Ch. 13

Rika was tense, half an hour, for an entire half hour she'd sat and talked quietly with Jeri, Calumon still in her lap, Suzi, Kenta, Lopmon and Marineangemon behind them. Renamon could sense her Tamers discomfort, and had thus taken up a post watching the group, wary.

"Yeah… anyway, at least that's what I think, I don't know if there was really some undercurrent or something going on that I didn't know about, but that's what I got from the whole thing."

Rika nodded absently, biting her tongue nervously and fiddling with the red bands she normally kept on her wrists, she had no idea what the other girl was talking about anymore. "That's good." She muttered, the worst they can do is… well, Ryo could beat Henry senseless, that's the worst that could happen. She did an immediate double take. No, you're completely mad Nonaka, knowing our collective luck they're in some sort of other world altogether by now, and we won't see them ever, ever again. She did one more double take. This is so, incredibly stupid. "I think we should go look for them."

Jeri was cut off mid-sentence, eyes softening as she nodded. "Alright…" They didn't move for a second, almost frozen in place, each waiting for the other to move first. Jeri was the one who turned to Rika. "You're really stressed by this whole thing, aren't you?" The red-haired girl wanted to glare at her, no kidding. Jeri just nodded, smoothed her dress over her knees and stood up. "Ryo's the most dangerous of us all Rika, and when we do find him, he will be alright."

Silently, she wandered over to Suzi and Kenta, smiling and helping them to their feet, explaining the plan to go find the rest of the group. Rika watched her, puzzled. She's grown up, a whole lot more then I ever expected.

Terriermon, Renamon and Monodramon had moved to the edge of the tree line in a quiet agreement to watch the remaining Tamers. It was only when Renamon heard Rika's comment of looking for them that any of them said anything. She raised a slim eyebrow at Terriermon, who silently leaped up to her shoulder. Monodramon latched onto her arm, and Renamon whipped forwards.

Rika had only just stood up when she heard her digimon come flying towards her, she felt herself swung around to ride piggy-back style, and Monodramon land in her lap. She grinned. "Thanks." Renamon allowed herself a small smirk of satisfaction, and then turned towards the tree line.

Suzi absorbed this pretty quick. "Lopmon, digivolve!" The little long-eared look-alike to Terriermon wasted no time, and not a full second later, Antylamon had Kenta and Jeri riding on each shoulder, Guilmon under one arm, and Suzi and Calumon gripped in the other, charging madly after Renamon.

"Wheeeeeeee!" Guilmon cried, grinning happily at their speed.

Marineangemon floated along beside the group as Antylamon easily caught up to and matched paces with the rookie digimon. They exchanged slight smirks, the pair thought well of each other, and had developed a mutual respect. "Were you planning on giving us any real warning you were on the move?"

Renamon let her smirk grow to a full grin. "I knew you'd pick up on it quick, besides, you can run circles around me like this." The grey, drab scenery whipped past them in a continuous blur, no definition between the trees. It didn't take long until Antylamon turned a hard, sharp left, and Renamon followed. "Do you hear them?"

The ultimate spared a quick glance at the rookie keeping pace beside her. "They didn't go far, and there's… something else up there."

---

Henry was very proud of himself, he'd managed to land four solid punches to Ryo, blows that had made the older boy reel. Preparing for another, he realized too late that a pair of shoes were pressed to his stomach. "You ever learn to fly, Lee?" Ryo whispered before launching him into the air. He got some pretty decent altitude too. Ryo rolled himself backwards, head absolutely pounding, bad leg sending up sharp clips of pain, and brought his fists up. "Why are you doing this! It makes no sense! Teaming up with this thing? It tried to kill your sister! Don't you understand that!"

Henry lifted himself off the ground to look at Ryo, some of the black bleeding away from his irises. "What? That doesn't matter, it was fixed, and everything's going to be fine."

Ryo glared. "You're crazy! It's all going to be fine! Don't you care what's happening around you? Takato is going to die or something worse if we don't stop fighting!" He closed his azure eyes, pressure behind them was starting to build now, and he was losing the feeling in his forehead and finger-tips. This has got to stop! What's wrong with me!

He wasn't prepared for the next attack, and so when Henry came flying into him, the two hit the ground with considerable force. It was then that Antylamon and Renamon came sailing into the clearing, Renamon letting Rika land cat-like on all fours beside the two and delivering a decisive kick to Henry's diaphragm. The Chinese boy was hauled off Ryo by a combination of Kenta and Suzi, Rika grabbing Ryo's shoulders and pulling him into an upright sitting position. "Are you alright?"

Ryo's hands went to his forehead, it felt like his brain was being confined by his skull, or the skull was shrinking, the pressure was immense. Rika's got to understand… Takato…! "Takato!" He winced, his throat was raw, and breathing hurt immensely. For the first time, everyone cast their eyes over the clearing, where was Takato? He'd gone after Ryo and Henry, hadn't he?

Henry struggled in the combined grip of his sister and Kenta. "Henry!" Terriermon yelled as Renamon skidded to a stop and let him hop off her shoulder. "Henry! Stop!" The little digimon ran towards the three Tamers, leaping up to land in his most familiar perch on Henry's left shoulder, pulling at his orange vest. "It's me Henry!"

Suzi resolutely hung on to her brothers arm, face pressed against his shirt sleeve. "Stop, please…" She whispered, scared.

Tueno watched the entire episode from up one of the trees, paw clamped firmly over Takato's mouth so the Tamer would not alert the others to his presence. He grinned cynically. "It'd be sad if it weren't so amusing."

Takato's eyes were flicking everywhere, terrified of what this… this creature was going to do to him. I've got to get away… I'm going to die, he's going to kill me… why did Henry do this?

Tueno smiled, empathy accurately depicting for him what the red Tamer was feeling. "You're not a quiet one, are you? Feeling a little betrayed?" There was a pause as Takato slowly brought his eyes up to look into the matte blackness of the creature holding him captive. "Almost a pity none of you have even heard of dark spores, they certainly change a person…"

---

Meiko Uemari was a post-secondary student, studying business and animation at the local university. She herself was one of the few remaining digi-destined, and it was through Gennai's distant relative of some sort, her best friend, that the riddle had come into her hands. Meiko's hair was a dark-ish brown, a few honey coloured natural highlights running through it from her time on the soccer field. Her eyes were what people tended to comment on first though, an odd, warm ruby hue that tended to disguise itself as brown in artificial light. "Hm…" She sighed, I wonder how Henry's doing with that riddle anyway, what with it, you know, being kind of important.

Behind her, she heard the door to her campus apartment open and close, her roommate coming in. "Hey Meiko." A female voice drifted from behind her.

"Hey Kira, how was Tae Kwon Do?" Meiko replied, letting her hand automatically tuck her pencil behind her right ear. She stood up and wandered over to her roommate, only reaching the other girls nose in height.

Kira shook her head, her dark brown hair tied back in a messy bun with a single chopstick staying exactly in place. "Not bad, but man, kids have some serious problems learning their left from their right." She rolled her eyes, a light hazel colour around the room to show her annoyance. "In any case, it's all good."

Mieko nodded pensively, both girls had been in the digital world when the Digimon Emperor was defeated, and although they'd been very young at the time, remembered their side of the adventure. After a second, Meiko gave a voice to what was on her mind. "Kira, you know that kid I gave Gennai's old riddle too?" Her friend nodded. "Well, I'm worried about him and the others he's with; and that the riddle isn't a riddle, more like a map, or some sort of crazy warning thing."

Kira raised an eyebrow. "Valid worry," she admitted, "but unless you know how to find them in just a few hours and communicate this to them, there's nothing we can do. They've got to figure out some stuff at least on their own. We did."

The shorter girl pursed her lips, mouth flattening into a single hard line. "Not fast enough, we lost someone. Do they really need to go through that if we can help in some way?"

Now it was Kira who was disconcerted. "Our situation was extreme, very, very extreme. There's nothing to say theirs will go that far, we weren't dealing with a digimon."

"They're not in the digital world though Kira! There's nothing to say it won't go that far, or farther." Meiko blew out an exasperated sigh. "I know we're busy, really busy, but it's a Friday night, and we've got at least 48 hours before Monday morning." She locked eyes with her friend. "No more then that, I just don't want to go alone. That's a little too dangerous for my liking."

Kira blew a stray hair out of her face. "I don't like the timing as far as exams go, but of course, I'll come with you." In seconds her serious expression changed to an almost impish grin. "So… lets get going, shall we?"

---

Takato tore his eyes from Tueno, watching his friends in the little clearing below him. No… Henry stop… help me! Please!

Deaf to Takato and the others pleas for him to return to himself, Henry ripped away from the collective grasp of his sister, Terrirmon and Kenta. As he pulled away, he vest came off his shoulders with Terrirmon still gripping the collar like a life-line to his partner. "Let go of me!" Henry's yell brought everyone to a halt, the black glare seeming to freeze them all in place.

Henry's back was to the tree Tueno was holding Takato his silent captive in, and the completely black mark on the back of his neck was plainly visible. Takato's breath caught in his throat, what is that… ? Tueno smiled, "That is my second greatest accomplishment," It seemed to feel the need to brag about this, as if it were indeed some great feat. "I created a dark spore, with nothing but myself and my host's knowledge on the subject." It paused, smiling. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"What's so wrong with you that you're doing this Henry!" Terriermon cried, near to tears.

His Tamer seemed to relax a little, letting himself stand up straight instead of the feral hunched position he'd been in. The black glare moved from Terriermon, Suzi and Kenta over to where Rika was still supporting Ryo. Rika met his look, finding herself forced to hide the shock she felt at seeing such an incredible hurt beside the anger. His legs abruptly gave out, and he collapsed completely unconscious on the hard, grey ground.

"… Henry… ?" Suzi whispered, the small sound almost too muffled by the mist for anyone to hear.

In the tree, Tueno's malicious glee turned to a lethal temper. How could that happen? A host does not collapse! A host cannot reject a spore! There hasn't been enough time for the spore to even properly embed itself in him! How could this happen? The creature was in a towering rage. "Enough of that sentimental fool!" He hissed, roughly snapping Takato out of its grasp and angrily slashing a long, straight line down the boys forearm. Takato tumbled from the tree with a surprised cry, droplets of his own blood falling around him.

Takato hit the ground and almost seemed to be rebounded, as if the earth didn't want him touching it. There was an abrupt flash of light, and a silent rushing thunder roared everywhere. Tueno was blown up out of his tree, the other Tamers thrown off their feet and into the forest, out of the clearing.

Rika was thrown against a tree from the concussion that radiated from a circle around Takato, her head smacked against it, and she slid to the ground unconscious. The other Tamers were also launched, landing in various places and with varying degrees of pain depending on what they hit. Jeri shrieked in panic as a tombstone grew from the ground in front of her, Ryo's yelp of surprise came next as he found himself lying in murky water.

Henry was draped over a particularly long tombstone like something dead, and only Takato was where he had been before the catastrophe. Kenta looked up from his sprawled position on the grey grass, he seemed to be the only one of the group that hadn't hit anything. His legs shaking a little, he carefully raised himself off the ground and made his way back towards the edge of the small clearing. "H-hello… ?" As he passed a particularly large oak-like tree he spotted Suzi's shoes sticking out of a low, dense bush. He tapped the runner and the attached girl crawled warily out of the bush.

"What happened?" She whispered.

Kenta looked down at her, completely dumbfounded. "I have no idea."

---

s/k: Any guesses on what happened? Nothing unpredicted, it's all in the riddle from Gennai. The whole fiction is pretty dark. Also, Kira and Meiko's younger selves are co-characters in Hidden in Plan Sight too, so at some point they'll be involved too. R&R