Recap (Davis v/o)
"Last time, this new kid, Kyle, came to the Digital world from a completely different planet! He had these neat monsters that look a bit like our Digimon but are called Pokemon. He even agreed to help us out in our fight against the Digimon Emperor, and now that Eevee can digivolve into Flareon, he's like officially one of us now. I just wonder if June can fit into one of those pokeballs of his..."
(opening sequence: Digimon)
Digicross series episode 1: "Angels of Steel"
"Grenade Destroyer!"
The first part of the plan had come off well. The six digidestined had managed to sneak into a city that, to Kyle's eyes, looked like an inverted fishbowl. Part 2 of that plan, blow up the control spire, ran into a bit of a snag when several dozen digimon, Gardromon according to TK, swarmed out of every opening in sight and began attacking.
"I think we should leave!" Cody said, as Digmon fought off another attacker.
"No way, "Davis said. "The spire's still standing!"
"I think Cody has the right idea," TK said, "THere's too many of them to fight off. We'll have to come back later!" The digidestined headed back for the portal. "Everyone, come back!" Kyle called, recalling Marowak into his pokeball. Eevee ran beside him, and Scyther ran just behind Kari.
As they got to the portal, no one noticed the two Gardromon about to attack. Scyther got the first one as the digidestined dived through, but wasn't fast enough to get the second before it fired. Scyther dove, and knocked Kari and Gatomon clear before the shot struck, destroying the portal.
"Thanks." Kari said, getting up. Looking, she saw Gatomon, still OK, and the Portal, now a smoking wreck. "Scyther" the mantis pokemon said, frustration clear in his voice.
"You said it" Gatomon added.
***
Back at the computer room, the chaos had changed, but not improved.
"Your stupid bug could have gotten Kari killed!" Davis shouted at Kyle.
"Look, hawkeye, you were supposed to be keeping an eye out for troops. Or are those goggles cutting the oxygen from your brain cells?"
Davis and Kyle looked ready to start fighting before TK and Yolei broke them up. "OK you two, calm down. We all could have kept better watch out, now let it go and let's figure out how to get Kari back."
Lookning up from the computer, Yolei said "The portal to the city is wrecked, but there's another one nearby. It'll be a good 10 minute hike, but it's the best I can find."
"Then I'm there! Hang on Kari, I'm coming to save you!" Davis said, getting his digivice out.
"You mean we're going!" Kyle said, getting his out.
"Make that us!" TK said. The three activated the portal, and vanished.
"What was that all about?" Cody asked.
Sighing, Yolei replied "you'll understand when you're older. Come on, we'd better let the others know what happened."
***
Back at the domed city, Kari, Gatomon, and Scyther had managed to find a temporary place to hide. At Scyther's continued look of frustration, Gatomon finally asked "Hey, is everything alright?"
Scyther turned, looked at the two, and just bowed his head, eyes closed. The bug pokemon sighed.
"Hey, snap out of it already!"
Scyther's head snapped up at Gatomon's verbal attack. "I know you're blaming yourself for this, but there was nothing you could have done about it. And even if there was, it's too late to do anything about it now!"
"Gatomon's right." Kari said, more gently. "You did what you could, and saved mine and Gatomon's life. Now stop acting so depressed. You are so much like Tai it's scary!" At Gatomon's inquiring look, Kari went on. "I'm serious, Tai means well, but every time he makes a mistake he takes it so personally."
Gatomon was about to answer, but Scyther tensing up cut her off. Nearly literally, as he leaped over the digimon and intercepted the Gardromon that had managed to creep up (strange, but it happened) behind them. A quick slash destroyed the ring on it, and the mechanical digimon was rendered inert.
"LIGHNING PAW!" Gatomon hit the Gardromon that came up on Scyther as he was attacking the first one, and disabled it, too. "We'd better get out of here. I hope the others are coming soon!"
Outside (and a quick armour-digivolve later), Nefertimon and Scyther were flying above the streets, looking for another place to hide until help came. The reality of the situation hit Kari; as powerful as Nefertimon was, her attacks were too precise when dealing with a lot of targets. Scyther was in even worse shape. He had to get close to an opponent, and precisely aimed strikes on the dark rings made his cutting attacks a liability. Blades and metal didn't go well together.
"Down there" Nefertimon called, indicating a small clearing. They'd had to fight this far, and the effort was wearing all of them out. "There's too many digimon down there!" Kari said.
"Scyther!" Scyther said, and started spinning as he flew towards them. Kari remembered Kyle explaining Scyther's 'Swords Dance' power up, but she hadn't seen it before this.
The effect was impressive enough. Scyther spun rapidly towards the Gardromon, and launched a series of devestating attacks on them, shattering as many dark rings as he could hit. Nefertimon took care of the rest, with a combination of her Cat's Eye beams and Rosetta Stones. The group landed.
"That was too close" Nefetimon said. Scyther, using one of his blades to hold himself up, agreed.
"We can't keep this up forever; I hope the others get here soon." Kari said, more than a little worried.
"We'd better get moving then" Nefertimon said. "Need a lift Scyther?" Shaking his head, Scyther extended his own wings, and got ready to fly.
The trio had been airborne for only a few minutes when Kari spotted TK. "Over here!" she yelled, as she, Scyther, and Nefertimon met TK, Davis, and Kyle, and their parter creatures.
"Are we glad to see you!" Davis said. "Don't worry, Kari, I'm here to rescue you now!" Kyle and TK just palmed their faces.
Scyther walked over to Kyle. "Scyther, you're ok?" Kyle asked. At Scyther's nod, Kyle relaxed a bit. "The others are on their way, we can hook up and get out of here." Sure enough, Yolei and Cody arrived just as they were talking.
That was roughly the time that the Digimon Emperor, far away from the city but able to see everything in his main headquarters, decided to release his little 'surprise'.
As the digidestined got caught up on Kari's adventures, they heard a metallic clank, a footstep coming towards them. At first, they thought it was more Gardromon, but to Kari and Nefertimon's ears, it sounded different, and oddly familiar. Looking past them, TK was the first to identify the source of the noise. "It can't be!" he gasped.
Turning and seeing what had surprised TK, Kari recognized the figure coming towards them. "Andromon!"
"You know him?" Davis said, incredulous. Kyle pulled out his pokedex and checked the digimon file. "Andromon: Vaccine type digimon, Ultimate level. Known attacks include Gatling Attack and Lightning Blade. Additionally, it's right hand can convert into a blade for infighting." Hearing the entry, Yolei looked at Kyle, stunned. "Did I hear that right? 'Ultimate' level?" At Kyle's nod, Yolei went on. "We're in trouble. He's got a dark ring on him!" Everyone could see the ring around Andromon's neck, crackling slightly.
"Andromon, it's us" Kari said, walking towards the digimon. Unnoticing, the metallic creature continued it's walk towards the digidestined, the words 'Targets Acquired' flashing on the edges of his vision.
"GET HIM!" Flamedramon roared. "FIRE ROCKET!" The other digimon joined in the attack; Flareon and Marowak attacked as well, but to little effect. What Andromon did not deflect with his massive forearms simply bounced off his metallic hide.
"I can't get a clear shot at the ring!" Digmon said. "How about you, Pegasusmon?"
"We'll give it a shot!" Pegasusmon called, as he, Halsemon, and Nefertimon tried an aerial attack, with similar results.
In an emotionless voice, Andromon said "Now it is my turn. Lightning Blade." Right hand forming into a drill shape, Andromon fired a crescent of electrical energy at the flying digimon. One by one, the three flying digimon fell and went back to their Rookie (Champion, in Gatomon's case) form. The remaining digimon and pokemon closed to fight, and received a similar treatment.
"Marowak!" Kyle shouted, as the bonekeeper pokemon fell to a rather nasty backhand from Andromon. The android digimon turned back to the digidestined, and started advancing towards them again. "Andromon" Kari tried again, "Don't you remember us?"
"It's no good Kari" Cody shouted. "That dark ring's controlling him!" Kari looked at Cody, then turned back to see that Andromon was only a few feet from her!
"SCYTHER!!" Then a blur of green and white intercepted Andromon, and started fighting him! Despite being exhausted, Scyther quickly leaped to Kari's defense, and began duelling with Andromon, his blades making sharp clangs as they hit Andromon's metallic skin.
Kari backed up a few steps. To her and TK, the battle between Scyther and Andromon took on a surreal twist. They had a haunting image of Andromon fighting Piedmon during their fight with the Dark Masters, only now, the guy with two swords was on their side, fighting to defend them from Andromon.
Andromon, to his credit, was feeling the same way. That the creature before him, clearly pushing itself beyond its already taxed physical limits, was still fighting was illogical. But for some reason, he had the oddest sense of deja vu. He'd fought in a battle like this before. Inside Andromon's head, the following messages scrolled along the bottom of his vision:
##Target designate 'Scyther' using twin bladed attack style. Calling appropriate attack protocols from memory banks.
##WARNING: Memory fault detected! Attempting to recalibrate.
##Core fault: Attempting to re-route through back-up drive.
##Recall successful: accessing data...
In the lower left corner of his vision, a small screen opened up, and started playing a fight sequence (animation note: It's the 'Piedmon vs. Andromon Sequence' from the original series, just before he got turned into a keychain...) And at the corner of the playback, a small group of figures could be seen.
##Accessing image files...magnifying
All this took only a second in real time. Scyther's exhaustion finally got to him, and an opening gave Andromon the opportunity to knock the pokemon into a wall.
**
Snarling in frustration, the Digimon Emperor desperately tried to transfer more power to the ring controlling Andromon. "What's going on?!" He growled. "The ring is losing power!!"
**
"Andromon, it's us!" A new voice called out. Tai ran up, panting slightly. "You've got to remember who we are!!"
"T..T..Tai?" Andromon said uncertainly. The ring around his neck crackled more fiercely, as it tried to suppress the memories that were starting to flood back. He took an uncertain step towards the digidestined, then, before anyone could react, picked Kari up.
##Image recall successful: Subject designate 'Tai' in memory. Subject Designate 'Kari' in memory
##Why am I attacking them??
"Andromon?" Kari said. Kari's digivice started glowing, then fell on Andromon's neck. It touched the dark ring, and the evil device crackled furiously for another second, then faded. "I remember" he said, putting Kari down. "Tai. Kari. It is good to see you again."
Shouting happily, Tai ran over to his sister. Kyle ran over to check on Scyther, who was only just starting to get up now, and still a little disoriented from the fight. Scyther got up, and walked over to Andromon, now being welcomed back by Tai, Kari and TK.
"It's OK, Scyther, there's nothing to fight anymore" Kari said, a little worriedly. Scyther nodded, turned to face Andromon, and, holding up one of his bladed forearms, simply said "Scythe."
"You are the one I fought" Andromon said. "It is good that I did not cause any permanent harm to you." So said, Andromon took Scyther's forearm, and shook it. Scyther responded by smiling, then, with a startled expression, glowed!
"Scyther's evolving?" TK said, suprised as anyone else. Scyther's form, like those pokemon before him that had evolved, blurred, changed. When the light subsided, Scyther's evolution to Scizor had completed itself!
"Scizor: The Scissors pokemon. It swings its eye patterned pincers up to scare its foes. It's powerful 'Metal Claw' attack can crush boulders. One of the newly discovered Steel Type pokemon" Kyle's pokedex reported.
**
Back in the Digimon Emperor's hideout, The Emperor, with Wormmon on the floor beside him, watched silently as Scyther evolved, as the Digidestined were reunited, as Andromon was freed, and as the control spire was destroyed. Standing up, the Emperor walked out of the room, never speaking a word.
"Master?" Wormmon asked, following him. "What's wrong?" THe Emperor still said nothing, acted as if he had not heard the digimon beside him. As the Emperor reached the door where his portal back to his real-world home was, he finally acknowledged Wormmon's existence with two clipped words.
"Wait here." With that, he entered the room, and closed the door before Wormmon could folow him in. There was silence for a minute, then a soul reaving scream ripped from the room, only partially muted by the door. There were no words, just the sense of the pure hatred and anger in that scream.
After a full minute, the screaming stopped, and the familiar sound of the portal opening could be heard.
**
"Ken, dear," Ken's mother called outside his room, "Dinner is almost ready!" There was no answer, but she had become used to it by now. A look of pain crossed her worn features, but it was replaced by a smile that only looked slightly forced.
"Is he coming?" Ken's father asked, as she re-entered the small kitchen.
"Oh, he'll be here. You know how he is, he gets an idea in his head and he won't let it go until he's solved it."
A minute later, Ken entered the dining room, with a formal, if a little cold, greeting. Dinner went well, though the two adults could have sworn it got unreasonably cold in the dining room.
At the end of dinner, Ken's mother broke the silence. "Ken, your soccer coach called me to remind you that you have a soccer game the day after tomorrow. Will you be able to make it then?"
Ken slowly looked up, and let a small smile out. "Yes mother, I believe I will be able to make it."
"Last time, this new kid, Kyle, came to the Digital world from a completely different planet! He had these neat monsters that look a bit like our Digimon but are called Pokemon. He even agreed to help us out in our fight against the Digimon Emperor, and now that Eevee can digivolve into Flareon, he's like officially one of us now. I just wonder if June can fit into one of those pokeballs of his..."
(opening sequence: Digimon)
Digicross series episode 1: "Angels of Steel"
"Grenade Destroyer!"
The first part of the plan had come off well. The six digidestined had managed to sneak into a city that, to Kyle's eyes, looked like an inverted fishbowl. Part 2 of that plan, blow up the control spire, ran into a bit of a snag when several dozen digimon, Gardromon according to TK, swarmed out of every opening in sight and began attacking.
"I think we should leave!" Cody said, as Digmon fought off another attacker.
"No way, "Davis said. "The spire's still standing!"
"I think Cody has the right idea," TK said, "THere's too many of them to fight off. We'll have to come back later!" The digidestined headed back for the portal. "Everyone, come back!" Kyle called, recalling Marowak into his pokeball. Eevee ran beside him, and Scyther ran just behind Kari.
As they got to the portal, no one noticed the two Gardromon about to attack. Scyther got the first one as the digidestined dived through, but wasn't fast enough to get the second before it fired. Scyther dove, and knocked Kari and Gatomon clear before the shot struck, destroying the portal.
"Thanks." Kari said, getting up. Looking, she saw Gatomon, still OK, and the Portal, now a smoking wreck. "Scyther" the mantis pokemon said, frustration clear in his voice.
"You said it" Gatomon added.
***
Back at the computer room, the chaos had changed, but not improved.
"Your stupid bug could have gotten Kari killed!" Davis shouted at Kyle.
"Look, hawkeye, you were supposed to be keeping an eye out for troops. Or are those goggles cutting the oxygen from your brain cells?"
Davis and Kyle looked ready to start fighting before TK and Yolei broke them up. "OK you two, calm down. We all could have kept better watch out, now let it go and let's figure out how to get Kari back."
Lookning up from the computer, Yolei said "The portal to the city is wrecked, but there's another one nearby. It'll be a good 10 minute hike, but it's the best I can find."
"Then I'm there! Hang on Kari, I'm coming to save you!" Davis said, getting his digivice out.
"You mean we're going!" Kyle said, getting his out.
"Make that us!" TK said. The three activated the portal, and vanished.
"What was that all about?" Cody asked.
Sighing, Yolei replied "you'll understand when you're older. Come on, we'd better let the others know what happened."
***
Back at the domed city, Kari, Gatomon, and Scyther had managed to find a temporary place to hide. At Scyther's continued look of frustration, Gatomon finally asked "Hey, is everything alright?"
Scyther turned, looked at the two, and just bowed his head, eyes closed. The bug pokemon sighed.
"Hey, snap out of it already!"
Scyther's head snapped up at Gatomon's verbal attack. "I know you're blaming yourself for this, but there was nothing you could have done about it. And even if there was, it's too late to do anything about it now!"
"Gatomon's right." Kari said, more gently. "You did what you could, and saved mine and Gatomon's life. Now stop acting so depressed. You are so much like Tai it's scary!" At Gatomon's inquiring look, Kari went on. "I'm serious, Tai means well, but every time he makes a mistake he takes it so personally."
Gatomon was about to answer, but Scyther tensing up cut her off. Nearly literally, as he leaped over the digimon and intercepted the Gardromon that had managed to creep up (strange, but it happened) behind them. A quick slash destroyed the ring on it, and the mechanical digimon was rendered inert.
"LIGHNING PAW!" Gatomon hit the Gardromon that came up on Scyther as he was attacking the first one, and disabled it, too. "We'd better get out of here. I hope the others are coming soon!"
Outside (and a quick armour-digivolve later), Nefertimon and Scyther were flying above the streets, looking for another place to hide until help came. The reality of the situation hit Kari; as powerful as Nefertimon was, her attacks were too precise when dealing with a lot of targets. Scyther was in even worse shape. He had to get close to an opponent, and precisely aimed strikes on the dark rings made his cutting attacks a liability. Blades and metal didn't go well together.
"Down there" Nefertimon called, indicating a small clearing. They'd had to fight this far, and the effort was wearing all of them out. "There's too many digimon down there!" Kari said.
"Scyther!" Scyther said, and started spinning as he flew towards them. Kari remembered Kyle explaining Scyther's 'Swords Dance' power up, but she hadn't seen it before this.
The effect was impressive enough. Scyther spun rapidly towards the Gardromon, and launched a series of devestating attacks on them, shattering as many dark rings as he could hit. Nefertimon took care of the rest, with a combination of her Cat's Eye beams and Rosetta Stones. The group landed.
"That was too close" Nefetimon said. Scyther, using one of his blades to hold himself up, agreed.
"We can't keep this up forever; I hope the others get here soon." Kari said, more than a little worried.
"We'd better get moving then" Nefertimon said. "Need a lift Scyther?" Shaking his head, Scyther extended his own wings, and got ready to fly.
The trio had been airborne for only a few minutes when Kari spotted TK. "Over here!" she yelled, as she, Scyther, and Nefertimon met TK, Davis, and Kyle, and their parter creatures.
"Are we glad to see you!" Davis said. "Don't worry, Kari, I'm here to rescue you now!" Kyle and TK just palmed their faces.
Scyther walked over to Kyle. "Scyther, you're ok?" Kyle asked. At Scyther's nod, Kyle relaxed a bit. "The others are on their way, we can hook up and get out of here." Sure enough, Yolei and Cody arrived just as they were talking.
That was roughly the time that the Digimon Emperor, far away from the city but able to see everything in his main headquarters, decided to release his little 'surprise'.
As the digidestined got caught up on Kari's adventures, they heard a metallic clank, a footstep coming towards them. At first, they thought it was more Gardromon, but to Kari and Nefertimon's ears, it sounded different, and oddly familiar. Looking past them, TK was the first to identify the source of the noise. "It can't be!" he gasped.
Turning and seeing what had surprised TK, Kari recognized the figure coming towards them. "Andromon!"
"You know him?" Davis said, incredulous. Kyle pulled out his pokedex and checked the digimon file. "Andromon: Vaccine type digimon, Ultimate level. Known attacks include Gatling Attack and Lightning Blade. Additionally, it's right hand can convert into a blade for infighting." Hearing the entry, Yolei looked at Kyle, stunned. "Did I hear that right? 'Ultimate' level?" At Kyle's nod, Yolei went on. "We're in trouble. He's got a dark ring on him!" Everyone could see the ring around Andromon's neck, crackling slightly.
"Andromon, it's us" Kari said, walking towards the digimon. Unnoticing, the metallic creature continued it's walk towards the digidestined, the words 'Targets Acquired' flashing on the edges of his vision.
"GET HIM!" Flamedramon roared. "FIRE ROCKET!" The other digimon joined in the attack; Flareon and Marowak attacked as well, but to little effect. What Andromon did not deflect with his massive forearms simply bounced off his metallic hide.
"I can't get a clear shot at the ring!" Digmon said. "How about you, Pegasusmon?"
"We'll give it a shot!" Pegasusmon called, as he, Halsemon, and Nefertimon tried an aerial attack, with similar results.
In an emotionless voice, Andromon said "Now it is my turn. Lightning Blade." Right hand forming into a drill shape, Andromon fired a crescent of electrical energy at the flying digimon. One by one, the three flying digimon fell and went back to their Rookie (Champion, in Gatomon's case) form. The remaining digimon and pokemon closed to fight, and received a similar treatment.
"Marowak!" Kyle shouted, as the bonekeeper pokemon fell to a rather nasty backhand from Andromon. The android digimon turned back to the digidestined, and started advancing towards them again. "Andromon" Kari tried again, "Don't you remember us?"
"It's no good Kari" Cody shouted. "That dark ring's controlling him!" Kari looked at Cody, then turned back to see that Andromon was only a few feet from her!
"SCYTHER!!" Then a blur of green and white intercepted Andromon, and started fighting him! Despite being exhausted, Scyther quickly leaped to Kari's defense, and began duelling with Andromon, his blades making sharp clangs as they hit Andromon's metallic skin.
Kari backed up a few steps. To her and TK, the battle between Scyther and Andromon took on a surreal twist. They had a haunting image of Andromon fighting Piedmon during their fight with the Dark Masters, only now, the guy with two swords was on their side, fighting to defend them from Andromon.
Andromon, to his credit, was feeling the same way. That the creature before him, clearly pushing itself beyond its already taxed physical limits, was still fighting was illogical. But for some reason, he had the oddest sense of deja vu. He'd fought in a battle like this before. Inside Andromon's head, the following messages scrolled along the bottom of his vision:
##Target designate 'Scyther' using twin bladed attack style. Calling appropriate attack protocols from memory banks.
##WARNING: Memory fault detected! Attempting to recalibrate.
##Core fault: Attempting to re-route through back-up drive.
##Recall successful: accessing data...
In the lower left corner of his vision, a small screen opened up, and started playing a fight sequence (animation note: It's the 'Piedmon vs. Andromon Sequence' from the original series, just before he got turned into a keychain...) And at the corner of the playback, a small group of figures could be seen.
##Accessing image files...magnifying
All this took only a second in real time. Scyther's exhaustion finally got to him, and an opening gave Andromon the opportunity to knock the pokemon into a wall.
**
Snarling in frustration, the Digimon Emperor desperately tried to transfer more power to the ring controlling Andromon. "What's going on?!" He growled. "The ring is losing power!!"
**
"Andromon, it's us!" A new voice called out. Tai ran up, panting slightly. "You've got to remember who we are!!"
"T..T..Tai?" Andromon said uncertainly. The ring around his neck crackled more fiercely, as it tried to suppress the memories that were starting to flood back. He took an uncertain step towards the digidestined, then, before anyone could react, picked Kari up.
##Image recall successful: Subject designate 'Tai' in memory. Subject Designate 'Kari' in memory
##Why am I attacking them??
"Andromon?" Kari said. Kari's digivice started glowing, then fell on Andromon's neck. It touched the dark ring, and the evil device crackled furiously for another second, then faded. "I remember" he said, putting Kari down. "Tai. Kari. It is good to see you again."
Shouting happily, Tai ran over to his sister. Kyle ran over to check on Scyther, who was only just starting to get up now, and still a little disoriented from the fight. Scyther got up, and walked over to Andromon, now being welcomed back by Tai, Kari and TK.
"It's OK, Scyther, there's nothing to fight anymore" Kari said, a little worriedly. Scyther nodded, turned to face Andromon, and, holding up one of his bladed forearms, simply said "Scythe."
"You are the one I fought" Andromon said. "It is good that I did not cause any permanent harm to you." So said, Andromon took Scyther's forearm, and shook it. Scyther responded by smiling, then, with a startled expression, glowed!
"Scyther's evolving?" TK said, suprised as anyone else. Scyther's form, like those pokemon before him that had evolved, blurred, changed. When the light subsided, Scyther's evolution to Scizor had completed itself!
"Scizor: The Scissors pokemon. It swings its eye patterned pincers up to scare its foes. It's powerful 'Metal Claw' attack can crush boulders. One of the newly discovered Steel Type pokemon" Kyle's pokedex reported.
**
Back in the Digimon Emperor's hideout, The Emperor, with Wormmon on the floor beside him, watched silently as Scyther evolved, as the Digidestined were reunited, as Andromon was freed, and as the control spire was destroyed. Standing up, the Emperor walked out of the room, never speaking a word.
"Master?" Wormmon asked, following him. "What's wrong?" THe Emperor still said nothing, acted as if he had not heard the digimon beside him. As the Emperor reached the door where his portal back to his real-world home was, he finally acknowledged Wormmon's existence with two clipped words.
"Wait here." With that, he entered the room, and closed the door before Wormmon could folow him in. There was silence for a minute, then a soul reaving scream ripped from the room, only partially muted by the door. There were no words, just the sense of the pure hatred and anger in that scream.
After a full minute, the screaming stopped, and the familiar sound of the portal opening could be heard.
**
"Ken, dear," Ken's mother called outside his room, "Dinner is almost ready!" There was no answer, but she had become used to it by now. A look of pain crossed her worn features, but it was replaced by a smile that only looked slightly forced.
"Is he coming?" Ken's father asked, as she re-entered the small kitchen.
"Oh, he'll be here. You know how he is, he gets an idea in his head and he won't let it go until he's solved it."
A minute later, Ken entered the dining room, with a formal, if a little cold, greeting. Dinner went well, though the two adults could have sworn it got unreasonably cold in the dining room.
At the end of dinner, Ken's mother broke the silence. "Ken, your soccer coach called me to remind you that you have a soccer game the day after tomorrow. Will you be able to make it then?"
Ken slowly looked up, and let a small smile out. "Yes mother, I believe I will be able to make it."