by Leto
Chapter four - The first day: midday
--General POV - Joe's group--
Joe couldn't complain at these arrangements, and leaned back against a tree - a tree with a black trunk, no leaves, and a strange smell, but a tree nonetheless - falling asleep within seconds. Which was quite an impressive compliment because he was not surrounded by quiet company.
"I'm hungry," said Mimi, "it's not good for me to skip meals, and I need to be taking iron supplement pills, and lots of fresh vegetables and ohh I would kill for a cinnamon donut right now."
Sora sweatdropped. "I don't think cinnamon donuts come under the category of fresh vegetables."
"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything but vegetables around here," said Cody, "and most of them look pretty inedible at that."
"Yeah, I think there's something really wrong with the plantlife around here," said Mimi, wrinkling up her nose in confusing, "it's almost like something's sapped the colour right out of them."
"Maybe something has," said Sora.
"I still want my donuts," said Mimi, "I could eat about a million of 'em. And thick, creamy yoghurt. And maybe some raw cookie dough. Ohh, why did I ever leave home? Why aren't there ever any convenience stores where they would be really convenient?"
"Hey, my family's convenience store is very conveniently located," said Yolei, "except, of course, that it's not exactly accessable right now..."
"One of those digital ports would be nice right now," said Mimi, "we could go pick up some... oh! You know what would taste REALLY good?"
"Mimi, stop it, you're making me hungry," said Sora.
"At least Joe's not awake," said Mimi, "he's ALWAYS hungry."
Yolei grinned rather evilly. "Doesn't he look cute when he's asleep..."
"Not nearly as cute as Michael! Heheheh, I can't wait to get back and see him after this is over!"
"You know who else is cute?" began Yolei.
Cody cleared his throat loudly.
"This isn't going to degenerate into girl talk, is it?" asked Cody warily, "because I remind you all that I'm still here."
"How could I forget," muttered Yolei. She was sitting cross legged with her back crushed up against his and her arms half-pinioned to his; she thought she was starting to lose circulation to half her body, but she couldn't move unless he did. Cody, being taller, was even less comfortable, his long legs sprawling out awkwardly in front of him.
Sora smiled suddenly. "Hey Mimi, with your plant know-how and my flower arranging skills, how would you like to collaborate with me on a new little project?"
"What did you have in mind?"
--Matt's POV--
The way we've taken seems to be pretty quiet. It's almost a shame, I wouldn't mind some action. Takeru and Kari are a long way from the two children we always used to feel we had to protect. They're walking quite close to each other.
We travel along in enemy-less silence for quite a way, and then Kari speaks.
"Is it just me, or are the trees starting to look a little different?"
She's right, if it comes to that. Their bark is not so dark, and the air feels a little lighter, less oppressive.
"We must be reaching the end of the forest," says Takeru.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the trees thin out substantially and we find ourselves looking out over a valley of grey rock. Actually, I don't think this is the end of the forest - across the valley, on the other side, there are more trees. But this is a pretty big sort of clearing.
"Are they - houses?" asks Kari suddenly, pointing to one end of the valley. Well, my eyesight isn't as good as hers, but there's *something* there that isn't part of the valley.
"Let's check it out," I say, "if there are houses, maybe whoever lives there can help us."
So we make our way down the rocky cliff face, and into the valley. It takes a while to get down there, but as we approach whatever Kari saw, it *does* look like there are houses. Well, more like the sort of huts you see in National Geographic, but houses nonetheless.
As we get close, Kari breaks into a run - and naturally, Takeru does too, to follow her - and starts calling out. "Hello? Are there any Digimon there? Could you help us?"
I don't bother; to me, this place screams out 'deserted'. There's something very still and silent about this village. Our footsteps sound loud in it, and there is a coat of dust on everything.
The house-huts look like they're kind of arranged in circles, but in the middle is a very flattened-looking building. Wooden logs lie on the ground, charred, and there is a huge pile of black ash. I don't know what happened here but it doesn't look like we're going to find much help.
I check my digivice. It took a while to climb down that cliff; we'd better get going if we want to be back with the others in time.
Takeru and Kari come out of one of the huts, arms full of cans and packets of food. Terrific! I go in and grab up all I can carry too, then, of one accord, we all start to head back.
But... did I just hear something scuttling behind me? I turn. No... it's just one of the logs rattling against the ground.
C'mon Matt, you're getting paranoid.
--General POV - Tai's group--
"Life form up ahead," said Koushiro suddenly.
"Let's hope it's friendly," said Ken.
None of the three were willing to place much faith in *that* hope, but they walked in the direction of it anyway. After a few moments of walking, they came into a clearing where a peculiar-looking creature was lying.
It vaguely resembled a horse-sized dragon, with a shaggy violet coat on it and dark grey skin. It was lying on its back with two long clawed hands folded on its stomach. Little puffs came out of its nose with each breath; it was obviously sleeping.
The men looked at each other.
"Should we wake it up?" whispered Ken.
"We have to," whispered Tai.
"Just be polite," whispered Koushiro, reminding them of Yolei.
"Excuse me," said Ken, walking into the clearing. "Excuse me! EXCUSE ME!"
The dragon twitched in its sleep and scratched its belly.
"Please wake up!" called Koushiro.
The dragon yawned hugely and rolled over, clapping its jaws together with a smacking sound.
"Allow me," said Tai, and walked right up to the creature, leaning over so his face was above its ear. He opened his mouth very wide to shout, and then - a great yellow eye opened. Tai squeaked in surprise and leapt backwards, tripping over and falling on his butt.
The dragon blinked at them a few times and then rolled over, pulling himself onto all fours. "Why did you wake me up?"
"We're very sorry," said Koushiro politely, "but as soon as we saw you we knew that THIS was definitely a strong Digimon who could help us."
"Well, I am pretty strong," conceded the dragon, with a little smirk, "but as for helping you, you're crazy, right? Why would I want to help you?"
"We're trying to save digiworld -" began Tai, but got no further. The dragon Digimon laughed unpleasantly.
"Oh really? You must be from the other world. Fancy thinking you could make any difference to the state of the digiworld!"
"But I'm sure if you, and other Digimon, helped us, together we could make -" began Ken, but the dragon, who seemed to like interrupting, laughed again and yawned, showing all his teeth.
"You must be kidding! Think I'm going to help the enemy?"
"Enemy?" repeated Koushiro, "just who are you?"
The dragon preened, looking rather odd in doing so. "Finally you ask! I am the magnificent Smaugmon, the guardian of this forest! Really, why would I want to restore this lovely darkness when I helped to spread it in the first place?"
"You did?!" said Tai, balling his fists.
"Why would you want to do that?" asked Koushiro, "I mean, why destroy digiworld, you have to live in it too!"
"Who said anything about destroying it?" asked Smaugmon, "we're just making a few improvements. Don't you think this forest is really atmospheric?"
"If you're into dying trees and grey skies," muttered Tai.
"That was an insult, wasn't it! Right! Take this! Moon of Fantastica!"
The men blinked, expecting an attack, but instead, the whole sky became shrouded, and the sun disappeared from view. A great blue moon shone down instead.
"That's astonomically IMPOSSIBLE," gasped Koushiro.
"You've never heard the saying 'once in a blue moon'?" asked Smaugmon, "well, I think the moon is really... EMPOWERING!"
The men blinked again, and took a few steps back as Smaugmon's body began to quiver. His wings shivered and suddenly grew several feet; his arms and legs bulged out, his body elongated, his horrible yellow eyes stared down at them. Instead of being about the size of a horse, he was now closer to the size of a bus.
"A digivolution?" said Ken.
"Of course not, this is my true form!"
"Are we going to fight that thing?" asked Koushiro, hoping the answer would be no.
"He who fights and runs away -" began Tai, and at that, the three of them turned tail and started running for their lives.
--General POV - Joe's group--
Sora frowned up at the sky, which had suddenly turned dark. "It's only midday, surely the sun shouldn't be setting already."
"That's a weird moon," agreed Mimi.
But the two were not of particularly inquiring minds, and soon shrugged and went back to work.
Joe was still asleep, blissfully unaware that Sora and Mimi were braiding flowers of all sorts into his hair.
Cody was hitting his feet against the ground, trying to get rid of his pins and needles. Yolei was being bounced up and down against the ground with this motion, and she wore a thoroughly unimpressed expression.
Mimi crawled over to pick flowers from another bush, and found herself looking into another pair of eyes.
"WAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
Even Joe began to wake up at the sound of a Mimi-screech, and Cody twisted himself around to try to see what was going around. Unfortunately, Yolei was doing the same thing and they ended up with the thread cutting into both of them.
There was a screeching noise from the bushes and the creature Mimi had come face-to-face with flew into the open. It looked like a small, black version of a Kuwagamon - but was still larger than any of the humans. Mimi ran back to the others. Sora got to her feet, clenching her fists.
"What do you want?" asked Mimi - but this bug Digimon was not into conversation, and answered by sending a series of spiky missiles at them. One of them slammed Joe right in the stomach, effectively waking him up.
"Uggh," he groaned, "it's such a mistake to sleep in the middle of the day... huh? It's nighttime already? What's going on?"
Sora, with a big stick in her hands, was facing the Digimon, and Mimi started hunting on the ground for rocks. The Digimon decided not to bother with Sora and started hurling missiles at the unprotected Cody and Yolei instead. Sora ran in front of them and used the stick as a baseball bat to fend them off. The last one hit at an angle that shattered the stick into splinters.
The monster began to feel this was a waste of time, and flew at Sora with pincers wide open. It squawked in surprise as it was incercepted by a good shot from one of Mimi's rocks.
The bug roared, really angry now about its lack of success. The girls took a step back at the look on its face.
"Joe!" shouted Mimi and Sora in unison.
Joe sighed. "I can't believe I'm going to do this... I'm a doctor, not a pro wrestler."
He ran at the bug and jumped at it, grabbing onto its back. The next minute was a rather dizzy one for Joe, as the bug flew around semi-hysterically, trying to throw him off. Joe held on for dear life, hammering at any part of the bug he could reach.
This bizarre rodeo came to an abrupt end when the bug flew right into a tree - Joe was flung against a branch and fell down to the ground.
"Ow," he squeaked.
Mimi smiled, relieved he wasn't seriously hurt. "Joe, you're my hero! That was so totally brave!"
"Mimi," hissed Sora, "the way you flirt with him is shameless, you're married to another man!"
Mimi blinked. "Flirting? I'm not flirting, I've just always acted like this with Joe. Anyway, why do you care? Ooooh, could it be that Sora's in love with Joooooe? Oooh, I hear wedding bells!"
Sora sweatdropped. "Don't kid yourself... and that's not wedding bells you hear, it's an angry Kuwaga-thing! Waaugh!"
The two dove out of the thing's path as it swooped at them again, landing rather heavily against the ground. Mimi touched her stomach with a look of worry, and rose to her knees. But the bug wasn't paying attention to them; it wanted lunch pre-packed, and was going for Cody and Yolei again.
Yolei narrowed her eyebrows as she saw it coming, and swung herself around so that Cody was behind her - she got almost the full impact of the bug's attack. The two of them fell to the ground, Yolei wincing in pain, winded.
--Cody's POV--
I hate this, I hate this, I can't stand this. The girls and Joe are getting injured trying to protect us. I should be protecting them. They should be able to depend on me. Mimi shouldn't be fighting at all in her condition, and Yolei... Yolei... I *have* to protect them. I *have* to break this thing.
W-what's that? Did... did my crest just glow? It was only for a second, maybe I was imagining it. But... no, it can't have been my imagination, it burned right through the threads!
--General POV - Joe's group--
Cody shrugged off the broken threads and got to his feet, a seriously unimpressed look on his face. He stomped his feet a few times to bring the circulation back and then glared at the monster.
"You've had it now!" he shouted, grabbing up a large branch. The monster clicked its horrible little pincers together and looked at him rather blankly.
Cody charged, bringing the branch up above his head. He slammed it down with perfect precision. The Digimon was slammed to the ground and writhed around angrily on its back, trying to right itself. Cody didn't plan on giving it the opportunity, and ran at it again, slamming the branch down several times in quick succession, with the force and skill that was to be expected from his grandfather's best kendo student.
Finally he thrust the stick right into the middle of the bug's exposed belly, and impaled it right through. The bug squeaked pathetically, twitching its legs - and then it dissolved into digital matter and disappeared.
Cody stood, breathing heavily, and dropped the branch, looking at it as though rather surprised. "Is everybody alright?" he asked.
"Wow, Cody," said Sora, with respect, "I can sure see why you won all those kendo tournaments."
"I'm alright," said Mimi, getting to her feet. "Thanks Cody. I'm not so sure about Joe or Yolei though."
"I'm fine," said Joe - although this was rendered rather less convincing by the fact that he was lying on the ground clutching his stomach and had a large purplish bruise forming down the side of his face.
"Me too," said Yolei - gasped, rather - also unconvincingly. She was still breathing heavily from the impact, and blood was beginning to soak from her shoulder through her shirt where the pincers had impaled her.
Cody bowed his head. "I'm sorry I couldn't be faster."
"How did you break the threads when you couldn't before?" asked Mimi, "oh, I guess that ugly bug-thing broke them when he hit Yolei, right?"
Cody frowned slightly. He didn't think that's what happened... but he didn't say anything. He looked at his arms where the Minermon threads had cut into them; they were bleeding.
"I hope Joe has brought first aid," he said.
"Yeah," Joe managed to get out, "just check my briefcase."
At that moment, Tai, Ken and Koushiro burst through the foliage and ran to them, breathing heavily.
"We lost it!" panted Ken.
"Are you guys alright?" asked Sora, concerned.
"Are YOU guys alright?" countered Tai, noticing that Joe and Yolei were on the ground, and Yolei and Cody were bleeding.
"Yeah," said Mimi tiredly, as she started to bandage Yolei's shoulder, "we had an encounter with an angry bug Digimon, but Cody broke free and pounded it into oblivion with some cool kendo moves."
"That's good. Here, pass the bandages and I'll start on Cody."
"I don't need any," said Cody, "save them for someone who needs them."
"But your arms are bleeding from Minermon's attack."
"It doesn't matter. Really, I'm fine."
"Haaail the conquering heroes!"
They looked up at the sound of Matt's voice; Matt, Takeru and Kari came into the clearing laden with food.
"Wow, you're definitely MY hero!" said Mimi, eyes sparkling at the sight of the food.
"I thought I was your hero," said Joe weakly.
"That was ten minutes ago," she said. Joe made a face and she laughed. "I'm just kidding, Joe."
"Do any of you have any idea why it suddenly seems like night even though it's only lunchtime?" asked Takeru.
Koushiro, Ken and Tai glanced at each other and laughed nervously.
"No idea," said Tai.
"None at all!" agreed Ken.
Mimi finished tying a final knot and gently patted Yolei's shoulder. "That should hold it, try not to overexert yourself," she said.
"Thanks," said Yolei, and stood up, trying not to grimace. Her whole body hurt.
"Wow, you guys look like you've really been in the wars," said Matt.
"Is everybody okay?" asked Kari, worried.
"This doesn't seem like a very good start to the week," said Ken.
"At least we're untied," said Yolei.
"By the way Joe, nice hair," said Matt.
Joe blinked and felt his haid gingerly - and screeched in surprise.
"What did you DO?!"
Sora and Mimi laughed as he started raking his hands through his hair, pulling out the flowers braided in. He scowled and tried to undo the braids.
"This is going to take hours to comb out," he said.
"Oh, now you sound like Mimi," said Sora.
Joe went red and didn't say anything else.
Matt, Kari and Takeru dropped their loads on the ground and everyone else dove on them eagerly. They were less eager when they got a closer look.
"'Roasted Reiyamon wings'?!"
"What's a Reiyamon?"
"I don't want to know..."
"'Virus-Os. The breakfast cereal of digital champions.'"
"'Dijon custard.'"
"'Microwave dinner'... it's actually a literal microwave. Do they expect us to eat this?"
"Where did you FIND all this stuff?"
"It was in an abandoned Digimon village...
"Anything else of interest around there?"
"Not much."
"'Peanut butter-flavoured instant noodles'?!" "'Dried cauliflower pieces in a creamy mud sauce'?!"
"'Pineapple pieces in chocolate sauce'? These combinations are beyond imagination..."
"Oooh, pineapple and chocolate?" said Mimi, and snatched it out of the disbelieving Koushiro's hands.
Everyone managed to find something that didn't sound too scary - well, some did, others - human garbage disposal units, aka men - just grabbed anything that looked like meat. Toward the end of the meal, they started talking, once again, about the conditions under which they were in digiworld.
"We should talk this out and discern which of us most wants and most deserves to be with our Digimon," said Cody, "and then the others should help those people to qualify."
"I think if we're keeping in the spirit of real digidestined, we should all be helping each other to qualify even if it means we might miss out ourselves," said Ken.
"There is one thing we're forgetting, too," said Joe, "the point of this isn't to be with our Digimon again. All of us want that. The point is that the people who are going to be able to save the digital world, do so. The fate of the worlds is what's at stake, not our own little selfish preferences."
"It's not so selfish to want to be with your Digimon," said Matt defensively, "it's not like I want it just for me. Don't you remember that our Digimon were born for the sole purpose of being our partners? Gabumon spent years looking for me and we swore we'd be friends for ever. Do you think I'm not going to go all out to try to honour that promise? How would he feel if I didn't? Our friendship would mean nothing! Ohh!"
Matt let out a sudden sharp cry of surprise; his crest was glowing.
"Matt, your crest's glowing!" exclaimed Mimi, rather unnecessarily.
"Ohh, it happens that fast?" said Yolei, worried, "so now it's down to a choice between three?"
Cody frowned slightly and didn't say anything.
--Sora's POV--
I really, really don't like this. What Yolei just said - it's down to a choice between three? It's like a method of elimination, but I don't want to FORCE my crest to react. How can I? It feels like whenver my crest did react, it was a spontaneous thing on account of real feelings. You can't just manufacture real feelings.
I'm sorry Biyomon. You must know how much I want to see you, but if it's going to happen, it will just have to happen because of what I am now. I think some of the others, like Yolei, have almost slipped into a sort of role play, to try to prove themselves. Will that work? Is there sincerity behind it?
Right now though, I think everyone is jealous of Matt. Some, like Joe or Ken, try to hide it behind their smiles and congratulations, and some, like Yolei and Mimi, don't bother hiding their envy. Tai slaps Matt on the shoulder, but his eyes show his worry - oh Matt, none of us grudge you your friendship with Gabumon, we know how you love each other, but we're worried for ourselves.
I'm envious too... what security to have your crest react first - then you wouldn't have to worry about proving yourself for the rest of the trip, because you'd have already succeeded.
Surely, surely this won't be the last time I ever get to see digiworld?