Chapter 4: Fevered Firefight
"James, look after your brother while I run some errands. He's in the pool."
"Okay mom." I was busy putting up some tools from fixing our trampoline. It took a minute for what she said to register. "Oh." I looked over my shoulder through the bushes and saw my little brother splashing about in the shallow end of the pool.
"Hi James! Come here!" He had the hose in the water and was waiting to blast me.
"Not right now." I got on our trampoline and leaned back on it. Finally I fell all the way back and began to doze.
"Huh?" The sun was now blinding me; it had come out from behind a tree. Which meant it was later in the day.
"Oh shit. Justin!?" There was no response.
"Justin!? Answer me!" There was still no response. I stood up and jumped on the trampoline to see over the bushes around the pool. He was floating face down in the pool.
"JUSTIN!!!" I jumped off the trampoline, nearly breaking my leg. Through the bushes and into the shallow end. How was I not going to hit the bottom? Here it came...
It was our second day of walking through the desert, Chris, Agumon, myself, and an injured Joey. I guessed he had second degree burns; if they were any worse there would be no chance for him. We had emptied the apples from his sweater and tied it around the bad burns on his arm and shoulders. I used my gloves to cover the burns on the side of his face. How could I have let this happen?
It was our second day of walking, but it had been four days since I had any sleep. Nightmares kept haunting my thoughts during the day and they played themselves out at night. It was exhausting, especially since we were carrying Joey; Chris took his arms, I held his legs, and Agumon supported the middle like a pillar. But it wasn't the burns that worried me, it was the fever. The heat was around 90 degrees and had begun to take its toll.
"Man... this... desert... never... ends." Chris was gasping for breath. It was late in the day and we felt like we were just going to drop and die in the middle of the desert. But, we knew if we did, none of us would survive, except maybe Agumon who seemed to enjoy the hot weather. "Hey, do you hear something?"
"The heat is getting to you Chris. You're beginning to hear things." I spoke too soon. A blast of fire hit the ground near us, knocking us over and spraying sand everywhere. Chris got some in his eyes and dropped Joey's arms. Agumon stopped and was rubbing his face too. I would of gotten some if I hadn't been wearing my shades.
"Ow! What was that for?" Joey muttered, almost incomprehensibly, when his head hit the ground, no longer supported by Chris and Agumon.
"Sorry Joey, just go back to sleep." The fever was taking its course, with no sign of letting up. I could tell; his forehead felt like fresh coals from a fire. Chris, finally with sand out of his eye, was running up a dune to see where the fireball had come from. It hadn't seemed like it was aimed at us.
"Psst! James! Get up here, quick!" Chris signaled to me and I ran up the dune to see what was going on. Agumon stayed behind with Joey. Three Meramon were dodging about a robed man. He had short, somewhat spiky hair and wielded a long, thin sword; a katana. The Meramon were hurling fireballs with at him steadily, but he just dodged or blocked them with ease.
"I don't have time for this."
"You made time when you killed our brother!" The Meramon were furious. I thought about the one we had destroyed. Could they be mistaking the man for us?
"I killed no one before, but you leave me no choice except to vanquish you."
"Hah! Listen to him." One of the Meramon laughed rather insanely and hurled another fireball.
"Your funeral." The man dashed at the Meramon who had attacked him and let his sword slice clear through the flaming digimon. The creature gave a croaked out an attempted scream, but could do no more than that. He blew apart into data. Agumon had told me about what happens when a digimon is defeated. It breaks apart into data and is reconfigured within a digi-egg at a place he called 'Primary Village.'
"You monster!" The Meramon were abruptly taken aback by this sudden show of power by the man.
"I warn you for the last time, be gone or face a similar fate." The Meramon hesitated a moment until the man's sword caught the sun's reflection. At that, they ran, rather quickly.
"Dude, that was awesome!"
"Shut up Chris! We don't know if he's friendly."
"Hey, the enemy of my enemy..." As we argued the man turned about and sighted us, quickly sprinting up the dune. Before we knew it, he was standing over us.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"I'm Chris and he's James. We don't know what were doing here."
"Then you're just the people I'm looking for. You wouldn't happen to have any computers or such on you, would you?"
"Well, I have this." Chris pulled out the colored device. The screen glowed quite brightly as he showed it to the man, who looked quite young in person.
"Yes, a Digivice. You are the digidestined I was told were out here."
"You're kidding me." I couldn't help it. Between no sleep for days, Chris' arrogance, and Joey teetering on death, I finally snapped.
"Excuse me?"
"Can't you be a little bit more help!? Hell, we're out here in the middle of the fucking desert with no food, no water, and a kid damn near dead and all you tell US IS WHAT THE HELL THAT THING IS CALLED!? I DON'T CARE, I DON'T EVEN HAVE ONE!!!" I was ranting uncontrollably now.
"Calm down. What do you mean 'near dead'?"
"Are you blind!? Down there stupid!" I threw my arm in the direction of Joey, nearly losing my balance.
"Okay, we can talk later, we need to hurry and get him out of here. Get down to him; I'll be there in a minute." I stood dumbfounded. I didn't know what do say. It was almost more infuriating the way he took it so coolly. Chris was staring at me.
"Dude, come on. You heard him." We walked down to Joey and woke him up. He opened his eyes groggily and looked around. Agumon just stepped aside and waited to see what happened.
"It's hot."
"I know." I had to suppress the rage that had burst out of me a moment before. I didn't want to get violent in front of Joey. At that moment, what looked like a large robot digimon rocketed over the sand dune that a few moments ago we had been on top of. It landed near us, making sure not to blow sand in our direction. The blue dome on top of it opened and the man jumped out.
"This is Mekanorimon, a machine digimon. He only works with a pilot. He's going to be our trip home."
"Home?" Chris turned up at those words with obvious excitement.
"Well, my home. I live here in the digital world."
"Oh." The disappointment came just as obviously. That was the one really good thing about Chris; he wore his emotions on his face so obviously that one would have to be blind and deaf not to know what he was thinking. "But, we can't all fit into that thing."
"I know. The little guy can ride with me. You three, well, I hope you have strong grips."
"COULD YOU SLOW DOWN!!?"
"Sorry Chris, but if I did then you would have to hold on longer!"
"Wow, this thing has air conditioning!" We could hear Joey shuffling around on the crammed inside.
"I think I'm going to be sick." We had flown over sand, snow, and trees for at least thirty minutes. Chris and I didn't have any strength, but we had less eagerness to let go and fall. Agumon, like always didn't seemed bothered by it, like he had done this before.
"How much farther?" Agumon was looking up at the dome and yelled.
"We're here!" I looked down and saw nothing but a large pond, surrounded by woods. He began to lower down towards the lake.
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
"Hold your breath for a few seconds!" I wondered if he was planning to drown us, clinging to the limbs of the Mekanorimon. We splashed into the water and held our breath like he said. A few moments later, we were in dry air again. I breathed and looked around. It was a house under the water, which was suspended seemingly magically in a dome shape. "Get inside now, before it comes down." The man hopped out of the Mekanorimon and carried Joey inside the house. We followed, stiff and worn from the trip. The moment we closed the door, we heard a loud rush of water outside. Looking through a window, I saw a few fish swim by the 'Welcome' mat in front of the door we had just come in.
"Agumon, it's good to see you again. Go and make yourself at home. You two, take off your shoes." The man was now standing behind us waiting impatiently for us to take them off.
"Why?" Need I say who this wonderful quote came from?
"Because I don't want dirt tracked in my house. I swear, I didn't have to worry about that with the others."
"What others?"
"The other digidestined, of course."
"Yeah about that," I cut in, "what is a digidestined. His little thingy..."
"Digivice." The man corrected me.
"Yeah, whatever. His 'digivice' called me that when he scanned me. With him and Joey it just showed those little logos and words like 'Friendship' and 'Courage."
"Yes, I've been meaning to ask you. How did you get here? You should have a digivice."
"What, is it some kind of electronic passport or something?"
"No, it is what allows digidestined into this world. If you got here without one, then you are here by mistake."
"Hey, don't call my existence a mistake. I've been through hell out there."
"Without a digivice or partner, I'm sure you have. The digivice is what the chosen ones carry, and only them. The digidestined are the chosen children, here to save not only this world, but your own."
"You mean I'm going to save the world?" Chris was thrilled. He looked like the type that wanted to be a hero.
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The digivice allows a digidestined to channel energy into either themselves or into their partner. In your case Chris, you channel energy into Agumon. Joey on the other hand, used it to digivolve himself. Now come, I have some tea ready and there is much to talk about."
"Wait, what is your name anyway and where is Joey?" I felt like the guy was feeding us rubbish and lies.
"Joey is down the hall in bed. He is sick and needs rest. As for my name, it's Gennai."
For the first time since I had come here I realized where I had seen everything before; Agumon, the digivices, the digital world, all of it, even the goggles. I can't explain why, but it all came rushing back to me right there, in Gennai's house.