This chapter is meh. LOL. Not one of my favs, but it helps set up for the Sarah "plot" that happens for the next five chapters or so. Not much Mike - I want to save him for the climax of the Real World Arc, which is coming up soon. I would update this with Chapter Eight, since it's a trend of mine to update with two chapters at a time, but... Let's just say that I'm speeding up again. Speeding up is a bad habit of mine - where I get so interested in the plot that I end up writing five chapters worth of ideas into one single chapter. And that's exactly what happened in Chapter Eight. ANYWAY, back to the story...

Chapter Seven: Retreat

"Celia, my power's running out." Jamamon suddenly huffed. The lights around his legs dimmed, and he fell to his knees weakly. The cracked pavement around him turned to fine dust, which dirtied his fluffy white costume. Celia secretly wondered if the costume would come off, so she could wash it in the laundry.

Crack! She heard a noise, so she turned her head to the side.

"Jamamon, look!" She shouted, picking up Jamamon (who was extremely heavy for his size), and turned her body to the left so he could see around them. The stay Digimon around them stopped their destructive activities, almost robotically, and began to slowly turn to dust. "Eek!"

Celia jumped back, surprised by this unusual occurrence that had just taken place. She turned to Jamamon for an explanation.

"That's extremely dangerous for us Digimon," Jamamon explained, as the dust flew across the water and into the other side of the city. "Musyamon must have ordered for them to delete themselves, so they could travel back to his headquarters undetected. It's like he holds their data in container! How despicable!"

"Don't get worked up, you need your strength," Celia shushed. "It's getting dark, and it's not safe to be in this city in the dark at all, but that's probably tripled in the present circumstances."

"Where are we going now?" Jamamon asked, closing his eyelids softly. Celia was amazed that Jamamon trusted her enough to fall asleep in her arms. She thought about Sarah, who walked home without getting a safe drive from Celia and her mother. Sarah also lived on the East Side, but she lived next to the huge cranes, while Celia lived in a suburban apartment. She prayed that Sarah made it home all right. With the Digimon rampaging all over the place, it would be a miracle if she did.

An hour later, after struggling to get across the frantic bridge and bypassing fatigued police officers who were stopping people in the streets for information, Celia made it home. She had no idea how, with the heavy thing she had to carry around on her back.

"Are you hungry?" She asked sourly, placing Jamamon on the sofa and stretching her back. She closed the open door quickly and bolted it shut, locking both of the locks and placing a chair against it for good measure. If a Digimon tried to break in somehow, she and Jamamon would know beforehand, at the very least.

"Very." Came his short, one-worded reply. That was very un-Jamamon-like, so Celia knew how tired he really was.

"Well, I never had a shower after soccer practise, so I'm going to go do that now. I'll make something to eat after." Celia left Jamamon alone for the first time, and shut the bathroom door. She left her Digivice on the map, and saw Mike's dot staying put somewhere on the West Side.

He must be at home now, too. The blue dot seemed to have disappeared, but she didn't elaborate on it. There may only be a certain radius that the Digivice picks up on, she thought, getting in and turning on the hot water.

Mom... So she really was kidnapped by Musyamon... Celia began to shampoo her hair with her eyes shut tight, thinking about her day. Digivolving... Will Jamamon be able to turn into something as strong as Gallopmon one day? Are people evacuating the city at this very moment?

Her mind was riddled with questions, and she didn't know if she would be able to answer them all. Jamamon knew a lot, but he didn't know everything either. They were both in the dark.

After what seemed like an eternity, Celia got out and changed into her silk pajamas. They were slightly too small for her, but she simply had to wear them, because they had cute little bunnies all over them; the exact same type of generic bunny that Jamamon's costume was.

"Nice pajamas." Jamamon laughed weakly. He managed to turn the television on - breaking the remote into two pieces in the process - and was watching the local news. Of course, the headlines were about the attacks. But...

"Terrorist bombings?" Celia mouthed, pursing her lips tightly.They weren't reporting about the Digimon! No reports of massive monsters, nothing. "They're censoring the fact that actual monsters are kidnapping people?"

"She didn't say anything at all about kidnappings," Jamamon pointed his paw at the anchorwoman, who was now preparing for a commercial break. "Do you suppose they're censoring that as well?"

"I need to talk to Sarah. Her father actually works at the news, so she would know if they were censoring information." Celia picked up the phone and hastily dialed Sarah's number. The phone rang once... twice... then...

"Hello..? Sarah, is that you..?" Asked Sarah's mother, her voice quivering nervously. It sounded like there was a helicopter behind her, so she must have been shaking the phone.

"No, it's me, Celia." She replied anxiously, expecting the worse. Oh, how she hated when adults talked to her in a tone like that.

"OH! Is Sarah over there? Please tell me she is... She hasn't called in hours, and with those things in the city, I..."

"So your husband told you about the Digimon?" Celia gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, though of course Sarah's mother wasn't actually there. It was just her initial reaction from the fact that she let the word slip. Oops.

"If you're talking about those monsters, then yes, he did. They were right outside my window, anyway, so it was hard not to... But Celia, I fear that Sarah may have been kidnapped! The police are too busy to do anything - the entire force was called in to deal with the damage across the city, and they aren't replying to my calls! I don't know what to do!"

Celia's heart skipped a beat.