Home Again

Part Six: The Journey Begins

***

Standard Disclaimer Thingies: Characters and concepts do not belong to me. The plot does. Please be aware that this plot is strange – it comes entirely from my imagination. It also contains some – and will contain more – references to various non-traditional relationships (mainly same-sex) that some readers may have a problem with. If this is you, it is advised that you stop reading soon. Thank you.

***

Miyako had dreamt of flying again and when she awoke she had no recollection aside from that and that she had to leave. It was such an urge within her that she stood up and began dressing in a hurry. Only then was she aware of the clock beside her bed sounding the seven o'clock alarm in its mechanized voice.

"Alert. Seven o'clock. Seven o'clock. Attention. Seven o-"

The alarm was silenced with a quick bang, and Miyako returned to reality, wondering to herself for the millionth time why they didn't have simple beeping clocks. She slowly continued the process of getting dressed from where she had left off. For some reason this day felt strange.

And then she remembered why. Today was the day they were finally going to leave.

Her things were crammed securely in a single bag. Miyako owned few possessions and so little packing had been required. She looked at the clock again. "Two hours until departure from planet Earth," she thought somberly before exiting her room.

***

When the sun began to appear over the horizon again, Sora doused the fire and aroused Hikari and Iori. Silent as mice, they began to quickly pack their bags without complaint, knowing the dangers of alerting potentially dangerous animals to their presence.  After a quick meal left over from the evening before, they destroyed nearly all evidence of their camp and washed in the nearby river.

 "Shall we follow the stream again?" Sora questioned from the safety of the shore as they youngest of their party drank their fill of the cool water.

"Seems like the best plan," Yamato nodded. He glanced towards the sky, where Momoe and Jun were already enjoying the cool morning air. "Let's get in as much traveling as we can before that sun gets too bright."

"Water's full," Hikari announced, returning from the side of the river with a few bags they'd created for the storage of water. She handed one to Sora and another to Yamato.

"Thanks," he said appreciatively, and questioned Iori: "How are the fish?"

"Strong and healthy," the boy replied. "There should be plenty for us to eat for dinner."

"Everything packed?" Sora wondered. "Let's go."

***

Daisuke glared daggers at Takeru when he opened the door. "I was in the middle of a dream," he accused with dangerous eyes.

Fearful, Takeru backed up, holding his hands up in a defensive posture. "Sorry!" he said. "But they said to wake you early, and you're already ten minutes late for breakfast. Don't you remember that today is the day we leave?"

"Yes, yes," the other grumbled, turning away from the door to grab a shirt from the side of a chair.

"I don't know what the big deal is, anyway," the blonde added, leaning against the side of the door. "It's only a dream, and your alarm would have wakened you anyway."

"Takeru, get out."

"What?"
"I said, 'Get out.'" He repeated the words with vehemence. "As in go away."

"But I - ," Takeru began, only to find he was cut off as the door slammed in his face, nearly bashing into his nose. "Fine!" he shouted at the door. "You get into trouble! I'm not!" Confused, he shrugged and walked away from the door.

"Can I help it if some people are grumpy in the morning?" he wondered, his normally good mood destroyed by the senseless argument. "Must have been a bad dream if he was that upset. And what's the big deal about a dream anyway?"

Grumbling, he entered the cafeteria-like room where they usually took meals and seated himself at the table, his breakfast in front of him. "Well, I'm glad we're getting out of here," he decided firmly.

"Oh, aren't we all," Miyako agreed. "I can't stand another day of having to eat military food." She poked at the cereal she'd poured into her bowl and sighed. "Bran flakes. Ech."

Jyou had barely touched his own food, as he had his nose in a book. "I'm not!" he announced, obviously a bit stressed by the pressure of the trip they were about to embark upon. "We're not ready!"

"Well," Taichi began, mouth half-filled with cereal. "We really can't be ready for everything…" he paused to swallow…"since we don't know what we're preparing for."

Jyou paid no attention to the rational statement, instead turning and grabbing the other boy by the collar. "Sure! For you it's not!" he said, half-yelling. "But what if someone gets hurt? What then? I'm not a doctor! I haven't even been to college!" He shook Taichi wildly. "One of us might just die!"

The last sentence was shouted quite loudly. Jyou released the hapless Taichi and collapsed over his book.  His victim loosened his collar and cleared his throat. Takeru and Miyako merely stared.

"Well then perhaps you should have studied more," Mimi stated. Jyou glared at her, and the girl returned to her breakfast, oblivious to the glare.

"Jyou, I'm sure that there's no reason to put so much pressure on yourself," Miyako assured him. "We'll all be sure to help out if someone gets hurt, and we'll try our very hardest not to be injured." She turned to Takeru for confirmation. "Right?"

"Well, I will," Takeru nodded in agreement.

"So long as the threat comes from outside," Taichi muttered, still pulling at his collar. He cleared his throat. "I'm sure no one will go off and get hurt just because it will annoy you, Jyou."

Jyou paid little or no attention to the reassuring comments. He sighed deeply and returned to his book.

***

Jun let the wind blow between the feather-like flaps of her wings. Unlike Momoe, who had definite feather growth on her wings, Jun was endowed with leathery wings that were somewhat more flexible, though less powerful. As a result, she couldn't always fly as fast as Momoe unless the wind was good, but she was often better at the turns. She landed on the upper growth of a tree and peered at her companions below.

"They're getting ready to leave," she called to Momoe, who landed on another nearby tree.

"Should we fly down and see where they're headed?" the short-haired girl questioned.

Jun shook her head. "No, I want to stay up here and fly," she replied with grin. "We'll head down after a while." She felt a cool breeze blow through her hair and breathed in the air. "I hope we end up somewhere other than a desert this time."

"So do I," the other girl agreed. "A place in the woods is so much friendlier." Near the river they camped, there were trees and grass, but a few feet from the water and the grass dried up and the desert sands returned full force before long. She squinted over the landscape. "Any sign of Ken?"

"Not one," she returned. "Boy, what luck, going off to scout way ahead instead of just circle overhead endlessly. I wish I had his job."

"I don't," Momoe disagreed. "Too much danger, being alone like that. What if those dark things were to attack?"

Jun's response was a shrug. "Let's just hope he can fly fast." A movement on the ground caught her eye and she noted Yamato waving towards them. "Time to change shifts then, I suppose." She stretched her wings, leapt from the branch, and let the wind carry her safely to the ground. Momoe landed beside her a moment later.

"Were you planning to stay in the sky the whole day?" Yamato wondered the moment they'd landed.

"Well, it had occurred to us," Momoe grinned.

"We would have come down eventually," Jun said, with a mischievous grin towards her partner.

"I'm sure you would," Sora nodded with a slight shake of the head.
"So we keep heading east then?"

"That's the plan so far," Yamato said, glancing towards Sora for confirmation. "We follow the river for as long as it takes us."

"Any sign of it ending?" Iori spoke up.

"Not yet," Momoe replied. "We're either following it to a lake or a sea where it flows to or to the mountains where its source is. Either place, in my opinion, is better than a desert."

"We'll see what we come across," Sora said. She handed her one bag to Hikari, who would better be able to carry it on the ground, and spread her own wings, light brown with hints of pink and blue at the tips of the feathers. A strong breeze blew through the air, and she took a few running steps before the wind and a good strong flap of the wings was enough to launch her skyward.

Yamato took a different approach, scaling one of the nearest trees. "Any problems, you know how to signal me," he reminded the girls.

"No problem, fearless leader Chief," Jun replied, saluting with a grin.

Once he'd reached a sufficient height, Yamato spread his own wings wide. They were generally pale yellow, but occasionally one could see a hint of blue within the folds. His were a leather-y type material similar to Jun's but instead of a stiff leather, his were also covered with a layer of thin hairs that made them appear furry and helped to keep him warm when not flying. The wind and the added altitude helped him to propel skyward with only a few strong flaps.

***

They were assembled before the strange creation that was to take them to another world. Fujiyama and several of his assistants were fiddling with various knobs and buttons as though they had an idea of what they did. Takeru had the vague feeling they didn't, but pushed the nervous feeling out of his stomach and hefted his bag over his shoulder.

"…no chance of communicating with this world," Miyako was saying, holding up a small radio transmitter and passing out identical ones to the rest of the group. "These are for communicating with each other. We don't know what to expect once we arrive, and it's perfectly logical to think we might get separated. We'll use these to keep in touch."

Takeru looked his over, fiddling with the buttons and dials and wondering how he was going to make that machine work. Without much concern, he shrugged and added the contraption to his bag, which was already filled with a few clothes and some of the foodstuffs they would need for the excursion. He stared at the large machine before him with some awe and wondered how it would take them to another universe, and what would be found in that universe.

Daisuke leaned over. "I'll bet that thing blows smoke and sputters like an old car," he muttered low enough so that only Takeru could hear. The blond boy stifled a laugh and poked him in the arm.

"It'd better not," he murmured in response. "It could send us completely off course."

"We have a course?" was the other's joking response. "Ow!" Miyako had kicked him from behind, and was now glaring at him. Daisuke rubbed the back of his knee and watched as the doctor pulled a thick lever and sparks flew.

A long metal strip had been laid across the floor, and now sparks began to fly from that. A whirring, sputtering noise could be heard, but no smoke emerged. Fujiyama frowned and shouted something over the noise to one of his assistants. Nodding, the man fiddled with a few dials and knobs. The machine quieted slightly, and the sparks grew larger.

"Maybe we'd better move back a little," Taichi thought aloud, and took a step away. In silent agreement, the rest of the children followed.

Suddenly, the sparks stopped, and a bright purple light shot from the metal strip where the sparks had once flown. Jyou peered closer, confused, for he had not seen any light bulbs involved in the machine. A blue light followed, flashing briefly before abating. It was followed quickly by a flash of white light, a yellow light, a green light, and then quickly, the lights flashed every color of the rainbow. Red flash, orange flash, yellow flash, green flash, blue flash, and all against the background of deep purple light.

***

The sky was a simple blue with a few white puffy clouds overhead. The landscape now held more trees than before, and the sun wasn't as murderous as before. Sora let the clean, cool breeze hit her face and felt the calm breezes blow through her wings. To fly, she thought, was a great experience.

And yet, somehow strange. Sora had few memories of her past or the world they'd left behind, but she knew with all certainty that people from her home did not fly. Did not have an extra set of ears atop their heads, or a thin tail that served no purpose other than to accessorize a wardrobe.

"Storm's moving in," Yamato called out suddenly, flying near and breaking her train of thought.

"Impossible," she contradicted. "The sky's as clear as anything."

"For now," he answered, stretching one arm towards the outer horizon. A group of dark clouds was at the edge of the sky, looking very nasty and threatening indeed.

"Should we stop?" she wondered, coming up shortly and hovering in mid-air – a skill which had taken great practice to learn.

Yamato hesitated, pausing as she did. "I don't know. It looks pretty far off." He glanced toward the horizon again. The clouds appeared closer. He frowned, blinked, and studied them again. They looked even closer now.

A strong wind blew just then, blowing them both in opposite directions. Sora cried out in surprise as she was thrown towards the ground, and struggled to maneuver her wings in time to stop the crash. Before she could though, another gust tossed her high into the air and further away from the location of the others. "Yamato!" she called, searching for familiarity.

The dirt was lifted from the ground and blew in her eyes, making it impossible to see, and the leaves from the trees added to it, circling like a cyclone around her and taking her some distance from where she'd started.

***

"It really can't handle more than one person at a time, but for safety's sake you'd best go in pairs," Fujiyama was shouting over the noise of the machine. "Hold on to each other, and your bags, and then jump on through. Who's first?"

He was trying, Takeru could tell, to make the experience somehow sound more cheerful, but it was a difficult job. Nervously, the boy peered at the flashing lights, somehow doubtful they could be transported to another world simply by that power. Before he could voice his concern, however, Daisuke shouted over the roar:

"I'll go!" He raised his hand over his head.

"So will I!" Takeru found himself shouting before he knew what he was doing.

***

"This is … not good!" Jun shouted over the roar of the wind and the dirt. She'd tried desperately to hold on to a tree, but it wasn't offering much protection from the strong gusts. "Everybody…try to stay together!"

 Her words were swallowed by the sound of the wind, and she became aware that probably neither Iori nor Hikari could hear her over the noise. She thought she could see Momoe, clinging tightly to another tree, but couldn't clearly tell through the leaves that blew through the air. She heard a shout to her right, and squinted through the haze to try to see. There wasn't anyone there, but she felt a hand grab her own outstretched arm.

"Hang on!" she shouted to whoever it was that had grabbed her. For a tenuous second, she released her grasp on the thick trunk of the tree and reached with her other hand. The wind gusted even stronger, and Jun and whoever held her hand were blown through the air as though they themselves were simply leaves or stones.

***

Takeru glanced towards Daisuke to see if he was feeling the uncertain fear as well, but there was nothing to show that in his face. "You ready?" he asked instead, a grin on his face.

"I guess," Takeru admitted reluctantly, shouting as well to be heard over the noise of the machine.

"Come on! This is what we've been waiting for, remember?" Daisuke reminded him. "On three, okay?"

"Okay," he shouted. "One…"

"Two…"

Together, they shouted: "Three!" and jumped with all their combined energy into the flashing lights.

***

Takeru shut his eyes against the bright onslaught of lights. He felt dizzy, almost as though he was caught in a whirlpool or a tornado or the front of a roller coaster. The disorienting nausea continued for he knew not how long, and he began to wonder if perhaps he would never reach reality again. What if reality was all only a dream, anyway, and he was now waking up to find that he was in the center of a disorienting void and this contraption of Fujiyama had discovered that? He tried to open his eyes, but felt an instant headache and so shut them again. He didn't feel his bag, even though he knew he'd held it securely in his left hand, nor did he feel Daisuke's palm in his right. He could hardly feel anything.

And then he felt a thump. The air was knocked from him and he landed with a crash, face first into an unrelenting but soft substance. Hot, sweltering air surrounded him, and he could feel beads of sweat forming on his neck. A grainy taste was in his mouth, and it was difficult to breathe.

He knew not how long he lay there, hot, sticky, gritty, and disoriented, but he knew immediately he needed to get up if he was going to get anything done at all. He sat up, spitting the taste from his mouth and daring to open his eyes.

He was in a wasteland. A vast wasteland of sand which spread as far as the eye could see. The plain, beige sands of a desert larger, he thought, than the Sahara of Africa or any other desert on Earth. Was this Earth? Who knew?

It was sand then, that he felt clinging stubbornly to his arms and legs and hair, and sand which he had swallowed a mouthful of at first landing. He spit the sand from his mouth again and longed for a drink to wash the taste from his mouth. He looked around for his bag and then remembered Daisuke.

The other boy was sitting up as well, attempting to wipe the gritty material from his arms. "Some trip, huh?" he questioned, and for once, he wasn't joking.

Takeru made a face. "Swallowed sand," he muttered, spitting more of it on to the ground. "Where are our bags?"

An expression of concern flashed over his face, as though he had not considered that before then. "Crap," he muttered. "I don't know." He began digging through the sand around him. "I know I had it!"

"Maybe only organic material could pass through the portal," Takeru thought with some concern. "Maybe the bags were disintegrated."

"No, then we wouldn't have clothes," Daisuke disagreed. He glanced down at himself for a moment to be certain he was still dressed, and breathed a sigh of relief to find he was still dressed in the simple uniform from the base. It was rumpled now, but thankfully still present and not damaged, except, of course, to be half-covered with sand.

"Found it!" Takeru said then, noticing the strap of his bag sticking out of the sand. He gripped the canvas handle and yanked with all his might. "Yes!" Eagerly, he rummaged through it, searching for the single canteen of water he was certain he'd packed.

"Don't drink it all," the other warned. "Who knows how far it is to water?" He spotted the handle of his own a few meters away, and eagerly crawled through the sand to retrieve it.

"I know, I know." Takeru opened the container and let a few drops fall into his mouth. Swallowing the cool, clear water, he felt relief, finally, from the coarse taste in his mouth. "Yes! Sand is definitely not something to eat."

Daisuke rummaged through his own pack and found the radio communicator Miyako had given them – only minutes ago? Or was it hours? Maybe even days. Who knew how long they'd been traveling through the portal before landing here. He turned the knobs and listened, but got only static in response. "Hello? Anyone there?" he questioned while holding down a button clearly marked 'Talk.' He shrugged. "I don't know if these things even work."

Takeru took his own from his bag. "If we can figure out how to communicate between us two then maybe we'll have a chance of communicating with the others," he suggested. "Hear this?" he spoke into the machine.

"Yeah, but not through this thing," Daisuke answered, gesturing to the communicator. He squinted across the desert, and then rummaged in his bag for a pair of sunglasses that he was certain he'd packed for just such an occasion. "Well, can't stay here for ever. Let's get moving."

Reluctantly, Takeru agreed, pulling himself to his feet and dusting the sand from his uniform. He pulled a wide-brimmed hat from his bag, not having packed sunglasses, and then pulled it over his shoulders. "Which way?"

***

Yes, yes, yes. Long time no update. Sorry, sorry, sorry! Sorry again!

On the plus side, though, it's easy to see (I think) that this story is (gasp!) going somewhere. Personally, I'm fairly happy with this chapter. Hope y'all are, too. ^_^

Coming soon, the adventures of Daisuke and Takeru as they trek across a barren wasteland. The adventures of everyone else as they try to figure out where the bleep they're going. Will they ever meet? Will they survive? And what in someone's name ever happened to Koushiro? To find out some of these answers, tune in soon, when I'll post more! Thanks for reading, reviewing, etc. I promise it won't be so long to an update next time! ^_^