Disclaimer attempt: Digimon is not mine. But apparently, I'm allowed to borrow them to write fanfiction. YAY!
Takeru wasn't sure what was the most unnerving between the complete silence, only occasionally broken by a dripping sound, the slow darkening as they advanced deeper in the bowels of the city or the incessant careless chattering of Patamon and Poromon.
Miyako was resolutely trampling forward as if she owned the place. She had perfected that technique over the years and it usually drew the attention of the person she looked for without requiring her to even search. Of course, it was best used in social gatherings, a term that only covers an empty storm drain if it is stretched far and wide enough to cover a minor planet.
"So, you said you didn't have your D-Terminal," the boy said for the third time.
"No I don't!" irritation was perceptible in her voice. "I didn't think I would need it because I was sure you had yours!" she explained for the third time.
"Do you have your cell phone, then?" he continued.
"No! I don't!" Miyako sighed exasperatedly. Poromon fluttered around his partner in a vain attempt to calm her. "I forgot it! It happens sometimes, you know! Besides, I don't think I'd have reception down here."
Takeru let his head hang down. This was not going to end well at all. Then he looked up, his hopes rekindled.
"You have your D-3, at least?" he asked.
"Is Ichijouji Ken cute?" Miyako retorted with a voice so heavy with sarcasm it could have been used for weightlifting. "I always keep my D-3 when Poromon is around."
"Same here," Takeru commented. "Except with Patamon, not Poromon," he felt obligated to specify.
"And your point is?" Miyako asked him back.
Having been the butt of ridiculous questions all this time had made her hungry for revenge. In any form.
"My point is that it would be more efficient to use our D-3s to locate Daisuke than just stalking around randomly," Takeru deadpanned.
The older girl's reaction was... interesting to say the least. She raised a finger in an indignant gesture that stopped in mid-air, her foot floating a good feet above the ground in a position that no laws of physics would have allowed to remain static (but then Miyako was known to consider rules as guidelines, not limits). For a second, Patamon was tempted to poke the girl in the side, but he was afraid that might cause her to topple over in the murky water. Poromon flew to his partner's face and waved his wings in front of her eyes. He couldn't avoid to. Had he stopped, he would have dropped to the ground, which was a scary prospect. The red was slowly taking over Miyako's face, much like paint sprawled around by a lazy artist. Poromon backed away when the temperature began to raise near her skin.
"Ooooohhh... If she keeps that up, we won't even need a flashlight," Patamon commented.
Just as he said that, the girl's foot stomped on the ground, creating a small tsunami, and he finger whipped down so fast Poromon could swear there was a whipcrack. She turned around and pointed at her friend.
"Rightio!"
The three others stared as she extracted her D-3 with a large flourish. The girl's fingers fumbled and the device went airborne at high speed. Poromon dodged the projectile out of pure reflexes, but could not avoid Miyako's shoulder as she dove after her digivice, and he fell to the ground with a squishing sound and a disgusted cry. The piece of hardware collided with the wall and went in another direction, with Miyako still in hot pursuit. Takeru observed as the girls nearly missed the red D-3, who flew higher. In his direction.
"Uh, Takeru..." Patamon warned from atop the boy's trademark Gilligan hat.
But it was already too late. Takeru, unaware of the impending catastrophe, reached out to catch the flying device while Patamon took to the air, having no interest in being part of it. The Digivice landed neatly in the boy's extended hand, followed very shortly after by a tall violet-haired girl. The collision knocked both down in the slime. Crash of broken glass echoed in the tunnel.
Miyako looked up slowly. Her eyes met with the towering glower of Takeru's most highly annoyed look. She gave a sheepish grin.
"So-" she begin.
Takeru, however, didn't allow her to finish her sentence.
"You're paying to replace the glassware," he stated.
A blushing Miyako relented to despair and let her face plop back down into the boy's stomach. The blond gave a sigh and pushed her off so he could get up. They looked down at their slime-coated clothes and sighed again.
"Let's just find Daisuke and get home, please?" Miyako implored the higher forces.
That boy was so getting it.
"There's your D-3," Takeru said, handing her the device.
Miyako nodded and activated the tracking mode. She saw the red dot representing herself, as well as a green one identifying Takeru. The blue dot had to be Daisuke. She turned around in an effort to locate the direction to the boy's position and, once that was done, pointed in that direction.
"That-a-way!" she exclaimed with a recovered (if bruised) enthusiasm.
Takeru, Patamon and Poromon blinked.
"Errrr..." Takeru hesitated. "As much as it would be interesting to witness, Miyako, I'm afraid none of us has the capacity to walk through walls."
Miyako let her arms drop to her side in distress. Why me? she thought as she moved along in search of a tunnel going in the right direction. She did not notice a fourth, purple dot appearing on the screen and moving in their direction, pushing the blue dot of Daisuke and V-mon. When she found a tunnel going in the right direct, she began to hear voices in there and happily motioned for the boy to come over.
"Takeru, I think we've found them!"
That was when the rats came stampeding down the tunnel.