miracle!

Just then, there was a scraping noise from nearby. She turned just in time to see Gatomon heave herself up onto the platform, gasping and wheezing. "Gatomon!" she cried, rushing over to her partner.

"Ugh..." Gatomon groaned, flopping over onto her back. "Next time I'll ask you to hold the elevator..."

"Who said you could come up here?!" Mummymon huffed, hobbling over and grabbing her by the scruff of her neck.

A sharp ripping sound later, he reeled back, crying in pain and clutching at his face. Gatomon wasn't tired enough to defend herself. "That's for caning me at Gennai's," she hissed, backing up against Kari.

Kari looked at her partner with panic. "I don't think I can do this..." she admitted, looking over at the control panel.

"I heard the whole thing," Gatomon said, turning to her. "C'mon! You said you were gonna try, so let's try! I'll help you out!"

Down on the pinball table, the others had gloomy looks. Cody shook his head angrily; he couldn't feel safe with a word like "try" in the sentence. Yolei's face was lime green; now she really wished she hadn't eaten all that junk food. Ken stared at his feet, resigned to his fate but also apprehensive. TK just looked up towards the podium, hoping for the best.

Only Davis had any hint of confidence in him. "C'mon, you guys!" he said, turning to the others. "This is Kari we're talkin' about! Sure she's gonna win!"

Arukenimon smiled unpleasantly. "He certainly has confidence," she remarked at Kari. "I hope you don't disillusion him too harshly... Start it, Mummymon."

Still clutching at his face, Mummymon stabbed his cane into a yellow button on the panel, and the pinball table started flashing and sparkling even more than before. Energetic music piped out from its sides, sounding out of place in the dire atmosphere. The screen on top of the casino went black, then displayed a digital green number 0. The chute where her friends were trapped whirred, and the right-hand wall opened, sending the ball with Davis and Veemon rolling into a tiny chute. "Oogh!" Veemon grunted. "I feel sick already!"

"Come on, Kari!" Davis yelled. "Go for it!"

Kari nervously looked over her controls. Aside from the buttons her captors had pushed and the speaker, there were only two white buttons and a horizontal rod sticking out of the side. She knew enough about pinball to know that was the plunger, the level that launched the pinballs. "Well... Here goes..." she said quietly, yanking the plunger back and letting it go.

With a loud TWUMP, Davis's ball flew out of the chute and onto the main board. Kari winced at Davis and Veemon's dizzied yells and lurched away from the controls. "Kari!" Gatomon shouted. "Stay with the buttons!"

Kari panicked and raced back as the ball went straight down the middle of the board, heading for the gutter at the bottom. She pushed the left-hand white button and the left flipper jerked upwards... but it was too late.

Spinning around and around, Davis could only register the white thing moving away... and then he wished it hadn't. The ball sailed under the flipper and disappeared into darkness with a fading yell of "WHAT?!"

A horrified silence caught Kari's throat. What had she just done?!

"Good heavens," Arukenimon purred. "Lost one already?"

"I dare say, my dear," Mummymon smirked to his partner, "this is going to be easier than I thought!"

Gatomon turned on them angrily. "What happened to them?!" she demanded, drawing her claws.

"Oh, put those away," Mummymon clucked, waving the threat aside with one hand. "They just went were all the dead balls go. You might be able to get them back... if you rack up enough points..." He gave a raspy, wheezy laugh.

Kari couldn't keep herself from shivering. "Dead... balls?" she gulped.

Gatomon was unnerved as well, but hid it better. "Don't lose your head, Kari," she said, turning back to her friend. "You still have four balls. All you have to do is keep one bouncing long enough to get past 20,000 points, right?"

Kari looked at the white cat, a tiny glint of hope entering her heart. When she put it that way, it didn't seem like such a daunting challenge. "...O-OK..." she muttered, screwing up her face and turning back to the controls.

The table whirred again, and now the ball with Yolei and Hawkmon fell into the chute. Yolei groaned loudly. "Come on...!" Kari heard her plead, "I was already sick ONCE today!"

"Sorry, Yolei..." Kari said, and yanked the plunger back. With another snap, the pinball sailed into the main drag. Not taking her eyes off of the action this time, she jammed her fingers onto the white buttons, catching the ball and sending it back up as a double grunt emanated from the amps. It shot upwards and smashed right into a green bumper. There was a crash and a snap, and the ball rocketed off to the right.

"Oh, goodness...!" Hawkmon wailed as the ball bounced around a trio of yellow pads.

"My glasses!" Yolei gurgled. "My glasses broke!"

"Sorry!" Kari apologized, feeling even worse. "Just hold on!"

After a few volleys in the pads, Yolei's ball lost its speed and dropped downward, bumping against the tip of the left-hand flipper. Kari punched the flipper button, but the angle made for a weird shot; the ball flew off to the right and slid into an alley on the side, vanishing. "Where'd it go?!" Kari gasped, frantically looking all over the board.

Gatomon spotted it as it popped up in the upper-left corner of the board, landing in a cup. "There!" she declared.

As both of them watched, the cup rose up, showing it was attached to a long arm that spun and flipped it around like a deranged tilt-a-whirl. An easily distinguishable disgusting noise dribbled out of the amplifiers, making them feel sick; Yolei had lost her lunch again.

"Oh, dear!" Hawkmon squawked. "That's not—Oh! Eugh! Wretched—OOH!"

Kari winced at what she imagined was going on in that ball, but as her eyes fell on the scoreboard, a twinge of relief came to her; as the flipping gizmo spun around, points appeared. If Yolei could hold on long enough, maybe she'd get enough to end this game.

"Very helpful, yes..." Arukenimon said behind her, seeming to hear what she was thinking, "but it wouldn't be much of a game if you won this easily."

A clear chute rose up out of the board next to the tilt-a-whirl, its other end right at Bigmamemon's feet. On its tenth spin, the machine spat the pinball into the chute. "Ohhh... Thank God..." Yolei groaned as her ball rolled slowly downward; Kari could see that the color of the ball had changed... most likely because of what else was now in it besides two captives.

Gatomon didn't like the way Bigmamemon was watching the approaching pinball. "Look out!" she shouted.

Hawkmon must have seen the Spire-Born too. "Yolei, quickly!" he yelled. "We have to get off of this! Jiggle around or something!"

Yolei's blurry, dazed eyes only barely picked out what they were headed towards. "...Huh?..." she murmured.

Bigmamemon pulled back his fist, and as the ball dropped out of the chute, he gave it a hard sock. Yolei and Hawkmon screamed as they shot up the board and hit a bumper, actually knocking their ball into the air. Kari gripped the controls, ready to catch them as they fell, but the ball crashed down just below her flippers and vanished into the black pit. Bigmamemon gave a deep, stupid sounding laugh and did a little dance, pounding his fists together.

"No!..." Kari cried, staring down the hole. That was four of her friends gone to who knew where now!

"What? What happened?" Patamon asked from his ball.

"Sounds like Yolei's ball went down the gutter," TK said quietly.

"Great," Cody huffed.

Gatomon looked upset too, but she tried hard to focus. "All right, all right..." she said, "so we know not to get close to Bigmamemon now. We can still do this! We got a few points, and we've still got three more balls! C'mon, Kari!"

"Yes, by all means," Mummymon wheezed laughingly. "We're having a good show back here!"

Kari looked up, willing to try again but still nervous. Ken's ball was next to drop into the chute. "Ken... You're a genius," she said quietly. "Can you help me?"

Ken looked up at the platform and shook his head solemnly. "I never had time for games," he replied. "Still, pinball is mostly physics... If you watch the angles at which you hit the ball, that'll help you learn how to direct it where you want."

Kari sighed; vague help was better than no help, she figured. She yanked the plunger and let it go, sending Ken's ball into the flashing maze. Unlike Davis and Yolei, Ken wasn't screaming or panicking as he was hurled around inside his ball, and that fact let Kari concentrate a little better. Taking his advice to heart, she paid close attention to where the pinball went when she launched it from different parts of the flippers. The closer to the flipper's edge the ball was, the more diagonal it went, not to mention faster. Again and again, the ball bounced off pads and bumpers, the score growing with each impact. "That's it!" Gatomon cheered from the side. "You're getting there, Kari!"

Kari was feeling a lot better now; she had gotten the hang of knocking Ken's ball around, and her score was almost at 4,000 points. Maybe she really could do this!

As soon as she thought that, though, her finger slipped on the button, making the left-hand flipper flick when the ball was only halfway down its edge. Ken flew straight up towards Bigmamemon. The big galoot laughed and pulled back its fist. "Oh, no!" Kari whimpered.

What came next happened so quickly that neither Kari nor Gatomon saw the whole thing. Bigmamemon socked Ken's ball backwards, but Kari's finger was still on the button and the left flipper was raised. The ball hit the center of the "V" shape it formed and bounced right back the other way. Bigmamemon was so surprised, it didn't think to punch again, and the speeding ball caught it in the right side of its stomach, knocking it flat on its back. The angle of the impact sent Ken off to the right, where he vanished down a hidden tunnel, like Yolei had. A loud fanfare played from the giant board as Kari's score jumped a little past 5,000, and colorful fireworks shot out of the top.

"Ooh, I didn't know there'd be fireworks, too!" Mummymon exclaimed joyfully, clapping his big hands. "I love fireworks!"

Arukenimon's smile lessened. "...Purely chance," she grumbled.

Bigmamemon slowly got back on its feet, its grin flipped into an angry, frightening growl. That wasn't going to happen again if it had anything to say about it.

Kari still wasn't sure what had happened, but she did know that her ball had vanished. "Hey, where's Ken?" she asked.

As soon as she asked it, Ken's ball popped out of an opening in the back of the field. It rolled into a blue-striped tent, which inverted itself and rose into the air. The scoreboard flashed with the words "CAPTIVE BALL."

Gatomon began to ask what that meant when suddenly Cody's ball was pushed into the shoot and launched. With a surprised yell, he bounced against several bumpers and rolled straight towards the gutter, wobbling a lot more than the others; maybe that was because Cody and Armadillomon were smaller and had more room to be knocked around.

"Kari! Hurry! Buttons!" Gatomon yelled.

Kari panicked and punched the flipper button just in time, knocking Cody diagonally at a dangerous speed.

"Let's help Kari out," Cody said, seemingly unaffected by the spinning and bouncing. "Lean right!"

With a wacky swerve downward, the pinball banged into one bumper and bounced up into another, which sent it crashing into Bigmamemon's back. With a surprised yell, the big lug crashed down onto its face and Cody's ball bounced to the left, disappearing down another hole.

"Man!" Gatomon huffed. "What's with all these holes?!"

"Ugh..." Armadillomon's voice came. "I reckon I'll do my own rollin' around from now on, thanks..."

The word "SLOT REELS" flashed on the scoreboard, and three tents above it started to rapidly change designs. Kari was surprised, but at least thought she knew how this little game worked. She pushed one of the flipper buttons, and the leftmost tent permanently became purple with orange dots. She focused hard and waited, then punched the button again; the middle tent stopped changing and became purple with orange dots. She tried to do it again, but this time she was too slow; the last tent became turquoise with green triangles. Kari's score jumped up an extra thousand points and Cody's ball popped back out of the hole. "Aww, no!..." Armadillomon groaned.

"Sorry, guys," Kari apologized, "but I'll try to go easier!"

Banging into several bumpers as it rolled back down, Cody's ball finally hit the right-hand flipper, which Kari raised so it would stop. "So, which way we leanin' now?" Armadillomon asked.

Cody looked around. Almost directly above the flipper was a bumper that could send them right down the gutter, but diagonally left was a small cache of pads where they could rack up some points for Kari. "Left," he said quickly. "Let us go, Kari."

Kari released the flipper and they started rolling, but Armadillomon didn't think he'd caught Cody's instructions. "You said left?" he asked.

"Right," Cody answered.

"Right? OK!" Armadillomon said, getting ready to shove himself right.

Cody realized the error too late. "No, WAIT!" he yelled as Kari flicked the flipper, but Armadillomon threw himself to the right. The ball jerked upwards, smacked into the bumper and flew right down the gutter. "Ooh... Musta been left after all..." Armadillomon's voice grumbled as it faded out.

"No!" Kari cried, so upset that she didn't notice that the spinning tent holding Ken's ball was inverting itself.

The ball dropped back onto the field, rolling right towards the gutter. "Kari!" Ken's voice came through the speaker. "Get ready!"

"Kari!" Gatomon screeched, slapping her partner's knee wildly. "Ken! The flippers! HIT THE FLIPPERS!!!"

Kari panicked as she saw his ball coming and slammed her fingers down on both buttons. The flippers raised and Ken slipped right between them, vanishing into the darkness after Cody and Armadillomon. Bigmamemon looked up at her, laughing loudly and doing a joyful dance.

"Ho! I was worried for a moment there," Mummymon cackled, "but fortune favors us tonight, my dear!"

Arukenimon's wicked smile was back on her lips. "Was there ever any doubt?" she clucked.

Kari felt like she was lying under a guillotine. There was only one pinball left, and her score stood at only 7,520 points; less than half of what she needed. She sagged against the control panel, her arms shaking. "I... I can't do this..." she whimpered. "I'm..."

"No, Kari!" Gatomon huffed. "Don't say that!"

"Smart girl," Arukenimon purred behind her, ignoring the cat. "Why don't you make things easier? You have one ball left... If you give up now, you'll be spared the knowledge that you failed every one of your friends."

Kari shuddered again, staring down at the last ball on the board. "What?!" Gatomon snarled at the despicable woman. "What'll that do?! You're just gonna kill 'em all anyway!"

"Ah, but think about it," Mummymon rasped. "If she surrenders now, she wouldn't have to see what little hope she has left get dashed when she loses the last ball." He paused, then leaned forward on his cane, his smile reflecting the colorful lights in a yellow tint. "Isn't it a far worse torture to have had hope and lost it than to never have had it at all?"

Kari stayed quiet, her back still turned to them. Gatomon's ears were completely folded back now, and her fangs glistened in fury. "You guys are sick!" she hissed.

"You can say that..." Arukenimon mused, playing with her hair, "but aren't we right as well?"

Kari felt like she was turning to stone. She didn't want to surrender to them... but she was so far away from escaping this trap... and she didn't have the skills to keep a pinball bouncing for as long as it would take to save herself... The words of Arukenimon and Mummymon rolled lazily through her head, sounding more and more reasonable each time.

Down in their pinball-shaped prison, TK and Patamon mulled over the fiends' words, too. "I don't like this," Patamon whimpered. "I wanna get out of this ball!"

TK had been silent for a long while, his eyes hidden beneath his hat. Now, however, he got to his feet and looked up at the platform. "Kari," he spoke calmly, "you could just give up..."

"TK!" Gatomon huffed, not believing what she had just heard.

"You could," he went on through the audio system, "but I don't think that'd be easier... not for you, anyway. You always want to do your best, and if you gave up when you knew there was a chance you could do it, even if it was little..." He trailed off, leaving everyone hanging.

Kari looked down at the tiny figures in the last pinball, swearing that TK was looking right at her. She knew how he was going to finish that sentence, and he was right. If she gave up now, when she hadn't tried her hardest, she wouldn't be able to live with herself... That was what Tai would have said, too. She slowly straightened up and gripped the control panel with her trembling hands. "...OK," she whispered.

Gatomon smiled with relief. "Attagirl, Kari," she said.

Arukenimon sneered. "Fine," she cackled. "I hope you enjoy nailing shut your friends' coffins."

Kari's sweaty hand reached over and grabbed the plunger. "I'll do it," she squeaked. "I'll win this!"

Down on the board, TK smiled. "Yeah," he agreed. "You will."

Kari yanked the plunger back and let go, sending the ball flying onto the board. Keeping a close eye on where it was and where it was going, Kari mashed the flipper buttons, knocking it all over the board but always recapturing it. The score sluggishly climbed up past 7,600 points, then 7,700, then 7,800. "Yeah! Yeah!" Gatomon cheered as the score hit 8,000. "Keep it up, Kari!"

Kari's teeth sunk into her lower lip. This was going too slowly; she might still screw up. She needed more points, and quickly... but how could she get them?

TK's ball bounced erratically off a pad and raced towards the gutter. Kari panicked and her finger slipped on the button. The flipper jerked up, but the angle was poor; the ball shot right up towards Bigmamemon, who laughed and threw a mighty punch, socking it right back towards the gutter. "NO!!!" Kari screamed, and slammed her hands down on both flipper buttons.

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle. Just as TK's ball sped past the flippers, they both shot up and smacked it backwards. It tore up the board and crashed into a big green bumper, which sent it spinning right at Bigmamemon's backside. The big lug turned around just in time to be beaned right between its eyes, and it didn't fall so much as rocket to the ground, a big crack appearing on its back. The ball shot straight upwards and into a golden tent on the edge of the board.

A fanfare rocked the whole carnival, and several volleys of fireworks shot up all around. "Oh, my goodness!" Mummymon beamed as he watched them explode. "This must mean something great!"

Arukenimon's smile was now a snarl. "Not for us, you moron!" she hissed.

"What's going on?!" Gatomon asked, scrambling up onto the control panel to get a better look. The tilt-a-whirl thing in the back jerked and sprang back to life, raising up and starting to spin... and familiar yells were coming in from the speaker.

"Woahhhh!!!" Davis howled.

"Urrrgghhhh!!!" Yolei gurgled.

"No more, please!" Hawkmon begged.

"Criminitly!" Armadillomon yelled.

"Kari!" Cody shouted. "What's going on?!"

"Good work, Kari," Ken stated.

Kari wasn't sure herself, but then the scoreboard flashed. The word 'MULTIBALL' flickered on it, and then the tilt-a-whirl spat each of the balls out in different directions.

"They're back!" Gatomon exclaimed. "They're all back!"

Kari was elated too, at first... but once she saw five balls rolling around on the board, she bit down on her lip so hard she tasted blood. Her problems had just quintupled!

As she mashed both buttons as quickly as she could, it became clear that she wasn't the only flustered one. Bigmamemon was turning every which way, not knowing which ball to look out for, and its eyes were becoming swirls in its head.

Bumpers pinged and pads rang as the score started to take great leaps upwards. It was already at 11,000 and climbing. Kari was breathing easier now; juggling the five balls wasn't as hard as she had thought.

"Oh, no!" Mummymon gasped as he watched the numbers dance. "We have to do something!"

Arukenimon said nothing. She just strode up to the control panel and delivered a swift kick. Kari jumped as the machine rattled. "H-hey!" she squeaked.

Arukenimon kicked the machine even harder, and Kari's buttons stopped working for a few seconds, long enough for Yolei's ball to slip past her and drop down the gutter again. "Hey!!!" Gatomon snarled, racing across the panel and swiping at the woman. "Kari! She's tryin' to break the controls!"

Arukenimon swiftly dodged Gatomon's slash and kicked once more, an electronic wheeze filling the air. Kari's stomach shriveled up. Arukenimon hadn't just tried to break the controls; she had. The word 'TILT' was flashing in gigantic yellow letters over the score. This was the end!

Or was it? She had managed to flick the four remaining balls high onto the board before she lost control, and they were still bouncing... and the score was now well past 18,000. Bigmamemon turned around to deal with the rolling pests, but they were coming in too fast for it to punch. Ken's ball crashed into its left leg, knocking it onto its face and making its crack larger. Cody's ball bounced against a bumper and smacked into its left side, creating another crack there. As he sailed towards the gutter, the crumbling Spire-Born got to its feet, only to be rammed from the right by Davis's ball, knocking off half of its outer shell and revealing its obsidian center. "Yeah! Suck on THAT!" the goggle-wearing boy laughed as he rolled away.

Davis's ball fell into the gutter. Kari looked at the scoreboard: 19,950 points! So close!... but how could she get the last few points when she couldn't work the flippers?

TK's ball was rolling slowly down the right-hand side of the board. "TK!" Patamon squeaked as he flopped from top to bottom of the ball. "It's almost there!"

TK saw the gutter coming up quickly, but he wasn't ready to give in yet; there was a bumper just a bit left of him; the one that had sent Cody and Armadillomon into the gutter the first time. "Let's do what Cody did," TK said quickly. "Lean left!!!"

Patamon and TK moved as much to the left as they could, and their ball gave the slightest hop towards the bumper. They bounced off of it, hit another one and crashed into Bigmamemon' knocking off another chunk of its shell. The score jumped to 20,050 points.

"We did it!!!" Gatomon gasped as she saw the number. "WE DID IT!!!"

"WHAT?!" Arukenimon roared, losing her cool completely. "NO!!!"

Kari was flabbergasted, but she noticed one other thing, too; the 'TILT' sign had disappeared, and she could work the flippers again! Gnashing her teeth, she put both fingers on the buttons. "TK! Patamon!" she shouted into the speaker. "Let's clean it ALL up!"

TK's ball rolled right between the flippers and Kari punched the buttons. Once again, both flippers slugged it backwards, right towards the swooning black mass that had been Bigmamemon. It hit with such force that the phony Digimon was knocked clear into the air. The scoreboard read 'NEW RECORD!!!' just before the monster crashed down into it and exploded, sending a shower of sparks, fireworks and black dust every which way.

"YEAH!!!" Gatomon cheered, jumping up and down on the controls.

Happy tears were forming in Kari's eyes. In spite of her horrible gaming skills and all the heckling from behind, she had won!

A bright light appeared on the ground beneath the giant pinball board. One by one, her friends' pinballs dropped down and smashed to bits in the dirt, freeing them. "Hey! Guys!!!" Kari yelled at them, waving wildly.

"Kari!" Gatomon exclaimed, grabbing her partner's shoulder and pointing at the scoreboard. "Look!"

Bigmamemon must not have totally broken the pinball machine, because the scoreboard was still flashing words on its broken screen. Kari could make out "G***D PR*ZE," and then tiny slot on top of the control panel opened, and up rose something with a gentle, pink glow. She snatched it and held it in her hands, knowing what it was immediately: a corner piece of her Crest of Light. A warm, familiar sensation came over her as she clutched it; it felt as if she had reconnected with some small part of her that had been lost.

"Oh... So THAT's where it was!" Mummymon exclaimed. "What an ironic twist, isn't it, Arukenimon?"

"It is indeed," Arukenimon said through clenched teeth, "but what's more ironic... is that by winning, she's going to lose!"

Kari whirled around just in time to see both of them coming towards her. Gatomon quickly leaped to her defense, her claws out. "Not if I can help it!" she hissed, her tail slapping around like a whip.

Arukenimon and Mummymon advanced anyway, but before blows could come, the platform gave a violent shake, then tilted dangerously to the left. "What the?!" Mummymon gulped.

Kari could hear steel bending behind her. The whole theme park must have collapsing from the damage Bigmamemon did; she had to escape! Still clutching the Crest piece, she dug for her D3. "DigiArmor--" she began, but the platform totally gave out, sending all of them plummeting towards the ground. As Arukenimon and Mummymon's screams rang in her ears, she shut her eyes and hoped she could get Nefertimon in the air before they splattered. "DIGIARMOR--"

Suddenly, the falling sensation stopped. Confused, she opened her eyes... and saw the helmeted face of Angemon smiling at her, with Gatomon in his other arm. "Bungee jumping is safer with a cord, you know," he rumbled jokingly.

"Thanks, brainiac," Gatomon muttered.

Kari just smiled.

***

In no time at all, Kari and Gatomon were back on the ground with her friends. Angemon had turned back into Patamon and was perched on TK's hat. "Thank goodness..." Kari said, overjoyed to see everyone safe. "I was so scared!"

"Yeah... So were we," TK admitted, smiling wryly at her. "But you know what? You play pinball pretty well!"

"Indeed," Cody agreed. "You performed admirably."

"Yeah!" Veemon laughed. "That was fun! We gotta do it again sometime!"

Even Ken was nodding in approval. Kari felt her cheeks getting hot from the praise. "I... Well..." she stammered.

"Aww, crap!" Davis shouted, startling everyone. He was clutching a cracked chunk of his goggles in each hand and gnashing his teeth. "Broken again! This's gonna look awful when I tape it back up!"

"You think that's a problem?!" Yolei huffed, waving her bisected glasses in the air, her unprotected, beady eyes glaring in his general direction. "Those're just stupid! I NEED these!"

"Ain'cha got a spare?!" Davis snapped. "These're my only ones!"

"These WERE my spares!" Yolei retorted. "My regular ones broke last April, when SOMEONE kicked a soccer ball in my face! REMEMBER?!"

Davis and Yolei moved towards each other to grapple, but Hawkmon stopped them. "Stop it, you two!..." he warned.

"Yeah..." Armadillomon said, sounding a little nervous. "Looks like we've got a bigger problem brewin'..."

Everybody looked around. The large crowd of ejected fairgoers was now encircling them, and there wasn't one happy face among them. "Hey!" a Meramon shouted. "You wrecked our park!"

"Yeah!" other angry Digimon resounded.

"Hey, they're humans!" an Elecmon exploded. "And ain't these the guys the Resistance is after?"

There were various murmurs of agreement through the crowd, and the gazes became stony and cold. The kids and their partners huddled together in case things got ugly. Ken shrank back the most, hoping that the crowd wouldn't recognize him as the Digimon Emperor and turn violent. He didn't want that to happen; not when the other kids could be hurt, too.

Davis, already pissed off at his broken goggles, was in no mood for being accused. "Yeah?" he dared them. "What if we are? What're you gonna do about it?!"

Kari stamped on his foot and he yelped. "That won't help, Davis!" she snapped. "We don't want to fight them!"

"Yeah..." Cody agreed solemnly. "We did have a hand in wrecking this place... If we hadn't come..."

"But we had to," TK objected. "There was a Crest piece here! We couldn't let Arukenimon get it..."

Kari hesitated, then looked up at the muttering crowd. "I'm sorry about all this," she spoke loudly enough for them all to hear. "We came here to find something important, but we didn't mean to ruin your theme park. In fact, we'll all help you fix it."

There was some more muttering in the crowd, but the air grew less tense; Kari's olive branch must have sounded reasonable. "...Good move, Kari..." TK whispered to her.

"Yeah, but how do we fix a park?" Patamon asked. "All I can do is hold nail buckets!"

"Hey!" a Gotsumon shouted at them from the crowd. "You said you didn't mean to wreck it, but it got wrecked anyway! Why?!"

Kari swallowed; if she tried to pin the blame on Arukenimon and Mummymon, she might lose the mob's trust again. "Well, uh..." she stammered.

"It wasn't them!" a gruff voice rang out over the crowd. "I saw it! It wasn't these kids! It was those other weirdoes! The woman in the red hat and the guy in blue!"

The gaggle of Digimon suddenly erupted into confusion. "What?" a Gazemon yelled. "Those guys?"

"I saw them, too!" a purple Chuumon shouted from the top of its Sukamon ride. "They looked more creepy than these guys!"

"Where'd they go?" the Frigimon bouncer asked. "Anybody see?"

The crowd dispersed, searching around for the mysterious duo. Ken looked over towards where their yellow jeep was parked, but it had vanished just like they had. "They got away," he said to the others with a scowl.

Patamon noticed that one Digimon was coming towards them instead of leaving. "Heads up!" he chirped, landing back on TK's hat.

Everyone turned around as a Monzaemon lumbered up. "Are you guys OK?" it asked in its low, rumbling voice. "That coulda gotten ugly."

TK blinked a few times, then smiled. "Hey, you're the one who was running the can game!" he exclaimed.

"You spoke up about Arukenimon, didn'tcha?" Armadillomon asked.

"Yeah," the Monzaemon said, nodding. "You may be humans, but you didn't look like you were there to make trouble. Those other guys, though... I saw 'em come in before the park opened, and the way they were talkin', they sure weren't interested in havin' fun."

Kari smiled at the yellow bear. "Thanks," she said. "We'll be back first thing tomorrow to help rebuild."

"Yeah," Davis agreed, finally calmed down. "Soon as we're outta class!"

"Ugh... if I can see, anyway," Yolei muttered, still looking around and squinting. "Oogh... and nobody let me eat any more corn dogs..."

"Great," the Monzaemon said with a big grin. "Oh! I almost forgot..." He reached behind him and produced the big toy Gabumon that TK had won in the game. "I can't let ya leave without yer prize!" he chuckled.

"Oh, boy!" Patamon laughed, happily jumping off TK's hat and landing on the toy. "Thank you! This place is the best!"

"Yeah..." Kari agreed, opening her palm and letting the Crest fragment glow. "It sure is."

"Sweet!" Davis cackled, looking at the shining pink object. "That's part of your own Crest?"

"Three down, five to go," Cody said. "Izzy and Tai will be happy, too."

Gatomon stared at the pink glow, her eyes wide. She would be Angewomon again some day soon; she just knew it.

***

With a complaining squeal, the yellow jeep made a hard right turn and sped into a dark forest far away from the carnival. Mummymon would have paid more attention to his driving, but he was too busy watching out for Arukenimon's flailing limbs. "All that work!" she yelled, swinging her fist at the dashboard. "All that work, and we had that girl right where we wanted her!... and then, they found the blasted Crest, too!"

"Relax..." Mummymon replied, not sounding particularly upset. "We have plenty of chances to snatch her and kill the others; we'll do it next time..." He glanced at her, his yellow eyes friendly. "Look on the bright side; you don't have to have your clothes stitched up this time."

His answer was a gloved fist in the cheek. "This is all your fault!" she roared. "We should have just attacked them instead of making them play that stupid game! Why did I listen to you?! You're never right!" She folded her arms and slouched in her seat.

"Come now," Mummymon said, taking it all in stride, "you can't tell me that wasn't a little fun, at least... A whole carnival turning into a flashy pinball table, and those lovely fireworks, too! Didn't that spark some joy in your heart?"

Something long and hard bashed into his skull; Arukenimon had yanked his cane out of the backseat and smacked him with it. As she went back to brooding, he just sighed and shook his head. "You need to let your inner DigiEgg out more," he murmured.

***

"Well, the dishes are done," Izzy reported as he walked back into his room.

Tai and Matt were sitting on the bed, going over their calculus homework. "Did your parents mind that we stayed for dinner?" Tai asked, looking up.

"Not at all," Izzy replied. "Mom said it's nice to have some company; we haven't had dinner guests in a while."

Matt stuck the blue-lined paper in his book and shut it. "Where could they be?" he muttered.

Almost in reply, the screen on Izzy's computer lit up. The boys pulled back as a flash illuminated the room, and then TK, Kari, Patamon and Gatomon were in a heap on the floor, along with one other large figure.

Matt jumped up in shock. "Gabumon?!" he asked, running over and picking up the figure... but was disheartened to see that it was just a stuffed toy that had two horns and an orange belly instead of a yellow one... and it faintly smelled like french fries.

TK rolled over onto his back. "Hey, Matt," he said.

Matt looked down at him. "Where did you get this?" he asked, shaking the toy.

"We won it!" Patamon ejaculated. "It was awesome! TK's the best can-knocker-downer in the world!"

"Can...?" Tai tried, but was only able to scratch his head. "Kari, what happened? Where'd you guys go?"

The Digidestined sorted themselves out, and then Kari explained about Pinball Carnival, Arukenimon's newest trap, and what they had gone through. Izzy and Tai both looked stunned as she spoke. "What?!" Tai asked. "The whole carnival was a trap?!..."

"I don't think it was supposed to be, originally," TK admitted. "Sometimes the Digital World's randomness just throws a wrench in things."

"It was pretty hard..." she admitted, "but at least we came back with this."

She produced the tiny pink shard. "Prodigious!" Izzy exclaimed. "May I?"

Kari offered him the Crest fragment, and he put it with the other two. "Good work, you guys," he said to them. "Sure wish I could say that to the others..."

"Yeah, why didn't they show up?" Gatomon asked, looking around. "I was wondering about that..."

Izzy scratched his chin. "Maybe the Digital Gate remembers what terminal each person warped in from," he proposed. "That way, it spits you back out in the same place. I would think Davis, Cody and Yolei are back in their own homes... Ask them tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll start looking for another Crest signal right away."

"Um, actually, you can take your time, Izzy," Kari said. "We promised the Digimon we'd help them fix the carnival for the next few days."

Matt scowled. "You don't have time for that," he grunted. "You have to find those Crests."

"Yeah, but Matt," TK objected, standing up, "the Resistance is spreading around all sorts of bad stories about us, and more and more Digimon don't like us showing up. We have to show that we're not like the Emperor was, or we might lose their trust."

Matt said nothing. His brother had a good point. Tai smiled. "Good thinking, you two," he praised. "Keep it up."

Patamon noticed that Izzy's computer clock read 11:27 PM. "Ooh! TK, we have to go!" he exclaimed, pointing at it. "Your mom's gonna be mad we're late!"

"Holy...! Yeah, you're right!" TK gulped. "Sorry guys, but we've gotta get home."

"I'll walk you back," Matt said, gathering his things and also the toy Gabumon.

Kari hesitated, then caught up to TK as he was heading out the door. "I'm sorry this was such a close one," she apologized. "Really..."

TK shook his head. "It's fine," he replied. "You pulled it off, after all! Besides..." He smiled warmly. "Aside from the spinning, crashing and bouncing, I had a really good time."

Kari looked away, her cheeks slightly pink. "...See you tomorrow," she said.

TK, Patamon and Matt said goodbye again and walked out the door. "We should get going, too," Tai agreed, stuffing his backpack and throwing on his blue jacket. "It's not the weekend yet."

Kari collected her things, scooped up Gatomon, said goodnight to Izzy and followed her brother out into the chilly November air. "Big day, huh?" Tai asked, looking back at them.

"Tell me about it!" Gatomon said, yawning loudly. "Can I stay home tomorrow? I could use a ten-hour catnap."

Kari laughed. "Well, I hope you're not too tired," she said. "It's not going to be long before you're Angewomon again!"

Gatomon nodded. "Yeah..." she said dreamily.

They turned a corner and walked on towards their home. "A big old fun park... Wow," Tai remarked. "Wish I coulda come. I'd have tried out the roller coaster."

Kari suddenly had an entertaining thought. "Say, Tai..." she said, "the next time you're playing 'Cuttlefish Crashball,' can I play too?"

"I... Well, sure," Tai said, looking surprised, "but I thought you always said you stunk at games?"

Kari chuckled. "Well... Let's just say I've been inspired," she replied.

***

Yolei almost thought she had been transported to a stranger's hazy bedroom when she reappeared. "Hey, what the?!" she declared, looking around wildly. "Where are we?!"

The pink puffball next to her turned, confused. "What do you mean?" he asked. "This is your room!"

Yolei blinked and stared for a few moments. Then she remembered all the work she had done with Mimi that afternoon... not to mention that her glasses were off and everything was a blotchy blur. Knowing the room was clean and organized gave her a rush of pride, despite how ill she felt. "Hah... This is an improvement, isn't it?" she asked her partner.

Poromon, however, didn't look at all happy. "Speak for yourself!" he huffed, fluttering around the clean patch where his nest used to be. "I'm homeless now!"

Yolei winced. "I said you could sleep with me..." she tried.

"No thanks," Poromon grumbled. "Not the way you smell right now."

"What?! Why, you--" she began, but then remembered what she had gone through at that carnival. Her Digital World clothes had vanished, and a good deal of the gunk with it, but there were still syrupy traces of it on her skin that stunk enough on their own. Even her broken glasses had traces of grayish-green goop on them. Poromon was right. "Uh... I guess I'll go take a bath," she muttered. "I could use a good soak, and—WOAHHH!!!"

She almost screamed as banged her toe on the side of her bed and stumbled across the floor, smashing into her bedside table. The four red numbers on the alarm clock made her squint. 11:20 PM?! Her parents would have a conniption fit if they knew she was up this late on a school night!... not that this was unusual for her; she usually did stay up this long, but she was always really, really quiet... unlike the last few moments. She had to clam up, and pronto.

She gathered the special bathroom products that Mimi had given her and slowly snuck out of her room... but it was all in vain. As she tried to zip past the living room entrance, Mantarou looked up from the couch; some late-night fashion program that he liked was on. "Yolei?" he asked. "Are you still up?"

"Uh, well..." she stammered, edging into the room. "I was just, uh..."

Mantarou reeled back as he got a snoutful of her. "What were you doing?!" he asked, grabbing at his nose. "Ugh! You smell like corn dogs and vomit, and you look about the same!... and where're your glasses?"

Yolei swallowed hard and thought fast. "I, uh, I, um, well, I was messing with my swivel chair..." she fumbled, "and, well, I hit my face on the desk and broke 'em... and then I barfed."

Mantarou looked her over again, then shook his head. "Kids," he muttered.

Yolei quietly sighed with relief and started to turn for the bathroom.

"Hey, by the way," he said, forcing her to turn around again, "that girl who came by today, Mimi Tachikawa?"

Yolei bit her lip; it tasted just like what Mantarou described. "...Yeah?" she asked.

"Are you good friends with her?" he asked.

"Well, uh..." Yolei stammered again. "She's, ah, helping me with, um... a project. Yeah, a project."

Her brother raised an eyebrow. "Huh," he replied, turning back to his show. "I never expected someone like her would come here, especially on an invitation from you."

Yolei went red. "What does that mean?!" she hissed, trying to keep quiet but also irritated. "You think I'm not cool enough to have a friend like her?... Or do you like her, too?!"

"What? Oh, no, no," Mantarou said, shaking his head. "Nothing like that. She's too phony for me... Forget I said anything."

Yolei turned back towards the bathroom, her mind suddenly full with this puzzle. Phony? Just what did her brother mean by that? And why couldn't she have a friend as trendy and hip as Mimi? That wasn't a very nice thing to--

Mantarou winced as Yolei banged into the bathroom door's molding and fell over.

***

A light aroma of strawberries and cream wafting in the air, Mimi lay on her bed in her fluffy pink bathrobe, staring out the window at the cityscape... but her mind wasn't in the same place.

She was traveling through the Digital World, reliving her own adventure and also pondering what Yolei had told her that afternoon. Why had the world opened up again? Why was it getting so dangerous now? Would Palmon be all right, or...?

Her eyes wandered over to the pink cowgirl hat that hung on the right-hand bedpost. She had tried hard to restore it, but the dust and wind damage were too great. She looked at it for a moment, then scrunched her eyes shut and turned away. She couldn't go back. She would never go back there.

Just then, the cell phone on her bedside table shuddered. She picked it up and grunted at the caller's ID. "...What do you want?" she asked curtly as she opened it.

"Uh, hi, Mimi," Joe's nervous voice came from the device. "Hey, uh... Can you talk?"

Mimi gave no response, so Joe cleared his throat. "I was studying for my test when Izzy called me and told me what's been going on..." he said. "You know, in the Digital World..."

"I don't have time for this!" Mimi sniffed. "Joe, you stop calling me! I'm not going to tell you again, got it?!"

"But Mimi..." Joe tried again. "Things are getting really tough for the new kids, and we really could use your--"

"Good NIGHT!" she yelled, snapped the phone shut and slammed it down on her table. The nerve of that guy! Was he deaf or something?!

She lay down on her bed and tried to nod off, but she couldn't; Joe's call had riled her up too much. She needed to blow off some steam. She glanced around, listening to hear if her parents were still awake, and then got up and opened the top drawer of her dresser. The fairly new doujinshi "Vampire Cherry" and "Milk, Cookies and Heavy Cream" gleamed up at her and she picked them up, not giving much thought to the fact that Yolei was now without her own copies.

She flopped back down on her bed and flipped through them, her eyes dilating as a smile came. That girl may have been a social wreck, but she had good taste in this stuff. She was almost sad there was only one more lesson to go; she would have to figure out another way to get her hands on more of these.