Home Again

Part Four: Preparations

Three Standard Disclaimer Thingies:

1. Digimon, all related characters and merchandise are not mine. This plot is.

2. This plot contains relationships some readers may not be comfortable with, specifically same-gender relations. These are unavoidable, major plot points.

3. This is a very strange story.

***

Taichi frowned as he wiped the towel over his forehead and peered in the mirror. "I look like hell," he pronounced.

"More so than usual?" Takeru questioned, grinning.

"Watch it, Takaishi," the older boy frowned, swinging the towel in the direction of the other boy. Takeru, unfortunately, was too quick, and able to step easily out of the way.

"Missed me!" the blonde boy taunted, dancing away.

"How can you have so much – energy?" Jyou questioned, holding his own towel around his neck.

Takeru shrugged, sitting on the bench and untying his sneakers. "I dunno. Just do."

"That workout was enough to make me want to take a nap," Taichi groaned, giving up on his pursuit of the younger boy and leaning back on the bench. "I'm not sure I understand why we need to lift weights and run laps."

"If we were in another world and we were being chased by a giant monster, you wouldn't think that way," Jyou stated wisely, removing his glasses so he could pull his shirt over his head. Voice muffled, he continued: "Then you'd be glad for the training."

"It could be worse," Takeru told him. "This isn't so bad. I like it."

Immediately, both older boys responded by heaving their towels in his direction.

***

Sora paced nervously atop the roof of one of the buildings. Every so often, she would pause and peer worriedly at the sky, and then she would resume pacing. Hikari glanced upwards and sighed.
"No sign of them yet?" Iori questioned from behind her.

Startled, the girl turned to see the smallest of their group peering at her with questioning eyes. Iori might have been the youngest, but he was quite observant and wise for his age.

"Doesn't look like it," she replied. "I hope Koushiro is all right."

 "As do I," Iori nodded. "Koushiro-sempai is a valuable member of our team."

"He is," Hikari nodded. "Without him, who knows if we'll be able to find out what those dark things are."

"Or if we'll be able to get him back," Iori nodded. "Is Sora-san all right?"

"Yeah, she's just very worried, Iori-kun," she assured him. "She and Yamato are the oldest, so they feel quite a bit of responsibility for the rest of us. If something were to happen to Koushiro, she'd feel almost like it's her fault."

"Hikari-san?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think those dark things are?"

Hikari thought for a moment. Iori could tell she was thinking deeply, because the newly-formed ears atop her head twitched as she thought. "I'm not sure," she said after a moment. "They could be animals of some sort. Maybe there's no equivalent on Earth."

"One thing's for sure," another voice spoke up behind them. "And that is that they want something from us."

"What do you think they want, Ken-san?" Iori asked.

The dark-haired boy frowned. "I'm not sure," he said. "But I don't think they're after us for food. I don't think they'll kill Koushiro. They just … want something."

"Maybe energy?" Hikari theorized.

"Energy?" Iori repeated.

"Life energy. Maybe they just…feed on energy. Maybe they keep you alive just enough so that they can keep stealing your life energy."

Iori shuddered.

Ken shrugged. "It's possible."

"But then – how do we stop them?" Iori asked.

***

Miyako peered over the files she'd been given to read regarding the system they were supposed to use to get to the new world. Though much of her knowledge of such things was limited, Fujiyama had given her some information on it so that she might be informed.

Mimi peered around the opened door of Miyako's room. "How goes it?"

"Slowly," Miyako replied with a sigh, setting the files aside. "Most of that stuff is gibberish. It'd make more sense to me if it was written in Greek."

"That bad, huh?" The older girl sat in the chair beside the bed.

"Worse," she replied. "Don't you have anything to do?"

"Well, Takeru, Taichi, and Jyou were having some sort of workout, and they're taking showers," Mimi reported. "I'm not sure where Daisuke is. But I finished my own workout and showering, so now I'm free until dinner." She grinned cheerfully. "Which is only a half-hour away."      

"What'd you have to do?"

"Oh, the usual stuff. Run around in circles, do pushups, lift a few weights, run a treadmill. A lot like the things I used to do back home with Grandmother." 

"Not too bad," Miyako nodded in agreement, rubbing her tired eyes. "This stuff is hard work," she noted, gesturing towards the files. "Maybe we can't handle being in another dimension."

Mimi shrugged. "Maybe not," she agreed. "But we have to try. You look tired, Miyako-chan. Have you slept well?"

"Not really," she confessed. "Hard time falling asleep. And then this strange dream…"

"Strange dream?" Mimi repeated. "About what?"

"I don't remember. I just know it was strange."

***

Yamato landed gently on the roof of the building beside Sora and folded his giant-sized wings behind him. "Damn it," he muttered.

"It wasn't your fault," Jun assured him. "They're fast-moving. There was no way we could have caught them."

"If only we could have followed them," the tall boy sighed. "At least we would have had some way of finding him again."

"No luck?" Sora questioned.

"Those things – whatever they are – move faster than airplanes," Jun grumbled. "Even with the wind on our side there was no way we could have caught up. We followed as far as we could, but it wasn't any use." Frustrated, she slammed a fist on the wall of the roof.

"We really needed Koushiro, too," Yamato sighed. He was drained. Wearily, he leaned against the wall. "Now we'll probably never figure out what those things are."

"Jun! You're all right!" From the stairs on the inside of the building, another female with short purple hair darted quickly across the roof and latched onto the other girl.

"Momoe. Yes I'm fine," the other girl assured her as they embraced. "No sign of Koushiro, though."

"None?" Momoe repeated. "Oh dear. This is horrible."

Sora sighed in agreement. "It is. I don't know what we'll do now."

***

Miyako slept soundly that night, her mind tired from absorbing the gibberish she'd been reading for the past few weeks. Slowly, it was beginning to make more sense, so that she was nearly certain it was at least written in Japanese. But it was hard, slow work, and it left her exhausted.

She'd been having strange dreams lately, though she wasn't sure at first what they were about. Now, she discovered they were all the same dream, and with time she'd begun to remember them.
Miyako dreamt of flying. Soaring effortlessly above the clouds without benefit of machines or anything. Flying under her own power. She'd never had such dreams before, and she wondered if the confusing computer language was affecting her sleep or if it was some sort of fantasy about what she might find in the other world. She knew, however, that when she awoke each morning she wanted to return to sleep, if only to sail over the earth once more.

This night, however, there was more to the dream. Tonight, Miyako did not fly alone, but with a companion. Through bright sunlight, she saw that the person flying by her side was a beautiful girl, dressed in a colorful kimono and with angelic wings behind her. When she awoke again, Miyako wondered if she might be in love…

***

"If only there was someway to defend against them," Yamato growled, frustrated. He was pacing back and forth in the small underground room, greatly disturbed by Koushiro's disappearance.

"I think we need to consider moving from here," Jun spoke up. "It's been three weeks, and they've attacked each day. We either need to move permanently underground, or move elsewhere."

"Yes, but where?" Momoe questioned, putting a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "We haven't any clue where to go."

"Maybe these dark creatures are the reason whoever built this place left," Hikari wondered.

"Doubtful," Ken stated. "They wouldn't have survived long enough to build the buildings."

"What if – the great amount of people that lived in this city attracted the creatures?" Iori spoke, softly. "If they really do feed on life energy, then perhaps they attacked whoever lived here because of the large amount of life energy?"
"That's possible," the older boy agreed. "But still, it would have taken a long time for even many people to build this city."
Sora nodded in concurrence. "The dark creatures might be a new occurrence."

Yamato was growing even more impatient. "Moving isn't a bad idea," he spoke up. "But we definitely need to find a better place to go. We can't just leave and walk. We don't know where anything is."

"So what should we do then," Jun countered, " – find a travel center and buy a map?"

"I personally am not really interested in moving permanently underground," Sora put in, raising a hand. "Anyone else?"
There was a moment of silence, but no one disagreed. "Then it's settled. We'll move," Hikari nodded.

"But to where?" Yamato wondered. "And who says they won't follow us?"

***

"It's been two months now," Fujiyama was saying to the small group seated in the conference room. "I'd like us to now go over the progress we've made so far." He looked over the clipboard he held in his hands. "I see the physical workouts are progressing nicely…" He paused and peered over the group.

The children collectively nodded.

"Good. I estimate that you'll be ready to go in another few weeks," the doctor nodded. "Supplies are nearly gathered." He turned towards Jyou. "How is the studying?"

"I've been studying over books of various medicinal herbs," the dark-haired boy replied. "I think that perhaps some of the plants in the other world may be similar to what we have here, and may be useful. We can't take unlimited amounts of supplies or medicines, and we many not be able to replenish them once we arrive there. If some of the plants there can substitute medicines, it could cut down on the amount of supplies we need to bring with us."

"Good," Fujiyama nodded. "How are you progressing?"
"Pretty well," he answered, but added: "I think it would be best to take at least some of these books along in case of emergencies."

"I'm sure that can be arranged. Who was in charge of supplies?"

Mimi raised a hand. "That would be me," she announced. Standing, she opened her manila folder, taking out a few sheets of paper, which she began to pass out to the group. "After some amount of research I've learned the precise weight which will be comfortable for one to carry on their back for long periods of time. Taking into account that there are six of us, I've divided up the supplies we'll need to take into six different bags – this way everyone will be able to carry the same amount."

Takeru raised a curious hand. "What about personal belongings?" he questioned.

The girl shrugged slightly. "Bring as many personal belongings as you feel you can effectively carry," she replied. "Just be aware that you'll have to carry them, possibly for a long walk."

"Exactly what will we need to bring, aside from medical supplies?" Taichi questioned, peering over the list Mimi had given him.

"Each of us will have a fair supply of food, enough to last several days," she replied. "There won't be enough room for a lot of clothes, so we'll each have to survive with bringing along only one extra outfit."

"Along with coats, right?" Miyako spoke up.

"That would be a good idea, since we don't know anything about the weather there," Mimi nodded.

"What sort of food are we bringing?" Daisuke questioned with a worried air.

"Mostly dried supplies. Powdered milk, some trail rations, dried meat, dried fruit. We don't know if we'll be in the wilderness or an urban landscape, so I decided it best to pack as though for a camping trip."

"I'm going to assume that we've thought about shelter, then, right?" Jyou spoke up.

Again the girl nodded. "There's blankets for each of us, and two tents, one for the males, one for the females. On the lists you'll see that each person carries their own supplies, and the supplies used by all of us are divided among the group. Anything extra you want to bring is up to you to carry."

There was a moment of silence then as everyone looked over the papers Mimi had given out. Then Fujiyama spoke again. "Thank you," he said, directed towards the girl. He turned towards Miyako. "Any progress with communications?"

Miyako sighed. "Not much," she admitted. "I've always thought I was good with technology, but this stuff is a bit advanced for me. I think that between the six of us, if we could possibly have short-wave radios we could communicate with each other. As for communicating with the doctors back here, I have no idea if that would be possible."

"Is there anyway we could test that?" Takeru wondered.

"Aside from going through to the other world and trying it? No."

"What if you just tossed a radio through the portal and tired to see if you could pick up a signal from it back here?" Taichi wondered. "Set the communicator to emit a distress signal or something and then see if it can be read here?"

"It might work," Miyako agreed, slowly. She glanced at the doctor. "Is it possible to try that?"

"I shall certainly look into it," Fujiyama nodded.

***

Yes, more sci-fi clichés abound…

Boy, it's been a long time since I updated this! This summer, believe it or not, has been busy for me. I won't bore you with the details of my "life" (if you can call it that) but rest assure, I won't be another three months getting more chapters out!

Few small comments: Actually, they're not turning into Digimon, exactly. You'll see, as the story progresses and I get more into detail about the transformations, that sometimes the things they turn into resemble their partners, but there are no actual digimon in this story. Sorry, but this is just too weird to throw in the weirdness that is the actual digimon. The only strange creatures set to appear besides the main 12 kids are the strange dark things, which are also not digimon.

In response to concerns I've gotten about couplings… I'm not telling. So there. :-P hehe. Actually, I think it'll be really obvious in the upcoming chapters who I've decided to pair with who, but I'm not going to give it away early. Sorry! ^_~ ^_^

At any rate, thanks for the nice comments I've gotten, I'm pleased to see people are reacting to this story well. It's very weird and I was worried most people would be like "Ah, I'm not reading that! It's weird!" ^_^ Thanks for reading and reviewing, and stay tuned!