Disclaimer: Once again, I do not own the idea of Digimon, or its characters. The FDD in the story, however, are my creation and are not to be used by anyone but me. Thank you. And now, we return to the story.
Digimon X: Game 8-Riding the Rapids
By DigiScanner-Shonen
"Who's not dead? Sound off," I hear Takeyama call, sounding a bit bruised himself. We all groan in reply. I can't really see well in this light. Everything's dim and you can only guess where everyone is. Ooh, my back hurts.
Who would've thought the track we were on would be unfinished?
We had just helped a group of miner Digimon in the Hito Mines and they showed us the fastest way out of the mountains. It was a mine cart roller coaster heck of a ride. We just finished another loop-de-loop followed by a zigzag climb to another hill. As we rushed downward, the track curved upwards and then just...stopped.
You can only imagine our surprise then.
I stand up, rubbing my back to try and relieve some pain. As I do, I look at the others as they do the same. There's Erin, her red hair and clothing now partly covered by dirt, as she holds her arm. DemiFalcomon, her small white bird partner Digimon, helps to dust Erin off a little. Next is Leah, her clothes look a little torn, but in this light, who can tell? Her hair looks a bit of a mess, but I guess doing a ride like that can undo anybody's hair. Labramon, Leah's doglike partner, pushes himself off his stomach and goes to Leah, checking if she's hurt. Jake sits up, holding his leg and cries in pain. It must've gotten bruised or something. Betamon, the amphibian partner of the youngest of us, spills some water on Jake's leg to try and cool it down. Finally, there's Takeyama, our fearless leader, dusting himself off and going over to Leah to check on how she's doing. I'm not quite sure, but I think there's a thing between the two of them. Flamon, his humanlike partner, is right beside him, doing the same.
I, myself, don't look too worse for the wear. I pull out my long-collared T- shirt to try and shake off some dirt. Dusting off each arm, I go over to Bearmon, my partner, and help him up.
"Bearmon, you okay?" I ask him. He looks a little shaken at the jump, but otherwise fine.
"Yeah, I'm good, Charlie. You?" he asks me back.
"Same. So, Takeyama," I ask our leader, putting some bitterness on his name, "Where are we now?"
"Give me a second, Charlie," he says, "Flamon? Can you use your flame to light the place up a bit?"
"I'll try," Flamon replies and clenches his fists and looks like he's trying really hard to do something to himself. He's grunting a bit and after a couple seconds, he snaps his fingers and a ball of flame about the size of an orange appears in his hand. "That's all I can do right now, until I get stronger..."
"Don't worry about it, buddy," Takeyama puts his hand on Flamon's shoulder, "We'll go with that for now. Just keep that light, okay?"
"Right."
"Okay, so where are we?" Takeyama looks around, using Flamon's flame as a guide. The flame reveals that we are in a dome-shaped cave, the walls of rock stretching upwards to meet the roof. The floor is flat and smooth, but full of jagged, rocky debris. Luckily, we landed away from much of it. Flamon also reveals the cart in which we rode in, smashed up from landing on a large piece of debris.
"Well?" I ask impatiently, tapping my foot with my arms crossed.
"I have no idea," he replies and nervously laughs with his hand behind his head, scratching his cap.
"Perfect."
"Hey, what about your DigiVices?" Bearmon asks.
"The D-Coders?" Erin asks as she helps Jake up and comes to join us, "You think they'll be able to help us?"
"You'll never know until you try, right?" DemiFalcomon tells her.
"Leah, you've been tinkering with your D-Coder since you got it a couple days ago. Got any info from it that could help us?" Takeyama asks Leah.
"Yeah, actually I have. I'll try and pull it up on mine," she says as she pulls out her yellow device which she got upon finding Labramon as her partner. She toys with a couple buttons, and then her screen glows, "Got it. You guys just push the large bottom button to the right twice and then push the upper-most button, okay?"
We all take out our D-Coders and do as she says. The screens begin to glow and the light kind of shoots upward a little and forms a three-dimensional rotating globe roughly the same size as the device, with land masses and oceans and all the other stuff that a world could have. There's a little blue glow coming from one of the areas on the globe.
"Funky," Takeyama says in amazement.
"That blue glow is a cursor," Leah explains, "Use the large button to move it wherever you want. But notice that there's a different glow, a red glow."
We all do notice a red glow, separate from the other glow.
"Highlight with the cursor then push the upper button."
We all comply and the globe disappears, only with the area we highlighted remaining. It sudden is rushed up to, enlarging as it does. We see that the map has changed, showing the area enlarged. It has mountains, forests, canyons, rivers, villages. I see one of the mountains glow with the same red glow as before.
"Do the same as before, and I'll explain the rest when you do," Leah says as she highlights the area on her D-Coder. We comply and the mountain enlarges and we're shown the inside of it. We see many light blue lights high up in the mountain, going back and forth, possibly the miner Digimon we helped earlier. Then we notice five different coloured lights in a lower part of the mountain.
"See those different coloured lights? That's us," Leah points at the lights, "Each of the lights represent the D-Coder that one holds. I'm yellow, Tucker's red, Jake is green, Erin represents white and Charlie is blue. This is a map of the Hito Mountains, and it shows our present location. As you can see, we're close to the bottom of the mountains."
"But where's the way out?" Jake asks.
"Hang on..." Leah says as she looks at her map and judges everything where we are. She points past Erin and Flamon points his flame that way, which reveals a tunnel, "That way!"
"Wow, Leah you're amazing!" Takeyama compliments Leah, "I could never figure out something like that."
"Yeah, with good reason," I say and I appear to upset him a bit. Good thing that he's upset, I can't stand him. He's not only saved me from Dokugumon, but now Golemon, too. My debt's running up. I hate him for saving me. I hate him for being open with the others. I hate him for leading us.
And I hate him, simply because he's Tucker Takeyama.
Bearmon looks at me while we walk through the tunnel, he and I are taking up the back. "Charlie, you haven't been talking much since this trip started. Is something bothering you?" he asks me.
"No...yes...kind of..." I reply quietly.
"What is it?"
"It's...Takeyama. He's saved my life twice now, and I swore to myself that I'd pay back the favour because I can't stand being in his debt. I'm not sure I can now."
"Don't worry, you'll begin to pay back the debt soon," he says cheerfully, "We've begun to encounter stronger Digimon so surely one of them will overpower Agunimon and Tucker. Then you and I can step in and save them."
"You sure?" I ask doubtfully.
"I give my word as your partner. That good enough for you?"
"Sure it is," I smile a bit, "Thanks, Bearmon."
"It's what I'm here for," he smiles back.
We continue walking for a few minutes through the tunnel. It begins to get lighter as we walk further. The tunnel also seems to widen out a bit.
"We're almost at the end. Come on, guys!" Takeyama yells and begins to run headfirst towards the light with Flamon following him.
"Wait, Tucker! I haven't analysed the area outside! We don't know what's out..." her voice trails off as she runs after Takeyama and I can't hear her anymore without following.
"Jake! Erin! Stop!" I tell the others and they comply.
"But why?" Betamon asks.
"Leah's right. We don't know what's out there. For all we know, she and Takeyama could've fallen off the edge of the Digital World or something," I say to the others, "We need the map again."
I pull out my D-Coder and try to remember how to activate the map again. After a couple unsuccessful attempts, I activate it and quickly use the map to get back to where we are now. It shows that the Mountain map stops just short of where we're going.
"Argh! The map doesn't give me anything!" I growl angrily, clenching the D- Coder, "I need to check it out myself. You two stay here until I come back for you. I'll give you a kind of signal, all right?"
Erin, Jake and their partners all nod.
"Come on, Bearmon!" I look at my partner with a determined look and he had the same look. We run towards the light, not knowing what to expect. Just as we enter into the light, I start moving slow and everything seemed to be suspended. I've run into a DigiBarrier! That's what stopped Takeyama and Leah!
A moment of passing through the DigiBarrier and I'm on the other side with Bearmon. I'm still in the light, it must've masked the DigiBarrier. However, after passing through, it stopped my running. Just as well, anyway, because from this point on, I'm walking. Bearmon and I walk further into the light until it becomes very bright.
I shield my eyes for a minute then let them adjust to the light. I stare out into a large canyon, with a river rushing through it, complete with rapids, rocks and everything else a white-water rafter would love. There's a pass down to the river, with a kind of landing just a few feet into the river. This river looks like it goes on for a while as it stretches as far as I can see. There are some trees some ways away from me and a path stretches from the tunnel to the trees. The trees must lead to the landing.
As I stop taking in the scenery, I cup my hands to my mouth to call out for the others. "Leah! Takeyama! Where are you?!"
Bearmon aids in the calling as we walk towards the trees. After passing a few trees, I hear a voice call out my name. "Charlie? Is that you?"
"Uh, yeah!" I say, not knowing if it's an enemy or the others. It might be Leah or Takeyama if they know my name, but it could be a trick. I look at Bearmon, and he is ready to defend me, "But who are you?"
Leah emerges from the trees with Labramon following her. "Tucker and I thought you'd never get here. I take it since Jake and Erin aren't with you, they're back in the cave. You saw the canyon, right?"
I nod in response.
"Well, Tucker and I couldn't see any other way to cross, so we're building a raft to carry us on the river."
"Takeyama's building a boat?" I say in disbelief, snorting as I do, "This I gotta see."
"Not yet. Go back and get the others. We need everyone's help for this," she asks me and Bearmon and I go back to the tunnel. We pass through the DigiBarrier and fill Erin and Jake on what's going on.
"Down a river of rapids?" Erin says.
"Yeah," I tell her.
"Sounds like fun!" Jake smiles, "Can we do it, Erin? Can we?"
"Sure, Jake!" Erin smiles back at Jake and looks back at me with a questioning look on what we're doing. I shrug as we go back through the DigiBarrier. After we get out and I direct Jake to where the others are, Erin looks at the river and tells me, "Tucker must be off his rocker!"
"That's what I've been saying this whole time, but will anyone listen?" I say as I walk with Erin, Bearmon and DemiFalcomon.
"Do you think we'll survive something like that?" she asks.
"Not sure. But then, with Takeyama, I'm never sure. But let's worry about that after we finish the boat," I tell her as we enter the forest where the others are working.
"We need more wood!" Takeyama calls out to us.
"Leave it to me!" Bearmon says, "Bear Claw!!"
Bearmon's slashes leave the tree vulnerable to toppling. "I'll finish that! Beta Slugger!!" Betamon hurls himself at the tree and as it falls over from Betamon's impact, he yells, "Timber!"
We continue toppling trees for a couple minutes and soon we have all the wood we need.
"Do we want a particular shape, Takeyama?" I ask him.
"I'm thinking square or rectangle, but first let's attach the wood to each other," he says.
"Too bad we don't have anything to attach it to, like a rope or something," Erin points out.
"Hey, wait a second!" Bearmon interrupts, "Trees have sap! And sap is sticky! Maybe we could use that to attach them together!"
"It wouldn't last more than a few seconds out on the river," Betamon says, "I should know, I'm an aquatic Digimon and the water can get pretty rough sometimes."
"Then what can we use?" Jake asks. We all ponder deeply on what to use for the boat. Then it hits me.
"How about we can tie the branches together, like a rope?" I suggest, "True that the sap may not last long on the logs, but on the branches, there shouldn't be a problem. And the leaves could help, too."
The others all think about this. They consider it and agree.
"It's all we got," Bearmon says.
"Not that we have much to work with to begin with..." Flamon adds.
"All right, let's do it!" Takeyama says and immediately goes to work on the branches.
First we pull the branches off, then we stick them together, end to end, like a rope. We then pour sap on the leaves and tie them to the branches. We arrange it like a rope, tying the branch rope to the logs. The boat is soon finished, large enough to carry us down the rapids.
"Now the hard part is getting it to the river," DemiFalcomon notes.
"Everybody carries the raft, no one person or Digimon does it alone," Takeyama says as he starts to lift the boat, "Come on, guys. Together we can do it."
We all lift the raft and follow a path through the trees to a landing close to the river. We place the boat on the landing and take a quick breather, looking at the work we've created.
"Wait, if we're going white-water rafting, don't we need paddles to control the boat?" Leah asks.
"Hey, you're right!" Takeyama says, "Erin and I will go take care of that. Erin?"
"Sure, let's go," she says as she, Takeyama and their partners head back into the forest to make some paddles.
Bearmon and I go over to Jake, Leah, Betamon and Labramon as they look out at the water.
"It's going quite fast," Betamon says as he dips his fin in the rushing water, "I'd say about thirty kilometres an hour."
"How long does it go?" Leah asks.
"Don't really know."
"You can swim in something like this, right Betamon?" Jake asks his partner.
"Of course! It's not easy, but of course I can do it!" Betamon says indignantly, "Aquatic Digimon can swim in any kind of water!"
"Just to be safe, I wouldn't chance that, Betamon," Bearmon warns him, "If the water's going as fast as you say it is, you'd be downstream before you can say 'rapids'."
"We'd better get the boat ready," Leah says as she goes over to move the boat and Labramon helps her, "Come on, you guys! I'm not doing this by myself!"
Jake, Bearmon, Betamon and I go over to help lift the raft. It sure is heavier when you don't have Erin or Takeyama around to help you. My muscles strain to lift it as we move towards the water. Just a little from the edge, we set it down and climb aboard, waiting for the others.
"Hey! You weren't going to leave without us, were you?" I hear Takeyama call as he, Erin and their partners come running down with the paddles.
"I was thinking about it," I say in reply as Takeyama places the paddles on the raft.
"Ha ha. Oh, that's so funny," Takeyama rolls his eyes, "Well anyway, we got the paddles, so off we go!"
Erin climbs aboard, but trips on a stray branch and crashes into me. I catch her, albeit accidentally, and hold her a few seconds before I push her off me.
"Ooh, Charlie's got a girlfriend..." Takeyama teases.
"Stuff it, Takeyama," I say as I feel my cheeks turn a bit red, "I just had to catch her so she wouldn't get hurt."
"So why'd you hold her so long?" Takeyama smirks.
"Maybe I should be asking you about yourself and Leah. You two seem to have gotten quite friendly in the last couple of days..."
At this, Takeyama, and I think also Leah, blushes. "Okay! That's enough! Let's just get going," he says as he pushes off the boat into the water and manages to hop on at the last second.
"I hope this isn't anything like the mine cart ride an hour ago," Erin hopes.
"Nah," Takeyama says as he grabs a paddle, "It'll be nothing like the mine cart. But in the case it is, keep your legs and arms inside the boat's area at all times."
I grab the other paddle and he and I begin paddling to determine where the boat goes on the river. We actually seem to be doing good on the river. But then come the rapids.
"Okay, here we go," I say as I take a deep breath to stay calm, "Everybody hold on!"
The boat begins to toss and turn as we surf the rapids. Up, down, left, right. The others hold on to each other as best they can while Takeyama and I try to keep the boat on a steady course. We fall down a couple of small falls, but nothing too bad. Then, we see the rocks.
"Whoa-oh! Things are about to turn rocky!" Takeyama calls out as he and I do our best to avoid collision on the rocks.
Rock! Rock! Rock! My mind's a panic, trying to avoid the rocks. No, have to keep calm, I tell myself, Keep calm or we're all in for a bad ride.
The rocks seem to pop up from nowhere as we go faster on the water. Water splashes as we continue on our boat. The canyon walls seem to become a bit of a blur as we go faster.
"Well, I guess I was right!" Erin yelps.
"About what?" Leah asks.
"About this ride not being like the mine cart! It's worse!"
"Junction!" I yell as we see the river split into two at the sight of a large rock, "We go right!"
"Right! Are you crazy? We go left!" Takeyama says as he puts his paddle in the water making a left turn.
"No! We go right!" I say, putting my paddle in the water to make a right turn, "Who made you leader of this group?"
"You just choose to follow me! Besides, who came up with the idea of the raft?" Takeyama argues.
"Obviously not you! You're not smart enough to think something like this up!"
"Guys..." Erin begins and we ignore her.
"Yes I am! It's you who's the moron, Charlie!" Takeyama yells at me.
"No, I'm not! You can't lead this group! You foolishly run into things headfirst! It takes planning to be a leader, too, not just reckless courage!" I argue back.
"At least I'm not afraid to be initiative, Mr. Oh-let's-think-of-something- else-to-do-besides-fight! Fighting is the only way out of this game!"
"How would you know? Not everything requires fists to do the talking! We could be here for a different reason like to show how fighting is wrong!"
"And what about all the Digimon we defeated? Huh? We have to fight! We're the DigiDestined!"
"Guys..." Jake repeats Erin, yet we still ignore the others.
"Get this out of your head: we're not heroes, Takeyama! We're kids! We came here by mistake! We're not the legendary warriors who the Digimon have been waiting for! And there must be another way out of the game!"
"Oh, you have another way out? I'd love to see it! Oh, wait! You don't have one, do you?!" Takeyama screams.
"You know I don't! I'm just saying there's probably another way other than fighting the Digimon to get out of the game!"
"The only way out is to get to Digitropolis! And there will be obstacles along the way! We HAVE to fight in order to get there!"
"GUYS!!" Leah screams.
"WHAT?!" Takeyama and I angrily look back at Leah.
"Will you argue later? We've almost run out of room!" Leah points and we remember the junction rock, "Which way?"
"Right!" Takeyama yells.
"Left!" I yell back.
"What? We're going right, like YOU wanted, Charlie!"
"Well, we're going left, like YOU wanted, Takeyama!"
Suddenly, we crash into the rock and we're all sent flying into the river. The raft is broken but I can only see it for a second, as we are sent downstream. I look around, trying to find out who else is here. It's hard with all this water, I keep going beneath the surface, then coming back up. I can't breathe too well with this.
"Glub! Help! Please!" I hear a voice through my clogged ears as I look around for the source. I see Jake, splashing around like a maniac in the water just ahead of me.
"Hang on, kid!" I yell and swim over to him. He grabs onto me and clings to me tight.
"Charlie blub! Where are the others? glub" he asks.
"We blub, must've lost them glub," I say as I swim over to a log from the raft, astray from the crash. I manage to grab onto the log and Jake lets go of me long enough to grab onto it as well.
"Betamon! Where's Betamon? blub" Jake wonders.
"Come to think of, blub, it, where's Bearmon?" I ask as well. I search around for them as we rush down the river.
"There!" Jake manages to point to Betamon and Bearmon, swimming upstream, trying to reach us, "Come on, Betamon! You can do it!"
"Easy for you to say!" he yells in reply as he and Bearmon manage to grab onto the log.
"Did you see, glub, anyone else?" I ask Bearmon.
"No! They must be, blub, on the other side of the junction!" he replies.
"You mean Erin's gone?" Jake says in shock, looking like he's going to cry soon.
"No, just separated from us, glub," I say, "We'll find her and the, blub, others."
Betamon looks out in the direction where we're going and suddenly gasps.
"What is it, Betamon?" Jake asks.
"We're about to run out of river!" he points and we all look. The river just stops. All that's left is empty sky.
"Not good!" Bearmon yells, "You can guess what happens next, blub!"
"You mean a huge drop beside a waterfall?" I ask.
"Yes! And here it comes!"
"Hold on, tight!!" I say as grip the log as best I can and we drop out into the sky.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" We all scream as fall downwards. At first I can only see the sky as my back is towards the ground. I notice that the waterfall is quite large. I somehow roll onto my stomach and see the ground seemingly a mile away, but steadily coming in fast. My hair rushes past and I can see Bearmon falling a few feet away from me, looking absolutely mortified. I turn and see Betamon, a little above me, indulging what seems to be a kind of prayer. Then, I see Jake, below me, looking up at me with wide eyes, pleading to me that this is just a bad dream.
Personally, I wish it was the same thing.
The water finally meets up with us as I'm forced down into the water. I go down a few feet, and try to swim back upwards, but the current is pulling me to the side. A rock passes by me and I think that the rapids may just continue. I reach for the surface again, but another rock cuts my arm and the water mixes with my blood. It hurts but I try to keep moving. I'm almost there when I feel a blow to my head and everything turns dark.
My eyes open as I stare upward at a darkening sky. I hear the crackle of a fire to the right of me and I try to roll towards it, but I roll on my wounded arm and am forced to stay on my back.
Bearmon comes into my sight, peering down at me. "How are you doing?"
"Bearmon?" I ask him, "What happened?"
"We fell, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember that. But happened afterward?"
"You cut your arm pretty badly on one of the rocks we passed on the way here. I cleaned it and bandaged it as best I could," he points at my arm and I see that it's been bandaged up with my bandanna. Man, that's gonna leave a nasty stain, "You had fainted after suffering a blow to the head, but Betamon managed to grab you before something else happened. I'm glad you're all right, partner."
"Yeah, so am I," I say as I rub my head with my good arm. I suddenly remember Jake. No, Jake! "Bearmon! Jake! What happened to Jake?"
Bearmon points to the left of me and I see Jake lying next to me and I notice he's got a nasty gash on his forehead. Betamon lies next to him, keeping watch.
"The both of you lost a fair amount of blood in the river. Betamon and I did the best we could for both of you. We've collected some food for the night and made a fire. We'll both keep watch over you until you've healed."
"My D-Coder. Give me my D-Coder," I tell Bearmon.
"What do you need it for?"
"I need to check where Takeyama and the others are," I tell him as he hands me my device and I pull out the map. Two dots, one green and one blue, glow on the screen, showing us our current location, "All right, we're at the side of the river. But where are the others?"
I use the map to enlarge the area. I look around at the map of the area and see three dots, one red, one yellow and one white, on the other side of where we currently are.
"Oh, perfect. They're on the other side," I groan and lay my head back down on the ground, "I guess we'll have to look for them tomorrow."
"Just as well. You'll need all the strength you can get to reach them, Charlie," Bearmon says, "You can recover a bit by eating some of this fruit I found."
They look kind of like mangoes. I take a bite and chew. It's actually quite good. "What? No special recipe? No secret spice?" I manage to laugh a bit.
"No, not this time," Bearmon says as he gives me another one, "Give this to Jake."
I turn over and see Jake. "Hey, kid. Jake, wake up, kid," I whisper and he stirs a little. He wakes up and turns his head to face me. As he does so, blood runs down his forehead.
"Charlie? That you?" he asks.
"Yeah. Here. Eat this, you'll need all the strength you can get, man," I say as I hand him the mango.
"I can't reach it. I'm so tired..." he says.
"I'll feed it to you," I say as I move the mango to his mouth and he takes a bite.
"It's good," he says between chews.
"Yeah, it is," I say as I take another bite of mine. We eat in silence for a few minutes, looking up at the sky as the stars come out. The sound of the crackling fire is calming as I rest my eyes.
"Charlie?" Jake breaks the silence.
"What?"
"What happened to the others?"
"They're on the other side of the river. Tomorrow, we'll go look for them."
"Do you think Erin's okay?"
"Yeah, she'll be fine. They've got Leah, she's smart and she'll figure out a way to keep them safe. And of course, they got Takeyama to lead them. I'm not quite sure he can, though," I laugh.
"Why do you hate Tucker so much?" Jake asks.
"..." I remain silent.
"Why?"
"Takeyama saved my life twice. I feel like I owe him now, and I can't stand that," I admit, "But I'm not sure I can pay the debt back."
"That's the only reason?"
"No. There's more."
"Like what?"
"He's...he's...just so open with you guys. He can express himself to you guys. He doesn't have to keep things bottled up inside, he can share them with you. He can be friendly and doesn't have to worry about hurting someone. He's brave, and has proven himself by defending us from Dokugumon and Golemon. He's just himself and he doesn't have to be anything but that. He can be himself without fear of not being that. I can't be that."
"Why?"
"My parents are divorced. I live with my father in Osaka, and visit my mother every weekend. I feel like the divorce was my fault. It probably is, too."
"How come?"
"My family was coming down on hard times. Mom and Dad didn't seem to love each other as much. The finances for our family was starting to not get up to demand. And they had me to support. I always loved my parents very much, but then they seemed to get more distant. They barely had time for me anymore because they were trying to make ends or usually arguing with each other. I felt that all this was happening because it was my fault. I also thought that my friends might do the same thing, so I distanced myself from them, hoping to spare them the pain. That's where I stand today."
"We'd never do that, Charlie. We're in this together, aren't we?" Jake asks.
"Yeah..."
"So we need to be close in order to survive. My dad once told me that friends stick together. And so far, throughout this game, we've stuck together. So that means we're all friends. That means we'll never abandon you. We'll stick together through the tough times and the good times. Then, one day, we can all go home together. No matter how far you'll set us apart, we'll still be your friends."
I look at Jake, with his eyes full of hope and friendliness. "And we're friends, aren't we?"
I take in all he's said and I feel a tear or two escape from my eyes. I put my hand on his head. "Yeah, we are."
"Good," Jake smiles and I can't help but smile as well.
"Do me a favour?" I ask him quietly.
"What?"
"Don't tell the others, especially Takeyama, about this, okay? I don't want them thinking I've gone soft or anything. I have an appearance to keep up here," I say.
"Okay..." he says quietly and then falls asleep.
I fall asleep too, but not without thinking one last thought.
At least, for a while.
I hear birds chirping and for a moment I think I'm back in my bed in the apartment in Osaka. I open my eyes and I'm proven wrong. The sky is just becoming blue and a mist hangs over everything. I lean upward and yawn. I check my arm and see that it's healed a bit. I wipe off some dew from the bandanna and turn over to see Bearmon, curled up beside me and snoring away.
"Bearmon..." I shake him gently, "It's time to get up, Bearmon."
"Mph...five minutes..." he says drowsily.
"No minutes. Get up," I shove him and he opens his eyes. He yawns and looks at me.
"Charlie? You okay now?"
"Yeah, that bandage job you did was great," I say as I run my hand through my dark hair, cleaning it in a way of dew, "We'd better get moving if we wanna find Takeyama and the others."
I turn over to Jake and shake him awake. "Come on, buddy. Time to go find Erin."
Jake wakes up and yawns. "Erin? We're gonna go find her?"
"Yeah, and Takeyama, too. Sooner we get up, the sooner we can find them."
"Right," he says and gets up. I do the same and we both yawn and stretch. We both then look at each other and see that we're doing the same thing and laugh.
"Did something happen between you two last night?" Bearmon asks.
"Just some male bonding," I punch Bearmon on the shoulder, "Now wake Betamon up so we can go."
"I'll do it," Jake says as he goes over to Betamon and violently shakes him awake.
"I'm up, I'm up," he says as he shakes from Jake.
"Great, now let's see where the others are now," I say as I once again consult the D-Coder Map. The dots representing Takeyama, Leah and Erin have moved since last night as they are moving beside the canyon where we were when we crashed, "Looks like they didn't fall down the falls. We gotta find a way to the other side."
"Maybe there's a bridge?" Bearmon suggests.
"I'll look for one now," I say as I search the area for a bridge or a crossing or something that will get us to the other side of the area. I see a kind connecting thing just a mile or so ahead from us, "Bingo! A crossing a mile ahead!"
"Then we better start walking," Betamon says.
"It'll go faster if we jog. Come on! Let's go find the others!" I say as I lead the others further into the area.
We've been jogging/walking for about fifteen minutes when we emerge from the trees where we were coming from. I spot the crossing just a few feet away from us. It's a wooden bridge, suspended by rope. It hangs above the river by a few feet.
"Looks simple enough," I say as I move towards the bridge with Jake behind me.
"It's never simple in the Digital World," Bearmon notes.
"HA HA HA!! Who dares come upon my bridge?!" comes a loud voice.
"See what I mean?" Bearmon gestures.
A giant green monster with white hair, a large mouth, two black horns emitting from his head, red bandages on one hand and a black spiked band on the other, with the same pattern on the opposite feet comes out with a large, spiked bone. "Ha Ha! Puny Rookie Digimon and two new Digimon I've never seen before! My lucky day! I get to crush you all!"
"We're not Digimon, we're human! But what are you?" Jake asks as I whip out my D-Coder and analyse the Digimon blocking our path.
"Ogremon. An Evil Virus-type Champion Digimon. This guy sure lives up to his name, being so hideously ugly. He has two attacks: Pummel Whack and Bond Cudgel."
"Hey! Who are you calling ugly, ugly?" Ogremon thrusts his bone at us, but we manage to avoid it.
"We're warning you right now! Let us pass and nobody gets hurt," I tell Ogremon in a warning tone.
"Oh, someone will get hurt," Ogremon says as he frees his club from the ground, "YOU!!"
He brings it down again and we still avoid it.
"Don't say we didn't warn you...Bearmon!" I look to my partner.
"Ready to go!" he replies.
"Betamon?" Jake questions his partner.
"Lemme at 'im!" he says.
Jake and I both look at each other and nod. We pull out our D-Coders and hold them out. "DIGIVOLVE!!" We yell and they begin to glow. The light from the screen hits our partners and they glow as well.
"Bearmon Digivolve to..." Bearmon says as a small mountain of rocks surrounds him.
"Betamon Digivolve to..." Betamon says as a tower of water covers him up.
There's a fierce glow from both of these towers of nature that holds for a few seconds then an explosion that sends the rocks and water flying outward as two new Digimon stand in their place.
"Grizzmon!!" Grizzmon announces himself.
"Coelamon!!" Coelamon stands ready.
"So, you Digivolved. You think that's enough against me?" Ogremon asks as he charges towards us. Grizzmon steps to the side as Ogremon brings down his club, "Pummel Whack!!"
"You missed! I won't! Grizzly Slash!!" Grizzmon slashes at Ogremon and hits his arm.
"Oww!! Ow ow ow! You'll pay for that!" he says as he faces Grizzmon and brings down his club again, "Bone Cudgel!!"
It actually hits Grizzmon on the head and he howls in agony.
"Ha ha ha! You can't beat me!" Ogremon laughs.
"Oh, really? Fossil Bite!!" Coelamon launches himself at Ogremon and bites his leg hard.
"Yeah! Go, Coelamon!" Jake cheers.
"Oww!!" Ogremon screams in pain, "That hurt! Pummel Whack!!" Ogremon again whacks his stick at Coelamon, except this time it sends him flying backwards.
"Grizzly Slash!!" Grizzmon slashes again at Ogremon with his back turned to him, only this time, he doesn't go just once, he goes several times, all around Ogremon's body.
"Yyaaargh!!" Ogremon yells and he falls onto his knees and uses his bone as a prop.
"This is your last chance! Let us pass and we'll leave you alone," I tell Ogremon.
"Never! This is my bridge and I will crush anyone who tries to cross it!" Ogremon replies angrily.
"Then you leave us no choice. Grizzmon, finish him!" I order Grizzmon.
"Bear Blaster!!" Grizzmon fires his energy attack at Ogremon, who is hit badly by it.
"Coelamon, are you strong enough to stop him?" Jake asks.
"Yes! Ice Fist!!" Coelamon curls his fin into a fist that glows and then fires a volley of ice at Ogremon who is already weakened from Grizzmon's Bear Blaster. Ogremon falls and lays on the ground.
"All right. You can go..." he says quietly.
"I'm sorry, but you gave us no choice," I say as I pass him onto the bridge and Jake follows me. The Digimon begin to cross as well, but then Ogremon, in one last heap of energy, hurls himself at us.
"Go to the place after deletion!!" he screams as he comes towards us.
"Grizzmon!"
"Grizzly Slash!!" Grizzmon slashes once more at Ogremon and this time, Ogremon does not attack again. His pieces litter the area as my D-Coder goes off.
"Possible Data Capture for Data. Do you wish to Data Capture?" it asks me in its electronic female voice.
"Yes," I say as I hold out my DigiVice, "Data Capture, Activate!" My D- Coder captures Ogremon's data and soon I have him contained in my D-Coder.
"That's so cool!" Jake comments on the D-Coder's capturing.
"It is. You can do it, too, once you defeat a Digimon," I tell Jake, "But I don't like doing it."
"You had no choice," Grizzmon says, "He would've hurt you bad and I wouldn't let that happen."
"I know, Grizzmon. And I thank you for that," I tell him as he De- Digivolves back into Bearmon.
"After all, friends stick together, right?" Bearmon asks me.
"Yeah, they do," I say as I look at Jake and smile. He smiles back and then I remember what we're doing, "Come on. We need to go find Takeyama and the others."
"Right!" the others say as we continue across the bridge.
Thanks to Jake, I know the others will stick with me to the end. Even though I may act cool, and uncaring, and a rival to Takeyama, I deep down really wanted a friend. Now I've got Bearmon, Jake and the others. They'll be there for me no matter what.
Now my dearest wish is that I can do the same for them.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Another chapter has been read and I hope you enjoyed it. Will Charlie and Jake reunite with the others? Will they get out of the area? And will the group ever get to Digitropolis? You can find out by sending me reviews which let me know you like what I'm doing. And look for the new chapter next month!