Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

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Chapter: 14

Rika raced through the park in the direction Takato had crashed landed, hoping beyond hope that no one would disturb the kid until she got there. She also hoped, though for reasons that had little to do with his wellbeing that he was all right.

The absolute last thing I want is to lose my chance here, and if Shibumi activated him, he's it! No, he's going to be fine. Shibumi wouldn't have wasted his power on someone who would stupidly kill himself like this.

Then again, she was forced to admit that she didn't know what went through the man's mind. She hadn't met him yet, and the only person that she knew of who did could only tell her that he could be…unpredictable.

Worry pressing on her mind she pushed her legs to go even faster; an easy task to accomplish for her even with next to no assistance from her F.S. Field. She could hear Takato's friends chasing after her but she blotted them out of her mind. They were irrelevant to her goal. They were little more than petty annoyances.

She soon found Takato, splayed out on his back, flat on the ground amidst a sea of leaves and broken branches. His eyes were closed and he was not moving. Guilmon, on the other hand, was next to him, nuzzling the boy's face and whimpering softly.

Doesn't look good, she thought, slowing down and dropping down next to him. Gently moving Guilmon aside with a stern order to not move, she placed a finger beneath his nose, and frowned when she detected not a hint of air against it. A quick drop of an ear his chest saw none of the normal rise and fall of someone breathing, nor a heartbeat. Definitely not a good sign. Her mind working rapidly, she tried to remember what she had been taught about CPR. Did she do compression only or compression and mouth-to-mouth?

Guilmon's incessant whine nearly broke her train of thought, causing her to make a loud shushing sound. "Shut up!" she hissed under her breath for added emphasis. Guilmon sat down on his haunches, watching with large and plainly worried dark eyes. Chewing over her lip, Rika considered her options.

Even if I set my F.S. Field at minimum I'm still strong enough to hurt him pretty badly…even kill him if I tried that, she thought, opening his mouth and checking to see if there was anything obstructing his windpipe.

Kazu and Kenta finally drew to a halt, their chests heaving and they looked winded; a stark contrast to their friend. Not that it mattered. For the first time since meeting them, she was glad they were there.

"What…the heck…?" began Kazu, but Rika quickly spoke over him.

"He's not breathing," she said. "He needs CPR and…" she hesitated for but a moment before continuing. "…and I'm not strong enough for the chest compression thing. I need one of you two to do it."

"Huh-wha?" began Kenta, and at once he looked as though he wasn't comprehending what he heard. Kazu stepped forward without hesitation and dropped down to his friend's side.

"I'll do it," he said, pressing an ear to Takato's chest. "My mom's a registered nurse at Shinjuku General, so she taught me a few things. You can do the whole breathing thing." Kazu tilted Takato's head back. "Lift the chin, pinch the nose, and blow until you see his chest rise, got it? You'll give two breaths for every thirty of my pumps, so keep an ear out as I count."

"All right," Rika, deciding to take his word for it.

"Kenta," Kazu continued, unfolding a pocket knife and cutting into his friend's shirt. "You give the hospital a call."

"Why?" asked Kenta as Kazu cut as much as he could and simply tore the rest with his bare hands, honestly puzzled. "If he awakens, he'll be fine."

"Just do it!" Kazu snapped angrily before pressing down on his friend's chest, beginning to count. Rika watched and listened. Upon the count of thirty, Rika drew in a deep breath and covered Takato's mouth with hers. One breath. Two breaths. She pulled back. She licked her lips worriedly and looked at Takato's chest. Had it risen? Or did nothing…?

A loud explosion resounded on the air, nearly causing Rika to jump while Kenta supplied a low scream of surprise.

"What was that?!" Kenta exclaimed, sounding as though he were about to fly off into a panic.

"Nothing good," Kazu said, continuing to press down on Takato's chest. A bead of sweat crawled down his face. "Crap. I messed up. I forgot what number I was…"

"Eight," Rika said. Her hearing was always excellent no matter what was going on around her.

"Thanks. Kenta? Hospital?"

"Ah! Right!"

Just like that, Kazu was back to work. Another explosion sounded, and Rika could smell smoke on the air. She hesitated in her thinking while Kazu's count crept towards thirty.

Whatever's going on, it sounds bad… She frowned as another, this time a smaller explosion, echoed. Should I do something? Mom wouldn't. She glanced at Kenta, who was looking frantic. She looked back at Takato. But…I can't just take off. If he's the best chance I have at finding…

Her thoughts were interrupted as Kazu hit thirty, and Rika dropped her mouth back on Takato's, breathing life into him.

…

Sunlight beat down on Takato as he slowly opened his eyes. He felt…exhausted for some reason, and that he was floating. He wasn't wholly surprised by this. The doctor had told him that this feeling was most likely one he was going to be having for the rest of his life following his incident with the man in the park. Every rest for him, unaided by his suppressants, would be filled with strange dreams and the sensation of floating.

I wonder if I'll ever get used to it, he thought, feeling rather miserable at the idea.

A sharp pain suddenly flared in his chest. Crying out, Takato clutched at it and sat up…only to nearly sink beneath the deep waters that he found himself in. Sputtering and splashing, Takato twisted and turned until he was back on his back, floating on the water as best as he could all the while trying to ignore the fact that it was seeping into his shoes and underwear.

Cold… he shivered disbelievingly, forcing himself to not pull his body tightly together for warmth lest he sink again. The water's cold…

"Wha…? Where…?" Looking around, he saw nothing but ocean for as far as eye could see, stretching in all directions, calm, serene, and endless. "Oh man…" he groaned, feeling as if something inside him had just cracked. "This again."

Water. He nearly forgot that it had been water in his last dream as well.

At least this time I'm not drowning, he thought, trying to cheer himself up. It didn't work though. Raising a hand he punched himself in the head, hoping that he could wake himself up from the dream's sheer realism.

Unfortunately for him, the dream persisted, leaving him stranded in the middle of nowhere with no dry land beneath his feet, or rather his back. He punched himself again to make sure, but again reality refused to cooperate. He splashed back down on the water's surface, frustrated.

"Great… Just great. So I can't wake up? What am I supposed to do now?" Lashing out, he slammed his fists onto the ocean, splashing. "Wake up already, Takato! Wake…up!"

…You're too close… came a soft whisper in his mind, and Takato jerked up, eyes wide in surprise.

"Who said…whoa!" Takato found himself accidently swallowing water—it had a mild, salty taste to it—as he dunked himself. Splashing back up to his back, he looked around him wildly, trying to find the source of the voice.

There was no one. Only him, and the ocean.

"You know," he said with mild sarcasm. "I'm really starting to hate this dream. Nothing happens."

A strong wave rolled beneath him, and he watched as it spread outward in a circular fashion, like a ring. He frowned, curious.

That doesn't look like a ripple I made, he thought, though he wasn't sure why he would notice something like that.

The ocean beneath him lifted suddenly, and Takato cried out in surprise as it dropped back down, sending ripples of waves spreading outward. Unthinkingly, he sat up again, watching them go. They surged onward, not abating; not losing strength.

Takato realized that he hadn't sunk again.

"Wha…?" Looking around him he saw that an inky darkness had surrounded him while he watched the waves, forming a solid landmass from which he could stand on. Getting to his feet, he stared at it, completely flummoxed at what he was seeing. Whatever it was, it was so dark that it just seemed to suck his eyes in. Instantly he was reminded of a time when he was no less than a year old and still in a crib with a pile of toys sitting next to him. He shivered unconsciously, remembering that he had been afraid at the time. Not of the toys per se, not at all. Rather, he had been afraid of what they covered.

He was becoming engulfed in the memory now, thinking back on how his small, pudgy, baby arm had stretched out for his pile of toys and removed a stuffed rabbit from it, revealing a darkness behind it that looked just like this. So black it conjured up images of monsters hiding within it. So deep it went on forever and seemed to suck everything into it. Yet it wasn't that which had made that particular darkness so unsettling.

It had been the pair of eyes staring back at him, round, catlike, and unblinking.

Takato was thrust back into the present as dozens of eyes suddenly popped into existence beneath him. He shouted in surprise, stumbling backward and nearly falling off the island. As if in response, an equal number of grins appeared beneath the eyes, and an arm thrust forward out of the water. Takato stood stock still, dumbstruck and afraid all at the same time. The arm was corpse white in its appearance, and its fingers flexed and stretched in a stiff, almost zombie-like fashion. As Takato watched, the darkness swelled and began to rise.

"No!" he exclaimed, rushing forward as instinct born from memory threw him into action. He stomped down on the swell of darkness, and it hissed back at him, all eyes turning on him venomously. It didn't stop swelling though and Takato was down on his knees, pushing at it, trying to keep it from breaching the surface. The corpse-arm flapped and slapped at him uselessly, but seemed blind in how to further attack him. Takato paid it no mind. The darkness only seemed to matter to him. He pushed and pressed down with all his might.

I can't let this come through! he thought desperately. I can't!

With a loud shout, he pushed again, driving down all the harder. A bright blue aura flashing around his body and…

…

"Whoa!"

Rika gasped in surprise as her mouth was forcefully pushed off Takato's while Kazu, for his part, went flying, collapsing in a heap a couple meters off like a ragdoll, eyes wide with bewilderment. Takato was no less stunned than he was, though for entirely different reasons. His body felt electrified, and he felt a strange sensation that he was pushing against something that refused to be budged. Something…strangely close by and appeared to be Rika, given her proximity to him. Only, the thing was, he wasn't doing anything with his hands and she didn't appear to be fighting him either. What he saw though was a bright blue light reflecting off the girl's visage, giving her an illumination that made her appear rather…beautiful and striking in a way that reminded him of moonlight.

"Takato!" shouted Jeri's voice, snapping him back to attention. "Calm down! Your F.S. Field is going out of control! Listen to me! I…"

Jeri's voice was drowned out suddenly by a loud squawking sound, causing Takato to clench his eyes shut as it drilled into his ear before stopping almost as soon as it began. He felt something rising inside of him; something that was about to explode and…

The feeling of hands grabbing hold of the sides of his face brought him back and he found himself staring back into the light illuminated face of Rika Nonaka as she looked at him intensely.

"Slow…deep breaths, Takato," she said in a loud, yet calm tone. The rising feeling inside him ebbed slightly in response. "Focus on me," she continued, tracing a thumb over his cheekbone. "Focus on my voice and breathe. Slow…and deep." She continued in a quieter tone, stroking the sides of his face soothingly, and the light playing on her face began to dim rapidly. "That's it. You're doing good. Just stay focused."

Takato nodded, his breathing normalizing, and within short order the light vanished completely from sight. A small smile played on Rika's face just then and she clapped him lightly on his cheek.

"All right. Good job. You're all set." She got to her feet and dusted off her jeans while Takato sat up, wincing painfully. For some reason his chest hurt.

"What's going on?" he whispered. He winced again, clutching at his chest. It hurt bad, as though someone had hit him with a sledgehammer. As if to drive the point home, Guilmon leapt on him, tongue slaving everywhere on his face it could reach. The puppies paws pressed on his chest, causing an intense flash of pain to rip through his chest. "Ow!" he exclaimed before Rika could pull the animal off.

"That's what I'd like to know," Kazu said as Kenta helped him back to his feet. "What the heck was with that light show? Takato, are you…?"

"He's a heros," spoke up the voice of Jeri from Takato's side. Her electric eye flickered blue and Takato lifted her slightly before unclipping her. "He was admitted to Shinjuku General hospital yesterday following an incident in the park with an aggressor heros. He was…activated."

"Guess that explains why you didn't show up yesterday," Kazu grunted, causing Takato to blink in surprise over the boy's reaction…or rather his lack of reaction. "Not to mention the light show."

"He's…" Kenta blinked and grabbed the sides of his head. "Takato's a heros now?! I…I don't… This is…this is… I don't believe…"

Takato breathed a sigh in spite of his pain. In a way he was almost relieved. Kenta's reaction was far more normal.

"Yeah, he's a heros," Kazu said, glowering at the other boy. "Didn't you hear the Companion thingie talk? What? Are you going to go emo on me or something?"

"No!" Kenta exclaimed, balling up his fists. "Why would I? It's just…it's just…"

"Just…what? That he threw me into the air without touching me?" Reaching out he smacked Kenta on the back of his head, nearly knocking his glasses off. "Grow up already. He's still the same goofball we've always known isn't he?"

Kenta glared at Kazu before turning his attention over to Takato. He was still frowning, as though he wasn't sure what to make of this recent development.

"Yeah. Sure he is."

Rika, who had been watching the exchange, Guilmon in hand, reassessed her opinion of Kazu. He was taking the unexpected change far, far better than she could ever hope to expect from someone normal.

Maybe he's a heros-in-hiding like me also, she thought, but she was quick to set the thought aside. Without proof she couldn't be certain.

Besides, she still had an act of her own to keep up.

"You could have told me about this," she said, turning to Takato, putting on her best I'm-disappointed-in-you face. Takato had the decency to at least look sorry for his lack of being open, even though she was already well aware of it.

"S-Sorry," he said apologetically. "It's just…I thought…"

"Forget about it," she said, seeing Kazu start forward as though he were about to defend his friend. "Our deal still stands. I just wish you'd been upfront about…your condition." She strained to say that last word without sounding like she was spitting out something awful. "It sure freaked me out when you jumped into the air like that."

"And the light show didn't bother you?" muttered Kazu sarcastically, dropping down next to Takato. "How're you doing, buddy?"

"Chest hurts," Takato croaked.

"That'd be the broken ribs, buddy."

Takato's eyes went wide. "Broken ribs?!"

"What'd you expect from CPR? I'm putting a lot of pressure on them. My mom said that it's like a third of the…uh…chest cavity or something like that." He turned to Kenta. "What's the word on that ambulance?"

Kenta blanched, looking anxious all of a sudden. "Um…I…kind of…don't have a signal."

Kazu palmed his face in exasperation. "Kenta…"

What a dork," thought Rika, rolling her eyes. It was as if the kid had never thought of asking for one of theirs.

"Takato will be fine," said Takato's Companion Module. "As a heros, his healing and resistance capability is significantly greater than the average human." Her electric eye flickered blue as she continued. "I've done a scan of his body. At most Kazu, you only fractured his ribs."

"That doesn't sound any better," groaned Takato.

"You will still need medical attention, but you'll be fine within a couple days as long as you don't strain yourself."

"Sounds like a pretty good deal to me," Kazu noted. "We could probably take care of it ourselves. My mom has a lot of medical stuff at home we can use. Bandages…stitching needles…the works." A pause. "Sort of."

"Um…but…wouldn't it be better if I went to the hospital?" asked Takato. The pain in his chest certainly felt like it needed it. Kazu's eye met Rika's, and the girl instantly saw the meaning in them.

"Depends," she said. "Your little machine said that your ribs are going to be good on their own…"

"That's not what I said," interrupted Jeri, but Rika ignored her.

"…and do you really want the government to know about what happened here?" she continued. "With all the stories, what do you think is going to happen if someone upstairs hears that you lost control of your powers?"

"She's right, bud," Kazu chimed in. "Remember that article we read about that one guy? The one who accidently shut down power in school on the east side? What's his name…? The janitor guy. Um…" He tapped his chin thoughtfully as he wracked his brain, but eventually he came up with nothing. "Forget it. The point is, the guy lost control of his powers for only a second and PlanPol made him disappear. If they figure out you're the same guy who jumped across a street today after nearly getting run down…"

"But…but Jeri knows!" Takato exclaimed, only to wince a second later. "My…Companion," he coughed. "She reports everything!"

"I won't report this."

"Huh?"

This from all four youths as they blinked at the Companion Module, whose electric eye was swiveling back and forth between them.

"But…" began Takato. "…aren't you supposed to report what I do?"

"I am supposed to care for your well-being as well," replied Jeri. "That is my main purpose. I will…overlook this incident for now as no one was actually harmed, but I would like to look into the dosage requirements for you suppressant and compare it to your blood work. It may have been underestimated."

"Um…okay…"

"Glad we got that out of the way," said Rika, smirking triumphantly as she turned to Kazu. "Now, what was that you were saying about your mom's medical stuff?"

…

A/N: This chapter really should have been a part of last chapter, but I didn't have it well plotted out at the time. The last part of this chapter feels a bit…off and unrealistic, though that could be because I'm rarely ever happy with my writing on an editing level, so I may end up dumping it in future edits. Any thoughts or advice on this chapter would be greatly appreciated. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you in the next one. 'Till then.

-Crazyeight

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