(Coming straight from Silence)

Opening the door into the building, Zander stepped in and quickly made his way to a corner of the bar where he could have peace. He waited for the Digimon behind the bar to come over and notice him before saying anything, "Burger and chili fries, no lettuce, tomatoes, or whatever... just the burger and chili fries"

The bartender, perplexed that anyone could liek just a plain hamburger, but not one to ask questions, he shrugged and said, "Anthing to drink?"

"Water," Zander replied, "or lemonade if you got it."

Nodding, the bartender went away to fix the order and left Zander to thinking. After all, he hadn't had much time in the cathedral to be by himself, but it wasn't much better here. Zander leaned against the bar as he thought of plans. While his partners were out of hearign range, he planned for the future after thr tournament. Looking down slightly at the glint of his Crest, safely tucked from view by anyone other then himself unless they planned to get really close to him.

It was all spanning out in his mind, though what "it" was was still a mystery to him. He had been i nthis Digital World for quite a while yet and he still didn't feel powerful enough. Perhaps it was because he had yet to be useful to Insomnia yet despite his participatin at the mall that day, or maybe it was just because he hadn't gotten a chance to do what he journeyed to do yet.

The bartender served him his food and recieved payment before leaving the teen to his thoughts again, though not before mumbling, "Hmm, lots of silver-haired humans around here..." which Zander caught just barely, looking up at the bartender with an eyebrow raised.

"What did you just say?" Zander asked, loud enough so the bartender could hear, but probably not loud enough to disrupt the conversation around them.

(Part 1 done, Part 2 coming soon)

"What did you just say?"

The bartender turned to see the teenager staring at him, shrugged, and said, "Yeah, another guy with silver hair came in here a while ago and talked to some girl for a long time. He was a tamer, by the looks of it, had a partner and all. HE looked a lot like you."

Zander blinked, the thought that was runnign through his mind both terrible and surprising indeed. Looking back down to his place, he said, "Oh..." and went quiet again.

Inside his head, he was both overjoyed and angered by this. Was it him? Was it his brother?

He was eating without realizing, nearly stuffing all of his food down in a matter of minutes and barely chewing. He did keep an ear out for soemthing though, anything that might help.

"So, did you hear the rumor about some really powerful guy appearing in the Grassy Plains?"

Zander almost turned his head, but refeained himself and simply listened, cocking his head to the side to be able to hear better.

The speaker was a Minotarumon nearby, sitting at a table with a Hookmon and a Meramon. They were all too fascinated by what the Minotarumon had just brought up to notice that there was a human listening.

"Yeah, I also heard that he lives on some big Digimon, something ancient." the Meramon said his its raspy voice.

"I heard that too, but i've never even seen a Digimon big enough to live in." the Minotarumon took a gulp of some brownish liquid out of a mug, alcohol apparently, then said, "Do you think he's gonna attack the city?"

"Nay," the Hookmon shook his head, "I heard of a giant Digimon appearing before, and it ne'er attacked the city before. I heard that the Digimon living in it knows of mysteries never before revealed in all the world."

"Seriously?" the Minotarumon inquired, looking completely interested.

"Aye." the Hookmon nodded and accidentally apilled his drink with his hook hand.

"Seriously, why do you even order with no hand to drink it with?" the Meramon asked.

(Part 2 done, Part 3 coming soon)

As interested as Zander was, his mind kept twisting back to the image of a silver-haired guy that looked like his brother being in here not too long ago

He had somewhere to be, though he would have to wait till after the tournament. Seeing no way to act upon his urges now, he continued to listen.

"So about this guy..." the Meramon spoke to the Minotarumon, "Who is he?"

"A Mercuremon, or so they say." the Minotarumon replied, nodding to the Meramn for whom he had answered, repositioning the large gun-like device on his right arm, he took a sip of his drink and sat back.

"I also heard somehting else about the Digimon that he lives in." The Hookmon stated after cleaning up the mess he had made with great difficulty, "The beast is mutated, becoming so large that it surpasses even the largest of its breed."

Both of the Hookmon's companions' jaws dropped, and the Minotarumon's gun-arm nudged the table and spilled his drink all over himself.

"C'mon man, seems the only person who can keep their drink in their glass has both his hands." The Meramon chuckled, grasping his glass in both hands. Unfortunately, the liquid started to churn and boil, then exploded in a large splash all over the Meramon, partly extinguishing him.

Without having to see his comrades' snickering faces he said, "...Shaddup"

Zander got up as the group burst into laughter; He had heard enough. Walking towards the door, he thouht about stopping and asking the bartender if the guy that had been here before had mentioned his name, but figured that Rayner wouldn't be likely to leave his name with a simple bartender. Putting extra bits into the tip jar for the info, he walked out of the bar.

(grade or not, I don't mind. It was mainly a little character development.)