Disclaimer: Some things I own, others I don't. Digimon and Pullman's external soul idea are in the latter category.
neoKOS-MOS: Ah, good beginnings. Hope no one got turned off by the Dairuki in the first chapter. It really is a great pairing, guys! But, please read and enjoy. Sorry again to those who had to wait about four months for this.
Oh, and a cynodont is a mammal-like reptile, for those of you who don't know.
Meeting
Rika brushed through her hair for the last time, watching her reflection in the mirror. Torey watched her casually from across the room, licking his paws patiently as he waited for her. The girl set the brush down again and sighed, surveying her clothing choice one more time. Torey groaned.
Rika frowned too, just a little annoyed at herself. She had gone to such great lengths for this night. She had actually asked her mother to take her out shopping, since Torey had been jibing her about how fashion unconscious she was. Of course, her mother had been ecstatic to have her daughter want to do something girlie for once. The woman had even dragged Rika to the beauty parlor to trim her hair and get a manicure. The violet eyed girl had hated it, but she had tried to keep that inside for her mother's benefit.
She was just thankful that her mom wasn't freaking out over her now. The woman had hung back, giving Rika the space to get ready for her date on her own.
"Are you done yet?" Torey asked, tail flicking impatiently.
Rika sighed again, looking at the pretty brown tank top and beige dress pants she was wearing.
"Yeah," she said, turning toward him. "He's gonna think I'm crazy when I don't show up in jeans and gym shoes, but whatever."
She slipped a hair tie on her wrist and walked over to the door to step into the rather elegant sandals she had bought earlier that week. Pulling on the long, dark brown sweater coat she had laid out by the door before, the girl opened the door and stepped out of her room, turning back to wait for the lynx to follow.
After a pause to flick his tail one last time, he leapt off the table and raced over to jump into her arms.
"I like this outfit. It looks nice with my fur." He whispered to her.
Rika rolled her eyes. "And, of course, that's so much more important than it looking good on me." She said sarcastically, walking through the yard and leaving her property.
The walk to the park took about fifteen minutes, at a slow pace. Rika walked fast though, at least as fast as one can walk when unpracticed in the art of walking in elegant shoes. The girl could sense Renamon following her along the rooftops, always the dedicated guardian. She didn't mind if the fox tagged along on her date, as long as she didn't try to interfere.
It was about seven, and the sun was starting to go down. It being a cloudy day, it looked even later than it was, and there weren't many people on the street. Plus there was that thunderstorm warning. She should have brought an umbrella.
Thunder crashed in the still-dry air as Rika entered the park. The streetlights cast an orange glow over the prematurely dark landscape.
"Deja vu." Torey whispered from her arms.
The girl nodded, quickening her step as light raindrops began to fall. Tonight did look a lot like that night a month and a half ago when she had been heading for the same destination. Except, then it hadn't been raining.
Soon, she reached the place where she had to walk through under the trees. The raindrops still pattered quietly on the leaves above, but they didn't get far enough to hit her anymore. Torey jumped out of her arms and raced on ahead. Rika ran her hands over the sleeves of her sweater, surveying the speckling pattern the rain had left there. She took a few more steps and then stopped just outside of the tiny clearing.
The shed still stood there, although it looked more and more like it was going to fall apart every day. Rain pattered on it's rotting roof as Rika slowly skirted the clearing, staying beneath the surrounding trees as long as possible. Then she came around to the totally collapsed side. There was the rip.
The rip between worlds, which had brought about so many changes. Through it, she could see the early morning of the digital world, squat orange trees standing on the other side.
"Come on." Torey called. He was sitting just inside the shed in a dry spot, licking the rain off his coat.
"Is he there?" Rika asked, not wanting to come out into the rain.
"Yup." The lynx answered. "Waiting for you. Remember, eight minutes per second." He added before leaping through.
The girl took a deep breath and ran out into the rain, jumping through into the dryness of the digital world.
"Hey!" Davis said. He was sitting on one of the boulders, with Torey lounging next to him. "Wow. You look really nice today. Makes me feel bad."
Rika smiled. He was wearing a dark blue dress shirt with jeans. "You look nice too, Davis."
The boy pushed himself up and walked over to her. "I've never seen you with your hair down before. You look pretty."
She smiled again, hoping she wasn't blushing, and slipped her hand into his. "Are we ready to go?"
"Sure." He said, looking off into the forest. "Veemon!" He screamed, making Rika wince.
A moment later, the blue cynodont emerged from the trees and waved to the violet eyed girl. "Hi. I was talking to Renamon. You look nice, Rika."
Davis rolled his eyes and went over to his partner, pulling his hand out of Rika's. As he pulled out his digivice, the girl paced over to pick up Torey, off the boulder. After Davis had clambered up to Exveemon's shoulder, the big cynodont helped Rika up too, where she settled herself next to Davis. The digimon launched himself into the air, and Rika gripped Torey tighter to her chest until they leveled out to horizontal flight.
"When are our reservations?" The girl asked, leaning closer to Davis.
He slipped his arm around her waist to steady her on Exveemon's shoulder. "Really soon. Meeting up took longer than I thought. It's a good thing I pre ordered our food."
"What did I order again?" She asked.
Davis shrugged, shaking his head. "I don't even remember what I ordered anymore."
"I was only last week, Davis."
"I know." He grinned at her.
-
When they landed in front of Digitamamon's little restaurant, Exveemon returned to his rookie form and walked with them inside. Renamon popped in next to her partner, and the two digimon took a table on the far side of the room. Davis and Rika were seated by Tapirmon and waited for their food.
"We weren't that late." She said from across the table.
Davis shrugged, glancing curiously around the place. "I don't know. Maybe I remembered the wrong time."
Rika smiled. "You're really scatterbrained lately."
He sighed. "Yeah. Sorry, It's just that so many things are happening now. This week I had three soccer games, two tests, and then Ken's dad is driving his crazy trying to get him to come back home. He calls like twenty times a day, sometimes in the middle of the night. The phone woke me up twice last night."
"How's Jun?"
He groaned. "She's... Oh, I don't know. She's coming home more often, but there's times when she comes in around two in the morning, and I can tell she's totally wasted. I wish my parents would get a clue. I'm worried about her, Rika."
The redhead frowned. "I should come over more often. I'll beat some sense into her if you want."
Davis smiled. "Yeah, that'd be great. Jun's afraid of you anyway. Every time you come over, she makes it a point to be out of the house."
Their food came, and they ate. Rika had steamed fish with rice, and Davis had the digital world equivalent of steak. When they were finished, they left the restaurant and met their digimon at the door.
"So, now what?" Rika asked him as they walked out of the doorway, hand in hand.
He shrugged. "Dunno. I thought I'd let you decide. It's your first time back in the digital world for a while. What do you wanna see?"
The girl thought for a moment. "Is the Kaiser's fortress still there?"
Davis looked taken aback. "Well, yeah. But why do you wanna go there? It's really run down and everything, and it's ugly inside."
She perched herself on a railing. "Takato keeps bragging about how Tai and Kari took him out to destroy some of the leftover control spires. I wanna show him up."
The boy laughed. "That sounds like you. Okay, but I'm not really sure where it is anymore."
"I remember exactly where it is." Veemon said, stepping out into the sunlight and stretching, trying to look smarted than he was.
"No you don't." Davis responded, going over and play-fighting with the cynodont, until that decayed into just plain arguing. Rika watched them, smiling happily.
"How was your dinner?" Renamon asked her, moving to sit on the railing next to her partner.
"It was good. How about you? What's it like to sit and talk to Veemon for forty minutes straight?"
Renamon smiled, ever so slightly that only Rika could notice it. "Dull. Horribly dull, but he seems to amuse himself, so I watch him. It can be amusing."
"Sorry Renamon."
"What do you mean, I didn't understand it right away. As soon as Izzy explained it to me, I got it." Davis said to his digimon, trying to regain control of the conversation that was slipping through his fingers.
Rika smiled. "He means, Davis, that you may not be the first one to catch on, but we still love you anyway." She walked over and stepped in between the two of them. "Are we going or not?"
The boy pushed the insult behind him, and pulled his digivice out again. Soon, the two of them were once again perched on Exveemon's shoulder as the cynodont took a great leap into the air. Rika rested her head on Davis's shoulder as they flew on to the destination, whether or not that was really where the Kaiser's fortress was.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge projectile collided with the digimon. Rika was thrown into the air, and the wind ripped by her ears and tugged at her clothing as she plummeted toward the trees far below. Torey, wrapped in her arms, dug his claws into her arm. She fell, screaming, the green below her growing darker and more detailed as she got closer to the ground. And then, with a sickening lurch of her stomach, it stopped. It took a moment for Rika to realize what had happened. The sudden stillness and the adrenaline rush of the fall still blurred he vision.
"Rika, are you all right?"
Renamon's soft voice brought her back to reality. She was clasped in her digimon's arms, who was perched one of the high tree branches she had been falling toward just a second before. The violet eyed girl gulped, and threw her arms around the fox's neck, hugging her.
"You saved me."
"Of course. I would never let anything happen to you." Renamon set her down on the branch.
A loud crash boomed close by, the cracking of branches and the thud of lost energy shaking the forest.
Rika jumped up. "Davis!"
But the stillness after the crash didn't last. Almost instantly, there was the sound of a fight, more branches snapping and loud roars bellowing through the trees. One of those sounded an awful lot like Exveemon.
"Come on." Renamon said, beckoning the girl to climb onto her back.
Rika did so, and was startled as her digimon took off in the direction of the sound, the speed of the fox's gait almost paralleling the speed of the fall. Renamon halted, still high in the trees, and the two of them looked down at the clearing that was growing below.
Exveemon was holding on to the huge head spike of another digimon. The stranger was shaped like a giant gecko, but its head and build was that of a rhinoceros. Its skin was earthy brown, and looked like it was covered in pebbly silt. As it moved, clouds of fine dust billowed off of its skin, making it look blurry. Glowing red eyes were fixed on Exveemon's.
The cynodont pressed all his weight into pushing the digimon backwards, and then shifted so he could flip the bulky lizard on it's side. As it clambered to its feet again, Exveemon reared up to attack it with his V-laser attack.
Rika pulled out her digivice and peered down at it. "Felsemon." She whispered.
Before the cynodont could fire, Felsemon was on his feet and dodged, running toward his attacker and hitting him with a sickening thwack of his rocky tail. Exveemon flew, crashing into another tree, and bringing down a number of branches on top of himself.
"We should get down from here, Rika." Renamon whispered.
The girl climbed onto her back again, and the fox quickly made her way to the underbrush. Rika jumped off as her partner landed, and watched as the digimon stalked toward Felsemon, who was rearing up to hurl another giant boulder at Exveemon. Leaping up, the fox shot a barrage of glass shards deep into the lizard's hard skin.
Rika looked around for Davis. After a minute, she saw him lying still against the base of a tree. Sucking in a worried breath, the violet eyed girl picked her way through splintered branches and made her way to his side.
"Davis?"
He groaned, auburn eyes fluttering open for a second. "My head hurts."
"Are you okay?"
He groaned again. "Let's see." Slowly, the boy checked to see it his body was still in working order. "Yeah. I guess so."
Felsemon bellowed, and Rika glanced over her shoulder to see what was going on. The enemy digimon was bristling with diamond shards as he lunged at Exveemon again. The cynodont got out of the way of the giant horn on his head, and grabbed at the stony tail. Finding purchase on the leafy ground, he threw his weight into tossing the rock digimon into another tree, which cracked sickeningly at it absorbed the momentum.
"Come on." She said to Davis, pulling him to his feet and leading him over to the battle sidelines. "You have to help him. I forgot my cards, so I can't power Renamon up."
Felsemon regained his footing and glared at his opponents for a moment. Then, he reared up and smacked his clawed feet back down on the soft earth. A tremor roared through the ground, knocking the two humans off their feet. But it struck Exveemon directly, and the cynodont was thrown backward into another tree, data unfocusing for a second before he reverted to Veemon.
Davis grabbed Rika's arm. "Can't Renamon digivolve without the cards?"
Without a moment's pause, the fox started glowing, and upgraded to her champion form. Kyuubimon attacked Felsemon fiercely, drawing his attention away from Veemon. She ran circles around the lizard, biting at his sides, but an aimed swing of his tail sent her flying into yet another tree. The sound of it's trunk cracking made Rika wince. The fox recovered and sent a flaming attack at the stone digimon. He roared as the fire began to burn his bristly fur, but lowered his head and rammed Kyuubimon with a direct headbutt.
"No!" Rika screamed as the fox returned to her rookie form, lying limp at the base of the tree.
Veemon picked himself up to attack as Felsemon turned back to his original opponent. Suddenly, thick brown vines began to grow up around the lizard's feet, constricting around his ankles. Roaring, he ripped through the vines and tried to advance on his target. The vines grew up again, this time wrapping themselves firmly around his body and head.
"Send him to rebirth, Delphinium." A girl's voice called out.
A new digimon stepped into the unnatural clearing. She was small, but not as big as her opponent, the top of her head only coming to the bound lizard's shoulder. Bent over like a raptor, the spring green digimon had every appearance of a heavyset dinosaur. She stood on two thick hind legs, and smooth skin ran from her rounded head to the tip of the powerful tail. Folded on her back, were two fern-like wings that rattled as she moved. A flower of vibrant pink ringed the plant digimon's neck.
Instead of toes and fingers, the end of each limb was composed of a snarled looking knot of vines. Bending over, she dug those vines into the earth and more of the brown vines leapt up to bind Felsemon. The lizard bellowed, and the deep sound wave ripped through the vines again. He clambered to his feet and attacked the other digimon, who was still rooted in place. Just before he struck her, she ripped her feet out of the ground and dodged. A flap of her wings sent razor sharp leaves deep into the opponent's flesh. Without a pause, more vines wrapped themselves around him, and the digimon hovered over Felsemon. She reared back and breathed a plume of fiery acid over the rock digimon. He screamed in pain, and his data began to dissolve from beneath the prison of vines.
The big plant digimon touched down next to the pile, and watched as the remainder of her acid soaked into the soil.
Rika stood there for a moment, staring at their savior. Then she ran over to Renamon, a sandal catching on something, causing her to trip before she reached her partner's side.
"Are you okay, Renamon?" She whispered, lifting the fox's limp head.
Big eyes blinked, and the exhausted digimon nodded.
Rika turned back to look at the plant digimon still standing in the middle of the clearing. She was watching Davis help Veemon to a standing position. The violet eyed girl stood again, and pulled the hair tie off her wrist, pulling her hair up and out of her eyes. She slipped out of her sandals and stepped closer to the large digimon, intending to address her.
But, instead, a voice came from behind. "Good job, Delphinium."
Rika whirled around to see a girl emerge from among the trees. She had dark khakis on, and was wearing a pale green shirt, with a darker green sweater pulled over it. Most notably was her chin-length forest green hair, which was interspersed with other greens and browns. It looked almost natural.
The girl stepped forward and held out her hand to Rika. "I'm Nora. It's good to finally meet you."
neoKOS-MOS: Yes, I know you're dying because of the cliffhanger. Sorry. It's the perfect place to switch voices. As for the 5000 word challenge from last time, I'm working on it. Might come next time. No promises, though. Please review! I love you for reviewing and giving me suggestions. And maybe even some constructive criticism?