Hawk: Well, chapter... what? Ten already? Wow... Anyway. I hope you enjoy and I really need to stop saying anyway...
Kumo: Really looking forward to this chapter, it should deepen the characters a lot.
Spiritmon knocked the last Ogremon out with a kick, which would have sent him flying if not for the mud keeping him in place. As he collapsed to the ground, Spiritmon turned to Jade. "Hi!" She cheered. Meanwhile, Liomon was glaring daggers at the unconscious Digimon, as if daring it to move.
"So you figured it out?" Agumon asked, returning to the four. "You know how to use the Digivices at last?" He asked.
"Is that what these are called?" Cayden asked, looking at the blue device in his hand.
"Yeah." Agumon pointed at Cayden's hand. "The design may be different to how it started out, but the design is still the same."
"Wait, does that mean there were others here before us?" Cayden asked, curious.
"Well..." Agumon's reply was interrupted by a scream, coming from the forest.
"Didn't... Wasn't that Hawke?" Jade asked.
"If that's the case, let's go this way!" Tammy's comment was ignored, even when she began to walk away from the scream.
"Hey, Aiden's missing as well..." Holly noticed. It was hard to believe they'd missed the boy, but they had.
"Follow the scream! That should lead us to both of them!" Agumon pointed towards the source of the noise. The group headed off towards it.
"Great! Another monster. This one doesn't want to eat me, so they're all going to try and stop it!" Tammy moaned, but never the less followed, too scared to be on her own.
Hawke fought against the Darkness overcoming him, struggling to escape the nightmare. He knew what he would see if he fell to it, but forced the thought out of his head, focusing on good things in his life. His mother, always looking out for him. His father, no longer with him. Isabelle...
He thought the nightmare with dreams, hopes and memories. He wasn't going to succumb to it. Not without a fight...
He felt it pounding on his consciousness, and he screamed again, almost paralysed with agony as he clutched his head.
Almost as soon as it appeared, the nightmare vanished with a cry of pain from the Digimon. Quickly recovering from the pain, Hawke stood, giving himself a quick brush down as he looked at what was happening.
A fairy Digimon similar to Faymon had attacked the Digimon, while a second, looking like a lion cub, wasn't far behind. Turning, Hawke noticed the rest of the group running up, and from the missing Digimon he guessed the two were Faymon and Furzmon.
"Spiritmon! Go!" Jade yelled.
"Wings of Fury!" Spiritmon took to the sky again in order to dive-bomb the nightmare Digimon.
"That's Tapirmon. " Agumon said suddenly. "He's meant to have the power to cure bad dreams. He's regarded as a holy Digimon, despite only being a Rookie."
"A Rookie?" Cayden asked.
"Yeah. There are six levels in Digivolutions. Baby, In-training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate and Mega." He explained. "But let's talk about this later. Spiritmon and Liomon need help!" And with that, he ran forwards. "Pepper Breath!" He shouted, spitting a large fireball at Tapirmon, earning a bull's eye.
"Nibble!" Liomon tried to bite the cloud-like... thing underneath Tapirmon, but her teeth went straight through. "Evil!" She declared, before aiming at Tapirmon's chest with a swipe of a paw, easily dodged.
After one more hit from Pepper Breath, the Digimon finally went down, suddenly vanishing in a brief puff of data, which quickly flew together to build a small egg.
"Aiden." Hawke said, pointing to the unconscious boy as he headed for the egg. He'd noticed something fall onto the grass, which he now bent down to scoop up.
A meter or so away, Holly, Blackmon and Jade were both trying to make Aiden and Aquakoromon comfortable. Both seemed to be fine, but they were still unconscious. "Don't worry. He'll be fine." Agumon said, walking towards them. "He probably got hit by Tapirmon's Nightmare Syndrome. He'll be unconscious for about an hour, but after that, he'll be fine." He smiled, then turned. "As for Hawke, he should be all right. If we'd been much later, Tapirmon might have dealt him some pretty serious internal damage..." He mused. "Of course, one thing's for sure. Both of them can sleep easy." He smiled kindly at the two girls. "Everything will be fine."
"Catch." The four looked up, seeing that Hawke had thrown something towards them. After a brief juggle, Holly managed to catch it, finding it was another one of the Digivices, this one white. She held it out for Agumon to take, but he shook his head.
"That one belongs to you." He smiled, closing her hand around it gently.
"So, Blackmon can do that magical transformy thing now too?" She asked, eyes wide with happiness. Blackmon jumped up onto Holly's lap.
"Can I?"
Agumon chuckled slightly. "Only with the right thing to start it." He smiled. "It all depends on how you feel."
"What do you mean?" Jade asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, the first time a Digimon has to Digivolve, it is much harder than other times. So, it needs a certain... energy boost." He explained. "That comes from emotions."
"Wait, how can emotions act as... well, a battery?" Jade asked.
"It's like when Hawke said imagination is reality here..." Holly realised. "What would be impossible where we live would be possible here." Jade made a note to herself not to underestimate Holly's IQ.
"That's right." Agumon smiled. "Now, with you guys, it's a little different. It has to be you with the emotion." He told them. "That way it is easier for Digivolution. Jade, what were you feeling in that fight?"
Jade frowned, thinking back. "I remember being afraid, but I was putting that to the back of my mind... So, something like bravery?" She suggested.
"Bravery is a behavior, but it could be something like determination." Agumon suggested. "But everyone is different. Each Digimon needs a different emotion." He told them.
"So, mine could be something like joy?" Holly asked, curious.
"Or it could be something like disgust, or surprise." He replied with a smile. "But I think that's enough school for now. Close your books and head outside for break." He joked, earning smiles. "Why don't we see what the others are up to?"
Aiden did indeed wake up after an hour, and with that, the group decided to head North as, going by Hollywood logic, wherever the most danger seemed to be, that was where they would find what they needed.
And so, they headed for the northern mountains, Agumon telling them everything he knew about them as they began to walk, Aiden being semi-supported by Jade.
It wasn't long before they reached the edge of the forest, the trees suddenly stopping as if they didn't dare go any further. Ahead of them was an open plain, with not even a blade of grass to hide behind if something appeared. If they headed out, they would be completely exposed.
Cayden was the first to start across the bare ground, Liomon next to him, while Jade, Holly and Aiden followed close behind, with Tammy only a little distance behind them, separated by the Digimon. Hawke, as usual, was alone at the back.
The rocky terrain wasn't all too difficult to cross, although most of the humans and bipedal Digimon ended up stubbing their toes at least once on the trip. Tammy was complaining incessantly and no one could tell how Hawke was fairing.
They reached the mountains not long before the sun began to dip behind the horizon, and all of them were grateful that they hadn't encountered anything else on the trip. After all, if a hostile Digimon had shown up, Tammy would moan and run away and one of them would probably be injured to some extent.
"Who's up for finding a cave to spend the night in?" Cayden asked, looking to what he thought was the South. "It looks like there might be rain." He said.
"Let's look!" Tammy cheered, wanting somewhere dry to stay the night, and certainly not looking forwards to having to spend a night in the rain.
"Over there." The group turned to Hawke, who was pointing in the direction of what seemed to be a cave, but it was impossible to tell from the distance.
"Let's go then!" Aiden cheered. He'd improved on the walk, no longer needing to lean on Jade to stop himself from collapsing. He walked towards the cave, naturally trying to take the lead as the group headed off towards the possible shelter.
The group headed towards the cave. The ground - bare and rocky - passed beneath tired feet as they headed for the, hopefully empty, cave. "Why so much walking!" Tammy moaned. "Why couldn't we have been left a car?"
"A what?" Bloxmon looked up at his (her?) partner, as bemused as the other Digimon.
"A car..." She remembered what happened when Cayden tried to explain what his phone was. "Never mind."
"Hey! Hurry up!" Aiden and Holly, along with the Digimon, had already rushed ahead, now just outside the cave, waving them on.
"We're going as fast as we can!" Jade yelled, right as a drop of rain landed on her nose.
"Hurry up!" Cayden called, pulling into a jog. With a sigh from Tammy, she and Jade followed. Hawke continued at the same speed, until it started to grow heavy, by which time everyone else was safely inside the cave.
"Idiot." Jade slapped him on the back of the, wet, head as Hawke passed, half soaked. He shrugged off his jacket before leaning against a wall, sighing.
"Right. Where should we go next?" Cayden asked.
"I think that beach!" Tammy suggested, hoping to get a better tan.
"NO!" Aiden's shout was ignored by all.
"Why not the lake we saw earlier?" Holly asked.
"WHY WATER?!" Aiden moaned.
"Or we could try the mountain over there..." Jade suggested.
"Let's do that!" Aiden shouted, hoping to stop the discussion. There was a pause.
"Shouldn't Hawke have made some rude comment by now?" Tammy asked suddenly. The five humans and seven Digimon looked around the cave, searching for their... acquaintance.
"Has he been eaten?" Tammy sounded slightly hopeful.
"His jackets gone." Holly pointed at the slightly damp rock it had hung on.
"Maybe whatever ate him like jackets..." Tammy was reluctant to give up her daydream.
"We have to look for him!" Aiden told them. "Forward, MARCH!" He was about to leave the cave, when he remembered what rain was made of. "You guys go. I'll look after the cave." He turned and headed to the very back of the cave.
"Yeah, I'll help him." Tammy joined Aiden at the back, more worried about ruining her shoes then Hawke's health.
"Jade?" Cayden asked.
"... All right. But only because you asked." She added, sighing.
"Tammy, Aiden, Holly, you stay here with Bloxmon, Aquakoromon, Blackmon and Moonmon. Jade, Liomon, Spiritmon and Agumon, let's go."
"Good idea." Agumon said as they headed out.
Hawke had left while the others were deciding where to go. He'd seen something, and knew he had to go. He was walking quickly through the downpour with his jacket zipped up and hood over his cap, his hands were stuffed into his pockets. He walked across the ground, heading towards the thin grove of trees not a huge distance away. His pace was measured, calm, his expression showing an almost complete detachment from the world around him. He was focused on the grove, not noticing anything else, not the rain soaking through his clothes or the rocks that studded the ground.
The seven huddled in the cave. It was pretty cold, but they had nothing to warm themselves. Aiden suddenly jumped up, starting to pace. "Where are they? They must have gotten lost again!"
"They got lost?" Holly whispered, making Tammy giggle.
"Hey! What's that?" Aiden had seen something, a shelf of rock with something hanging over the edge. "Hey, Tammy. You're tall. Go get it!" he ordered cheerily. For her part, Tammy was too cold to argue. She just stood and reached, barely tall enough to pull whatever it was down. Sticks - a fair-sized bundle of sticks, tied together with a vine. The knot was loose, so she had no problem in untying it. Aiden, meanwhile, started picking up small stones, arranging them in a circle in the middle of the cave.
"What are you doing?" Holly asked.
"Making a campfire." He said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They always do it like this on the TV." He grabbed the sticks and, after a few tries, made them into a small pyramid. "Now all we need to do it light it."
"Tiny Flame." Moonmon summoned the little flame, sending it to the unlit campfire, lighting it.
"Hey, way to go!" Tammy and Holly, as well as the Digimon, gathered around the small fire, keeping themselves warm.
The two humans and two Digimon trudged through the storm, watching for any sign of movement as they crossed the open ground, yelling his name. "It's no use." Jade shivered.
"Right. We'll be no good if we end up collapsing from the cold." Cayden sighed. "We have to hope Hawke found some shelter..." He told her as they turned around.
Hawke entered the grove, finding that the leaves caught some of the rain. In the middle were three mounds, two small, one long. All three were overgrown with wildflowers.
"I'm so sorry..." He whispered, sitting down next to the mounds, tears falling as he hung his head, before starting to mutter to himself, seeing the faint glow at the base of one mound.
Cayden and Jade were surprised by the fire when they got back.
"Where is he?" Holly asked.
"We couldn't find him..." Jade said, sitting close to the flames, shivering as heat flooded into her.
"We just have to hope he's safe." Cayden muttered, taking the last free seat by the fire, trying to get warm and dry.
It rained through the whole night, and when the twelve beings in the cave awoke, it had already fallen to just drops of water falling from leaves, each droplet shining in the dawn's light. At this point, Cayden, Jade and, much to her annoyance, Tammy went out once again to try and hunt down Hawke, wherever he was. "Hey! Look at this!" Bloxmon, who'd also accompanied them, called. The five ran back to him (her?) and looked. In the drying mud was a faint impression of a shoe, another just a little ahead of it. "Just the one track."
"He must be that way!" Cayden called, running while Jade and Tammy followed, each at a slightly slower place.
"Why all the running?" Tammy groaned.
They found him quickly, lying unconscious and shivering, drenched and muttering something they couldn't quite hear. There were two mounds next to him, both covered in wildflowers, one about four or five times longer than the other. A third mound, similar to the smaller one, lay on the opposite side of the larger mound. Cayden walked over to the, almost dazed, Hawke and picked him up, carrying the tall blond in his arms as they began to walk back to the cave.
With Hawke next to the fire, the group gathered round the other side, most looking at him worriedly. His jacket was on a small frame near the flames, drying out and warming up ready to help keep the blond warm. He was shivering like crazy and was still muttering in his sleep.
"So what are we going to do?" Holly asked.
"Oh, let's just leave him!" Tammy exclaimed. "What good is he?" Tammy growled. Nobody listened.
"We should stay here for when he gets better." Aiden told them, silently glad that they wouldn't be going to any lake or beach any time soon.
"We'll need more wood for the fire." Cayden noted. "That grove we found Hawke in should have plenty."
"Food!" Jade burst in. "We really need food!" As if on cue, three human stomachs rumbled.
"We can help." Moonmon told them.
"Yeah, we'll help you get some food!" Spiritmon cheered, finding her wings were still too wet to use. Then she sniffed. "I think there's some in here..." She said, looking around. "Up there!" She pointed to one of the small shelves of rock in the walls of the cave, trying to fly up.
Cayden walked over, and reached up, barely touching the little hole. A sudden inspiration hit him. "Hey Aiden, lend me a hand?" He asked the small boy, who walked over.
Cayden crouched, giving the boy a chance to climb onto his back. "Oh, come on..." he muttered, but climbed up never the less, climbing onto the ravenette's shoulders, holding on as he stood and ducking when he nearly hit his head. He was now high enough to look into the hole. "What's all this doing here?" He asked, pulling something out.
Within a minute, Aiden had emptied the shelf, passing it all down to Tammy and Jade from his place on Cayden's shoulders. There were a lot of bottles of water, from five hundred milliliters to a five liter, as well as several empty ones. There were two bars of soap, a bottle of hair gel, a broken pair of goggles (which Aiden looked at sadly), a wilted daisy chain, a tiny pouch which seemed to hold four or five little objects (later discovered to be five gems, an amethyst, some quartz, some dark crystal, aquamarine and a sapphire), several strips of fabric in various shades of blue and green, a bracelet with small wooden beads, a necklace with nothing but a small metal wing, a watch that was out of power, a black bandana, several small handmade bags with straps made of vines and, most surprising of all, ten large pots of honey and several bags of various sweets. Which Holly pounced on almost instantly. "What is all this stuff?" He asked.
"Isabelle!"
"Please, get out of here."
"I can't leave you!"
"No, go. Promise me... Promise me that you will escape, that you'll get home..."
"Is..."
"Promise."
"I... I promise."
"Good..."
"Wait! Isabelle!"
"Goodbye..."
"ISABELLE!"
Hawke leapt upright, panting. It took him most of a minute to realise where he was, and that everyone was staring at him. The floor was littered with various things, from sweets to water. He guessed that they'd found him and taken him back to the cave. Shifting away from the fire, he grabbed a nearby bottle of water, unfastening the lid and drinking half of it in one go. Everyone was still staring at him. "Who's Isabelle?" Aiden finally asked. Hawke sighed, turning his eyes to the floor and refusing to answer. Tammy was the next to speak.
"How stupid can you get, waltzing about in the rain like that! You have no clue how muddy I got looking for you, not that I even wanted to in the first place!" She shouted, loud enough to make everyone cover their ears. Hawke shifted deeper into the cave, until he saw something. On a piece of black cloth, surrounded by several homemade bags, were several items, a broken pair of goggles, a bead bracelet, a necklace with a silver wing instead of a locket, a watch, a pouch, some gemstones. He instantly stood, and wrapped the items in the cloth, before grabbing a bag and several bottles of water, heading for the back of the cave.
"... What was that?" Holly asked. All the while, Agumon looked back worriedly.
As Hawke did whatever he was doing, the others were splitting the things they'd found between the bags. They left the five litre bottle, it being too big, but all of the others fit with ease. The eight bags were filled with the bottles of water, then topped up with the sweets and honey. They left some for Hawke's bag, although he'd already taken his share of water. "So who is going to take the other two bags?" Aiden asked, looking at the two that hadn't been taken.
"I'll take one." Cayden told him. "As for the other, any volunteers?" He asked, right as Hawke emerged from the darkness at the back of the cave. He walked past the five on the ground, going straight for the exit. "Where do you think you're going?" Cayden stood and grabbed the blonde's arm.
"I have something I need to do." Hawke struggled against the arm, but was still too cold and weak to escape.
"What?" Cayden asked, firmly.
"Something." Hawke sighed, giving up on his struggling as he realised just how cold he still was.
"You're still shivering." Cayden observed, dragging him back to the dying fire and forcing him to sit down before he threw the warm jacket over him. "You're going to stay there until you're fit to move again." He took the place opposite him, keeping one eye on him at all times. It was difficult to miss the glare. "Right, now who will take the last bag?" There was no response. "Then it's your's Hawke." He paused for a second. "As are all these." He pointed to the remaining sweets and last pot of honey. There was no reply. Cayden blinked, then noticed something.
"How...?" He was too surprised to speak.
"How did Hawke get out of here without us noticing, when we were all watching?" Jade asked, amazed.
"I have no clue..." Everyone was too bemused to do anything but stare at where Hawke was for a minute.
"Right. Lets go look for him!" Aiden cheered, leading them out of the cave.
Hawke had returned to the mounds, and was gazing at one of the smaller mounds, the one on the right. The others had obviously been there, there were a lot of footprints, as well as a surprising lack of the twigs he'd seen the night before. He sat a little in front of it, and began to dig.
They found him quickly, it being the first place they checked. The only reason they did so being that it was where they'd found him before. "If you don't want to be found, don't hide in the same place twice." Cayden told him as they entered the grove, seeing him on the ground with his back to them. He quickly moved an arm to do something, then stood and turned, pushing something into his pocket.
"What's that?" Holly asked, having noticed the thing. Hawke put up no pretenses. He sighed and withdrew the object from out of his pocket, throwing it to the young girl.
It could only have been another Digivice, dark grey with black buttons. It was slightly muddy, and had quite a few scratches. However, it was a different shape to the others, a beveled circle with a small hook or clip of some kind on the top. "Where did you find this?" Cayden asked. Hawke shrugged.
"Around."
"Seeing as how you never tell us anything anyway, I'll let you off." Cayden glared, but it didn't match Hawke's in any aspect, least of all length. After watching the same impassive gaze for barely five seconds, he gave up, instead trying to think up a way to coax some emotion out of the blond.
"Why is it so..." Holly searched for the right description.
"Beaten up?" Tammy supplied.
"Yeah." Holly paused. "It's a different shape too..." She muttered.
"Don't know." Hawke stood, obviously done with the conversation, and headed back towards the cave.
"What an enigma..." Cayden muttered
"What's that mean?" Tammy whispered, shyly
Hawk: I'm amazed... I barely took an hour to put this together... Although, to be fair, I did have the second half already written...
Kumo: Wow, Hawk works fast O.o Hope you enjoyed it, I certainly did :D