Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or Heroes of Olympus. Deal with it!

Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "big".

And as of this chapter, I am also using this story to participate in Camp Nano. My goal is to write 50k words in a month. Considering each chapter is roughly 3k words, that means that ideally I would end up finishing about 16 chapters. That will probably not happen, but don't be surprised to see a lot of updates coming this way. As of this moment, Blurring Boundaries is simply on hold, because I cannot get past my hatred for this most recent chapter. But speaking of dislike for chapters... this one came out a bit, ah, pointless? I mean, it's not, and I know that, but not a whole lot happens. Even so, I hope you...

Enjoy!

Chapter Six

The babysitting gig was going great for Davis until he heard about the sinkholes.

Baby digimon were pretty easy to distract, it turned out, once you found the right motivator. Soccer fell under that category. Davis had always said that soccer was so amazing that it should be illegal; he figured this was just proof of that. But as great as soccer was, he couldn't stop wondering what the rest of the group was still talking about back at the clearing. He kept considering wandering back just to get an update, but then a Botamon would yell a heads up and Davis would find himself back in possession of the soccer ball.

After almost two hours of constant ball-chasing, Davis collapsed in exhaustion along the sidelines.

"I think I'm dying," Davis whined.

Veemon reached out to grab his hand, lifting it up over his head, before letting it drop. It flopped back to the ground, limp, too tired to much more than just lay there. "Yep. You look like a goner." Then he winced. "Bad choice of words."

It took Davis a moment longer to realize why; then he mimicked his expression. "Yeah, what's up with that? Has the Digital World just gone completely crazy?"

"If it has, it should be right up your alley!" Veemon said.

"Oh, haha," Davis deadpanned. "You're so funny, Veemon, I forgot to laugh."

"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week."

Davis wished he could just turn off his brain and not think about it. The one time he didn't want to think, and the thoughts were never ending in his brain. The irony was not lost on him, and frankly, it seemed like some sick joke.

"So you ever hear of this Thunderbirmon fellow?" Davis asked.

Veemon took a seat next to his partner as the two of them watched the baby digimon still chasing the soccer ball back and forth across the field.

"Can't say I have."

Davis took a while to respond. "What do you think is going on?"

"Nothing good," Veemon answered, "but nothing we can't handle."

Even though he knew that he was probably just saying that to make him feel better, Davis still smiled in appreciation. He was just about to lay back and leave the baby watching to Veemon when he saw a big golden dragon at the other end of the field – the kind of dragon that looked like it could eat over two dozen baby digimon in one gulp, the kind of dragon that he had seen before.

Davis went pale.

"Uh, you okay over there, ol' buddy, ol' pal?" Veemon asked.

The dragon – Huang. That was what he called himself, but Davis hadn't thought of him since he was five years old. He was just standing there, along the edge of Primary Village, dwarfing the forest around him as he towered over it all. His golden scales glistened in the sunlight and several red orbs lined his back like ruby pearls. Nothing about him had changed – his scorpion-like tail, claws that dug into the ground. All eight of his eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping, but Davis knew he was fully aware nonetheless. He looked like an antique Chinese statue, ancient and expensive, but no different than Davis remembered.

"Whoa… that dragon," Davis said. "Is that for real?"

Veemon tried to follow his gaze. "What dragon?"

"Dude, the dragon. The golden one that looks like it could squash us if he lost his footing. How many hundred-story dragons do you see over there?"

Veemon frowned. "I think one of the babies knocked your brain around a little with that soccer ball. Maybe it's time for a break."

Davis wanted to protest, but when he looked back toward the village's edge, Huang was gone. He was sure he had been there; it was pretty hard to imagine he had mistaken the horizon line for a building-tall dragon just sitting there in front of him. It was almost as if his crummy mood had summoned Huang back from his past.

And that wasn't good, because Huang had tried to kill him.

"Just messing with you, man."

Davis pulled his D-Terminal out of his pocket and started to fiddle with it as if he were checking his email, but he just needed something to keep his shaking hands busy and calm his nerves. He couldn't have his own partner thinking he was crazy, especially not when they had other things to worry about at the moment. He jumped to his feet and pocketed the electronic device.

"Come on, Veemon. I think the baby digimon have forgotten that they need to have goalies."

x X x

Lunchtime had come and gone by the time Davis lost the baby digimon's attention. Considering what little he had to work with, he thought he had done a pretty good job to start with. But being faced with three dozen restless baby digimon was proof enough that pretty good was definitely not good enough when his little foundation of babysitting fell apart.

Davis groaned. "Why me?"

"You're just lucky, I guess!" Veemon said cheerfully.

"Gee, thanks," Davis said.

He watched helplessly as they all started to wander toward the edge of Primary Village as if they had seen something. He thought of Huang, and a chill ran up his spine. He ran toward to the closest Botamon.

"Hey!" he called out. "What gives?"

"He's here!" the Botamon cheered.

"Who's here?" Please don't say Huang.

"Bearmon!" Then the Botamon bounced off in the same direction as the others.

Davis shared a confused look with Veemon. "Who's Bearmon?"

Veemon shrugged. "Beats me."

He pushed aside the thought of the creepy gold dragon and forced himself into high gear as he chased after the baby digimon. He really didn't need to be thinking about strange childhood imaginary friends right now. He had other things to worry about at the moment – more important things to worry about. He had learned long ago during their first adventure that he couldn't be the insensitive jerk who worried only about his own skin. It was the only way to be a good leader.

"Yo, dudes!" He came to a stop at the edge of the gathered group of baby digimon. "Did you forget we were in the middle of a game?"

A voice that didn't quite match the high-pitched tone that Davis had come to associate with the baby digimon answered, "Oh, I'm sorry. That must be my fault."

In the middle of the gathered group rose a digimon much too large to be at baby-level. He stood on two feet about as tall as Veemon and was covered in black fur. He wore a backwards blue baseball back on his head and was covered in blue leather belts with silver buckles. Considering that Davis was now staring into the eyes of a baby bear, it was not hard to guess that this must be the Bearmon that the Botamon had been talking about.

"Hi," the digimon said. "I'm Bearmon."

"I swear I haven't been sleeping in your bed," Davis said.

"Or eating your porridge," Veemon added.

Bearmon cracked a smile that only lasted half a second, as if he wasn't really in the mood to joke. Davis wondered if something else was wrong, but he was afraid to ask.

"Welcome to Primary Village," a Snowbotamon called out.

"Yeah, welcome," Davis echoed, still really confused. "What are you doing here?"

"I originally was just coming to interview for the babysitting job," Bearmon sighed, "but after hearing what's happened… I guess I'm the new protector of Primary Village for now."

"For now?" Davis asked.

Veemon cleared his throat. "Well, congratulations!"

"Thanks." Bearmon studied the two of them. "It's good to see you both again."

Davis blinked. He didn't want to be rude and blurt out that he had never seen this guy before in his life, but that was exactly what he wanted to say. Veemon leaned toward him and whispered, "Noriko's digimon."

"You're Noriko's partner!?" Davis blurted out.

Bearmon nodded. "It's been a long while. Noriko encouraged me to try for the job because of the, well… problems going on in the Digital World, and with Primary Village supposed to be safe…"

"Job?" Davis repeated.

"Problems?" Veemon said.

Bearmon ignored them both. "Do you believe in coincidences?"

One of my best friends disappears just three days before the protector of Primary Village, Davis thought. And then I see a ghost dragon thing that has got to be just my mind playing tricks on me just minutes after meeting Mr No Memory and his weird red dino friend. Don't talk to me about freaky coincidences, dude.

But aloud he said, "Coincidences? Sure! We're all gathered here in the same place at the same time without any planning, but that's all probably one big coincidence, right?"

Bearmon grimaced. "My thought exactly."

The baby digimon were starting to get restless, so Bearmon, Davis, and Veemon led the way back toward the field. As soon as it was within sight, the baby digimon took back off toward it like clockwork, picking back up the game of soccer as if it had never been put on hold. Davis considered himself to be the greatest soccer player ever, but even he didn't love the sport that much.

"So, what were these problems you mentioned?" Veemon asked when none of the digimon were within earshot. "We haven't noticed anything strange."

"Mostly just natural occurrences that just don't add up," Bearmon said. "Weird storms, earthquakes… sinkholes that just open up and swallow digimon whole."

Davis stared down at the grass beneath his feet. He imagined it opening up and dropping him down into its abyss, never to be seen again. "I'm guessing this hasn't been on the digi-news or anything?"

It seemed like a fair question considering this was the first Davis had heard of this, but Bearmon shook his head in disbelief. "This has been happening on and off the last month, but it's gotten really bad the last three days. None of you digimon have noticed anything?"

Davis looked down at Veemon who shrugged. The last three days had been a haze even for him, so he couldn't blame him for that. After all, most of the digimon had been in the real world to act as support systems for the distraught digidestined, but the last month?

"Guess we've missed a few details."

"I guess that's a good thing," Bearmon said. "You were all lucky. Gigabyte got hit pretty hard. That's the town I was staying in when I heard that Elecmon was looking for help. I guess he was starting to get concerned about what might happen if the protection barriers around Primary Village fell again."

"Guilmon did mention that Elecmon thought he was here for the babysitting job at first," Veemon said.

"Who's Guilmon?" Bearmon asked.

"Doesn't matter." Davis looked out across the fields at Primary Village, trying to piece together everything. Some sort of natural disaster war had started within the Digital World, and they had been completely unaware of it. What else had been going on while they were out living their lives at teenagers? Davis wondered if he should tell Bearmon about their side of things with TK and Thunderbirmon and Takato – but it all felt like so much, and he just did not feel like rehashing all of those details again.

In the distance, he thought he saw Aquilamon flying into the village at a high speed, but he thought nothing of it. The sun was starting to set, and he realized that dinnertime must be just around the corner. Davis hadn't realized it was getting so late, but he guessed Takato and the rest of the group had a lot to discuss. He hoped someone would fill him in, but he no longer quite felt up to hearing the story just yet.

"We should probably meet up with the rest of the group now that Bearmon's here," Veemon said.

"Yeah, I need to get these little ones fed. I hear it's not an easy job," Bearmon added.

Davis stared at his feet. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up with you in a second, Veemon."

His partner hesitated. Then he nodded. "Okay. I'll be just a shout away if you need me."

"Got it."

Bearmon led the parade of baby digimon away to be fed while Veemon trudged up the hill without him. Davis slowly sank down to sit on the grass that he really hoped wasn't going to suddenly turn on him and try to eat him. He was left alone with the sounds of the wind and the trees rustling in the wind.

Sinkholes, he thought. The Digital World is turning on its inhabitants.

It was wrong. Just plain wrong.

Someone out there was manipulating the Digital World to change, become a harsh environment. It was the only explanation. For as long as he had known this world, it had always been a place of joy and life. Anytime something bad happened, it was always because someone malicious was behind it. He knew that was the case now, but it didn't exactly make him feel any better. TK had to be somewhere out there, and Davis knew that he was probably at the heart of all of this. He had to be, because he didn't know where else he could be if he wasn't.

Option B meant that he was in the Real World. Option B meant that he was dead.

There was an Option C at the back of his mind, trying to claw its way to the forefront of his thoughts, but Option C would have to wait.