Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. I do not own green eggs and ham, I do not own them, Sam I am...
Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "license".
I should probably slow my updates, haha, as I'm pretty close to catching up with Blurring Boundaries in chapter count. Granted, the word count is still completely different. BB is over 100k and this story has just barely hit 40k for what I have written. I'm several chapters ahead in this story, though, so I keep wanting to publish chapters, because I keep running out of prompts for my challenge! Quite the predicament...
Enjoy!
Chapter Fourteen
Yolei woke up and immediately grabbed her D-Terminal. The green light glared up at her, letting her know that she had a new message. She sat on the edge of her bed, read the email, and groaned.
Still nothing.
Last night after the digidestined meeting, she'd stuck around with Izzy to try to locate any information on Takato at all, but it was like the kid didn't exist. She had checked every newspaper article, Twitter posting, Facebook feed… Nothing. Every Takato in the country of Japan seemed to be perfectly safe in their homes with nobody wondering where they could be.
Now, after a horrible night's sleep, there was still no new information about Takato or TK. And to top it all off, Yolei was trying really hard not to think about the fact that she might have a totally crucial part to play during their upcoming adventure. Yolei normally looked like a zombie in the morning, but today was particularly horrible. Her hair stuck up in every direction, and she had blotchy patches all over her face. She even had a horrible zit at the base of her nose starting to crop up. If it got any bigger, she was going to start calling it Taro.
She growled in frustration and resisted the urge to throw her D-Terminal across the room. It wouldn't do any good. But it might make her feel better.
"You'll regret it if you break it, Yolei!" Poromon said as if reading her mind from his place on her pillow.
Yolei gritted her teeth. "Nobody asked you, Poromon!"
She didn't mean it, though. She was just frustrated, but she knew that taking it out on her digital devices was probably not the way to go. She forced herself to her feet so that she could start to get ready to leave. Once she had something to do, she would feel better about everything. She walked over to her dresser to grab her clothes when she noticed a sweater folded over the back of her computer chair. It was the one Ken had wrapped around her shoulders five nights ago, right before all of this started. She didn't even have a chance to call Kari to squeal about Ken finally doing something other than smile at her from across the room before she got news about TK, and everything about her own love life was effectively put on hold. Not that she blamed TK or anything – boy, was that a selfish thought – but the timing did suck. She still hadn't given the sweater back out of some weird hope that once all of this was over with, she could hand it over to him as a reminder of where they left off. Yeah, she was hopeless.
She picked the sweater up and pressed it to her face. It was starting to smell a lot like Yolei's favorite shampoo, but she could still catch a hint of something that reminded her of freshly fallen rain – a scent that was all Ken's. She tried not to blush as she thought back to that night, and the way his hands had lingered on her shoulders after he handed over his sweater. She'd wanted to kiss him so bad, but he'd seemed too uncomfortable and timid, like showing that small amount of affection had taken everything he had. She couldn't really blame him. People told her all the time that she was a bit much.
"Yolei, why do you keep smelling Ken's sweater? Does it smell good or something?" said her partner by her feet.
Instead of answering him, she just dropped the sweater on his head. "Find out for yourself!"
Then she marched into the bathroom and made sure to lock it. She was showered, hair-dried, and had put finishing touches on her makeup before she knew it. Her clothes weren't anything fancy, just something that was fit for traveling – well-worn jeans, a T-shirt, a comfortable winter coat, and hiking boots. She attached her D-3 to her belt.
When Yolei came out, she almost felt like it was just any other day. It was almost easy to forget that she was leaving home once again for what could most likely be another several day trip in the Digital World. One thing had been made pretty clear yesterday; they couldn't come back home again until they had at least some answers. And if there weren't any to find, well…
Yolei just couldn't think about that.
She packed her bag with a change of clothes, a small first aid kit, and lots and lots of food. Even with her bag practically bursting at the seams, she knew it would probably not be enough. That was the thing about traveling with digimon: a lot of food was never enough.
"Ready to go, Poromon?" she asked.
The pink feathery puffball stared up at her. "Aren't you going to say goodbye, Yolei?"
Yolei hesitated. Ever since she turned seventeen, her parents had been letting her come and go as she pleased. She was practically an adult, and they trusted her. But she knew that this was different. Like with every trip to the Digital World, this could be the last time that she ever saw any of them, but she wasn't sure if she could handle saying goodbye. She shouldered her bag and picked Poromon up into her arms.
"No," she finally answered. "I'll tell them all about it when I get back."
Yolei promised herself that she would come back. She blinked away tears of doubt and gave her room one final glance over. She'd see it again. She had to believe that. Then she quietly headed out of the apartment and headed down to the parking lot to her car. She tried not to think that this could be the last time she would be putting her license to use and headed to Izzy's.
x X x
"Great timing, guys!" she yelled.
Sure enough, all nine of the other digidestined – save for Izzy and Takato – stood around Tai's car in the parking lot outside of the Izumi's building. They waited for her to catch up. Mimi and Sora each gave her a hug, and she spared one for the equally zombie-looking Kari. She caught Ken's eye, and they held each other's gaze for half a second before looking away. She tried not to think about how awkward things were growing between them instead of getting better. She just had to be positive. She put on a brave face and said, "We ready to go?"
Tai did a quick headcount before he nodded. "Looks like it."
They marched up the stairs and to the Izumi apartment that seemed alive with activity already. Mrs Izumi made a show of handing each of them a rice ball that they were all too polite to refuse as Mr Izumi fetched Izzy and Takato. The boys stepped out of Izzy's room with their bags over their shoulders, and the twelve of them stood around eating quietly for a moment. Nobody seemed anxious to get this started.
Yolei couldn't blame them. This just felt different. They were heading after an enemy that they couldn't even put a face to at the moment on some shaky hope that everything would fall into place. A deadline had even been placed upon them, as if their mission wasn't difficult enough to begin with, and if they didn't succeed – well, the answer to that still hadn't been answered fully. So many unknowns existed; it just wasn't the most comfortable situation to be in.
"Well," Yolei muttered as she finished her rice ball and wiped her hands on her pants, "I guess we should get going."
The other digidestined stared at her for a long moment. Then Izzy nodded and brought out his laptop.
"I'm sending you as far west as I can get you, but portals are a lot scarcer on Server than they are on the eastern continent," Izzy explained. A map of the Digital World appeared on his desktop, and he tabbed through the separate open portals on the continent of Server before landing on one on northeastern shoreline. "My information tells me that Baihumon doesn't like to move around a lot. He mostly sticks to the land that he calls home in this region right here." He pointed to a piece of land along the western edge of Server.
"That's going to take us several hours to get even if we fly," Cody said.
"And flying is exactly what we should be doing," Davis ordered.
Yolei looked at Davis in confusion and surprise. He stood directly behind Izzy as he gazed at the map with such a serious look on his face that Yolei forgot that this was the same goofball who had received detention three weeks in a row right before Christmas Break for kicking a soccer ball at his math teacher's head. He seemed like a man on a mission.
Davis looked around at all of the people staring at him, and he shifted his weight from one foot onto the other. Yolei could tell he was hiding something. "It's just – the prophecy. Beware the earth. And something that Bearmon said…"
"About the sinkholes!" DemiVeemon supplied.
"Just seems like walking might not be the best idea."
"Better safe than sorry, I guess," Tai said.
"What do you think, Gatomon?" Poromon asked.
Gatomon frowned. "It would be easier if Patamon were here to help carry the load, but I think we could handle three and three."
"DemiVeemon or I could help," Minomon offered.
"No, that won't work, not anymore," Gatomon said. "Maybe if you still had access to Imperialdramon, it would be a cakewalk, but we don't. So you two would be forced to help us as Stingmon and ExVeemon. If we're attacked, we're going to want both of your arms free to fight back. Halsemon and I might be slowed down thanks to the weight, but we'll still be able to fight if it comes to that."
"Wish I could fly," Upamon said, "then I could give a hand…"
"Me too." Guilmon's ears drooped.
"What about you, Tai?" Kari asked. "Will you guys be okay?"
"Oh, don't worry about us, Kari!" Tentomon piped up. "I can carry everybody, not a worry!"
"And if Tentomon gets tired, I can pick up the slack," Biyomon offered.
Tai smiled at them both. "Well, I guess that settles that."
"Wait," Yolei said. "Where are you all going?"
"Back to File Island," Matt said. "If that's where the Digital Entities decided to drop Takato, it's possible that's the last place TK was as well."
Izzy nodded. "Speaking of, we should get going. You six are on a schedule. You only have three days now until the solstice. Good luck."
Yolei watched as Izzy opened the gate to Server, a continent she had only heard the older kids talk about a few times, before she unclipped her D-3 from her belt and held it up to the screen.
"Digi-port open!"
x X x
Flying was one of the best things in the world, Yolei thought, even if the ride was a bit cramped.
Up high, the air was freezing cold, but Takato and Ken were so close to her that their body heat created a type of protective bubble of warmth. Plus, being sandwiched between two totally hot guys had her blushing more than she would like to admit. And she was used to the grooves of Halsemon's back, so the seat wasn't uncomfortable at all. They sat single file: Guilmon in the front with Wormmon, then Takato, then Yolei, and then Ken. Yolei was very much aware of Ken right behind her. She wished he would hold onto her, maybe wrap his arms around her waist; but sadly, he didn't.
Luckily, Halsemon could navigate all on his own, because Yolei couldn't see all that well around Takato to do any kind of steering. Nefertimon and the others sailed just a few feet away, close enough that they could talk – or more like yell over the sound of the roaring wind. Her set up was pretty similar: Cody, Armadillomon, and Veemon came first, then Kari, and Davis took up the rear. They shot over their first mountain, and Yolei got a quick glimpse of miles of desert before they climbed into the clouds.
Yolei caught sight of a grin on Takato's face. "Cool, right?"
Takato glanced back at her. "Now that I'm not worried that you might throw me off… Yeah, it's pretty cool."
Guilmon punctuated this with a cheer of excitement that had Wormmon laughing.
"And cold," Ken said. "It's a good thing we all dressed warm. The last thing we need is one of us getting sick."
"Dude, you're starting to sound like Joe!" Davis called.
Ken reddened.
"Nefertimon, you'll let us know if you get tired or too cold, won't you?" Kari asked.
"Kari, I'm fine. Davis lets loose enough hot air to keep all of us warm," Nefertimon said dryly.
"Hey!"
Halsemon glanced toward Nefertimon. "We should be fine for a while. But if we need a break, we'll let you know."
"Don't work yourself too hard, Halsemon," Yolei said.
As she leaned forward to pat Halsemon's side affectionately, she saw Takato clutching a crumpled piece of paper in his hands with a big pink heart on the back. She gave him a quizzical look that he caught out of the corner of his eye, and he blushed before hastily putting the letter back into his pocket.
"It feels like we're making good time, right?" Takato asked in an obvious desperate attempt to avoid the subject. "We should get there by tonight."
Yolei could feel the nosy side of her wondering who the note was from. Did Takato have a girl back home waiting for him? Was there another Kari out there wondering where her boyfriend suddenly disappeared off to? But she managed to bite her tongue on asking. She knew she could sometimes be a bit blunt, but she figured now was not the time for that. Unless he had remembered something about his life before… But she'd like to think that he would share it if he had even if she didn't know him very well.
So she asked a less intrusive question. "So, who's this Baihumon Izzy mentioned?"
"Holy Beast of the West," Takato said. "And maybe the guy that can point us in the direction of Thunderbirmon."