DISCLAIMER: The following story contains various themes and subject matter that may not be suitable for children under the age of thirteen. Viewer discretion is advised.

Digimon

GODFALL

By. Sonfaro

Chapter 7

We could all be in trouble. We have to make this work.

The storm dies down fully a few minutes later, and we declare it safe to explore the rest of the encampment. Rei points us to where the camp kept its washroom, and we all decide to take some time and freshen up. There's only one small shower at the far end, and it's not really an ideal place. These guys must have been fighting tooth and nail every morning.

I really hope we find them.

Rei gets the shower first – after all, we are gentlemen. Matt and I decide to take the time in between to explore. We split up in order to cover more ground, and I declare that we should meet back at the main tent in ten minutes. The sun is going down, falling beneath the orb of this world and bringing forth the dark of the night. We have to hurry, I realize. We're only gonna get one shot at this.

At first there is nothing to write home about; for me and Agumon at least. Just more books that only Izzy would understand and a bunch of techno stuff the kid in me wants to touch and the adult in me also wants to touch but knows he shouldn't. I do find a 'Ninja's of the Terra Dome' six DVD collection pack under one of the beds – based on everyone's favorite post apocalyptic ninja, Narumax. Proving, if nothing else, that these people had lives outside of this encampment. I leave that where it is. I've got the full set at home.

Eventually our search takes us outside, where Agumon and I try to determine what kind of attack took place. Shell casings in the sand tell us that at least one of the missing Machine guns was used, which is something. The damage from whatever the opposition was is small and specific to area, so either the attacking force wasn't very strong… or they were pinpoint shots.

We don't come up with a solid conclusion either way, but we're in a better position than we had been. We also get around to opening the crates.

Those, I wish we hadn't touched.

Bullets. Lots and lots of bullets. Piles and Piles of bullets for, I assume, the M16's in the weapons lockers. I reach my hand inside, lifting a handful from the center and letting them fall back in again like grains of rice. Why the hell would you need so much firepower?

Unless you were planning to use it.

There's no way the UN would ever be okay with this kind of force. There's just no way. This is a borderline insurgency point; a fort where humanity could begin a wave on the Digital World. Is MAGAMI a front for some mercenary organization? No. Izzy would have told us if they had been – that much our hacker would have discerned on the first day. Whatever they're doing though is highly illegal, and… perhaps… they've already paid the price.

We slink back to the main tent, with Agumon munching on another granola bar and myself fuming. Matt's already inside, sans Gabumon for some reason, typing out a message on his D-Terminal while balancing a couple of papers in his lap. He's sitting next to a thick notebook that's been opened, and it looks like he's been pulling individual pages from there to read. I'm impressed. "Anything interesting?"

Matt looks up when I speak. He then shakes his head. "Not much. Just a bunch of techno-garbage."

"Uhn…" I frown. "The crates are full of bullets."

Matt makes a face. "All of them?"

"Every one we opened."

He sighs. "I'm starting to hate these guys."

"Me too."

He pulls a few papers up and flashes them before me like I can read them from this angle. It's for show, but I get the picture. "I found the team member listings."

I blink. "Great. How many?"

"Thirty-five."

"Nn… Wow."

"I know right?"

"What were they all here for?"

He shrugs, hoisting up what appears to be the first page. "Aside from work on this life form thing, the records I found are pretty blank. Though they do all hold the same signature."

I frown. "What's the name?"

Matt looks at the sheet and reads it back to me. "Reiko Saibachi."

I grunt and he hands me the paper. I blink, glancing at the photo. She's a nice looking lady, maybe twenty-five. Surprisingly young. The photo has brunette hair coming up just below her shoulder blades and split at the ends. Matt would be all over her about her hair care. "She's pretty," I say finally.

"Nn…"

"Who is she?"

"I think she may be the lead researcher. Her signatures on the rest of these A.o.A papers."

"A.o.A?"

He nods and hands me a sheet of paper and points out a small symbol just below the big MAGAMI stamp at the top. "A.o.A… I'm guessing it's a side venture, which would explain the two groups I think. I'm not sure what it means though."

I take a stab at it anyway. "Always on Acid?"

He sighs. "You and your guesses.

"Nn… So what are they exactly?"

"I'm not sure. Could be a company cover. Could be a side project. Could be they snuck in without company knowledge. It's hard to say. All I've got is the initials. I was going to ask Izzy about it."

"So for all we know that could just be the project title, not the group as a whole. How do you know that has anything to do with anything?"

"I don't. I just think it was curious."

I sigh again. "The whole business is 'curious'."

He nods. "You're right about that."

"Does MAGAMI know how illegal all this is?"

He shrugs, taking the paper back as I hand it to him. "I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised."

"Anything else?"

Matt shrugs. "Aside from that, the best I could do was finding their exact departure date. Next week. They would have started packing up right about now."

"So they didn't return to the real world…"

He holds up a finger. "We don't know that for sure."

"Nn… But it's unlikely that they stayed."

"Right."

I sigh, closing my eyes and crossing my arms. "That doesn't sound good."

"M-maybe the humans escaped into the desert," Agumon suggests.

Matt smiles sadly. "That's positive thinking Agumon, but how long would they last by themselves?"

Agumon blinks and turns his head to the ground. "Mm…"

I set my hand to the base of his neck. "Nn… Don't give up on me partner. We'll find them."

He nods, his spirit returning. "Right!"

"Either way," Matt tells us. "I don't think we'll get the full truth unless we talk to it."

I bite my lip. "Matt… This thing…"

"Mm?"

"This thing hurts humans who touch it. It's spreading rapidly underneath us. It's 'alive' and self-aware. And it still does all these things. Does that sound like something that can be reasoned with?"

He frowns. "Anything can be reasoned with. Given enough time."

"That's the problem," I point out. "How much time do we have?"

"Nn…"

I sigh. It'll get real dark soon; which means we'll have been in the Digiworld for most of the day. This isn't abnormal really, but it just shows the nature of our situation. Things are intense. We may need the whole weekend. As it stands right now though, things in the tent are quiet. There's no Gizmon attacking, no sandstorm outside…

No slightly bubbly girl hopping around me.

"Oi…" I make a face. "Where's Rei?"

"Rei?"

"That's the name we decided on. Remember?"

He glares at me curiously. "You sure you didn't want to call her 'cutie'?"

I ignore his attitude. "Nope. Rei. That's what it was. Where is she? I thought she would have been out by now."

He sighs, clearly not in the mood to play. Spoil-sport. "She was out of the wash when I got here. She disappeared into one of the far cabins. Haven't seen her since."

I wave off images of Rei with matted hair. "You left her by herself?"

"She's not a child." He eyes me curiously. "But no. Gabumon's outside her tent now."

I frown. "What she go for?"

"Women stuff," is all he says. I don't ask any further.

I plop on the cot across from him. He keeps typing on his D-Terminal. I frown. He keeps giving me sideways glances while he does too… "What are you doing?"

"Eh… making sure Izzy knows where to send our reinforcements."

"We don't really need them per say…"

"Maybe not. But the extra eyes will be helpful."

"You're not gonna use the megaphone?"

Matt makes a face. "I'm sending them a text this time."

"Lemme see." I snatch his D-Terminal away from him before he has a chance to stop me. He reaches to take it back, but I lean away from him and read his message aloud. "'Izzy, can't use the phone right now due to mechanical difficulties'. Great lie."

"Shut up."

"'Lots of weird things here. Do you know what A.o.A is? Tai wants us to move on and the psychopath is not budging on this'. Psychopath?"

"Give me my D-Terminal back Tai."

He reaches again, but I lean away. "'Please tell Ken and Davis to arrive at these coordinates as soon as possible. We may need backup. Also… I'll have something to ask you about...'" The note trails off there. I blink and look at him. He turns his head and looks away, as if caught in the middle of something he'd rather not let me know. I frown. "About?"

"It's a private matter."

"Uh-huh. You wanna take that private matter up with me?"

"…Not really."

I hand him back his D-Terminal with mild annoyance. "Good. We've got people to save."

He snarls at me. "Don't preach to me Tai. I know the score."

Agumon blinks between us. "…You two aren't about to fight are you?"

I'm clear and easy with my words. "No Agumon. We're coming to an understanding."

Matt shares my feeling. We're having a disagreement is all. "I'm just going to tell Izzy about Rei. See if he can corroborate her story."

I roll my eyes. "Because Izzy knows every Tamer in the world. Right."

"He has a registry list Mina gave him. If she was part of the Guard Tamer group she'll be on that list."

I open my mouth to argue, with the clear intent to point out that Matt has been almost as rude and aggressive towards her as Agumon, but I keep quiet. If Rei was a Tamer she should have been registered for duty somewhere. Tamers don't have digivices, so we can only keep up with them via specifically designed wrist watch communicators called D1's. A friend of ours from America – Willis – was kind enough to design the first few we handed out.

Eh… designed is being too kind. Willis literally taped a watch and a pedometer together for a little eight year old kid he'd taken to the Digiworld to impress the kids' seventeen year old sister Willis was hitting on at the time. He'd joked about it on a private message board Izzy set up for us Digidestined and the idea sort of spread across the world. Essentially, all D1's are just glorified watches with a tracking device installed that keeps tabs on a Tamers chosen partner's vitals. But that's bad marketing… so we don't tell the Tamers that.

Yeah I know, we're terrible.

Still, if Rei registered, then her information – from height and description down to base code – should be somewhere stashed on Izzy's computer, as well as the last known location of her D1. While I don't like his reasoning he's probably right. We need to ask Izzy about Rei.

I cross my arms. "Fine."

Matt clears his throat. "And I really do think we should at least wait for Davis. Having an Armor-Digimon at our disposal isn't a bad idea if we don't know what we're dealing with."

"We really don't have to bother them you know." I tell him through a thin veil of annoyance. "I'm pretty sure we can handle whatever this is ourselves."

"Maybe." Matt yawns. He starts typing out the rest of his message. "But it's nice to have backup anyway. Things have gotten way out of hand. We don't know how bad this can get."

"Meh, it can't be that bad." I muse. "Maybe we're overreacting. After all, Rei's been around long enough to fight them off."

Things get quiet for a moment, and Matt looks up at me, steel blue eyes attempting to penetrate my soul. I frown. "What?"

"…You like her."

"We just met her today."

"I know." He stares at me. "Which is why I'm concerned that you like her so soon."

I frown. "What are we, in middle school? I don't like-her like her."

"But you certainly like her."

"I like you too. So?"

Matt shakes his head. "Tai I'm being serious."

"Seriously annoying. You're just mad she isn't flirting with you."

"We both know that's not me," he says. "We also know why I don't care if someone's flirting with you. Seriously, I've watched you land some incredible girls before Tai. You get bored of them far too quickly, but they've been nice to look at. But this one isn't like them."

"Of course she isn't. I'm not actively pursuing her and she needs my help more than she needs the Kamiya charm. That's all this is." I snort. "Seriously, a girl has a mild similarity to Sora and you get all defensive."

"The similarity isn't mild. It's downright terrifying." He sighs, blue eyes averting my gaze. "Tai… Something… Something doesn't feel right."

I scoff, turning to my partner. "Ah, you're just worrying yourself. Right Agumon?"

"Mnn… I don't know Tai. I don't trust her either."

I feel a sweat drop fall from my brow. "Wha? What has you in a bunch?"

Agumon shrugs, emerald eyes downcast. "I don't know. She doesn't smell right I guess."

"You don't smell right half the time." I point out, and Agumon snorts at me.

"Even so," Matt still has that look on his face. "You shouldn't let yourself get distracted."

"I get distracted? You tend to stare at her!"

"I do n-", he stops himself; his pale cheeks tainted pink again. "Alright, maybe I do. She unnerves me. She's too much alike."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever. It's not like you think. I think she's attractive, sure. But so is Sora and I don't go around wagging my tongue after her do I?"

He doesn't say anything for a while. He just sits there, not speaking, his eyes furrowed with worry. When he does say something, his face holds a tight frown. "Tai."

"…What?"

"How long are we going to dance around the elephant in the room?"

I blink. "First, we're not in a room. We're in a tent. So that was stupid. And second, I don't know what you're talking about."

His eyes change from worry to anger. "Fine. Play dumb. It's easy for you. You told me it wouldn't be an issue and I mostly believe you. But this is different, and I think you're letting the idea run away with you. She seems like a nice enough girl, but we know nothing about her. All we know, is she looks like her. Maybe you're right. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe I'm just overreacting to the doppelganger of my girlfriend running around. But Tai, just remember." His eyes narrow into slits. "No matter what happens, it isn't her. Rei is not a replacement."

He lets that hang in the air. I can't help but glare in anger.

"…Shut up Ishida."

Before the fight actually begins, we hear a rustle from the tarp. The face of Rei reappears, peaking inside curiously. "Is… everything okay?"

"We're cool," I bite. "Matt's just a jerk. As usual."

Matt ignores me. "Better?"

She nods and opens the flap more. I have to grab my nose again.

I'm not sure where she found them, but she's wearing a pair of shorts that are incredibly tight, and a shirt that's so big it flows in the wind, allowing my admittedly easy to impress mind to wander. She's found a pair of boots and socks, but they only exist to point out how toned her legs are. She leans under the tarp to enter, just enough to let the shirt hang low and for me to see the skin between her breasts. Beside me, Matt's frozen up… and I think I see a dribble of blood running down his nose too. She catches us both staring, and blushes just inside the doorway.

"What is it?"

I blink. "Uh… Nothing."

Matt gulps. "You found 'clothes'."

"Oh, um… these were lying around. I didn't… you don't think they'll want these back do you?"

"Nn… I can't imagine why," I weather.

Gabumon ducks his head in behind her. "The coast is clear. I haven't seen any Gizmon and I don't smell any either."

"That's a relief," I say.

Matt clears his throat. "Are you two coming in?"

They nod and fully enter. Gabumon waddles his way over to Matt's side, while Rei opts to sit beside me. "While I was out I tried to remember which way I'd wandered from," she says while adjusting a strand of ginger hair out of her eyes. "I think I can take you there. It will take some time though."

Matt sets aside the papers on his lap. "We'll have to make time work for us then. How far do you think it is?"

"Five… maybe six kilometers. I remember it took me forever to get here and I was tired and hurt."

"How long did you stay here again?"

"Um… a few days. Two or three. I didn't leave until my head stopped spinning. It was… tough."

I nod. "I understand."

"Alright," Matt says. "Here's what I'm thinking. Our first priority should be to reason with it. Failing that…"

"We finish what they started…" I nod.

Rei fidgets with the end of her shirt. I try not to peak. "How are we supposed to do that though? There are so many Gizmon, and we don't even know where to start."

"We'll need the codes to their anti-virus software," Matt muses.

"And how are we going to transfer the codes over genius?"

I'm guessing I come off harder than I mean to, because Matt looks a little hurt. "Nn… I think we can transfer information from the lap top to our D-Terminal. Do you have a transfer cable?"

I scoff. "No."

He frowns. He's definitely hurt. "You don't have to be rude."

Gabumon blinks and looks between us. "Guys?"

Before I can say anything I feel a shove from my side. I turn to face a glaring Rei, who looks like a disappointed mother. "Ta-i-chi. Matt is your friend right? Stop being like that."

I blink. Just then I could have sworn she was…

"Eh… Nn… Whatever."

She nods and turns back to him. "Matt… um… What does a transfer cable thing look like?"

He scratches his chin. "Uh… They look like the kind of cable that goes with an iPod."

"Eye… Pod?" We both blink at the question in her voice, but she waves us off. "I got it, I got it."

She scoots over to a desk and opens another tray, revealing a collection of cords and wires for various computer equipment. "Which one of these would work?"

Matt looks to me. I huff. He sighs and heads over to check with Rei. Beside me, Agumon groans. "I thought you said you weren't having a fight."

"They're having a fight?" Gabumon asks.

"We're not having a fight." I roll my eyes.

"It feels like a fight." Agumon tugs at my pant leg.

"This isn't a fight Agumon, this is…" I stop. I don't know what this is. I haven't been this affected by Matt's words in a long time. But it is not a fight. "We're having a disagreement." I tell him finally. He doesn't look like he believes me but he stays quiet nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Matt and Rei have found the cable they were looking for. Satisfied, Matt walks over and plugs it into the laptop, before pulling out his D-Terminal and making the connection. "Let's see if this works."

It takes a moment before we can tell. But a quick check of his D-Terminal and the Vaccine program has been uploaded. "Great," I say. "Now we can get going."

"We should probably install it on your D-Terminal too. Just in case."

"Nn… Always thinking ahead."

I hand him my D-Terminal and he uploads the information in the same manner. I take it back to check, and a fancy new program entitled 'Vaccine Program V' blinks happily on my screen. This had better be worth it.

"It's getting dark," Gabumon notes.

"We're going to have to move soon." I suggest.

"Slip in under the cover of darkness?" Asks Matt.

I nod again. "Sounds solid."

"We'll need time to gather supplies then."

I raise an eyebrow. "We need stuff?"

I probably say it harsher than I mean to. "Nn… We don't know how many Gizmon we may be facing. Our partners are gonna get hungry."

Agumon bares his pearly-white teeth in a smile. "Yes! More granola… Eh… You think there'll be honey-nut?"

"I don't care," huffs Gabumon, and Matt scratches behind his partners ear with sympathy.

"Alright. We've got a rough plan together and we can fill in the rest of the details on the way. Right now our priority should be to find this place and see if there are any survivors. Right?"

Everyone nods.

"Anything else?" I ask.

"What do we do about these?"

We turn to see Rei awkwardly holding one of the machineguns.

Crap.

I don't know when she pulled it down, but she doesn't seem to have too much squeamishness with holding it. She cradles the thing like she would a newborn babe, looking at us innocently with hazel brown eyes. Matt and I are silent for a moment, not sure what to tell her. She blinks at us, waiting for an answer. I gulp. "Eh… Rei?"

Matt clears his throat. "Nn… Why don't we leave these here... What do you think Tai?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Nn… Right."

"No guns," Matt tells her.

Rei frowns for a minute: she really looked like she wanted to use it, which is adorable in a frightening sort of way. She sighs and turns back to the weapons locker, while Matt and I share a look before I catch myself and go back to glowering at him. Jerk.

Seeing my attitude, Matt scratches his chin and turns back to her as she closes the locker. "You may still want to take your robe too," Matt suggests. "Servers deserts can get pretty cold."

"I know," she reminds him, and he shuts up.

She shuts the locker down and returns to us. I clear my throat. "We've got twenty minutes. Me and Matt will grab showers, Agumon and Gabumon will grab what we need. We'll all meet outside the main tent. Sound good?

There were no disagreements.

"Then let's get a move on."

Agumon grins. "You got it."

We split up again. I grab a quick rinse in the shower – enough so I don't smell like sweat and burnt glass – and slip back into my school uniform, wrapping the coat around my waist and tying it in a knot. Matt passes me by on his way for his shower. We say nothing to each other as we cross: which may be our best idea today.

I grab Izzys' monster phone, and then head outside by myself. Agumon joins me eventually, holding as much granola as his claws can carry. I fit about six snacks into my pockets, take one for myself, and tell him to put the rest back or something. He glares at me, and instead simply eats the rest in one gulp. I sigh. Digimon have black holes for stomachs, I'm convinced.

I have him digivolve for me. No need in wasting time. Greymon bends over and I use my free hand to climb back onto his neck, careful not to thwack him with the briefcase.

I can't help it. My mind keeps falling back to what blondie said earlier, and it makes me want to punch something. I've known Sora longer than he has. We're friends – childhood friends. And sure, maybe I had something of a tiny little crush on her… when I was eleven years old. C'mon. It's been years since then. I've grown out of my schoolyard days. To suggest that I still might –

You know what? Forget it. I slam my teeth into the last bit of my granola and toss the wrapper to the sands. Jerk. We've got more important things to worry about than his insecurities over his girlfriend.

He pops out of the tent at that exact moment, munching on his own bar and looking somewhat guiltily. I ignore him, or try to. It's hard when his hair is that blond in the sunset. Way too much bleach. "Tai?"

Oh. He's talking to me. "Hmm?"

"Nn… Sorry."

I blink and turn to face him. Is he really apologizing for earlier? He doesn't look embarrassed or guilty. Then again, he probably thinks he isn't in the wrong here. I frown. Maybe Matt's just saying that to stroke his own ego.

Or maybe Matt's just being the same friend he's always been and I'm being the biggest dunce on the planet.

Ahh… we'll split the difference.

"Whatever. Let's just drop it. 'Kay?"

Not quite what he wanted to hear, but it'll have to do for now. I'll tell him sorry later, when my impatience isn't driving me bonkers. This isn't a big deal, really. When one of us ticks off the other it usually takes a couple minutes to cool down. Once that happens it'll be like we never even had a fi-… a disagreement.

If we were having a real fight one of us would have tried to punch the other by now.

Still, our issue isn't the end of the world, and I'm already feeling better about things. He knows I'm happy for them, and he knows I could care less about how lovey-dovey they get around me. Matt and Sora are my friends. That's it. Nothing for me to be jealous over.

Meh… I'll probably forget the whole thing on the way.

Gabumon joins us, sulking at the lack of chocolate but sufficiently energized. He becomes Garurumon a few seconds later, shaking sand from his fur while continuing to sulk. Matt mounts his back in silence. That leaves one person left to worry about.

"You left Rei again."

Matt gives me a look. "Nn… She went to get something."

I ignore him, turning my attention to the tent. "Rei!"

Eventually she stumbles out, wearing her robe again, looking worried. She's strapped the bag of goodies over her shoulder, and while one hand holds to the tarp, the other plays with the strap. She hangs back at the entrance of the tent, tentatively eyeing Greymon and Garurumon. I frown at her for the first time since we met.

"Oi, Rei… You coming?"

She hesitates for a moment, before nodding and trotting her way towards us. Matt extends a hand and helps lift her onto Garurumon's back. She clutches tightly at her robe with one hand – I suppose Server's chill got the best of her. The other arm has wrapped itself around Matt's waist. I frown, but say nothing. Honestly, there's not much more that can be said.

"Alright, forward mush Greymon!"

Greymon puffs smoke in annoyance.

And then our party is off, pressing forward even as the sun begins its final descent over the far off dunes. Out there, somewhere, something very real is growing, a danger we don't fully understand. But what we know, what we've seen… That's enough for me. Whatever this thing is, it has to be dealt with. We have to go all out.

Above all, we have to be ready.

GODFALL

7

Digimon