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Following the Footsteps of Destiny

Chapter 11: Welcome To File Island

Takara 'Kara' Kamiya

File Island, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World

Takara slowly opened her eyes and let out a soft moan. Every bone in her body ached, and she felt like she had been hit by a truck. It took great effort, but she managed to sit up with only a slight wince. What she saw made her clamp her hands over her mouth to keep herself from gasping out loud. The computer room was gone. Instead she found herself lying in a grassy meadow with a winding path that led up to a large stone building. It looked like an abandoned fortress.

"Where am I?" She whispered. Nothing stirred. There did not seem to be a single life form anywhere around her. She turned to study the landscape a bit more and let out a squeak of horror. Dai and the others lay unconscious around her in a tangle of bodies. Not a single one of them even moved a muscle to ease her mind. What if they're dead? She quickly squashed that thought and crawled over to her twin cousins who were closest to her.

"Matty, Mickey, wake up!" She pleaded, shaking Matty's shoulder. Her cousin finally stirred and let out a groan.

"What happened?" Matty mumbled. His eyes fluttered open, and he slowly sat up.

Takara shook her head. "I have no idea. Are you alright?"

Matty shrugged and reached down to gently shake Mickey's shoulder. "Mickey, wake up," he said softly.

Mickey's eyes popped open, and he flung himself at Matty in fear. "Matty!" he moaned into his twin's shoulder. "I thought we were dead!"

Matty laughed and rested his cheek against his brother's golden hair. "Not yet we aren't."

Takara smiled at them and jumped as the other three began to stir. Dai was the first to awake, and he let out a grunt of pain. "Every bone in my body hurts! What did Piximon do to us?"

That's what I'd like to know. She made a face and shrugged.

Dai finally glanced at the scenery around them and jumped to his feet in shock. "What happened to the computer room? What is this place?"

Takara shoved down a spark of fear and bit her lip. "I don't know, Dai," she said softly. "But I don't think we're in Odaiba anymore."

"You think?" Matty snorted. "There's nothing like stating the obvious!"

She stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her arms. She knew she was being childish but, at the moment, she did not really care. It was helping to calm her nerves down.

Ryoko's and Sam's eyes flew open and the two of them sat up in fear.

"Where has that creepy little digimon taken us?" Ryoko demanded. He pulled Sam up and the two of them stared around at the foreign sunny landscape with apprehension.

"This must be that Digital World that Piximon kept talking about," Sam murmured. He looked a little frightened and kept close to Ryoko's side.

Takara glanced around and that's when she realized that Piximon was nowhere to be found. "Where did he go?" she blurted, sudden fear overwelming her.

Daichi's chestnut coloured eyes swept over the landscape, and he frowned. "That's weird. Where could he have gone? It's not like he's had a lot of time to get very far away from us. Do you think he might have flown away?"

"How could he just leave us here like this?" Ryoko shouted. "Now what are we suppose to do? How are we going to get home?" He looked like he was about to panic.

"Calm down, Ryoko," Sam said softly and gave the other boy a comforting hug. Despite his reassurances to Ryoko, he turned to Dai with fear in his deep blue eyes.

Dai stared back at him and looked to be at a complete loss of what to do.

Ryoko was not to be comforted. "This isn't suppose to be happening!" he shouted, his voice shaking. His sparkling blue eyes glanced widely around at the landscape as if he could not believe what he was seeing. "This place isn't even suppose to exist!"

"We know that, Ryoko, but it does," Mickey said softly, taking his twin's hand and pulling Matty to his feet. "Nothing we say or do is going to change that."

"Maybe, but...now what?" Her voice sounded small and frightened. She moved closer to Dai and glanced anxiously around convinced that something was going to attack them at any moment.

"I say we find Piximon and demand that he take us home this instant!" Ryoko snapped.

Dai ignored Ryoko and began to study the surrounding area. "You're right, Sam," he murmured. "This must be that Digital World that Piximon had been talking about. If Piximon was right about this then I think it's pretty safe to say that he was right about everything else."

Ryoko crossed his arms and glared at Dai. "I refuse to accept that!"

Matty rolled his eyes at Ryoko and frowned. "If that's the case, then why exactly are we here? What are we suppose to be doing? Piximon wasn't exactly much help. He kept talking in riddles about how we are suppose to save this place."

"Save it from what?" Ryoko whispered. He looked like he never wanted to find out.

No one answered, and Takara felt a stab of fear. She was pretty sure she did not want to find out either.

"I wish Piximon would have explained more about these Digivices, the Digital World, and every other weird thing he mentioned," Sam sighed. "How are we suppose to help a world we know nothing about?"

Ryoko grabbed Sam by the shoulders and gave the other boy a look of utter disbelief. "You're not actually thinking about doing what Piximon said, are you? We're kids! We're not heroes out of some story! We are suppose to be worrying about homework not saving the world! I don't care what world it is!"

"He's got a point there," Mickey mumbled.

"Do we really have a choice?" Takara said quietly. Everyone turned to stare at her, and she fixed them with a level gaze. "I don't know what's going on, but what if we can't get home unless we do what Piximon says? I don't know if you guys have noticed, but it looks like we're stuck here until we can figure out a way to get home. Maybe Piximon's advice seriously is the only way we can."

"You think we could be stuck here forever?" Mickey whispered in horror.

Takara shrugged. "I don't know, Mickey," she said softly. "But it's the only solution I could come up with that made sense."

"But, what if we can't get home?" Ryoko whispered, his crystal blue eyes sparkling with terror. He turned to her and gave her a frightened look."We're suppose to be at Taysuke's soccer game this afternoon! If we don't show up, our parents will freak!"

Takara felt her heart start to race. Ryoko was right. She had promised Tay that she would watch his game. Her parents knew she never missed anything to do with soccer. If she did not make an appearance, her dad would have every cop in the city looking for her.

"My mom and dad are going to be so worried," Ryoko murmured, anxiously biting his lip.

That was true enough. Ryoko was Matt's and Mimi's pride and joy. He was, after all, their only child.

"No kidding," Matty groaned and glanced at Mickey. "Our parents are going to have seizures!"

"My soccer practice!"

They all turned to look at Daichi who let out a laugh. "Remember? I'm suppose to be at soccer practice. I forgot. No wonder Ema was wondering why I wasn't headed outside. She must have thought it was pretty weird that I didn't have my uniform on."

"Yeah, I forgot about your practice, too," Matty said.

"Oh well. My dad will be pretty upset, but my mom will just use it as another excuse to ground me!"

Takara gave him a disapproving look. "Noriko's not that bad. She's just strick, that's all."

"Speaking of strick, my mom's going to kill me," Sam groaned, his sapphire eyes filling with sudden concern. "My dad's going to be really scared if I don't come home. He worries a lot, you know. I think it has something to do with my Uncle Sam. Dad will be devastated if he loses me, too..." Sam trailed off and flushed when he realized that everyone was staring at him. "Well it's true," he mumbled, avoiding their eyes.

Takara wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a warm squeeze. "Oh, Sam. You're too sweet," she said softly.

Sam's face turned pink, and he smiled shyly at her. She smiled back and the look on Dai's face made her stare at her goggle headed friend in surprise. Dai was giving Sam, of all people, a reproachful look. Usually he saved that sort of thing for Ryoko. What's wrong with him?

"Can we please get back to business here?" Dai said shortly, making her jump.

Ryoko nodded and gave Dai a rather curious look. He did not say anything though, and instead, he turned his blue gaze on the group. "Daichi's right. We have bigger problems than our parents right now."

Takara's mouth fell open. Ryoko never agreed with Dai. Today is certainly a day full of surprises! Even Dai looked surprised.

"Piximon kept mentioning other people as if he had met humans before," Ryoko continued in a quiet voice. "He definitely wasn't surprised by our appearances like we were of his. He spoke to us with familiarity. Do you get the feeling that Piximon has done this sort of thing before to another group of humans? You heard him. He acted as if he expected us to already know all about the Digital World, and him for that matter."

Matty frowned. "If that's the case, then why haven't we heard about the Digital World before now, especially if other humans have been here?"

"Good question," Takara muttered. "I wonder who they could be. They might be able to help us out. I'm sure they know way more about this place than we do."

Ryoko smirked. "I'm sure Piximon was talking about Daichi when he mentioned a goggle headed fool!"

"Will you shut up!" Dai shouted and turned his back on Ryoko.

"I wonder what these Digivices are for. I wish we knew," Mickey said quietly. He gave the gadget in his hand a puzzled look.

"Or that Digicore," Matty added. "That thing was way weird."

"I wonder who this Gennai guy is that wrote the email to us," Sam spoke up. "He certainly sounded as if he knew what was going on! Do you think he's the friend that Piximon was talking about?"

Dai shrugged. "It makes more sense than anything else I've heard so far. But if that's the case, then why didn't Gennai confront us directly? Why send Piximon?"

Takara exchanged a look with the others. No one had an answer to that question.

"Whoever this Gennai is, he seems pretty confident in our abilities," Matty muttered.

"So where is he?" Takara murmured.

"Huh?" Dai gave her a curious look and frowned. "Where's who?"

"Gennai," she replied. "His email said that he would be waiting for us. So, where is he? He made is sound like he would be here when we arrived."

They all glanced around as if expecting to see someone walking towards them. There was no one in sight.

"Do you think something might have happened to him?" Mickey whispered.

Takara shrugged. "Maybe he, like Piximon, thinks we should figure out some of this stuff on our own first."

"Don't they realize how dangerous that could be for us!" Ryoko shouted.

She did not reply. What could she say? Ryoko was right.

"I still don't understand," Ryoko said angrily. "Why were we chosen? There are so many different people in the world. What makes us so special?"

Mickey sighed softly and stared up at the sky. "Something about following the footsteps of destiny, whatever that means."

"Still." Ryoko made a face. "Why didn't Piximon stay to help us? We have no idea what's in store for us! Who says all digimon are like Piximon? We could end up dead before we even have a chance to save this world as he claims we're suppose to." Ryoko's sneer clearly stated what he thought of that idea. "I thought he said he was going to explain everything to us!"

"We've already answered all those questions," Dai said, sounding impatient. "I bet he only said he would explain as a way to get us to follow him. I can't believe we let him trick us like that!"

"I don't think that was his intention," Takara replied in a soothing tone.

"He definitely knew a lot about us. I wonder how?" Sam said.

Mickey frowned. "Didn't Piximon say something about prophesies?"

Ryoko groaned and rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache coming on. "Don't even get me started on that!"

Takara giggled and tugged on a lock of his golden hair. "I don't know, Ryoko. The word Digidestined sounded like something out of a prophecy to me! Isn't that what Piximon called us?"

"Sure did!" Matty grinned. "Whatever that means!"

"Enough fooling around," Dai said impatiently. "Lets get going."

Takara gave him a look and managed not to smile. "Um...go where? Unless you have a map of this Digiworld hidden in your pocket somewhere, I think we're stuck. We don't have a clue where to even begin."

Dai was about to answer when his Digivice gave off a sudden beep. Her friend jumped and glared at his Digivice. "Whoever made you has no respect for the faint- hearted!"

Ryoko snickered and Dai blushed.

"Not me of course," he muttered. "I was thinking more along the lines of someone like Mickey."

"I'm not faint-hearted," Mickey mumbled, looking flustered.

Matty whispered something to him and the twins burst into sudden laughter.

Dai glanced suspiciously at them and Ryoko sighed. "Twins," their blond cousin muttered. "As if one wasn't bad enough, we have to deal with two!"

Mickey and Matty sent identical glares in his direction, and Ryoko laughed.

Dai was too busy staring at his Digivice in shock to even notice that Ryoko had defended him. Takara did though and smiled softly.

"Guys, look!" Dai gasped, holding out his Digivice. They gathered around him and fell silent.

The screen on his Digivice was glowing a flaming red. It blinked rapidly and began to fill with blood red mist. Slowly the mist spiraled out of the Digivice and hovered in the air above thieir heads. The particles of red dust began to form together until they created a large glowing red arrow. It was pointing right at the abandoned fortress.