Impetus: Encase

Nothing to hold us in...

"Okay everyone! The distress signal's coming from this area," Davis announced to his landing party. "So! Let's save some digi-butt!"

Yolei smiled as she and the rest of the second-gen DigiDestined mounted up for the rescue. It was a simple first-response mission: a tsunami was headed towards a waterfront civilization and they were amongst those recruited to aid the evacuation. It was no sweat considering the world-saving feats the DigiDestined had already accomplished. Still, in the past, every catastrophe always came with some greater instigator. It was almost unnerving the way the others jumped to the occasion with such a careless, boisterous atmosphere. Caution had been left to the wind.

Everything about the situation seemed... unnatural. Underwhelming, perhaps, but something was off. They all had been flying along the shoreline to their destination, but the digimon's evolutions were wrong. Yolei was skybound riding on Hawkmon, alongside Davis on Raidramon. Pegasusmon with TK underwater. Cody riding Submarimon as he slid along the beach sands like a desert snake. Gatomon rested on Kari's back as she took the flying upon herself. No one acted like it was out of the ordinary - just another trip through DigiWorld.

Their destination presently came into view. It was a quiet, fisherman-type town. A formerly peaceful, calm environment, though by now it was abuzz with the impending emergency. The Chosen were fortunate to be early enough to secure an organized evacuation as opposed to a panicked rush.

Hawkmon presently landed along with the others, allowing Yolei to hop off. The first thing she noticed was waves of civilian fish-type digimon hurrying out to meet the children. She turned to her friends as Hawkmon dedigivolved to Poromon.

Davis seemed ready to address everyone, his big mouth open and everything. Yolei cut him off. "Allllright people! We've got one job to do here and we're gonna do it right the first time!"

A silly thing of her to say. If they didn't do it right, a whole town would be lost to the ocean. She continued anyway, as if not in control of her words.

"Let's get these poor helpless digifishers away from the sea!"

With that she started towards the village-mon, aggressively earnest. She was almost a frightening force in her rough handling of the situation. Barking orders, herding digimon. More than once she shoved her very own Poromon along into the bustling crowd, hardly noticing his squawks of protest. Yolei started to feel she was doing an awful lot of the work herself. She looked around to see if the others were even helping.

The first she spotted was TK, and his calm demeanor as he chatted with an amiable old Divermon drove her further into her frenzy.

"TK!"

He turned to face her, his face kind and curious. "Hm?"

"What are you doing standing around talking?! We've gotta hurry!"

"It's okay, Yolei," he reassured. "We've got plenty of time."

"Yeah, because I'm doing all the work! Where is everyone anyway?"

Cody walked past her in that moment, overhearing her complaining. "In town, gathering digimon."

Yolei glanced down at him as he continued on. Upamon sat upon his head, watching her with a wide-eyed, almost cat-like gaze. Cody's arms were filled to the brim with tiny baby Pichimon, as well as a host of Bukamon following him like he were their mother. She looked back to the buildings on the shoreline to see Davis and Kari approaching. They were smiling, laughing, acting like there was not in fact a gargantuan wave charging from the ocean intent on leveling the town. Yolei looked out to sea in time to see the horizon swell. In response, the tide waters shriveled, retreating from the sands that guarded the digi-buildings. A healthy, gleaming shoreline was immediately reduced to a barren, cracking wasteland. It was coming.

She closed the distance between herself and Davis with a sprint. Indignation rapidly ate away at her patience, leaving her with nothing but frustration and growing panic.

"What is wrong with you two?" She demanded upon reaching them. "We're almost out of time!"

"Jeez, relax Yolei," retorted Davis. He jabbed a thumb in the air, gesturing behind him at the group of Gekomon and Penguinmon they had in tow. "Everyone's out, okay? Go take a chill pill somewhere."

Yolei pointed out to the tsunami on the horizon. "How can I chill with that there? We need to be miles away to avoid that thing."

Kari spoke. "We will be. The town's already empty."

That didn't seem possible. One look at the village and Yolei could tell digimon were still filtering out by the dozens. Their rescue effort was nowhere near finished. She snapped.

"Alright! I'll do it myself if that's what you guys want!"

"They'll make it with the rest of us," Kari said quietly. "Don't overwork yourself, Yolei."

"No!" Yolei yelled in her face, ignoring how Kari shrunk away from the outburst. "No they won't! I'm going in to help even if you won't."

Davis whined, sauntering in between the two, "Fine! Just do it Yolei, anything to keep you from yammmerin' on about it."

She could only huff in reply as she ran into town. At least she still had Poromon with-

Huh?

No Poromon. Only a little slime baby was at her side. Pururumon. She hadn't even noticed. But she couldn't stop to notice now. Yolei continued on, searching the streets, checking windows, knocking on doors. Every now and again she would stumble upon a straggler and help them on their way. Even saving just one last digimon would make this all worth it. After sending a final Betamon on its way, she was absolutely positive there was no one left. Yolei began making her way out of the quiet seaside village.

It didn't take her long to reach the outskirts, but by then, the Betamon had already gained quite a lead on her. She saw it standing upon a little knoll that served as the horizon opposite of the ocean; it was a vantage point above sea level that subtly sheltered the little town's place on the shoreline. Someone else was there, tho obscured by the setting western sun beyond. Yolei could somehow tell it was Kari. She could see her friend stoop slightly to pat the Betamon on the head before it turned and disappeared behind the hill.

Guilt tugged at Yolei's heart. Kari's small, lonely silhouette above her was the only sign of life in the entire region. She hadn't noticed, but everyone had in fact managed to clear out in time. Maybe she really had been overreacting all along. Guilt was now joined with surging urgency - the atmosphere was slowly darkening. Yolei looked up and could practically feel Kari's eyes on her even with the distance between them. She knew it was time to leave and join her friend. To apologize, at the very least.

Something stayed her feet.

Yolei quickly lowered her head, searching for what stopped her, but saw nothing. There was only her feet, planted in the sand. Her breathing quickened more and more with each attempt to move. She didn't understand. She was stuck. She wanted to call out.

Her voice failed her as she realized that Pururumon had completely vanished. She was alone there, at the edge of the city. The last rays of sunlight before her, the darkness of destruction rising behind her. She stared desperately up at Kari.

The younger girl only turned and walked over the knoll, the sun beginning to slip out of sight to join her.

"Kari..."

Yolei's eyes fell. She could only watch the shadows as they splayed out from the hill, inching closer and closer to her. Twilight arrived as the sunlight drifted from her feet to her legs and torso. Lingering for only an instant on her face, the sun finally fell away behind the hill. A chill fell upon Yolei as the shadows became complete, and with it came a shivering sense of dread. The darkness was multiplying.

"I guess I deserved this," she said to herself. She knew why the shadows continued to deepen. She could feel the growing presence of the still-silent aquatic monster behind her. All the girl could do now was wait to be devoured by the waters.

Blackness draped over her. Yolei looked up to see the tsunami had arrived as one massive wall. There was no time to react. Even if she could escape, she didn't try. She was powerless to do any more than accept the advent of destruction. Her vision filled with the gradient of the sea - from pallid whitecaps to murky blue to blackened depths. The water crashed down onto the village with a ravenous appetite.

And yet Yolei was hardly jarred from the place she stood. Her feet had subtly sunken into the sand and were still fastened there as if she were stuck in concrete. She could do no more than watch the waters rush around her, tearing apart the buildings and strewing the area with debris. It was a wonder she wasn't rent asunder herself. The girl stared in awe at the disaster unfolding before her. The village was leveled to the foundations, and then the foundations themselves were uprooted. Nothing was left but shattered beams and splintered planks throughout the old town.

At length, something seemed to be unearthed amongst the carnage. Yolei didn't notice until enough of the debris had been washed away. There were black pillars there, underneath the foundations. Matte black figures remained, difficult to see under the depths of water. She realized gradually that there were hundreds of them, all perfectly aligned to a grid as if they were soldiers standing in formation.

It was like an underwater terra cotta army. As the water settled Yolei saw that they were statues of some sort. Non-descript and lifeless yet still menacing somehow. She felt the urge to flee as if they could destroy her, as if they could do what the tsunami could not.

Yolei looked up to the surface, fathoms above. She had to get out. She waved her arms, and attempted to kick her legs out of the sand. No success. Heart-rate picking up the pace, Yolei thrashed harder. The effects of being without air suddenly hit her, fast and hard. The shadowy army before her was momentarily forgotten as she spiraled into mind-shattering panic. She had to escape. The waters were swelling around her, thickening, fogging up. The surface seemed to be rising further out of reach. Her body was weakening.

She had to survive. Yolei's eyes were fixed above her, staring at the twilit sky from beneath the sea, desperately wishing her way to freedom. She was unaware that she had somehow drifted into the middle of the statuesque army - or perhaps it was the statues who had moved to surround her. A dull, warm, crimson glow slowly filtered through the waters around her. Yolei lowered her gaze to look for the source, only to discover a hundred pairs of eyes were trained on her from every direction. More and more red lights flashed into view every passing instant. The statues came to life, one by one. She could feel her breath leave her entirely in despair as the undersea army sprung to life and converged upon her, alone in the center.

She, along with everything around her, was snuffed out by darkness within moments. There was nothing to be seen but swirling inky water. Yolei was barely aware, with the last dredges of her consciousness, that a soft pink light began to glow beneath her. Its sudden appearance revealed that the sea floor had been replaced by an empty void.

The pink glow was leagues different from the stark, menacing lights from the statues' eyes. It seemed almost friendly. She found herself wanting to reach out for it, but it was obviously too far.

The voice that eventually came from the light was startlingly familiar. A voice that Yolei desperately wanted to hear, to beg forgiveness from.

Yolei had no voice of her own however, here at the bottom of the sea. She could only listen as the words slowly drifted up to her ears from that solitary little light locked away beneath the depths. "Lonely, isn't it?"

Maybe it was a sob, or maybe it was her oxygen-deprived lungs collapsing completely, but the small, choked burst of air was all Yolei could muster as her emotions overflowed and her vision faded away. Only darkness remained, and with it, stifling loneliness. It was mere silence that escorted Yolei back into the waking world.

PS

Been going over all my old content this week, trying to figure out where I was going with these current chapters. Will try and tie everything back in to prevent things from getting too disjointed. It was obvious I was trying to spread the love around and give each of the DigiDestined at least one chapter to shine. We'll see if that will actually happen in the long run. I have my main characters and biases I need to pay attention to after all...

Thanks for the comments! Will definitely take everyone's feedback to heart.