"Still on the telephone to Mimi," Izzy replied, a significant note on his voice. Tai raised a knowing eyebrow. Everyone knew that Joe had had a helpless crush on Mimi ever since he had met her. Everyone, that was, except Mimi.

"I wouldn’t want to be the one to call her," Tai said with a shiver, "You just know she’ll be pissed we didn’t get to her sooner."

"We tried," Sora reminded him, "Her phone was perpetually engaged."

"And her e-mail address kept bouncing."

"And do you think either of those reasons will make a blind bit of difference to an angry Mimi?"

The three friends exchanged glances.

"Poor Joe."

"Uh huh."

"Hey! What do you mean by ‘poor Joe’?" Palmon asked in an indignant voice, and Tai grinned sheepishly at her.

With the exception of Wormmon who was still too weak to leave Ken’s apartment and Hawkmon who was looking after him - although Tai still thought it was an upsidedown universe where a bird was put in charge of taking care of a worm - all their Digimon had insisted on coming to watch the concert. Naturally, they had put on a variety of highly suspect disguises for the occasion. Palmon herself was dressed in a knitted cap and scarf. Both Agumon and Gabumon were clad in their usual oversized hoodies, while Biyomon was wearing a very frilly, pink dress with a very large, beribboned bonnet. Sora had explained in some embarrassment that it came from one of her old dolls. Patamon was swimming in one of T.K’s hats and basketball vests, and Gatomon was little better in a baseball cap and angora sweater. Tentomon, however, made the rest like they had just stepped off a Parisian ramp. He was ensconced in a yellow rain-poncho with a matching hat. Tai wondered what the row sitting behind them made of them, then realised they were dressed a great deal more normally than some of the people who were at the concert.

"Hey, Tai! Where’s your sister?" a very familiar voice asked from behind him.

"Hey, Gatomon," another equally familiar voice added, earning only a little hiss from the Digimon in question.

Tai hid his amusement by pretending to tie his shoelaces. Every time Davis Motomiya met him, he asked him the same question. In a way, he felt sorry for the poor kid. It wasn’t that he was a bad person. Beneath all the hormones, he was a good kid. He had all sorts of fine qualities like bravery, loyalty and kindness. And he genuinely did want to make his sister happy. In some ways, he reminded Tai of a younger version of himself. It was just that Kari didn’t like him as anything more than a friend, and probably never would. Davis was only going to humiliate himself if he carried on trying to convince her to go out with him. Tai wished he could work out whom his sister did like. He was running short of material for teasing her. The whole "You’re his girl" routine was growing old.

"She’s backstage, Davis," Gabumon replied helpfully, "I think Matt asked her for her assistance."

Davis’s face fell, "Matt, huh? Then I bet T.S. is with her."

"Nope, but T.K. is." Patamon chirruped innocently, looking up at the boy from beneath his oversized hat. Davis scowled at him, as he climbed over the row of seats to sit next to Gabumon, and Tai had to stuff his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing. For some reason, Davis had the crazy idea that T.K. and Kari were in love with each other. He kept saying they were fooling nobody with their little game, that he saw right through their ‘best friends’ act. Of course, it was ridiculous. Them seeing each other would be like him and Matt dating. (3)

"So, where are Joe and Cody?" Sora asked, slipping into her usual role of peace-maker.

"Cody couldn’t come," Izzy replied, "His mother objected to him staying out past his curfew, although his grandfather tried to intervene on his behalf. I am not sure about Joe, however."

"Miiiiimiiii’s probably talking his ear off," Tai winked at his friends, "You know what she’s like!"

"And what’s she like?" Palmon asked, a dangerous note in her voice. Her roots were twitching.

"Heh eh . . . uh, who caught the big game last night?"

". . . And Palmon’s staying with Sora until we find a way to send her to you," Joe concluded, "Izzy’s working on it as we speak."

"No need," Mimi replied cheerfully, "My family and I are coming to Japan this week. It’s my grandparent’s fiftieth anniversary, and we’re flying out on Thursday to spend it with them. We’ll be arriving at the airport at ten. I should be here for most of the holidays! I was going to phone you and tell you tonight, but you got to me first!"

"That’s g-great," he stammered, getting up from the couch and almost tripping over his feet in the process, "I have to go do some homework now, Mimi. Bye."

Not waiting for her to reply, he clicked the phone back into place on its receiver. He removed a large, white handkerchief from his pocket, and dabbed his sweaty forehead with it. His hands were trembling, and all the muscles in his body felt wobbly. Smooth move, Joe. She probably thinks you’re an idiot now, but what else is new?

He sunk back into the chair with a groan, burying his head in his knees. He had been in love with Mimi Tachikawa since he had been twelve, but had never been able to work up the courage to tell her how he felt about her. Oh, he had meant to tell her a dozen times. When she had apologised for letting the Gekomon’s worship of her get to her head. When he had gone after her in the Digital World. When they had defeated Piedmon. When they had returned home. And especially when he had heard she was going to America.

Now, he knew it was too late for him. Her letters and e-mails were full of news of Michael - what they had done together, where he had taken her, what he had bought her. It did not take much reading between the lines to be able to tell they were dating. Or much staring in the mirror to tell he could never compete with someone who looked like Michael.

Even when she was a thousand miles away in America, it was not easy to accept that. It hurt him every time he thought about it - a quick, sharp pain in his chest. He did not know how he would handle it when she was back in Odaiba. If his brilliant farewell was any indication, however, it would be badly.

Somehow, he no longer felt like going to the concert that night.

"Remind me never to let your brother talk me into this again," Kari groaned as she collapsed onto one of the crates backstage. T.K. sat next to her, resting his head on his knees and breathing deeply. When Matt had told them he needed their help backstage, it had sounded fun. They would fetch a few drinks, string a few lights, carry a few instruments, then they’d be able to watch the concert from the best seats in the house. Five crates, two sets of drums and a backdrop later, she thought she would have happily settled for a seat in the nosebleed rows. Her arms were aching, her feet were throbbing, and her clothes were soaked with sweat. She had never been so tired in her life.

"Don’t blame me," T.K. straightened up, locking his fingers and stretching his arms out in front of him, "Matt told me that being a Roadie was cool."

She wryly added, "Matt lied."

Her friend grinned at her, "You don’t say. I think he was just lazy to carry his own junk."

"I can’t blame him," she patted the crate on which they were sitting, "What is in these things? Lead?"

"Beats me," he shrugged, then added with characteristic optimism, "At least we’re done."

"Yes, until we have to lug them back the other way," she couldn’t resist adding, making a face.

T.K. laughed and stretched out a hand to ruffle her hair. It was the sort of easy, affectionate gesture that Kari was never sure how to take. Even though it showed he did care about her, it did not mean it was in the way that she wanted him to do so. After all, ruffling her hair was the sort of thing Taichi did. She knew most of the Digidestined saw her as a little sister, and, even though she was months older than he was, there were times when she doubted that TK’s feelings for her were any different. If we had been alone at the park, would he have kissed me? Or would he have gotten up just as quickly?

She frowned, trying to remember exactly what had happened. The moments after the battle were a giddy blur of excitement and adrenaline in her head. When he had put her down, she had been dizzy and had grabbed for him for support. He had been no more steady and had fallen on top of her. She could see him looking down at her with the oddest expression in his eyes - shock, amusement and something else that might have been love - before he had flushed and had scrambled to his feet. And then . . . She pushed away the memories. Speculating about what might have happened and what might have been was just an easy way to torture herself. She would never know for sure, unless she asked him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ken and Yolei standing in the front row. He had his arm around her shoulder, and she was smiling up at him as if he were the only other person in the amphitheatre. Feeling suddenly uneasy, Kari looked away from them. It felt too much like she was intruding on something personal, like she was eavesdropping on a secret conversation. She remembered how scared Yolei had been about telling Ken how she felt about him. Now, it looked like she didn’t care who knew. Maybe it was a sign that it was time to get over her own fear.

Shifting on the crate, she turned back to look at T.K. He was swinging his legs in front of him, and softly humming I Turn Around to himself. His hands drummed out the rhythm on his thighs. In her mind, words fitted themselves to the melody. The song seemed to have been written for them - knowing Yamato, they might have been. You got a boy, you got a girl, sitting underneath a tree. They sit there every day. And even though you may think this is the way things should be, it may not always be that way. You can’t take nothing for granted. . . .

"You gotta live for the day," she finished in a whisper.

A flush spreading across his cheeks, T.K. stopped humming and smiled ruefully at her: "You can see why it’s my brother on that stage and not me, huh?" (1)

Swallowing, "Can I ask you something?"

He nodded.

"Do you think that there’s a chance . . . ."

A burst of music cut her short, as multicoloured spotlights began to play across the stage. Smoke curled out of other side of it, twisting and twining its way towards them. Where the spots cut through it, it glowed softly in shades of blue and green and purple. The stage looked as if it were draped with veils of rainbow light. Her breath caught in her throat - it was so beautiful.

"Ask me after the concert, okay?" T.K. said apologetically, touching her arm, "I think it’s about to start."

Sighing, Kari settled back on the crate.

In the back of the amphitheatre, a shadow detached itself from the darkness and sniffed the air. Blood. He could smell its rich, coppery sweetness. In his ears, the thrum and beat of heartsong drowned out the music coming from the stage. He ached to feed. He passed a young woman wearing a low-cut dress, and it took all of his strength not to pounce on her and drain her dry. He could almost feel the heat of her blood in his mouth. He knew it would be as sweet as fine wine.

He hurried past her before the temptation grew too much to bear. After all, there was work to be done before he could eat. He reached a hand within his cloak and extracted a small, rectangular object from it.

Even in the dim light, it glistened like spilled oil. A symbol was etched into its surface, black lines against the greasy colours. It looked almost like the Crest of Friendship, but there was a chaotic swirl at its centre where the yin-yang should have been.

Holding the Crest of Enmity out at arm’s length, Myotismon murmured: "Gabumon, Dark Digivolve."

". . .I turn around, and I see what’s behind me."

As Matt launched into the chorus of the song, his eyes closed and his hands clasped around the microphone, he was aware that the crowd had gone quiet around him. He couldn’t even hear Jun Motomiya screaming above the rest. That was weird, a detached part of his mind thought. Turn Around was the Teenage Wolves’ signature song, and the crowd usually went wild when he hit the chorus. Usually, he could barely hear himself singing above their screams and shrieks and cheers. He shrugged. Maybe it was time to write a new song. For the moment he could only concentrate on the music, and hope the crowd would warm up to it eventually.

"Matt," he heard his guitarist hiss, "Matt. You have to look. Something weird is happening."

"I turn around and I see what’s a - he . . ." his voice trailed off, as he opened his eyes and looked out into the crowd. Behind him, the guitar plinked to a stop with a few sour notes. A black spotlight was shining into the audience, picking out a glowing shape. It pulsed and grew in size, almost as if the darkness was feeding it. Not a spotlight. A Dark Digivolution. His stomach hollow with fear, he yelled into his microphone, "Clear the auditorium! Quick! Everyone get out!"

In an instant, the silence was broken by panicked screams and by the drumming of feet against the wooden floor. The hall began to empty as people stampeded for the exits.

Dropping the microphone, he spun to see T.K. and Kari running towards him. His suspicions were confirmed as he saw her - Myotismon had been there with one of the Shadow Crests. She had the grim expression of someone determined not to vomit: her forehead glistened with sweat, and her complexion was almost grey. Angemon glided behind them with Gatomon scampering at his feet.

And he knew from the look on his brother’s face that it was Gabumon at the centre of the black light. Hot, quick anger flooded into him, and his hands clenched into fists at his side. When I get my hands on Myotismon . . . .

"It’s him this time, isn’t it?"

"It was," his younger brother replied in a quiet voice. Slowly, Matt turned back to the empty auditorium. The black light had vanished, leaving a creature hunched where it had been. In the gloom, it was nothing more than a dark, tight bunching of muscle and sinew. He did not want to wait for it to rise so he could examine it more carefully.

"We have to get out of here before he sees us," Gatomon echoed his thoughts.

"Yep. The others have regrouped outside," Kari said, checking her D3, "Tai says we should join them as soon as possible."

"What about Gabumon? Or whoever he is now?" T.K. demanded, "Do we fight him?"

"We don’t want to fight him where he can bring the roof down on our heads," she replied.

"Kari is right, T.K," Angemon agreed, "There will be less damage if the battle takes place in the open."

"It’ll be safer to go out the band’s entrance," Matt told them, "Follow me, all of you."

"I can’t believe Myotismon ruined our first date," Yolei grumbled to Ken, as they stood outside in the parking lot. He gave her a tight smile, then turned back to look at the auditorium. Light flickered across his face, casting long shadows behind him, as the Digimon around them evolved to their champion forms one by one. For the first time that night, she wished she had Hawkmon with her. With Myotismon on the prowl, it had seemed a good idea to leave him to protect Wormmon. That, and it wouldn’t exactly have been romantic to have her partner tagging along on her date. So much for romance! she thought sourly, Stupid Myotismon.

"Glad to know you’ve got your priorities straight," Davis said sarcastically, turning away from ExVeemon to look at her, "Kari’s still in there with that monster, you know."

Yolei opened her mouth to reply that ‘she had T.K. to look after her, didn’t she?’, but froze as a howl echoed from within the auditorium. It was the cry of a hunter who had spotted its prey. Suddenly, one of the auditorium’s walls exploded outwards, spraying stone and glass across the parking lot. Silhouetted by flames, a creature leapt out of the hole and began loping towards them. As it drew nearer, Yolei could see that it was a long, slim wolf of a Digimon. Its eyes glowed yellow in its face, and it looked almost as if it were covered in fine wires, each strand as sharp and bright as a needle. The firelight glittered off its coat. It opened its mouth to howl again, revealing slender, pointed teeth.

"That’s Luperkalimon," Kabuterimon whirred, "We’re in for it now." (4)

"Luperkalimon?" Izzy repeated.

"Yes," Ankylomon replied, "But I always thought he was a legendary Digimon."

"He looks pretty real to me," Sora said with a shiver.

"Nothing we can’t handle," Tai’s hands clenched into fists at his sides, "Let’s do this."

On Tai's cue, the four Digimon began to move towards the enemy.

Luperkalimon lifted his head and growled in response, then, with shocking speed, leapt for Kabuterimon and knocked him out of the air. The two crashed into the asphalt, the dark Digimon’s paws planted on his chest. His needle-like teeth flashed in the light, as they closed around his throat. Yolei heard Izzy make a strangled sound behind her, almost as if he were the one being attacked. Kabuterimon struggled, trying to shake him loose, but his grip was too strong. She had the awful feeling that he would have to drop down dead before Luperkalimon would let him go. And, if it had not been for his thick carapace, that would have been a minute ago.

"Get him off, Birdramon!" Sora yelled, just as Tai ordered Greymon to attack with all his strength. ExVeemon joined the assault with a Vee Laser of his own, the white light scything through the air towards the Dark Digimon. Slowly, the dust and smoke dissipated to reveal Luperkalimon standing on top of a motionless Tentomon.

"TENTOMON! NO!" Izzy began running towards his Digimon, although he must have known he had no chance of reaching them in time or of stopping Luperkalimon when he did. He lifted his head to howl again, then stooped to finish his prey. . . .

"ANGEL’S STAFF!"

The entire parking-lot was lit in an instant, as a ray of brilliant, golden light sped from the sky towards the dark Digimon.

As the attack connected with him, Luperkalimon yelped and released his grip, then scrambled backwards to snarl at his enemy. Blinking at the sudden brightness, Yolei looked up to see Angemon hovering above the parking lot and the knot in her stomach loosened in an instant. His six, white wings curved around him, like a blessing. He held a golden rod in his hands, inscribed from top to bottom with intricate symbols. The end still glowed slightly. The three others stood beneath him, and T.K. had a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Matt’s face was hard, and his blue eyes glittered. He looked almost as dangerous as Luperkalimon, Yolei thought. A little way in front of the humans, Gatomon stood protectively with claws outstretched and a snarl on her kittenish face.

"Angemon," Tai called, "Can you defeat him?"

Slowly, the Angel Digimon shook his head, replying in a voice that was the chime of cathedral bells, "He is still too strong for me alone. If the others weaken him, however, I shall cleanse him of his darkness." (5)

"You heard Wings," ExVeemon said gruffly, "Let’s finish this."

As the three Digimon rushed towards Luperkalimon, Yolei had a feeling that the battle wasn’t finished by a long way . . . .

(2) I’ve never heard T.K’s VA sing. I have heard Takeru’s seiyuu, however, and . . . well, Yamamoto Taisuke isn’t bad on hard rock, but is absolutely awful on ballads.

(3) Before people whinge, I support Taito. Heck, I support any coupling with an Ishida and a Yagami. As a matter of fact, I’m working on a Taito at the moment for your reading pleasure.

(4) Luperkalimon. From the Lupercalia, which was a huge festival in Rome.

(5) I had a Frontier moment there. Whenever Takuya scans a Digicode he goes, "My Digivice will cleanse this devil’s spirit of darkness."