Hey there, DTF here with the third installment of my story, about damn time to. Sorry to the people who had to wait for this chapter. Severe writer's block and school work will make you half insane.
Hazard
Chapter 3 Rika's Kidnapping
Takato turned onto the street his family's bakery was on. Even though he has some muscle definition, he still doesn't have a lot of stamina. 'Aww, man.' Takato thought, 'I shouldn't have cut gym those years ago.' Takato saw the bakery in sight. 'Just a little farther.' He sighed with relief as he started running slower to a jogging pace. Takato felt he'd been running all of his life. 'C'mon, C'mon, it's for Guilmon.' Takato thought trying to motivate himself. He was now running slower nearing speed walking, as he was almost at the bakery.
"Just...a little...bit...more," Takato said in between breaths, nearing his family's bakery, but stopping short at the corner of the building closest to the it.
"Huh...huh...farther than I thought."
"Hey kiddo." said a voice.
"Ahh! Man, you scared me Dad." Takato said grabbing his chest to slow his already riling heart down a couple of notches. Mr. Matsuki letting out a laugh walking up the alleyway carrying a couple of crates.
"So, is school out already?" Mr. Matsuki asked.
"Uh...what time is it?"
"I think it's near 3:00."
"Uh...yeah, school's out." Takato said not telling his dad about Guilmon and the fact that he skipped the last part of school.
"Where's your stuff?"
"My stuff...I must have...left it at...the park." Takato said giving himself a mental slap to the forehead. 'Aww nuts, I left my stuff AT school. I'm going to get a mouthful from Mr. Fudo. And Mom.'
"Takato...Takato, you still there?" Mr. Matsuki said placing the crates next to the side door, then walked in front of Takato snapping his fingers.
"Oh, sorry Dad, must of zoned out there for a minute." Takato said scratching the back of his head with nervous laugh.
"O...K, well if you need anything I'll be inside helping your mother." Mr. Matsuki said walking inside.
"OK Dad." 'Now I can search for Guilmon.' Takato ran inside, taking off his shoes before running up the stairs to his room, but stopping at the closed door. He reached for the doorknob and the thought of Guilmon being in there gave Takato high hopes. He rushed into his room only to find silence and his hope shattered. He didn't hear the sound of Guilmon's laugh, just his own heart beat. Takato sighed with disappointment as he scanned his half-cluttered room looking for any sign of Guilmon. He noticed the curtains covering up the sliding window were moving. 'I don't remember leaving the it open.' Takato thought making his way over to the window. 'I could of sworn...' He slid the curtains off to one side, but just as he did a white blur came flying through the window landed on the floor in a pile of shirts.
"Ahh!" Takato yelled stumbling back and landing on his butt. 'What was that?' He thought standing up rubbing his butt to make the slight pain go away. He dusted himself off and looked around to find whatever came through the window.
"Um...hello, is anybody there?" There was no answer, but the pile of shirts laying on the floor were moving.
"Who...who's there?" Takato asked starting to freak out.
"It's just me." said a familiar voice.
"Huh...is that you Calumon?" Takato said coming to his senses. Sure enough a small white digimon came out of the pile of shirts with Takato trying hard not to laugh.
"Um...heh...what are...heh...you...heh...doing here?"
"I got away from Suzie and Lopmon," Calumon said exhausted, "They just don't give up."
"Oh, that's why you're wearing a red cowgirl hat." Takato said stifling a laugh.
"Terriermon said they would play with me, not torture me." Calumon said taking off the cowgirl hat.
"Yeah, in case you don't know already, he can sometimes lie."
"Yeah..." Calumon sighed.
"Oh, Calumon, um, how's Jeri?"
"Jeri? She's fine. Though she still cries sometimes at night."
"I can't blame her. If I lost Guilmon..." The sudden realization hit him. He was supposed to be looking for him, instead of making small talk. "Guilmon! I completely forgot about him. Aww nuts." Takato ran to the closet and searched there, but found nothing, not even a bread crumb. He shut the door and turned to look at Calumon, who was playing with the pile of shirts.
"Calumon, when's the last time you saw Guilmon?" Takato asked in a serious tone.
"I saw him yesterday afternoon. We played in the park for a while." Calumon replied still playing with the shirts.
"Mmmm," Takato thought out loud, "If you and Guilmon played all day yesterday, then he would be tired, more than likely sleep all day until I go and visit him." After he finished, Takato looked at Calumon who obviously wasn't listening. "Calumon, you wasn't even..." But before he could finish the room glowed a bright crimson color, only for a few seconds though.
"What was that?" Takato asked looking out the window.
"Yay, he's up, he's up." Calumon said in a happy tone with his ears out to full length.
"Wait, who's up and what was that?"
"Guilmon silly."
"Guilmon? That flash was from him." Takato said with his eyes wide and excitement in his voice.
"Yeah, he showed me that the other day."
"That's why I've been waking up sometimes at night. You and Guilmon were playing."
Yeah silly. Maybe he can play with me." Calumon said sitting on the window sill. "Bye" Calumon jumped out and started flying. Takato shouted out to Calumon, "Where are you going?!" Calumon shouted back, "The park!"
'The park?' Takato thought, 'Why is he going to the park?' Then it hit him. 'That flash was to get our attention and get us to go back to the park.' Takato ran out of the room, down the stairs, put on his shoes, was about to run out of the bakery, but got stopped short by his mom.
"Takato."
"Yeah Mom."
"Where are you going?" Mrs. Matsuki asked coming from the register.
"Oh, I was going to the park." Mrs. Matsuki let out a sigh.
"I don't see what's so fun at that park."
"Uh, well, my friends are there, and that's kind of our meeting place. Well, bye Mom." Takato said giving his mom a kiss on the cheek then running out the door.
"Takato!" Mrs. Matsuki shouted.
"I'll be back later!" Takato shouted back.
Mrs. Matsuki sighed again only to see a blue blur run past her to the back.
"Takato?" Mrs. Matsuki said walking to the back to find Takato stuffing two bags full of the leftover bread from yesterday with Mr. Matsuki baking more bread for today.
"Takato?"
"Almost forgot some bread for Guilmon. He's probably starving." Takato said grabbing a pastry filled with peanut butter.
"Takato." his Mom said becoming agitated.
"Don't worry, I'll be back later." Takato said with a grin on his face carrying the two bags in his hands running back out the door to the park. Mrs. Matsuki sighed.
"He has your running spirit." Mr. Matsuki said with a slight chuckle kneading some dough.
"Yeah, though sometimes, I wish he didn't." She said watching her son run down the street.
"Oh I'm sure he'll be fine. He may run into trouble, but he uses his head to get himself out of it." Mr. Matsuki said reassuring his wife.
"I hope you're right." She said seeing her son turn on to the other street. "I hope you're right."
Sweat beaded on Takato's cheek and made its way down to his chin only to fall on the sidewalk he was running on. Carrying the two bags in his hands trying not to trip on the hard concrete slabs toward Shinjuku Park.
'I hope he's there. I hope he's there,' Takato thought, 'If Calumon says he's there, then he's has to be there.' Takato came up to a metal sign with the words "Shinjuku Park" and an arrow pointing to the right.
'Got to hurry, got to hurry.' His breaths in short, quick bursts coming close to the entrance to the park. 'I need to call Rika and Henry and tell them to come back to the park.' Takato put the two bags in his left hand and dragged out his phone with his right stopping next to a light pole. 'I'll go ahead and call Rika, who will probably bite my head off for making her go all the way to her house then back to the park.' Takato dialed the number and held the phone to his ear. It rung for a couple of seconds then there was an answer.
"Hello."
"Hey, Rika, it's me, Takato. Before you bite my head..."
"Look Takato," Rika interrupted, "I'm sorry I snapped at you. I've been thinking, if Renamon went missing, I wouldn't know what to do, so I'm sorry."
"That's OK Rika. Don't worry about it. Besides Renamon's to smart to get kidnapped."
"You're right, now why did you call me?"
"Oh right, I spoke to Calumon. He's says Guilmon's at the park." Takato said expecting a harsh 'What?' and a 'Now I got to run all the way back to park! You know that takes forever Gogglehead!', but he got something less harsh than he thought he would get.
"So he's been there the whole time?"
"I don't know for sure, but I'm almost at the park to see if he's there. I'm sure Calumon is right and Guilmon is there."
"I'm just going to go back to the park."
"OK, I'll call Henry and tell him what's going on."
"I'll see you at the park."
"OK, see you there." Rika hung up first, as usual, and left Takato with a puzzled look on his face. 'Mmmm, why was she so nice to me and she didn't even ask me why she's having to run all over the place. I guess she wants Renamon to explain. And the fact she called me "Takato" instead of "Gogglehead". I'll think about that later, I got to call Henry.' He dialed Henry's number and once again held the phone to his ear. It rung for a sec or two then Henry answered.
"Hello."
"Hey Henry. It's Takato."
"Oh, hey Takato. Have you found Guilmon?"
"No, I haven't found him, but I spoke to Calumon and he says Guilmon is in the park."
"Calumon says Guilmon's in the park?"
"Yeah, I'm almost at the park. I'll check and see if he's there." Takato said hearing Terriermon's voice in the background yelling "Well, he sure isn't here." Takato chuckled a little.
Henry sighed "Sorry you had to hear that, but Terriermon is right. Guilmon isn't here."
"OK, thanks for searching there. Oh and could you do me a favor?"
"Left your stuff at Mr. Fudo's." Henry said in a all knowing tone.
"Uh, yeah, could you?"
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks again Henry."
"No problem. After I'm done here I'll meet you at the park."
"See you there," Henry hung up leaving Takato to go to the park to find Guilmon. He put the phone back in his pocket grabbing a bag full of bread with his right hand then started jogging to the entrance of the park with a slight grin on his face. After a block of jogging, he reached the entrance, but stopped just after the entrance, panting, looking at the ruined landscape.
'I just hope Guilmon's here.' Takato started jogging down the misshaped path towards Guilmon's home passing the uprooted trees and tunnels and what was left of the children's playground. He reached the side path that leads to Guilmon's home. 'Well, it's now or never.' He placed a foot on the first step only to have Renamon phase in front of him startling him.
"Ah. Renamon? Man, I'm still not use to you popping out of nowhere."
"I'm sorry Takato, I didn't mean to startle you."
"It's OK. Um...Guilmon...is he here?" Takato asked with that slight hint of hope in his voice.
"Yeah, he's here." came a voice.
"Calumon, is that you?" Takato asked looking at a bush.
"Yep, it's me." he said with a sad tone and his ears retracted in.
"What's with the long face Calumon?"
"I don't have a long face." he said placing a finger on his chin.
"That's not what I meant Calumon. It's a figure of speech. It means that you're sad." Takato explained.
"Oh. Aww, you reminded me why I was sad."
"Why are you sad Calumon?" Takato inquired.
"Renamon won't let me play with Guilmon."
"I've already explained it to you," Renamon started, "Guilmon needs to rest. He fought a digimon and needs to sleep."
Just as soon as Renamon finished her sentence, Guilmon's head revealed itself from his home sniffing the air transfixed on the scent of the bread realizing where the scent was emanating from. Guilmon's eyes met Takato's and a smile came to his face.
"Takato!" came Guilmon's cheery voice as he ran down the steps and jumped on him.
"Guilmon! Ahh!" Calumon letting out a laugh and his ears extended out. Renamon couldn't help but smile at seeing Guilmon happy, but the smile was soon gone at seeing his wound was now a jet black color. Her eyes widen as she looked at Guilmon's arm.'Oh no, the poison...it's spreading. I must tell Takato. I'm sorry my love, forgive me.'
"Guilmon, hahaha, stop, hahaha, licking me, hahaha, it tickles!"
"OK." Guilmon lifted himself off of Takato.
"Man Guilmon, you've gotten heavy. I mean you were heavy back then, but you're heavy." Takato said standing up dusting himself off.
"Sorry Takato, I didn't mean to get heavy." Guilmon said looking down.
"That's OK Guilmon, it's not your fault." Takato said putting a hand on his shoulder, "Besides, I brought you some bread."
"Yay, bread." Guilmon said in an exciting tone.
"It's your favorite, peanut butter bread." Takato said handing him the bag in his hand to Guilmon who then walked over to an uprooted tree with Calumon following him then both of them sat next to the tree sharing the bread with each other.
"I guess he was hungry." Takato said with a slight chuckle.
'Now's my chance to talk to Takato.' Renamon thought, 'Now that Guilmon and Calumon are preoccupied.'
"Ahem, Takato."
"Huh, yeah Renamon?"
"I need to speak with you in private."
"Um, OK."
Renamon put her paw on Takato's shoulder and Takato closed his eyes, when he opened them he saw water. He looked around the area, the trees here weren't uprooted nor was there any tunnels. Takato realized where Renamon phased them, they were at the lake not to far from Guilmon's home.
"Boy, you weren't kidding you wanted to speak in private."
"Takato," Renamon said in a serious tone, "I have some bad news."
Takato turned toward the lake and saw Renamon gazing out at the crystal clear water with a sad expression on her face.
"Bad news? About what? Guilmon?" Takato asked walking toward the lake.
"Yes."
"He seemed fine to me." Takato said standing next to Renamon looking at the lake.
"It's not his appearance that's bad. It's inside him."
"What do you mean?"
'Please, let this be the right thing to do.'Renamon thought, "He...he's been...poisoned."
"What? He's been poisoned! How did he get poisoned?"
"Please, Takato, calm down. He got poisoned by the Scorpiomon he fought earlier."
"Scorpiomon? Guilmon had to fight one of them when we visited my cousin Kai in Okinawa."
"Takato."
"Yeah Renamon."
"Guilmon made me promise not to tell you, but I think it's in his best interest if you know about him. Just don't ask him anything, OK?"
"OK, thanks Renamon."
"Your welcome. Now we better get back to Guilmon and Calumon. They might be wondering where we are."
"Yeah you're right. Let's go."
Renamon put her paw on Takato's shoulder, he blinked his eyes only to open them to see the devastated landscape. Takato scanned the area, he was near Guilmon's home and he heard Guilmon's voice calling for him and Renamon.
"Guilmon! We're over here!" Takato called.
"Takatomon!" Guilmon called back. Takato was about to start walking toward Guilmon's voice, but Renamon's voice stopped him.
"Takato," Takato turned to face her, "Remember, he doesn't know I told you about him."
Takato giving a nod in response started walking towards Guilmon's voice with Renamon following him.
"Guilmon!" Takato called.
"Takatomon!"
"Guilmon! Come to my voice!"
"OK!"
Takato and Renamon kept walking straight ahead, past a tree that somehow escaped the fate of being uprooted and met a certain crimson colored dino just past the tree.
"There you are Takato. I thought you left without saying goodbye."
"Oh, no, Renamon wanted to talk to me."
"About what?" Guilmon asked curiously.
Renamon walked over to Guilmon and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, "It's nothing to concern yourself with my love."
"Oh, OK. If you say so." Guilmon said as he walked over to the tree, his right side facing them, and sat down.
"Oh, Guilmon, where's Calumon?" Takato asked.
"Oh Calumon, he left." Guilmon said gazing out at the ravaged landscape in a sad voice.
"Guilmon, is there something wrong? Did Calumon leave before you got to play with him?" Takato said kneeling down beside him with Renamon standing a few feet away from them.
'Please Guilmon, tell him.' Renamon thought.
"No, it's not that," Guilmon said as he started sniffing the air, "but could we talk about this later. I smell Terriermon coming."
"Sure Guilmon," Takato said as he placed a hand on Guilmon's shoulder, "We'll talk later."
"C'mon Henry, you're so slow." moaned a jittery Terriermon.
"Well, you're not...the one...carrying Takato's...backpack." a breathless Henry snapped back.
"I hope he knows it's a rolling backpack." Takato said chuckling standing up, "Over here Henry!" he called walking to an uprooted tree a few feet away from where Guilmon was sitting.
"C'mon Henry, he's over there." Terriermon said now closer to Takato.
While Takato was guiding Henry and Terriermon to their location, Renamon walked over and kneeled down next to Guilmon.
"Guilmon, were you going to tell Takato what happened to you?" Renamon whispered.
"Yes," Guilmon whispered back, "I was, but not in front of Terriermon."
"I see. Then when are you?"
"Soon."
"OK, just don't, put it off."
"Put what off?" Terriermon asked hanging from a tree branch.
Guilmon just sat there, trying to think of something to lead Terriermon away from their conversation. He glanced from Terriermon to Renamon hoping she thought of anything only to see her shake her head, so he said the first thing that came to his head.
"Um, not to put off, burying my bread. Yeah, not to put off burying my bread."
"Oh, O...K." Terriermon said scratching his head with his one of his ears before letting go of the branch and dropping down to the ground and running to Henry who was talking to Takato.
"Burying your bread?" Renamon asked.
"It's the only thing I could~" Guilmon stopped mid-sentence, his eyes were tense like he was in pain.
"Guilmon? Guilmon, what's wrong?"
"My...my arm...it's hurting."
Renamon examined his arm and saw the black hue was not just around the wound anymore. It traveled almost down to his elbow and up to his shoulder,but before Renamon could answer, there was a loud scream.
"That sounded like...NO!" Renamon shouted as she let go of Guilmon's arm and took off running toward the sound that came from inside the park.
"Renamon!" Guilmon shouted standing up trying to grab Renamon's arm, but missed.
Takato, Henry, and Terriermon turned around to see Renamon's tail disappear in a bush. The three ran over to Guilmon who was still in pain.
"Guilmon, what's going on?" Takato asked, "What was that scream just now?"
"I...I don't...know." Guilmon said.
Henry, on the other hand, was contemplating on who the scream came from, then it hit him.
"Takato, that scream was from Rika."
"What, are you serious?" Takato asked.
"Does that look like his serious face?" Terriermon said.
"We need to go help Renamon," Guilmon said the pain finally receding, "I can smell a digimon, it's the same one from before."
"The one from before? You mean a Scorpiomon?" Takato asked.
"No, it's not a Scorpiomon."
"Can you tell what kind it is?"
"No, but I can tell it is really strong. We need to go."
"Right."
Guilmon was in front of the others since he can smell the digimon and Renamon. They got closer to a clearing and heard an explosion and flying toward them was Renamon. Time seemed to stop, Guilmon saw his love battered and beaten flying through the air, something inside of him clicked. He felt rage like he never felt before, he didn't know where it came from. He knew that when Takato got hurt he never felt this rage. He decided to think on this matter later. Guilmon caught Renamon in his arms and placed her on the ground, with Takato, Henry, and Terriermon around them.
"Renamon, are you OK? Who did this to you?" Guilmon asked rage building inside of him.
"I'm fine Guilmon, but I didn't get to see whoever attacked me."
"Ah, there you are." came a villainous voice.
"Who are you, show yourself." Guilmon demanded.
"Very well then."
The digimon phased in twenty feet from them holding an unconscious Rika in his hand. He had ten bat like wings on his back and clad in green armor with gold trim around his arm guards with silver armor around his waist also with gold trim. His shoulder plating was a mix of silver, gold, and green armor with silver trim on them. His breastplate had gold decorations with a red center on his stomach area. His green helmet with the same bat like wings on each side covered his head except for his face.
"My name is~"
"I didn't ask for you're name. I just said to show yourself!" Guilmon shouted lunging at his enemy.
"Temper, temper. Somebody could get hurt." His opponent said holding out his arm with Rika in his hand.
"Guilmon stop!" Takato yelled.
Guilmon stopped, his eyes narrow. "Coward."
"Oh a coward am I? Let's make this 'fair' as you humans call it."
The figure placed Rika on the ground and turned back toward Guilmon.
"Satisfied."
"Yep, we sure are," Terriermon said, "Henry."
Henry nodded and brought out a card from his case. He swiped it through his D-Arc: "Digi-Modify: Digivolution Activate" The D-Arc's screen flashed and Terriermon was surrounded by green data streams.
"Terriermon digivolve to...Gargomon!" He was given a much larger size and instead of hands, he had two gatling guns along with a ammo belt across his torso. He landed on the ground with his guns aimed at the mysterious figure. "Now it's a fair fight. Ready Guil..."
Gargomon turned his head and saw Growlmon standing with the blade on his left arm glowing. Renamon laying on the ground turned toward Takato. She saw his D-Arc still around his neck and his cards in his case.'Something is not right. Takato wasn't in any danger and his D-Arc and cards aren't in his hands, so how was Guilmon able to digivolve?' She gave Growlmon a good look over. She saw the black hue on his arm glowing. 'Is that responsible for Guilmon's digivolution?'
"Dragon Slash!" Growlmon shouted swinging his arm making the blade of energy come spiraling toward the unknown digimon. It was a direct hit.
"Alright Growlmon, ya hit him!" Takato shouted.
Dust clouded around the enemy. Gargomon had his gatling guns aimed at the cloud, just encase. The cloud subsided and to everyone's horror, the digimon was still standing dusting himself off.
"You call that an attack? What a shame."
"Oh yeah, try this on for size. Gargo Laser!"
Two green lasers shot out of Gargomon's guns and again it was a direct hit.
"Ya did it Gargomon!"
"Don't be so sure, Takato." Henry said.
More dust surrounded the digimon. Unlike last time, when he just stood there, this time the digimon came charging at them. He did a right hook on Gargomon, knocking him on his back, then he whipped around and landed a kick to Growlmon's stomach making him double over.
"I see you've managed to control it. Most digimon infected with that don't survive but a mere five minutes. Bravo, I must say, bravo. I see you have a talent that could be useful to me. So I will give you a choice: join me and be victorious or stay with them," he pointed to Takato, Henry, Renamon, and Gargomon, "and perish."
"N-never." Growlmon managed to choke out.
"I thought you would say that." the digimon said walking over to Rika. Renamon phased in front of him.
"I will not allow you to touch her."
"Oh really." the figure phased out of her sight, then reappeared behind her next to Rika.
"Renamon, behind you!" Henry shouted.
Renamon turned around, but it was to late. The digimon had the unconscious Rika in his hands.
"If you want her, you'll have to come get her." He phased out again and didn't reappear.
"No, Rika."
Takato and Henry ran to their respective digimon each trying to comfort them the best they can.
"Gargomon, you OK buddy?"
"I'm fine Henry, momentai."
"Growlmon, are you OK?"
"I'm OK Takato. I guess you know now." Growlmon said sitting.
"Yeah."
There was a bright yellow flash and Growlmon dedigivolved to Guilmon. Guilmon ran over to Renamon who was crying.
"I failed. I promised her mother I would protect her."
Guilmon put his arms around her her arms in between them with her head on his shoulder.
"You didn't fail, he just caught us off guard. Don't worry, we'll get her back."
Guilmon looked over at Takato for an answer...Takato nodded.
(a/n) Sorry if the last end there sucked. I will try to make the next chapter better.