Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. Believe it or not!
Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "air".
Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Just navigate to the little button at the top of the screen to Forum to Anime to Digimon to Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!
I'm just having so much fun with this, but I am also taking my time. I sped through the ending of TLT - not sped through as in I left a lot of stuff out, but as in I just sped wrote the last of it to get it done. But with this one, I don't have a self-imposed deadline looming over me, so I am back to just writing as writing happens. I know it can be a pain to get semi-slow updates, but hopefully it's not too awful. If you've been following my update schedule for a while, you know that sometimes I just start speed updating and sometimes I just need a break. That's just how I am. Right now, I am in neither. I just taking my sweet time. I hope you...
Enjoy!
Chapter Two
The thing about falling to your death at sixty miles an hour and climbing without any hope of a recovery – you don't often realize it's a bad idea until it's way too late.
"I can't!" Patamon cried.
"Patamon, you have to!" TK yelled.
"I can't!" Patamon said. "I don't have the energy!"
Patamon's wings flapped as quickly as he could as he clutched the back of TK's t-shirt, desperately trying to carry him, but there was no way. TK's weight was dropping them through the air, rapidly speeding toward the ground. In about ten seconds, they were both going to end up liquefied pancakes. This was not exactly how TK had hoped things were going to end.
"Patamon, you can do it! Just focus! Or we're dead!" TK screamed.
"I can't—!"
"PATAMON! Digi-Armor Engerize!"
For a second, all that TK heard was the sound of wind whipping through his ears. He thought this was it. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to feel too much regret at dying without any memory. And then over the sound of the roaring in his ears –
"Patamon digivolve to… Pegasusmon!"
TK's momentum suddenly went from terminal to "oh crap, this is going to hurt". His body jerked with so much force that it gave him whiplash. It took him a second to get his bearings straight and realize that Pegasusmon had the back of his t-shirt in his mouth, and another moment after that to find the strength and stability scramble his way onto his back, arms secured around his neck with his heart in his throat. TK reached down and patted Pegasusmon's armored side affectionately.
"Good work, Pegasusmon," TK said. "You did it."
"N-Not for long, TK," Pegasusmon said. "I don't know how long I can hold this form. I don't… have the energy…"
"Just get us to the ground," TK said, trying to ignore the way fear clutched his gut at the sound of the struggle in Pegasusmon's voice. "I'll do the rest."
"I-I can't…"
"Yes, you can! The ground's right there, Pegasusmon. We're almost there!"
TK had no sooner finished speaking before Pegasusmon was enveloped in light, and he disappeared back into his much smaller form of Patamon. For a moment, TK was suspended in air, as if the physics of the Digital World couldn't decide if it wanted to take pity on him or just drop him ungracefully to the desert ground. The Digital World went with the latter option.
TK fell, screaming all the way. He heard the Vilemon duo yelling after him, and as he tumbled through the air, he caught a glimpse of one of them looking down at him from atop the cliff. Not that he had time to worry about it. The ground was rapidly approaching. Collision in five, four, three…
He managed to fall into a roll to avoid breaking his legs on impact. He skidded about twenty feet through dust and dirt. Patamon went one way. TK went the other.
As he rolled off another short ledge, a horrible scenario flashed through his mind: landing in the middle of the Mammothmon herd, ending up squashed under some oblivious digimon's hoof until later when they realized they'd stepped in something gross. The Mammothmon would scrape off his remains on a sharp rock. Gross human flies falling from the sky. Never pick up after themselves!
Miraculously, the Mammothmon herd had moved on since the last time TK had checked – just enough to land several feet outside of the herd and crash into a clump of bushes instead. It wasn't a soft landing, but it was better than sharp rocks or under a Mammothmon's hoof.
TK groaned. He wanted to lie there and pass out, but he had to keep moving.
He struggled to his feet. His hands were scratched up, his entire body hurt, and he had either sweat or blood trailing down his face – but miraculously, no bones seemed to be broken. He still had his backpack. Somewhere on the trip down he'd lost his digivice, but he was in too much pain to panic just yet. That would come later.
"P-Patamon?" he called out shakily.
Everything around him was dusty orange, so it took him a few sweeps around the area before he found his digimon partner caught in a thorn bush. TK winced at the sight and hobbled over to carefully pick him out. He wasn't conscious, but as TK picked a thorn off of his batwing ear, he groaned in pain, so TK took that as a good sign.
He glanced back up the hill. The Vilemon were hard to miss, with their dark-colored fur and bright red Mohawks. The cheery one had finally fully reformed, and they spread their wings before jumping off the edge to chase after them. They flew slowly, their eyes sweeping the desert trying to locate them. His tumble through the dirt had left a nice thick layer of red sand in his hair and all over his clothes; it was acting as a temporary camouflage, buying him a few minutes. But he knew it wouldn't work when they got closer. TK figured he had maybe five minutes at most before he was spotted and that was if he stayed in one place and didn't draw attention to himself.
Next to him, a paved path curved around the steep slope and apparently led into some sort of mud-hutted village. He figured that some sort of mostly friendly digimon lived there – the nicer digimon seemed to live in communities, while the meaner ones tended to be loners. TK could probably slip around the rock face, go hide out there until the Vilemon left. Maybe he could find food, water, enough to survive a walk in the desert. He didn't like stealing food, but over the past few weeks, food had literally become life-and-death, so he'd "borrowed" quite a bit when given the chance. He always intended to somehow repay the digimon he stole from, but he never seemed to make his way back to where they were.
He glanced the opposite direction. A data stream opened and shot through the sky, picking up everything in its path like a digital tornado. There was no telling where it led, but he knew if he ran right into it, surely it would take him somewhere away from here. Nothing about this data stream seemed different than any of the others, but something about it was sending TK's internal instincts off like crazy.
But why?
After so many horrible days, he felt like he'd finally reached his goal. He'd walked, run, hid, lived – all this way just to be picked up by some random data stream and dropped somewhere else. How did that make any sense? And yet, his instincts told him that if he could make it to that data stream, he might find safety for the first time since waking up in this unforgiving world two months ago.
So why did everything feel so wrong?
The Vilemon were circling overhead, scanning every piece of land for their prey. Three minutes before spotted – maybe less.
Part of him wanted to throw caution to the wind and run for the data stream. He'd have to run through open desert to reach it, but with it coming toward him as he ran for it, the sprint wouldn't be too long. He could make it before the Vilemon reached them. Maybe.
But the other part of him wanted to head for the village. Get food, water, then head for the desert. The Vilemon would probably leave him to his death, but he was resilient. He'd probably be able to find shelter before dehydration claimed him. Then he'd have time to breathe, recuperate, come up with a solid non-hunger induced plan.
Plus that data stream made him uneasy. Something inside him said: That doesn't lead to home. Don't let it trick you.
"You're right, of course," said a voice next to him.
TK jumped. At first he thought Cheery Vilemon had managed to sneak up on him again, but the man sitting in the bushes was even more of a shocking sight than the demon digimon. For one, he was completely see-through. For another, he looked completely human – ignoring the see-through part anyway. He looked like he might be about forty, maybe early fifties, with a receding hairline and copper hair. He had a nice full beard and a kind but patronizing smile. He wore a yellow hoody with blue jeans.
"Oh, here, you might need this," the man continued as he held out TK's digivice.
Where he'd found it or how he was holding it when he looked transparent and ghost-like, TK had no idea. He hesitantly took his digivice and muttered out a very confused, "Thanks."
"That data stream won't take you to another part of the Digital World," the man said.
"It won't?" TK asked despite himself.
"Nope," he confided. "That data stream is special. It's manmade. I made it actually. It will take you to the Real World. If you want."
A jolt went up TK's spine. The Real World. Yes, that's where he was from. The Real World. With humans. Mothers, fathers, siblings. Somewhere. Maybe his home was on the other side. Maybe Kari was close by.
But something still felt wrong.
The Vilemon were still circling the skies. Then Cheery Vilemon shrieked in delight and pointed at a random thorn bush on the other side of the canyon. TK still had time, but once they realized he was not the bush, it wouldn't be long.
The old hippie man raised an eyebrow. "It looks like you don't have much time. You need to make a choice."
"Who are you?" TK asked, though he wasn't fully sure that he wanted to know. The last thing he needed was to find out even harmless looking humans turned out to be murderous digimon.
"You can call me Shibumi." The older man's eyes sparkled as if he were telling an excellent joke that TK was just not getting. "But don't confuse it for Shinobi. I may be amazing, but I am not a ninja."
"Right…" Patamon groaned in his arms, and TK shook his head. "Look, I should go. Those Vilemon are after us, and… I don't know if they can hurt you, but just in case, I wouldn't want you to get caught in the crossfire."
If possible, Shibumi's eyebrow rose even higher. "How noble." He spoked as if he were in no rush despite TK's bouncing where he sat crouched with nerves. "I can tell you this – if you go for the desert, there is an oasis about a day's walk in. You'll reach it, and the Vilemon will assume you dead. You might even be able to live there just fine for a while. Maybe even for the rest of your life. No pain, no misery, just you and your digimon."
TK held Patamon a little bit closer to his chest. "Why do I feel like I'm not going to like the second option as much?"
"Or you could give all your hope into the idea that our meeting was destiny and take the unknown path," he said.
The Vilemon had finally realized that he was not a thorn bush and only a second later spotted him – they were gliding toward him now, leisurely, knowing that he had nowhere really to run.
TK glanced nervously toward Shibumi. "Destiny? Really?"
"Absolutely," he said. "Believe it or not, but all of this – everything leading up to this moment – has been your destiny. A destiny you can deny, of course. But if you do, the world as we know it will be destroyed, and everyone from your old life will cease to exist. Of course, you don't remember any of them, so maybe that wouldn't matter so much. The desert offers you personal safety."
TK swallowed. The Vilemon shrieked with laughter as they soared in for the kill.
"TK," Patamon suddenly spoke up, sounding weak but at least awake, "whatever you decide, I'm with you."
That just made everything harder.
"If I go to the Real World," TK said, "will we get our memories back?"
"Eventually," Shibumi said. "But I should warn you, I can't see the future – can't even pretend to try – but I suspect that if you choose that path, it won't be easy. You'll lose your armor, for one. There is a lot of fighting ahead, and I know it won't be easy. But if you do come join us, you might get the chance to save your old friends and family, and reclaim your old life."
The Vilemon were circling right over his head. They were probably studying the strange ghostly man, trying to figure out if he were a threat or not before they attacked.
TK hated this whole situation. At worst, this was a trap. At best, it was some kind of test. Or, maybe, the guy was just telling the truth: it was just destiny playing its hand, which sucked just as much. TK was starting to hate the idea of destiny. If this was his destiny, it was a really crappy one. Since he'd lost his memory, his whole life was one big fill-in-the-blank. How was anybody supposed to fulfill any sort of great destiny with this little information on the world?
Then he thought of Kari, the only part of his old life he was sure about. He had to find her, especially if she was in danger.
"Okay." TK glanced up toward the Vilemon and back toward Shibumi. He'd already made his decision, but something made him hesitate. He wanted to leave this world so badly it hurt, but that data stream seemed… different.
"It's connected directly to the Digital World's core," Shibumi said as if reading his mind. "It connects directly to him. He'll do whatever he can to weaken you. The only thing he'll be able to do at this state is take away your Digiegg of Hope, but I know how it's gotten you this far. This is your last chance to back out."
"Take it away?" Patamon asked. "I won't become Pegasusmon anymore?"
"The Digieggs are a Holy Beasts blessing, and he is their master. It was only going to be a matter of time before he took it from you. This is just going to give him direct access."
TK was too exhausted to understand all of that, but he got the main point. "So if we go to the Real World using that data stream, it's gone."
"I'm sorry," Shibumi said. "I couldn't figure out a way to mask your presence when you were in route. But you must make a choice."
TK tried to push aside his fear. "Are you going to be okay if we just leave you here?"
"I'll be fine," Shibumi said. "After all, I'm not really here to begin with."
Then, before TK's very eyes, Shibumi dissipated into nothing. TK blinked rapidly to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.
Patamon muttered out, "Whoa."
Angry Vilemon shot down toward him, and TK broke out of his shock just in time to dive out of the way. He rolled through the dust and landed on his feet. Kari, TK thought. He bolted toward the data stream. "Hold on, Patamon!" he called.
Somewhere off to his left, Angry Vilemon cried, "You can't get away from us that easy! Sooner or later, we'll catch you—!"
TK stepped into the data stream and was ripped off of the ground. It was like being sucked up a vacuum tube at supersonic speed. It was much swifter than he'd imagined. The only thing he could hear was the roar through his own ears and the sound of his and Patamon's screams. He held tight to Patamon, waiting for them to slam against the side of the "tube" they were flying through, but the data stream seemed to know what it was doing. It kept him perfectly centered as it carried him higher and higher. He wondered what was on the other side – had the old man lied? At this point, TK was just exhausted and scared enough to believe just about anything. He sure hope he hadn't just led them to their death.
He started to hear something else. Children laughing. Honking horns. Traffic. Crowd chatter. Life. TK's heart pounded. His chest ached.
The journey came to an abrupt end. He was thrown out onto pavement unexpectedly, losing a layer of skin in the process that he hoped he didn't need. TK fell onto his back and groaned.
"I really need to stop doing that," he complained.
"TK," Patamon said, "what is this?"
TK peeled his eyes open to look around him. He'd expected to see a city street, buildings, people. Instead, he found himself in the middle of an extremely thick fog. TK sat up and ran his hand through the air in front of him. His fingers moved through the vapor as if it weren't even there. It wasn't wet like a cloud or steam; it was just thick, hard to see through.
"I have no idea," he said.
"I feel funny," Patamon said.
TK gave him a concerned look. The fog was so thick that he could barely make him out, but somehow Patamon looked more alert and stronger than he had in days. His eyes were wide and pupils dilated as if he'd been injected with caffeine.
"Funny, how?"
"Funny… good," Patamon said. "I feel like I've eaten a four-course meal. I—TK!"
TK whipped his head around to see two vague images in the fog. They were fading in and out of existence as if coming in on a bad connection, but every second made their image stronger.
"Vilemon," TK said.
He scrambled to his feet and blindly headed away from them. He took two steps and then fell flat on his face as he stepped off of a curb he hadn't seen. His wrists screamed in pain as he tried to break his fall. The sound of an approaching car sent TK's adrenaline into overdrive as he threw himself back onto the sidewalk just as a Honda went speeding down the street, rolling over the pavement TK had been laying on just seconds before. Patamon grabbed the back of his t-shirt and dragged him further away from the street.
"Which way's out, Patamon? I can't see!"
"I don't know, TK. Just stay here, I'll protect you."
TK would have been embarrassed if he could hear himself right now. His voice trembled with fear and exhaustion. Tears of frustration sprung to his eyes. This was just too much. A large part of him just wanted to give up at this point. He'd made it to the Real World, but he was completely blind to everything around him.
The Vilemon broke out of their stasis. They grinned through the fog at their prey. Angry Vilemon cackled. "We have you now, little hope! When we destroy you, we will be handsomely rewarded by our master! We will be favored! We will—!"
"Terrier Tornado!"
A mini-tornado suddenly ripped through the fog and slammed right into both Vilemon. They yelped in pain and were sent flying in different directions. A small stuffed-looking rabbit appeared out of the chaos, looking completely unharmed.
"Villain speeches are so overrated," the rabbit said.
"Terriermon!" an exasperated voice said.
"What?" the rabbit said. "They are!"
"I didn't tell you to go in yet," the voice said.
"Henry," the rabbit whined, "if I waited for you to tell me to go in, I'd die of boredom before we'd ever get anything done!"
A girlish giggle sounded from within the fog. Her silhouette appeared next to Terriermon's partner – Henry. TK couldn't see either of them well at all, just their shapes in the fog. The girl had something in her hand.
"Vilemon," the girl said, sounding a bit more serious after her giggling. "Champion level. Virus type. They're a devil-like digimon who prey on the weak. Their special attack is Nightmare Shock."
"Sounds like they're real friendly," Terriermon said sarcastically.
None of them seemed to have noticed TK yet.
"Where's Rika?" a new male voice asked.
"Who cares?" said a third male voice. "Guardromon and I got this."
"Yeah, we got this!" a mechanical voice echoed.
"Why do you always have to repeat everything I say?" said the voice of the third boy.
"Why do you always have to repeat everything I say?" Guardromon asked.
"She's on her way," the first male voice, Henry, said. "Terriermon, don't do anything reckless."
"Jeez, Henry. Take the fun out of everything, why don'tchya?" Terriermon said.
"Jeri," Henry continued, his voice echoing through the fog as he ignored Terriermon, "you and Kenta should stay back. Kazu and I will handle this."
The second boy groaned. "Why don't we get to ever fight?"
"Because we don't want you to piss your pants, Kenta," the third voice said.
"That was once!" the second boy said. "In first grade!"
A strange chirping noise suddenly sounded from within the fog. TK wondered if he should try to make another escape, but his fear kept him on his knees, not knowing which way to go.
"Guys," the second voice – Kenta, if TK was keeping track correctly – said. "MarineAngemon says there's someone else in here with us. Another kid."
"Patamon," TK muttered, "hide."
He wasn't sure why he said it. The order was second nature, like he was used to hiding his digimon partner around unknown humans. But Patamon remained frozen on top of his head.
"I think it's a little late for that," Patamon said.
Then out of the fog, a boy wearing an orange t-shirt with navy blue hair and a green digivice hanging from his belt stepped forward. His eyes went from concerned to shocked as he took in Patamon on top of his head. He didn't seem to know what to say for a second. From behind him, his companions starts to come into view. A girl with auburn hair pulled back into a braid. A boy with light brown hair sticking straight up with too much hair gel. And another boy with dark hair in a bowl cut and glasses. They all regarded him with curiosity and uncertainty.
Finally, the first boy spoke, "Who are you?"
Not knowing what else to do, TK decided to just answer honestly. "I'm TK… Takeru. Takeru Takaishi."
