Hi there! This is my second fic and it will be containing a little bit of Takari, Taiora, Kenyako and maybe more. The timeline is six year after 02.

Who's Next?

Chapter 1: Summer vacation

"Isn't it great, spending the summer together at the beach?" said T.K with excitement. His bag pack slung over his shoulders.

Kari smiled at him. "Sure is!"

"We have to thank Yolei for this," Cody said, looking over his shoulders to see Yolei and Ken walking up behind him.

"Yeah, thanks Yolei," Tai shouted from the front as he walked up to the door.

"Don't mention it," said Yolei.

Tai inserted the key and turned it, opening the door of the villa. Yolei had managed to get permission from one of her uncle to use his beach house. Her uncle and his family would usually come up here for the summer, Yolei herself had followed them on several occasion, but this year they had gone off to China for their vacation. Yolei had asked her uncle whether she and her friends: T.K, Kari, Tai, Matt, Izzy, Joe, Sora, Davis, Cody and Ken, could use it instead. Now here they are, right in front of the entrance of the luxurious looking house.

"Whoa...," Davis looked around in the beach house. There was a huge, comfortable looking living room, a set of white leather sofa by the windows on the left, and a small round wooden table with four chairs on the right. He walked on the carpeted floor and ran his fingers over the top of the 29" television that sat in front of the sofa. "I think I'm going to enjoy this summer here."

"The view is magnificent!" Sora exclaimed as she pushed aside the soft white curtains and opened the windows, which overlooked the beach, enjoying the breathtaking view. A gentle sea breeze blew over her face and she took a deep breath. "The air feels so fresh and clean as well."

"Where are we going to sleep?" asked Joe as he started to explore the house. There was the living room, a kitchen, a dining room, a cellar, a bathroom, a veranda behind the house and the rooms upstairs.

"Well, there are six bedrooms," Yolei said, counting with her fingers. "Tai and Kari can share a room, Matt and T.K, Izzy and Joe, Davis, Ken and Cody and finally Sora and me. How's that?"

"Fine with me," said Matt as he dropped himself onto the soft sofa and leaned his head against it.

"Hey! How come I have the share my room with two others while you only share with only one?" Davis complained, looking away from the television set.

"Maybe I should have mentioned that you three will have the biggest room?" Yolei said, sounding a little annoyed.

Yolei showed everyone where his or her room was. They all went up to the second floor, where all the bedrooms were. Each of the rooms had one large bed (except for the largest room, which has two), a closet and a drawer. Davis immediately jumped onto one of the beds and started shouting out fanatically.

"This bed is mine, ALL mine!"

Ken and Cody sighed and shook their heads slowly.

"What time is it?" Cody asked.

"It's 2 o'clock," said Yolei, looking at her watch.

"Why don't we go down to the beach!?" Ken suggested, dumping his bag on the floor near the second bed.

"Sure, I'll go tell the others," said Cody.

All of them were already down by the beach about fifteen minutes later. Tai, Matt, T.K, Davis and Ken played around in the seawater, splashing at each other and trying to swim against the waves. The girls on the other hand, were relaxing themselves, sunbathing by the beach. Each of them had a pair of sunglasses and was putting on some sunscreen. They sat on the beach towels and before long, they were all lying on their back, enjoying the warmth of the hot summer sun.

There weren't many other people at the beach. Yolei had told them that not many people came up to this beach because it was too far away from town. Only a few people who prefer to have a quiet time by the beach would come all the up here.

"I wish Mimi was here," said Sora suddenly. "She would really enjoy this and it would definitely be much more fun with her around. I wonder where she is right now."

Kari sat up and grabbed a bottle of mineral water beside her. "Knowing her, she's probably enjoying herself on a beach somewhere in America right now," Kari said as she took off the bottle cap and started to drink the water. She glanced over at the boys who were still fooling around in the water. "Where are Izzy, Joe and Cody?"

Yolei took off her shades and sat up as well. "I think they went to the other side of the beach," she said. "Why would you be interested in where they are? T.K's right there, isn't he?" Yolei said with a grin, nudging Kari's elbow playfully while looking at the boys.

Sora also sat up to see Kari's reaction to Yolei's remark.

"What are you talking about!?" Kari said quickly. "We're just friends, that's all!"

"If that's the case, why is your face going all red?" Sora giggled. The truth was, she couldn't exactly tell whether Kari was blushing or not because her face was already slightly red due to sunbathing, but she wanted to play around anyway.

"What about both of you? Tai and Ken...," Kari said in an annoying sort of voice, her sunglasses perched at the tip of her nose so that her eyes were visible, rising one of her eyebrow. This time it was her turn to grin at them.

Sora and Yolei kept quiet. "Well, she got us there," Sora said and lied down again, her hands under her head.

Kari put her bottle of mineral water aside and joined Sora once again. "Sora, you do know that my brother likes you as well, don't you?" she said.

"Yeah, I know," Sora sighed. "You must have told me a hundred times already."

"Then why didn't you tell Tai that you like him too?" Yolei asked, rubbing more sunscreen onto her arms.

Sora let out another heavy sigh. She thought for a while before saying, "I don't know..."

Yolei took a final look at the boys, who were now snorkeling, before lying on her back once again.

Slightly further down the beach, three other figures could be seen building a sandcastle. Joe dumped a pail of sand over Izzy's head and quickly took off, laughing his head off at an angry Izzy who was hot on his trail. Cody chuckled as he watched the two older boys chased each other all over the place.

Izzy collapsed onto the sandy beach a few minutes later, breathing heavily. Joe's head popped out of nowhere and looked down on Izzy, grinning mischievously.

"I give up!" said Izzy.

"Can we finish building the sandcastle now?" Cody asked impatiently.

"A wonderful job, don't you think?" Joe asked after they had finally finished building their sandcastle, but as soon as those words came out of his mouth, the front walls of their sandcastle collapsed.

"Err... Yeah...," said Izzy. "What a wonderful job it is."

Joe grinned sheepishly.

Cody sighed and shrugged. "Let's go join the others in the water!" he suggested, kicking down whatever was left of their pathetic sandcastle.

"Why don't you go ahead first? There's something I need to talk to Joe about first," Izzy said.

Joe looked blankly at Izzy. I wonder what he wants to talk to me about?, he thought. After Cody had left, Joe turned to face Izzy, who had a very serious look on his face. "What did you wanted to talk to me about?"

Izzy turned his head around to make sure no one was listening, before he walked up to Joe and started talking in a secretive manner. "Listen carefully, this is very important. Make sure no one else knows about this..."

"Where are Joe and Izzy? I thought they were with you?" Sora asked when she saw Cody.

"They're still somewhere over there," said Cody, pointing to the direction which he just came from. "Izzy wanted to talk to Joe about something, so I came here first. Aren't you girls going to play in the water?"

"Nah," Kari replied. "Not today. We still have plenty of time for that since we're going to spend another two weeks here."

Leaving the girls, Cody continued towards to the guys. He ran up to them, the water was up above his waist, and looked around. "Where's T.K?"

Davis and Ken grinned at each other. They seemed to be pushing or holding something down under the water. Bubbles were coming out of the water underneath Davis and Ken. Cody looked puzzled. He screamed when he suddenly felt something grabbing his feet under the water. He tried to kick whatever was holding him away but it was just pulling Cody harder. Then, it hit him. He knew what, or to be precise, who was pulling his leg.

"T.K!"

Davis and Ken swam aside and T.K's head shot out of the water, gasping for breath. His face was pale and slightly red due to lack of air.

"You guys shouldn't have done that! He might have drowned!" Cody scolded Davis and Ken.

They both looked at each other and grinned again.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Davis asked.

Ken nodded. "Ready?"

Both of them turned to Cody. Cody moved back a little and eyed them suspiciously. "What are you both thinking about?" he asked nervously.

"GO!" Davis yelled and both he and Ken leapt onto Cody and pushed him down under the water.

"T.K, why are you smiling like that?" asked Ken.

T.K pointed behind them. Curious, both Davis and Ken turned around to see what was so interesting behind them. What they saw left them with a shocked expression of their face. Tai and Matt were right behind them, their hands gripped onto Davis and Ken's shoulders.

"This looks like fun," said Tai in a malicious manner.

"We want to join in the fun as well," said Matt darkly.

Davis forced a smile and asked, "What are you planning to do?"

"THIS!" both Tai and Matt shouted together and pushed Davis and Ken into the water, screaming. A second later Cody's head reappeared above the water, gasping for air.

All six of them continued to fool around in the water until about five-thirty in the evening, when Sora called for the boys to return to the beach house. Cody asked Sora whether she had seen Joe or Izzy, who hasn't shown up since Cody left them earlier on.

"Nope, I haven't seen them. Maybe they're already back up in the house," she said.

They walked back up to the beach house together. When they reached the door of the house, Tai caught sight of Joe and Izzy, who were also walking up to the house. They waited for the both of them outside the door.

"Where have you two been?" asked Cody.

"We were walking around, right Joe?" Izzy replied quickly, but Joe didn't answer. There was a blank look on his face. Izzy nudged Joe with his elbow, which brought him back into reality.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. We were just walking around," said Joe halfheartedly.

Everyone stared at the pair for a few moments before they all went into the house. After taking a shower they all sat around in the living room, either watching television or talking with one another about their first day at the beach. Izzy and Joe, however, were pretty quiet.

When it was almost eight o'clock, the girls started to cook dinner while the boys waited at the veranda behind the house. They had agreed that they would cook on shifts. The girls will cook for one day and the boys will take turn cooking for the next two days, and so on.

T.K and Matt leaned on the railing and enjoyed the sounds of the waves splashing against the shore. It's so peaceful..., they both thought. Ken and Cody were still talking about how much fun they had today. Tai, Davis and Izzy brought out several chairs to the veranda for everyone.

Soon, everyone was enjoying his or her dinner on the veranda. Most of them continued to talk about what they were planning to do the next day. T.K tried to persuade the others to go surfing with him, while Yolei suggested that they go jet skiing. Her uncle has a jet ski they could use.

While they were arguing about what they wanted to do tomorrow, Joe suddenly got up and went back into the house. "I need to get something from my room," he told the others.

Joe slid the doors to the veranda close and slowly walked the stairs up to the second floor. For some reason, he felt nervous. His palm began to sweat. He reached out his hand and turned the doorknob of his room.

"I need to a drink," said Izzy as he left the veranda towards the kitchen. He slid the door open and close behind him.

A few seconds later, a loud scream could be heard from within the house. Those who were still outside on the veranda stopped their chat session and jumped onto their feet.

"That was Joe!" said Matt.

"We better go see what's the problem," said Kari.

The door suddenly slid open by itself. Izzy was behind the door, holding a glass of water, looking panicked.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"We did. Let's go check what has happened to him," said Davis, pushing Izzy aside a bit so that he could go through.

All of them hurried upstairs. Izzy entered the room he was supposed to share with Joe. Everyone was now crammed in the room. Everyone, except Joe, who was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did Joe go?!" Tai asked.

Kari bent down and picked up a piece of paper next to the bed. She began reading what was written on it.

"Oh no!" she gasped. Every single pair of eyes in the room was on Kari now.

Tai took the piece of paper away from Kari's grasp and began to read it out loud:

The time has come,

The fruit has ripened,

What's done is done,

It has already happened.

Joe, he is the pillar of reliability,

But who do u all rely when he is alone in the dark...,

I'll get you all so don't you worry,

This is just the beginning, you better wish for luck.

This is for real, this is no test,

So tell me... Who's Next?

Tai finished reading and looked up from the paper. Everyone turned pale. It seemed that something bad had happened to Joe... He was gone. Where did he go, and who brought him there?

Please read and review! If you have found anything wrong with my fic, please tell me. Thanks for reading. ^_^