Note by the author: I forgot one thing when I posted my story and it's this. I don't own anything here practically! I probably own the story idea and Lightmon, but one could never be too sure. And that's about it.
Also just please read and review if you did somehow get to this chapter without falling asleep.
This is Chapter Two. Sorry, but I have no names for my chapters.
Richard looked around after the cheap attack by Lightmon. He saw that everyone was starting to get up from ducking down to avoid the attack. Everyone except Yolei. She was still standing and his heart sank when he looked at her eyes. From the close proximity that Yolei was, he saw that Yolei's light, chocolate brown eyes had grown almost as dark as his own. He choked out, "Oh my God."
Ken obviously noticed the worried look on Richard's face. Not to mention that the color had drained slightly too. He asked, "What's wrong?" Richard just kept on staring so finally he followed Richard's gaze to Yolei's darkened eyes. His reaction was similar. He then was about to tell Wormmon to digivolve, but he was nowhere in sight. 'Stupid coward,' he thought to himself. Davis also noticed the darkened look in her eyes. It reminded him of a few hours ago when he looked into Richard's eyes. 'Instead of his soul, I saw mine.' He stopped thinking about it for the moment because Yolei was more immportant at the moment.
Yolei was standing on the ground wasn't she? She closed her eyes due to the brilliant flash of the attack and then she couldn't see anything. Her eyes didn't hurt as much anymore, but she still couldn't see. She sank to her knees tears springing to her eyes. She felt the ground in front of her. She thought, 'it's there, but why can't I see it.' She was crying now, but she didn't care. She was scared. She thought there was no one in front of her and she hated it. She felt so lonely and scared. She couldn't forced herself to see the horrible truth. She forced herself not to believe that she had gone blind.
Sasami tried to comfort Yolei. "Hey Yolei?" She put a hand on her shoulder. Yolei instantly responded by grabbing the hand and holding it tight. Sasami didn't know what to do.
"Please don't let go." Yolei barely choked out the words through her sobs. Ashley came and comforted Yolei as well. The boys on the other hand, went over to a nearby tree. Richard slumped down next to the tree and Ken and Davis followed his example.
There was an awkward silence before Ken broke the silence. "What happened?"
Davis frowned slightly at Ken's question. He asked him, "Are you retarded or something? I'm not even that dense. She went blind by that new digimon."
Richard sat up a little straighter. "What are you talking about? New digimon? The guys who beat MalaMyotismon don't even know Lightmon. I have to say that I'm a little disappointed."
"Hey! Back off!" Davis was clearly annoyed that this new guy was making fun of the digidestined. He wanted to sound tough so he added, "Or else."
"Or else what?" Richard rose to his feet. Davis did the same. Richard thought of the many ways that he could embarrass Davis. 'I could play with his mind so easily,' he thought. He could have used Kari or something else. Then he came to his senses. 'What am I thinking?" he thought. 'If I do something like that then the whole team is going to fall apart. "We shouldn't fight Davis. There's more important things to do." He took a glance at Yolei who was calmed now. Davis and Ken did the same. Davis nodded with agreement.
Davis had realized that fighting was not going to get them anywhere. He looked towards Yolei before asking, "Can you tell us about Lightmon and how to help Yolei?"
Richard smiled reassuringly at him. "Sure." Ken sighed with relief.
Later during the night when the girls and digimon were sleeping, Richard was explaining to Ken and Davis about Lightmon and Yolei's blindness. "Lightmon is a dual type digimon. He is a data and virus type digimon. His attack, Light Attack, is really just for blinding his opponents. Then he usually runs off. Yolei fell victim to this attack."
"So what can we do?" Ken was asking with concern in his voice. Ken had looked on when Sasami and Ashley were taking care of Yolei. When Yolei tripped over a big rick though, Richard had to help her by carrying her on his back like giving her a piggy back ride.
"I hate to say this, but she is permanently blind for at least a good solid year. The only way for the Lightmon's blindness to wear off quickly, is to dedigivolve back to a lower level in digimon. She can't do that though."
Davis whined, "What can we do then?"
"Nothing." Ken turned around and looked at Yolei who was sleeping with the rest of the girls. He thought to himself, 'why couldn't it have been me?'
Richard then said, "I think we should split the task of helping Yolei walk and leading the group. After that Monochromon attacked today, and she tripped over that rock, I think she'll need it."
"So how are we going to decide?" Ken asked. Davis came up with the solution.
"Let's play rock, paper, scissor."
Richard nodded. "Sounds good to me." Ken groaned. Before he had lost to Sasami and Ashley in rock, paper, scissor. But the outcome was surprisingly Ken had to lead and Richard had to take care of Yolei.
"Alright. So it's Ken leading and me taking care of Yolei. Davis does nothing."
Then next morning the boys explained to the girls their method of choosing a leader and after much persuasion, it was settled. Richard would be keeping an eye on Yolei and while the girls kept an eye on Richard, and Ken would be leading. Ken felt uncomfortable with this and he felt jealous that Yolei had to put her arm around Richard to stand and walk. Davis who was obviously not as dumb as he looked, noticed immediately. So did Wormmon, but he kept quiet. Veemon was trying to cheer up Hawkmon who had the idea that it was all his fault that Yolei had gone blind. Things were going smoothly with Ken as leader. He tried to keep the group out of danger and he was successful at it. Ken, with some help from Richard and Yolei's laptop, finally got through the forest with random road signs. Now they had the choice to either go up the mountains or take a hike up the mountains.
"I think we should go up the mountains," Davis said. "That's gotta be the best place to go. There will be fresh mountain air up there."
"First time Davis said something smart." Everyone burst out laughing at Yolei's comment. She smiled smugly and if she could see, she would have witnessed Davis's face turn to a crimson color.
"I'll lead now. And I usually make sense." He marched boldly forward followed by Ken then Ashley, Sasami, and at the back were Richard and Yolei. Richard was holding onto Yolei's hand and when he gave a slight tug she moved. Ken watched all of this with jealousy. Then the next turn of events made Ken very enraged. Yolei stumbled and Richard was turning back to check up on Yolei when Yolei fell into Richard and into a kiss. Richard was indeed surprised by the sudden embrace. They stood there in that position for a couple of seconds before they broke apart. They were both blushing slightly and Ken saw Yolei mumble her apologies to Richard. He of course was now beyond rage. He literally could have pulverized Richard in that moment. But his anger turned to sadness. It wasn't like Yolei was his girl friend or anything. It was just that he had the biggest crush on Yolei for the longest time. Only Davis knew about his secret love and surprisingly, Davis didn't blurt out his secret. Ken watched on longingly as Yolei and Richard were now chatting. He couldn't bear to look at them. He turned away. He was so self-absorbed and depressed by the fact that Yolei and Richard had shared a special private moment together, he didn't realize that Sasami was talking to him.
"Ken?" She was really worried about the dark look on his face. The second time she called his name though, she got his attention. "Ken."
Ken looked up slowly at the blue haired girl. She had an eye color that he had never seen before. Her eyes enchanted him and he needed to know where she came from.
"Hey Sasami."
"Finally you noticed me. What's wrong?" Ken wanted to stay away from that subject.
"Can we just talk about something else?"
"Sure"
"Where do you come from? I mean that your eyes are an interesting color. I have never seen it before."
"Well if you really want to know, then I'll tell you. I'm from Jurai." Ken looked at her confused.
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh you'll see one day." She giggled softly before checking on Richard and Yolei. They seemed to be chatting. Ken grumbled slightly because she had missed the display a few minutes ago. If she had caught them, Richard would have been in big trouble.
Davis was leading the group up an old trail that was made a long time ago. Here the grass was around an inch tall while around them, the grass had grown to about three or four feet. In the front was Davis who looked really annoyed. Right behind him was Ashley who was talking to Davis. Then it was Ken who had a depressed look on his face. At the end were Richard, Sasami and Yolei. Yolei was discussing something with the two. It seemed very serious. They kept there pace walking up the mountain. Soon however, Davis was feeling really worn out. He thought that it was getting hotter, but that couldn't be. When he looked behind him, everyone else was sweating and panting. Even Ashley who was chattering about who knows what was silent. They all looked tired. Davis said, "Guys. I think we should take a break." The others nodded in agreement. Soon they found a boulder that they could all sit on. It was long and flat. Davis put his hand on the boulder before withdrawing it in pain. The boulder was burning. He saw that none of the others were sitting either. Richard was clicking away at Yolei's laptop unsuccessfully. Yolei and Sasami were still talking. Now Ashley was talking with Ken who looked like he was actually paying attention. Davis went over to Richard. He looked over his shoulder to realize that the computer wasn't responding to the keyboard. Davis's curiosity got the better of him. "What are you doing Rich?"
Richard turned around and glared at him a moment before turning his attention to the laptop again. "First, don't call me Rich ever again. Richie I can take, but call me Rich and you'll live to regret it. I was configuring a program to prevent Yolei's laptop from freezing due to the decrease in air pressure and the heat. It's almost 125 degrees Fahrenheit up here."
Davis then realized the temperature difference. "You're right. Maybe we should get off of this mountain as soon as possible."
"I think that was obvious."
"We have to climb up some more though."
Richard stared at Davis in disbelief. "Then it's going to get hotter."
"Whatever. Guys!" Everyone turned to Davis. "We got to get moving fast." The tired digimon who didn't say anything until now finally spoke up.
Gatomon was especially annoyed. "Why are we walking over this mountain anyway?" Davis looked at the cat-like digimon before pondering the question.
"Beats me. Let's keep on going." Everybody groaned and started up the mountain again. Richard put Yolei's laptop back in her bag before taking her hand again and leading her up the mountain some more. The digimon by now were exhausted and a little bothered by the heat. They finally reached the top after fifteen minutes. They look at the land stretched before them. All of their jaws dropped. In front of them were a vast expanse of little land bridges and lava pits. Veemon asked Davis, "Do we have to cross this place?"
Davis thought that crossing here would be suicide; especially with the condition that Yolei was in though Yolei seemed unaffected by her blindness. 'Maybe it's because everyone is keeping an eye on her,' he thought. Davis finaaly decided using the logic in his head that since he lead everyone here, turning back would be pointless. "Sorry Veemon, but we have to cross here. There's no turning back."
Hawkmon spoke in Yolei's defense. "But what about Yolei? I think that her condition wouldn't allow such a perilous journey." Yolei was kind of embarrassed at this. She didn't want to look like that she couldn't do the same things as the others. She didn't want to get into the way.
"Don't worry Hawkmon. I'll be fine."
"But Yolei..."
"Don't worry." Then she whispered to Richard, "Don't let go." Richard nodded. So they started to cross the lava pits by the various land bridges. But they didn't realize the Meramon that were slowly climbing out of the lava pits until Ken took a glance back to check up on Yolei. He saw that Richard had a tight grip on Yolei's hand. Then he saw them. There were around 20 Meramon following them and they didn't look like they were going to welcome the digidestined.
Ken was horrified. He screamed out, "Guys we have company." Everyone except Yolei looked back to see the Meramon were running towards them ready to strike. Richard whispered a quick run to Yolei before he took off with Yolei's hand in his. Yolei was running too. Richard thought, 'Man, Yolei sure can run.' In fact she was maintaining a speed right behind him. The digidestined ran for about 5 minutes before spotting the end of the lava pits. The Meramon were just 10 yards away. Then suddenly the land bridge gave away. Everyone had made it except Richard and Yolei who had fallen behind slightly. They felt themselves falling and Richard reached out for someone, for anyone to grab his hand. Luckily Ken noticed this just in time. He reached out and grabbed Richard's out-stretched hand. Yolei was dangling on Richard's arm. Both looked exhausted and soon would tire out, but Ken wouldn't let that happen. He loved Yolei and he wouldn't lose her here. Ken slowly began to pull Richard and Yolei up. Soon Davis joined in. The other two girls were trying to do their share of the pulling too. Eventually Richard and Yolei were on stable land. The group was exhausted and walked to the edge of the pits where they saw a lake. Davis immediately ran to it. Soon Ashley and Sasami followed. Richard and Ken stayed behind to help Yolei to the lake. After all that running, her leg was hurting more than before. Ken had one of Yolei's arms around his shoulder and Richard had the other arm. Ken felt like he was in heaven for those few minutes it took to transfer Yolei to the lakeside. Then Ken nearly passed out when Yolei started taking off her shirt to get into the water. Unfortunately, Richard reminded her that the two of them were still there. "Yolei? You shouldn't be stripping your clothes in front of two boys."
Yolei then realized Ken and Richard's presence. She blushed slightly. "Could you two excuse me?"
Ken said, "Sure." They walked to where Davis was in the water. He was in his boxers and swimming in the lake water. "Having fun Davis?"
"Yeah! It's great in here. This is the best." Richard and Ken both looked towards where the girls were swimming. Ashley and Sasami were helping Yolei clean herself. Finally Richard went over to a nearby tree and sat down. He took out a cell phone from his pocket. Meanwhile Ken took off his shirt and went into the cool water with Davis. Everything was peaceful for the moment.
Back in the real world, Kari had just reached TK's house. She rang the doorbell first once, then again. Soon TK had opened the door. TK's eyes were filled with surprise when TK realized that Kari was standing right outside his home. "Kari! What a surprise! Come in!"
"Thanks TK. I just came by to talk."
By now both Kari and TK had made their way to TK's living room. "What's up?"
"This morning I tried to go to the digital world, but I couldn't get in. It's like locked up or something."
"Well let's try to go together."
Davis had finally gotten himself dry. "you sure your going to stay in there Ken?"
"Just a few more minutes Davis."
"Okay." Davis made his way over to the tree Richard was sitting near. Davis was surprised that Richard had been using an outlet he had found on the tree to use his cell phone. Davis asked, "what are you doing?"
Richard looked up to Davis. "I'm trying to write an e-mail to Koushiro." Davis stared at him some more. Soon Richard said, "Done."
"What did you finish?"
"Sending my e-mail."
"Oh." An awkward silence followed. Davis couldn't think of much to say to Richard. Finally Davis settled for sitting down next to him. Davis decided to ask Richard about other things. "How old are you anyway?"
Richard turned off his phone before answering. "I'm fifteen. You?"
"I'm 13. I also live in Odaiba."
"I live in New York."
"Really? DO you know Mimi?"
"Mimi Tachikawa?"
"Yeah!"
"I only heard of her from Koushiro. I don't live in Manhattan so I can't really go to her house."
"Richard. Why do you call Izzy Koushiro instead of Izzy?"
"Guess it just caught on. In fact, I called him Izumi until I learned his full name."
"Oh. Okay."
"By the way..."
"What?"
"Davis. I want to know. Do you know HiKari Kamiya?"
"Know her? I practically worship her. She's like all I think about."
"Maybe that's why you didn't realize that all the digimon disappeared again."
"Huh?" Davis looked around. He saw Ken who just got out of the lake and was drying off. He also saw that the girls were heading towards where he and Richard were. But there was no sign of the digimon.
"They didn't fall into the lava pits. That I know."
Soon everyone was gathered around Davis. Davis explained to them that the digimon were missing. Everyone groaned at the task of finding the digimon again.
Also just please read and review if you did somehow get to this chapter without falling asleep.
This is Chapter Two. Sorry, but I have no names for my chapters.
Richard looked around after the cheap attack by Lightmon. He saw that everyone was starting to get up from ducking down to avoid the attack. Everyone except Yolei. She was still standing and his heart sank when he looked at her eyes. From the close proximity that Yolei was, he saw that Yolei's light, chocolate brown eyes had grown almost as dark as his own. He choked out, "Oh my God."
Ken obviously noticed the worried look on Richard's face. Not to mention that the color had drained slightly too. He asked, "What's wrong?" Richard just kept on staring so finally he followed Richard's gaze to Yolei's darkened eyes. His reaction was similar. He then was about to tell Wormmon to digivolve, but he was nowhere in sight. 'Stupid coward,' he thought to himself. Davis also noticed the darkened look in her eyes. It reminded him of a few hours ago when he looked into Richard's eyes. 'Instead of his soul, I saw mine.' He stopped thinking about it for the moment because Yolei was more immportant at the moment.
Yolei was standing on the ground wasn't she? She closed her eyes due to the brilliant flash of the attack and then she couldn't see anything. Her eyes didn't hurt as much anymore, but she still couldn't see. She sank to her knees tears springing to her eyes. She felt the ground in front of her. She thought, 'it's there, but why can't I see it.' She was crying now, but she didn't care. She was scared. She thought there was no one in front of her and she hated it. She felt so lonely and scared. She couldn't forced herself to see the horrible truth. She forced herself not to believe that she had gone blind.
Sasami tried to comfort Yolei. "Hey Yolei?" She put a hand on her shoulder. Yolei instantly responded by grabbing the hand and holding it tight. Sasami didn't know what to do.
"Please don't let go." Yolei barely choked out the words through her sobs. Ashley came and comforted Yolei as well. The boys on the other hand, went over to a nearby tree. Richard slumped down next to the tree and Ken and Davis followed his example.
There was an awkward silence before Ken broke the silence. "What happened?"
Davis frowned slightly at Ken's question. He asked him, "Are you retarded or something? I'm not even that dense. She went blind by that new digimon."
Richard sat up a little straighter. "What are you talking about? New digimon? The guys who beat MalaMyotismon don't even know Lightmon. I have to say that I'm a little disappointed."
"Hey! Back off!" Davis was clearly annoyed that this new guy was making fun of the digidestined. He wanted to sound tough so he added, "Or else."
"Or else what?" Richard rose to his feet. Davis did the same. Richard thought of the many ways that he could embarrass Davis. 'I could play with his mind so easily,' he thought. He could have used Kari or something else. Then he came to his senses. 'What am I thinking?" he thought. 'If I do something like that then the whole team is going to fall apart. "We shouldn't fight Davis. There's more important things to do." He took a glance at Yolei who was calmed now. Davis and Ken did the same. Davis nodded with agreement.
Davis had realized that fighting was not going to get them anywhere. He looked towards Yolei before asking, "Can you tell us about Lightmon and how to help Yolei?"
Richard smiled reassuringly at him. "Sure." Ken sighed with relief.
Later during the night when the girls and digimon were sleeping, Richard was explaining to Ken and Davis about Lightmon and Yolei's blindness. "Lightmon is a dual type digimon. He is a data and virus type digimon. His attack, Light Attack, is really just for blinding his opponents. Then he usually runs off. Yolei fell victim to this attack."
"So what can we do?" Ken was asking with concern in his voice. Ken had looked on when Sasami and Ashley were taking care of Yolei. When Yolei tripped over a big rick though, Richard had to help her by carrying her on his back like giving her a piggy back ride.
"I hate to say this, but she is permanently blind for at least a good solid year. The only way for the Lightmon's blindness to wear off quickly, is to dedigivolve back to a lower level in digimon. She can't do that though."
Davis whined, "What can we do then?"
"Nothing." Ken turned around and looked at Yolei who was sleeping with the rest of the girls. He thought to himself, 'why couldn't it have been me?'
Richard then said, "I think we should split the task of helping Yolei walk and leading the group. After that Monochromon attacked today, and she tripped over that rock, I think she'll need it."
"So how are we going to decide?" Ken asked. Davis came up with the solution.
"Let's play rock, paper, scissor."
Richard nodded. "Sounds good to me." Ken groaned. Before he had lost to Sasami and Ashley in rock, paper, scissor. But the outcome was surprisingly Ken had to lead and Richard had to take care of Yolei.
"Alright. So it's Ken leading and me taking care of Yolei. Davis does nothing."
Then next morning the boys explained to the girls their method of choosing a leader and after much persuasion, it was settled. Richard would be keeping an eye on Yolei and while the girls kept an eye on Richard, and Ken would be leading. Ken felt uncomfortable with this and he felt jealous that Yolei had to put her arm around Richard to stand and walk. Davis who was obviously not as dumb as he looked, noticed immediately. So did Wormmon, but he kept quiet. Veemon was trying to cheer up Hawkmon who had the idea that it was all his fault that Yolei had gone blind. Things were going smoothly with Ken as leader. He tried to keep the group out of danger and he was successful at it. Ken, with some help from Richard and Yolei's laptop, finally got through the forest with random road signs. Now they had the choice to either go up the mountains or take a hike up the mountains.
"I think we should go up the mountains," Davis said. "That's gotta be the best place to go. There will be fresh mountain air up there."
"First time Davis said something smart." Everyone burst out laughing at Yolei's comment. She smiled smugly and if she could see, she would have witnessed Davis's face turn to a crimson color.
"I'll lead now. And I usually make sense." He marched boldly forward followed by Ken then Ashley, Sasami, and at the back were Richard and Yolei. Richard was holding onto Yolei's hand and when he gave a slight tug she moved. Ken watched all of this with jealousy. Then the next turn of events made Ken very enraged. Yolei stumbled and Richard was turning back to check up on Yolei when Yolei fell into Richard and into a kiss. Richard was indeed surprised by the sudden embrace. They stood there in that position for a couple of seconds before they broke apart. They were both blushing slightly and Ken saw Yolei mumble her apologies to Richard. He of course was now beyond rage. He literally could have pulverized Richard in that moment. But his anger turned to sadness. It wasn't like Yolei was his girl friend or anything. It was just that he had the biggest crush on Yolei for the longest time. Only Davis knew about his secret love and surprisingly, Davis didn't blurt out his secret. Ken watched on longingly as Yolei and Richard were now chatting. He couldn't bear to look at them. He turned away. He was so self-absorbed and depressed by the fact that Yolei and Richard had shared a special private moment together, he didn't realize that Sasami was talking to him.
"Ken?" She was really worried about the dark look on his face. The second time she called his name though, she got his attention. "Ken."
Ken looked up slowly at the blue haired girl. She had an eye color that he had never seen before. Her eyes enchanted him and he needed to know where she came from.
"Hey Sasami."
"Finally you noticed me. What's wrong?" Ken wanted to stay away from that subject.
"Can we just talk about something else?"
"Sure"
"Where do you come from? I mean that your eyes are an interesting color. I have never seen it before."
"Well if you really want to know, then I'll tell you. I'm from Jurai." Ken looked at her confused.
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh you'll see one day." She giggled softly before checking on Richard and Yolei. They seemed to be chatting. Ken grumbled slightly because she had missed the display a few minutes ago. If she had caught them, Richard would have been in big trouble.
Davis was leading the group up an old trail that was made a long time ago. Here the grass was around an inch tall while around them, the grass had grown to about three or four feet. In the front was Davis who looked really annoyed. Right behind him was Ashley who was talking to Davis. Then it was Ken who had a depressed look on his face. At the end were Richard, Sasami and Yolei. Yolei was discussing something with the two. It seemed very serious. They kept there pace walking up the mountain. Soon however, Davis was feeling really worn out. He thought that it was getting hotter, but that couldn't be. When he looked behind him, everyone else was sweating and panting. Even Ashley who was chattering about who knows what was silent. They all looked tired. Davis said, "Guys. I think we should take a break." The others nodded in agreement. Soon they found a boulder that they could all sit on. It was long and flat. Davis put his hand on the boulder before withdrawing it in pain. The boulder was burning. He saw that none of the others were sitting either. Richard was clicking away at Yolei's laptop unsuccessfully. Yolei and Sasami were still talking. Now Ashley was talking with Ken who looked like he was actually paying attention. Davis went over to Richard. He looked over his shoulder to realize that the computer wasn't responding to the keyboard. Davis's curiosity got the better of him. "What are you doing Rich?"
Richard turned around and glared at him a moment before turning his attention to the laptop again. "First, don't call me Rich ever again. Richie I can take, but call me Rich and you'll live to regret it. I was configuring a program to prevent Yolei's laptop from freezing due to the decrease in air pressure and the heat. It's almost 125 degrees Fahrenheit up here."
Davis then realized the temperature difference. "You're right. Maybe we should get off of this mountain as soon as possible."
"I think that was obvious."
"We have to climb up some more though."
Richard stared at Davis in disbelief. "Then it's going to get hotter."
"Whatever. Guys!" Everyone turned to Davis. "We got to get moving fast." The tired digimon who didn't say anything until now finally spoke up.
Gatomon was especially annoyed. "Why are we walking over this mountain anyway?" Davis looked at the cat-like digimon before pondering the question.
"Beats me. Let's keep on going." Everybody groaned and started up the mountain again. Richard put Yolei's laptop back in her bag before taking her hand again and leading her up the mountain some more. The digimon by now were exhausted and a little bothered by the heat. They finally reached the top after fifteen minutes. They look at the land stretched before them. All of their jaws dropped. In front of them were a vast expanse of little land bridges and lava pits. Veemon asked Davis, "Do we have to cross this place?"
Davis thought that crossing here would be suicide; especially with the condition that Yolei was in though Yolei seemed unaffected by her blindness. 'Maybe it's because everyone is keeping an eye on her,' he thought. Davis finaaly decided using the logic in his head that since he lead everyone here, turning back would be pointless. "Sorry Veemon, but we have to cross here. There's no turning back."
Hawkmon spoke in Yolei's defense. "But what about Yolei? I think that her condition wouldn't allow such a perilous journey." Yolei was kind of embarrassed at this. She didn't want to look like that she couldn't do the same things as the others. She didn't want to get into the way.
"Don't worry Hawkmon. I'll be fine."
"But Yolei..."
"Don't worry." Then she whispered to Richard, "Don't let go." Richard nodded. So they started to cross the lava pits by the various land bridges. But they didn't realize the Meramon that were slowly climbing out of the lava pits until Ken took a glance back to check up on Yolei. He saw that Richard had a tight grip on Yolei's hand. Then he saw them. There were around 20 Meramon following them and they didn't look like they were going to welcome the digidestined.
Ken was horrified. He screamed out, "Guys we have company." Everyone except Yolei looked back to see the Meramon were running towards them ready to strike. Richard whispered a quick run to Yolei before he took off with Yolei's hand in his. Yolei was running too. Richard thought, 'Man, Yolei sure can run.' In fact she was maintaining a speed right behind him. The digidestined ran for about 5 minutes before spotting the end of the lava pits. The Meramon were just 10 yards away. Then suddenly the land bridge gave away. Everyone had made it except Richard and Yolei who had fallen behind slightly. They felt themselves falling and Richard reached out for someone, for anyone to grab his hand. Luckily Ken noticed this just in time. He reached out and grabbed Richard's out-stretched hand. Yolei was dangling on Richard's arm. Both looked exhausted and soon would tire out, but Ken wouldn't let that happen. He loved Yolei and he wouldn't lose her here. Ken slowly began to pull Richard and Yolei up. Soon Davis joined in. The other two girls were trying to do their share of the pulling too. Eventually Richard and Yolei were on stable land. The group was exhausted and walked to the edge of the pits where they saw a lake. Davis immediately ran to it. Soon Ashley and Sasami followed. Richard and Ken stayed behind to help Yolei to the lake. After all that running, her leg was hurting more than before. Ken had one of Yolei's arms around his shoulder and Richard had the other arm. Ken felt like he was in heaven for those few minutes it took to transfer Yolei to the lakeside. Then Ken nearly passed out when Yolei started taking off her shirt to get into the water. Unfortunately, Richard reminded her that the two of them were still there. "Yolei? You shouldn't be stripping your clothes in front of two boys."
Yolei then realized Ken and Richard's presence. She blushed slightly. "Could you two excuse me?"
Ken said, "Sure." They walked to where Davis was in the water. He was in his boxers and swimming in the lake water. "Having fun Davis?"
"Yeah! It's great in here. This is the best." Richard and Ken both looked towards where the girls were swimming. Ashley and Sasami were helping Yolei clean herself. Finally Richard went over to a nearby tree and sat down. He took out a cell phone from his pocket. Meanwhile Ken took off his shirt and went into the cool water with Davis. Everything was peaceful for the moment.
Back in the real world, Kari had just reached TK's house. She rang the doorbell first once, then again. Soon TK had opened the door. TK's eyes were filled with surprise when TK realized that Kari was standing right outside his home. "Kari! What a surprise! Come in!"
"Thanks TK. I just came by to talk."
By now both Kari and TK had made their way to TK's living room. "What's up?"
"This morning I tried to go to the digital world, but I couldn't get in. It's like locked up or something."
"Well let's try to go together."
Davis had finally gotten himself dry. "you sure your going to stay in there Ken?"
"Just a few more minutes Davis."
"Okay." Davis made his way over to the tree Richard was sitting near. Davis was surprised that Richard had been using an outlet he had found on the tree to use his cell phone. Davis asked, "what are you doing?"
Richard looked up to Davis. "I'm trying to write an e-mail to Koushiro." Davis stared at him some more. Soon Richard said, "Done."
"What did you finish?"
"Sending my e-mail."
"Oh." An awkward silence followed. Davis couldn't think of much to say to Richard. Finally Davis settled for sitting down next to him. Davis decided to ask Richard about other things. "How old are you anyway?"
Richard turned off his phone before answering. "I'm fifteen. You?"
"I'm 13. I also live in Odaiba."
"I live in New York."
"Really? DO you know Mimi?"
"Mimi Tachikawa?"
"Yeah!"
"I only heard of her from Koushiro. I don't live in Manhattan so I can't really go to her house."
"Richard. Why do you call Izzy Koushiro instead of Izzy?"
"Guess it just caught on. In fact, I called him Izumi until I learned his full name."
"Oh. Okay."
"By the way..."
"What?"
"Davis. I want to know. Do you know HiKari Kamiya?"
"Know her? I practically worship her. She's like all I think about."
"Maybe that's why you didn't realize that all the digimon disappeared again."
"Huh?" Davis looked around. He saw Ken who just got out of the lake and was drying off. He also saw that the girls were heading towards where he and Richard were. But there was no sign of the digimon.
"They didn't fall into the lava pits. That I know."
Soon everyone was gathered around Davis. Davis explained to them that the digimon were missing. Everyone groaned at the task of finding the digimon again.