We spend the next hour just existing in the space. Peter builds a half-pipe in the gymnasium and practices tricks. Jessica paints on the walls of her studio, splashing color across the white surfaces. Gwen tweaks the physics engine, adjusting gravity in different zones, adding wind resistance near the edges. I sit on my porch swing and watch all of it, feeling something I can't quite name.
It's not the Digi-Home. It's not the Digital World. It's something else. Something ours.
Peter bounces a basketball off the gymnasium wall and catches it. "We should play a game."
"What kind of game?" Gatomon asks from the couch.
"Capture the flag. Two teams. These buildings are cover. The plaza is neutral ground. First team to capture the other's flag wins."
BlackGatomon drops from the rafters. "I'm in."
"Of course you are," Gatomon says.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you never turn down a chance to show off."
"I show off because I'm worth showing off."
"That's not how that—"
"TEAMS," Peter shouts. "Okay, so — Gatomon, BlackGatomon, you're on defense. Guard the gymnasium. I'll hide the flag in the lab. Ethan, Jessica, you're on offense. You have to get past them and bring the flag back to the plaza."
"Wait," I say. "Why am I on offense with Jessica?"
"Because you two are the least coordinated. Balance the teams."
Jessica crosses her arms. "Hey."
"No offense. I can barely walk in this place without falling over."
"Fair point."
Impmon raises his hand. "I'll be the referee."
"Absolutely not," Gatomon says.
"Why not?"
"Because you'll cheat."
"I would NEVER—" He pauses. "Okay, I would definitely cheat. But I'll cheat EQUALLY for both teams."
"That's not how refereeing works!"
"It's how I work."
Gwen sighs. "Fine. Impmon referees. But I'm spawning obstacles. If the game gets too easy, I'm adding barriers and traps."
"So you're helping the defense," BlackGatomon says.
"I'm helping make it interesting."
We take our positions. I crouch behind the porch of my house, watching the gymnasium. Jessica is behind the art supply cabinet in her studio, peeking around the corner.
"Ready?" Peter calls from the lab.
"Ready!" I shout back.
"READY!" Jessica yells.
"BEGIN!" Impmon screams, far too loudly.
I sprint across the plaza. Gatomon bursts from the gymnasium entrance, moving fast. She cuts left, trying to intercept me. I juke right and she overshoots, skidding on the polished floor.
"Traitor!" she yells at BlackGatomon, who is supposed to be covering the other side but is currently doing a backflip off the basketball hoop.
"I'm providing DISTRACTION!" BlackGatomon lands and charges toward Jessica.
Jessica runs. She's fast — faster than I expected. She vaults over a bench, slides under BlackGatomon's lunge, and makes it halfway across the plaza before Gwen spawns a wall right in front of her.
Jessica crashes into it. "HEY!"
"Sorry!" Gwen calls. "It's the game!"
I change direction, heading for the lab. Gatomon recovers and chases me. She's gaining. I can hear her claws clicking on the floor behind me.
I reach the lab door and yank it open. Peter is standing right there, blocking the way.
"Nice try," he says.
Behind me, Gatomon skids to a stop. "Ha! Nowhere to go, Ethan!"
I grin. "Jessica, NOW!"
Jessica appears on the roof of my house. She must have climbed the back wall while everyone was focused on me. She leaps, sails over the plaza, and crashes through the lab window.
Peter spins. "WHAT—"
Jessica rolls to her feet, spots the flag on Gwen's workstation, and grabs it. She holds it up triumphantly.
"FLAG CAPTURED! TEAM OFFENSE WINS!" Impmon announces.
"That doesn't count!" Gatomon protests. "She broke a window!"
"The rules didn't say anything about windows!"
"IMPMON!"
"What? I'm a FAIR and IMPARTIAL referee!"
"You changed the rules three times during the game!"
"Those were CLARIFICATIONS."
BlackGatomon throws her hands up. "One point. We lost by one point because you two couldn't agree on a strategy."
"We HAD a strategy!" Gatomon snaps.
"Your strategy was 'argue about who's faster.'"
"It was a VALID strategy!"
"It was aASTER."
They're nose to nose now, hissing at each other. I look at Jessica. She's still holding the flag, breathing hard, grinning.
"Best two out of three?" she asks.
"ABSOLUTELY," BlackGatomon says.
We reset. This time, I'm on defense with Gatomon. Jessica and Peter are on offense. BlackGatomon hides the flag somewhere in the gymnasium rafters.
The game starts. Peter and Jessica split up, trying to flank us. I track Peter while Gatomon watches Jessica.
Then Gwen spawns a maze of barriers in the middle of the plaza.
"Oh, come on!" Peter yells.
I chase Peter around a corner and lose him. I hear Gatomon fighting Jessica somewhere to my left. I need to move.
I activate Digi-Mimic. My avatar shimmers and shifts, copying Renamon's speed data. The world slows down. My legs pump and I'm flying across the plaza, weaving between Gwen's barriers, closing in on—
Jessica rounds a corner at full speed.
We collide.
The impact sends us both spinning. We hit the ground together, tumbling across the plaza floor. Her arm catches around my shoulder. My hand finds her waist. We roll twice and come to a stop.
I'm on my back. She's on top of me, her hands braced on either side of my head. Her face is inches from mine. Her featureless avatar stares down at me, but I can feel her breathing. I can feel the warmth of her even through the digital approximation.
Neither of us moves.
One second. Two. Three.
The plaza is quiet. Even Gatomon and BlackGatomon have stopped arguing.
Impmon's voice cuts through the silence.
"Oh, GET A ROOM."
Jessica jerks back like she's been shocked. She scrambles to her feet, and I sit up, my face burning in a way that has nothing to do with the digital environment.
"That was — I didn't see you," she says.
"Yeah. Me neither. Gwen's barriers—"
"Right. The barriers."
We stand there, not looking at each other. Gatomon and BlackGatomon are suspiciously quiet on the gymnasium steps. Peter is suddenly very interested in the ceiling. Gwen is studying her interface with intense focus.
"!" Impmon announces. "Since that was INCREDIBLY awkward, let's call it a DRAW and move on!"
"Agreed," I say quickly.
"Agreed," Jessica says even more quickly.
We play three more rounds. Gatomon and BlackGatomon lose another point because they spend thirty seconds arguing about flanking patterns instead of actually flanking. Peter scores by swinging from the rafters. Jessica and I avoid being within ten feet of each other for the rest of the game.
By the time Gwen calls it, we're all exhausted in the way that only people who've been running, jumping, and yelling in a virtual world can be.
"Okay," Gwen says, pulling up her interface. "I'm saving the environment data and the gameplay logs. We'll need the physics parameters for the next build."
"How long have we been in here?" Peter asks.
Gwen checks. "Three hours."
"Three hours? It felt like twenty minutes."
"That's the immersion effect. We need to fix that before launch. Time perception drift could cause problems."
We gather in the plaza one last time. The golden light from Jessica's studio washes over everything. Impmon's ridiculous throne gleams in the corner. Gatomon and BlackGatomon are sitting on the gymnasium steps, still bickering quietly. Renamon is still on my roof, watching over all of us.
"Same time tomorrow?" Peter asks.
"Same time tomorrow," I confirm.
One by one, we log out. The white room fades. The plaza disappears. The golden light dims.
I open my eyes in the DataStream Dynamics lab. The headset lifts away from my face. The real world rushes back in — the hum of the terminals, the cool air, the weight of my body in the chair.
I look over at Jessica. She's pulling off her headset too. Her hair is messy. Her cheeks are flushed. She catches me looking and looks away.
But she's smiling.
We file out of the lab together, carrying the feeling of a place that belongs to us. A place we built. A place we'll return to.
Tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.
***
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