Chapter 7: Awaken

Lucas woke up sneezing. There was something wrong, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. A second later it occurred to him that he was in a field of tall grass and wildflowers with one of Lopmon's ears rubbing across his upper lip with each breath the still out of it digimon took. Lucas gave him a quick shake that roused the rabbit digimon immediately as he took stock of their surroundings.

It was a large field full of plants he hadn't seen before. Off in the distance he could see the familiar skyline of a city, but it wasn't one he recognized. His backpack was gone lost to somewhere he couldn't care less about, oddly enough though he still had all of his clothes, and his switchblade.

"Hey Lucas," Lopmon asked tugging on his partner's arm, "what happened to your clothes?"

Lucas was about to reply that there was nothing different about them when he noticed that there was: all of the rips and tears that had been on them earlier were gone without a trace. He carefully looked over the arm of his long coat for the bullet hole from earlier, but it was gone along with any sort of bloodstain. His eyes narrowed as he pulled his sleeve up; there was no trace of the bullet wound in his arm either. "What the fuck is going on here?" he muttered to himself as he looked out over the field, his head just high enough so that his eyes cleared the grass.

He heard a brush of grass and the sound of footsteps and reacted instinctively. His foot lashed out behind him with trained precision. The target, some Mexican by the looks of it, nearly avoided the blow but Lucas' foot caught him in the gut and forced him to the ground. Lucas was on him in an instant, his switchblade already unfolded as he heard Lopmon slam into something much bigger than himself.

"Dude, Dude hold up, I was just playing a game of soccer and then I was lying in this field." the Mexican babbled at him quickly.

Lucas pulled off the guy; there was no way anyone could make up something that stupid. Even so he didn't close his knife. "I'm Lucas, not Dude." he said. "Now who the hell are you?"

"Carlos Viernes," Carlos told Lucas, "from San Francisco, and that Mushroomon your rabbit digimon is sitting on is with me. You wouldn't happen to know where this place is would you?" Carlos asked.

"Somewhere in the Digital World." Lopmon said from over Lucas' shoulder and on top of Mushroomon's stomach.

Both Lucas and Carlos fixed their partners with a withering glare. "And you couldn't have told us this earlier?" Lucas asked at length.

"I thought you knew already." the rabbit digimon said with a shrug of his ears. Mushroomon nodded along from his prone position.

"You are a complete idiot Mushroomon." Carlos said exasperatedly as he let his head fall back to the ground.

"Get up Mexican; we need to find out what the hell happened to us." Lucas said prodding Carlos with his foot, none to gently either.

Melissa woke up feeling like she hadn't slept in days. She scrunched her eyes shut and rolled over onto her side. There was something warm nearby her and she wiggled towards it, her eyes still closed. She nuzzled her head into whatever it was, feeling what felt like worn leather on her face.

Whatever she was using as a pillow shifted a little and groaned. Then someone asked who she was. Melissa pushed away from them as fast as she could and sat up. It was some guy she didn't think she had seen before in a trench coat and sunglasses. "Who the hell are you?" she screamed at him.

"Who am I?" he yelled back. "Who are you and why are you in my yard?"

"The sidewalk isn't part of your yard."

"Sidewalk? We're in the middle of a fucking swamp!"

"No." Melissa shot back, "We're on a sidewalk in Chicago."

"Chicago's in Illinois you head case." he told her. "This is New York."

"Bullshit," Melissa said angrily, "I tripped and fell on the sidewalk down the street from my house."

"Yeah, sure." The guy said skeptically, "And then you landed in the swamp behind my house half a country away."

Melissa was about to fire back with a comment about how he should lay off the drugs and get his head out of his ass, but she was cut off by a voice heralded by the sound of wing beats. "Are you two done arguing yet?" Demi asked, "You sound like a married couple." Before either of them could say anything Demi spoke again, "And if you'd take a look around you'd notice that we're in neither a swamp nor a sidewalk."

The two humans followed the bat digimon's advice and took in their surroundings, finding themselves in a large field of tall grass and wildflowers with a three foot tall skeleton holding a bone only a few feet away. "So where are we?" the guy asked, "And when did you digivolve Bonemon?" he asked the skeleton.

"Somewhere in the Digital World Jack," Bonemon said, "I think. And I was already digivolved when I woke up."

Jack turned back to Melissa. "Hey you there, girl," Melissa glared at him, "I'm Jack."

"My name is Melissa." she told him. "I suggest you use it." Jack shrugged. Melissa shook her head at the gesture and then she made a weird face and began to spit vigorously.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked alarmed at her sudden change in behavior.

"There's something in my mouth." Melissa complained. She spat a few more times before sticking her tongue out and trying to pull whatever she was worrying about off her tongue. It was a diamond tongue stud.

"Quit yanking at that." Jack told her, "It's just your tongue piercing."

Melissa gave a derisive snort but put her tongue back in her mouth. "That's just it," she told him, speaking as if she was completely used to the piercing, "I don't have a tongue piercing.

Jack shrugged again, "And I don't own a trench coat, but I'm wearing one nonetheless."

"That's nowhere near the same!" Melissa said exasperatedly. "Someone stuck a coat on you, so what. They poked a damn hole in my mouth!"

"Will you two stop arguing?" Demi asked. "According to this thing there's something over there," Demi pointed to their east, he was holding Melissa's digivice, "and two more somethings further that way." he was now pointing northeast.

"Give me that back." Melissa demanded pouncing on Demi and prying her digivice from his grasp.

"Hey Melissa," Jack called, she looked over her shoulder at him, "are we going to go check out what those somethings are?" he asked.

"We?" Melissa asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, we." Jack said, "I can't just leave you alone after someone 'poked a damn hole in your mouth' can I?"

Melissa stood up and walked straight up to Jack, so close that their noses were touching. A moment later she stepped back with a chuckle. "You want me so bad." she stated before walking off towards the east with Demi on her shoulder.

"Come on," Jack told Bonemon, who had watched most of the interactions between the other three with amusement, "let's go."