The cool night wind whipping around Leya's face, tossing her hair every which way was a familiar and oddly relaxing sensation. She was currently atop Komodomon in his dragon mode, his plated jet black and gilded golden armor glistening in the moonlight as his thick leathery wings glided them through night sky. Yet it did little to nothing to ease her guilt about leaving Alex under the cover of darkness. She didn't have much of a choice though; Alex would've held her for another day or two -maybe three knowing him- diagnosing and testing her, more than enough time for Will's trail to go cold. Besides, she figured Alex would forgive her as long as she brought Will back.
"Leya, I know I agreed to help but do you have any idea where to start looking? We've been kinda flying in circles for a while now." Komodomon's voice was much deeper in his dragon mode than the one in his samurai but just as gentle. Leya sighed looking down over the rolling hills melding with small mountains passing underneath them. In truth, she had rushed out of Alex's lab without any true direction to go. Just a feeling that she had to start in the mountains and even that was super vague as there were hundreds of mountain ranges around the Digital World. To scour every last one would be a huge waste of time and effort; and even if she had the manpower to search each mountain range all at once, unless she was the one that found him, Will could easily escape from whichever team found him if he was staying away on purpose. He was an Elite like her but she knew Will would at least go easier on her more than anyone else; he called himself a 'gentleman' for it but Leya knew he was a big softy who wouldn't really want to hurt her.
"Let's land for now and rest. We can keep looking in the morning." Leya finally said with a sigh. There was no point in dragging things out right now and they both needed a good night's sleep. Komodomon descended and touched down on a relatively flat stretch of land. He crouched low for Leya to hop off of him without having to deal with the twelve foot drop off his back. Once off his back, Leya dropped to the ground in a huff, feeling oddly drained.
"You alright?" Komodomon asked, curling his body protectively around Leya's and draped his wing over her. She readjusted herself to where her head was using his forearm as a pillow and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"Yeah...just sleepy...probably still tired from... our fight." She droned, barely keeping her eyes open. He said nothing in response but a soft purr-like growl emanated from his throat. A smile grew on Leya's face as her eyes drooped further and further until closing completely, falling into an easy and dreamless sleep. Her eyes fluttered opened again to bright sunlight after what had seemed like only a few minutes of shut-eye. She groaned in exhaustion and let out a loud yawn, rubbing her eyes.
"Gosh..I didn't think it was so close to morning already..." As her eyes adjusted to the light, Leya realized something was different. She wasn't curled up next to Komodomon anymore nor was she of the foot of the mountain. Instead, she was sitting on a high ledge somewhere within the mountain range with the sun just starting to peek over the horizon.
"What in the...?" Wherever she was, she was far enough from where she and Komodomon had been as she couldn't see the foothills at all. Leya turned on her Digivice and tapped one of the apps on the screen and after a moment a 3-D topographical map of the mountains she was in projected from the front camera. There were several small red blips on the map indicating the locations of other Digimon on the mountain. Also on the map were two identical icons, enclosed in white circle and larger than the rest, of what appeared to be a V over top of an upside down T with four small triangles between the cross sections of the overlapping shapes: the symbol of Leya's crest of Compassion. The larger of the two was on the northeastern side of the mountain while the other was almost directly south of the other. Somehow she managed to climb two and a half miles up the mountain in the dark without waking up Komodomon at all. Leya sighed heavily, she was not looking forward to hiking down the mountain to meet up with Komodomon.
"How and why the hell did I end up walking so far way anyway?" She muttered under her breath, frowning. She hadn't slept walked ever before in her life and now she had hiked up a mountain just for the hell of it. An uneasy feeling crept up Leya's spine as she remembered what Alex had said about how the virus affected Digimon. She was a human with digital parts so was her sleepwalking one of the effects indicating the start of her corruption?
Leya groaned, putting the thought aside for now; it was too early in the morning for her to worry about that, she had a more pressing issue to deal with at the moment. She was about to close out the map when something caught her eye: two new blips appeared little ways behind hers. It was definitely peculiar as the blips had the same enclosed white circle that is used to show crest users and their Digimon but there was no crest showing within it, just a bunch of static. Suspicion rose in Leya as fiddled with the settings of the map and once few seconds passed, her intuition was confirmed: The 3-D wire frame view of the map changed to a satellite view of the immediate area. From that, Leya could see two figures seemingly hiding in the thin mountain shrubbery; not very well Leya might add. The Digimon appeared to be crouching in the brush and looked like a giant blue Akita Inu with a red scarf flowing slightly in the wind wearing huge red boxing gloves over its paws with long claws protruding out from them: a Gaogamon. On top of the Gaogamon's back was some guy with blonde hair in a stereotypical albeit stylish rockstar haircut that kind of reminded her of Matt from a few years ago and from what she could see, the guy was wearing a blue leather jacket with a gold star on the back with black jeans and red and white skate shoes. Leya wasn't sure if these guys were careless or just stupid; their positioning was way too conspicuous for them to be any sort of reconnaissance team or part of an ambush and even if they were to attack her it was just a Champion and its partner, she sure she could hold them off if not beat them. She just needed to make sure she was actually their target first. Leya shut off the map and holstered her Digivice and without pausing took off in a light jog down a gentle slope of the mountain. She barely got fifteen feet away before she heard a quick rustling from the shrubbery and a steady but loud thumping of Gaogamon's paws against the ground. Leya couldn't stop herself from laughing; as one of the top ranked Digidestined for recon, their tailing skills were below rookie level.
"Might as well have some fun with them." She sped up, breaking into a full run. Gaogamon was still on her tail keeping a consistent distance between them; surely they should've figured they had been made by now. If they continued to follow her like this even after she got to Komodomon they could very well give her position away to Will if she ever got close to him. She felt her face fall into a frown; she couldn't let them get in her way. No one would get in her way. The land started to even out until it essentially turned into rocky plains with a steep cliff face on one side and an equally steep cliff side with no cover in sight. Leya made an about face turn and mid-turn she swiped down the screen of her Digivice summoning her sword. The ebony blade appeared differently than usual though; instead of the white light she had been accustomed to, a dull grey almost silver light appeared followed by a trail of grey pixels as she pulled it out. Leya thought little of it though as her stalkers had caught up to her. She could see the Digidestined completely now and his appearance surprised her. He was pretty well built for such a scrawny looking guy and in addition to the apparel she had already noticed from the satellite feed, he was also wearing a red polo shirt and a black studded belt but the shocking bit about him was his eyes: they were a dull blue that matched the shadows the bags under his eyes casted. Whatever this guy had been through must had been tough on him. Part of her felt sorry for him but another part had an increasing irritation towards him.
"Who are you, why are you following me and what do you want?!" Leya demanded pointing her sword at him. The young man hopped off the back of his partner. He said nothing but had a scowl on his face that said he didn't care much for Leya. She didn't mind though, right now for some reason him looking at her that way was really pissing her off.
"Are you Leya Hayato?" He asked bluntly ignoring Leya's questions, annoying her even more.
"Typically when a person asks a question the polite thing to do is to answer back not ask another question." Leya replied, her frustration clearly showing.
"For instance, to answer your question...yes I am Leya. Now what about-" She was cut off by a sudden vortex of wind. She managed to block the brunt of the attack with her sword but it still did some damage to her, earning her a few light scratches on her arms and face and tearing a few holes into her cloak.
"Seriously?! You need your partner to score a cheap shot like that on a girl while she's talking?!" Leya's head was practically throbbing in rage yet her mind couldn't register why this guy was getting under her skin so fast when even her friends jokingly say that it takes years for her to get angry at anyone.
"I know enough about you to know that you're dangerous enough without your partner." The stranger spat back. Based off the look on his face he was getting as irritated as Leya was.
"And I also know you were the last person to see Will, so where is he?!" He bellowed as he rushed Leya. Leya stuck her sword in the ground and brought her arms up just in time to block a punch by her assailant; she wasn't about to fight an unarmed man with a sword no matter how angry she was. She pushed him away from her before launching herself at him, throwing a punch at his face and knocking him to the ground. Gaogamon softly growled defensively, his fur bristling as a warning but didn't step in. His partner wiped the trail of blood from his mouth and glared at Leya. He tried to get up but she didn't give him the chance to as she straddled over him, pinning him to the ground and grabbing him by the collar. She then reared her head back as far as she could before she collided it with his, the resounding thud echoed in her head and her vision blurred for a few seconds before everything calmed down. Even Leya's sudden aggression had dissipated however the headbutt had knocked out the man under her.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" She apologized frantically to the unconscious body. Leya put her ear to the man's chest listening carefully for a heartbeat. Thankfully, she heard a quiet one and let out a sigh of relief; it wasn't too faint for him to be in critical condition but he was definitely going to need some rest before he was one hundred percent. Gaogamon padded up to her. His fur was still bristled but he seem cautiously friendly for now.
"So are you like normal now?" He asked. Leya was surprised by this Gaogamon's voice; most Gaogamon she had met had guff or gravelly voices but this one had a fairly high pitched and upbeat voice.
"Yeah sorry about that. I really don't know what got over me." She nodded in response and Gaogamon got this big goofy smile on his face. Though she had a nagging feeling in the back of her head that she knew exactly why she acted the way she did.
"That's awesome! Oh sorry about attacking you earlier, we needed to make sure we had the right Leya this time. You wouldn't believe how many girls we ran into that pretended to be you just cause you're practically a Digidestined celebrity!"
"Really? Huh... I never knew." Leya wasn't sure if she should be flattered or disturbed by her now apparent fanbase. She chuckled softly, it was just another thing to worry about later.
"Gaogamon, can you help me get your partner back to my camp? It's a little ways down the mountain, maybe fifteen minutes. Komodomon and I can treat him there." Leya asked she couldn't allow herself to just leave him there. Gaogamon nodded excitedly.
"Of course! Now I definitely know you're the real Leya, you're the only known Digidestined with a Komodomon as a partner." Gaogamon crouched down to allow Leya to put the young man on his back and for Leya to get on to make sure he didn't fall off.
"Oh and by the way this is Lucas, Lucas Star." He introduced the unconscious boy on his back before taking off further down the mountain. Leya brow furrowed in thought as she tried to remember why that name sounded familiar and then her eyes widened in realization: she had heard that name before from Will ages ago. This guy, Lucas, was once a part of Will's original team, the team of Digidestined hand picked by Gennai and tasked with protecting the Odaiba chosen: the Guardians. He was one of the few people that knew Will before she and her other friends met him. If Lucas was looking for Will too then something must had happen to him. That or something big was brewing and they were going to need his help. Either way, Leya needed to find him before it was too late.