I don't own digimon.

Story 84

Going up, down under

Sparrowmon stared out at the sweeping vistas below her. Of all the places to end up at, the Australian wilderness was the perfect choice. Okay, calling it the wilderness was probably a bit of a misnomer. Mostly on account of the jet plane pokemon not seeing anything in the way of animals. Let alone people. Instead, it was the natural landscapes the country had to offer here.

"If you could see me now, Darwin." Sparrowmon cooed and took a moment to calm herself. There had to be a reason why she had been dropped off here. Better than a city, with its limiting passageways and tall buildings. How exactly was she supposed to fly like the bird she was named after if there was such little space to begin with? It just flew in the face of reason. At least in the digital world, those kinds of buildings could be phased right through. Made for a far easier time flying, at the cost of usually having to land on the ground rather than somewhere high up to rest. A worthy trade-off if you asked her. Though, Sparrowmon had a feeling that she was in the minority here as she descended. More a hunch than anything concrete, the jet plane digimon wouldn't let that get in the way of her enjoyment of this environment. At least beyond the set of hills and mountains coming up on her left. That was as good of a boundary than anything to contain her search. But what could she use as a landmark? Looking around to her right, Sparrowmon did her best in order to discern something in the way of a mountain or other large natural formation. At the moment, she couldn't see anything of note. Whether that was the result of choosing the one spot that only had one landmark. If you didn't count the ocean.

"That's it!" Sparrowmon announced to no one in particular. Even if someone could hear her, they very likely were unable to respond. Not that the jet plane digimon minded in the slightest. Response or not, she was going over that mountain.

Speeding up ever so slightly, Sparrowmon shot forth. Taking care to adjust her altitude as the hills and mountains rapidly came into view. Passing over with ease, that didn't stop the jet plane digimon from staring down to see what was on offer below. Mostly forests, any people who might be down there were either specks or just not visible from this altitude. All the more reason to descend before someone frea-

Sparrowmon didn't get to finish that thought, what looked to be some kind of marine patrol aircraft having very much noticed her. This wasn't part of the plan at all. Nor did they look like the sort with some kind of intercom to speak to digimon. Unless that was somehow a recent upgrade. Ironically, Sparrowmon's knowledge of planes was rather limited. She wanted to learn more, but the Digital World provided little in the way of opportunities to read up and/or look at such aircraft. Unless they were miniature. While the intricate details were cute, it didn't bring the same joy as the full-sized planes.

"Uh… I didn't intend to violate airspace laws, I swear!" Sparrowmon announced as she debated her options. On one hand, heading out to the ocean might allow her to get this plane off her tail. On the other hand, landing before she created an incident with whatever country she was in and the Digital World was in her best interests. Especially with the mess that had occurred recently. "Okay. I'll land. Just give me a second."

Descending down, Sparrowmon split her gaze between the plane above her and the ground below. Avoiding as much of the trees that she could manage here, a small patch of land devoid of people and animals. At least, Sparrowmon hoped that it would be. If not, she was likely walking into an even bigger mess for both worlds. Why did the entity in charge of sending digimon down decide now was the perfect time to do so? Could they see that this was far from ideal here? No, they were an uncaring bitch who were more focused on the digital world's balance than actually trying to be a decent person. Because of course they would do that. For now, the jet plane digimon shoved that thought away. Underside landing on the dirt, her gaze shifted upwards. There, the plane that had been following her had decided to go off to do whatever it was that they were supposed to be doing. Hopefully not chasing aerial digimon. If they were, Sparrowmon would need to give them a stern talking too. Or maybe shout at the clouds. That always worked… right?

"Phew." Sparrowmon muttered as she calmed herself. Scanning the area, it looked as if she had chosen the one area surrounded by trees. Because of course she did. That was just the kind of digimon she was. If Darwin was here, he probably would've chuckled about the whole situation. Not that Sparrowmon blamed him for reacting like that. She probably would have thought it humorous too, if not for the fact that the sound of footsteps approaching her position. Likely, these were people here to pick her up and take her somewhere else. Yes, that had to be it. Nothing else seemed to fit here. Just a matter of waiting for this mystery group of individuals to arrive and decide what to do with her.

"Fou-" a voice announced, their tone almost sounding like they weren't certain what to make of Sparrowmon. Reminds me of whenever people saw me for the first time. Except they usually had guns drawn and pointed at me. Here, this looks more like very confused park rangers who might not be paid enough for today's outing. Just a hunch more than anything concrete. Finances aren't my forte, nor should I give my opinion on said topic. I would be an absolutely poor narrator here.

"Uh… sorry about this, park rangers?" Sparrowmon announced and was met with an eyebrow raise from one of the rangers. Digimon were very much not a new thing in the slightest. What exactly about her was tripping them up? Taking a moment to think it over, the jet plane digimon couldn't really think of anything. Perhaps this was a case of them thinking that she was some kind of alien or something. No, that would be some place called 'Ruswell' in the United States. For now, Sparrowmon shoved that thought away.

"Uh… by any chance could you maybe tell us how you ended up in restricted air space?" one of the park rangers announced and Sparrowmon gulped. Would they even believe her story? 'Oh yeah. I just kind of appeared and am looking for Darwin, my partner. By any chance could you tell me where I am?' No, that didn't feel like it wouldn't fly in one statement. No, she would need work up to that.

"It wasn't my intention, Ranger. I just got here from the Digital World and had no bearings of where I was." Sparrowmon explained and watched the park rangers inch ever closer. Were they concerned that she was about to set the clearing and in turn - the forest on fire. While that was a rational fear to have, they could at least ask her to hover off the ground.

"Missy, you're in Annan River National Park. I don't exactly know what you were planning to do here, but this isn't the kind of place you should be flying over." one of the rangers announced and Sparrowmon stared down at the dirt. Muttering something to it, she forced her gaze back up to meet the ranger's. That was the least she could do here.

"Will I be fined?" Sparrowmon inquired, watching the park rangers talk among each other. This was a rather simple question with what the jet plane digimon thought was a rather simple answer. She violated the law, so she needed to pay a fine. What could they possibly need to figure out here. It was truly that simple. Or at least, it seemed simple to her. In truth, this kind of thing was bound to be made complicated by her size and you know, being a digimon. Though, you could apply that to a variety of other 'simple problems' that involve digimon.

"Uh… we're not particularly certain." a park ranger announced and Sparrowmon raised an eyebrow. While she wasn't expecting them to know all the laws, they could at least know the law they were citing that she violated. That was bare minimum of their jobs. A step too far in this particular case.

Taking a moment to calm herself, Sparrowmon did her best to meet as many park ranger's gazes as her eyes would allow. Quite a decent number from the looks of it, but not quite all of them.

"So if you can't decide then, can you at least direct me to town?" Sparrowmon inquired and watched the park rangers resuming chatting among each other. Rolling her eyes, the jet plane digimon debated ascending back up and heading in a general direction of where one might expect a town to be. The thought was nice, but it was bound to land her into even more trouble than she was already in. So that wouldn't work. There was also the option of trying to convince these rangers that she had important information, but that would've been best given right at the start. Rather than blurted out right now. Which just left waiting around right now. Waiting for something to happen in order to achieve anything resembling progress. That had to occur sooner or later, right? That was how these things usually went.

"I guess? Perhaps someone back in Cooktown will know what to do with her." a ranger announced and Sparrowmon perked up. Finally, someone with the vaguest amount of sense to actually do something other than argue out in the middle of the woods. While she would've loved permission to fly along with these people. Getting scooped up and carried out of the National Park and to Cooktown proper was definitely an improvement. Perhaps Darwin would be there for one reason or another. Sparrowmon wasn't counting on it in the slightest, but the thought was nice. No, he was likely back home. Wherever that might be. Hopefully somewhere here in Australia and not the United States. The last thing she wanted here was to need to cross another ocean and enter yet another country's air space, bringing even more risk of an international incident. That was best avoided currently.

Shoving that thought away, Sparrowmon allowed herself to be scooped up. Cradled in the arms of a park ranger, a part of her wondered if this was how babies felt while being carried by their mothers. Not that a mother was ever really part of her life, nor was she ever small enough to have this kind of treatment in the first place. Yet, that didn't stop it from feeling nice… for the first mile. After that, it got annoying.

"Uh… do you think I could just hover beside you?" Sparrowmon inquired, feeling the grip of the ranger loosen. More than enough for her to get out of their grip, she took the opportunity. Now floating beside them, she took care to meet their gaze. "So… what exactly do you people do now that there are digimon all about?"

The park ranger shrugged.

"The same thing we always did." the ranger answered and Sparrowmon raised an eyebrow. Of all the ways that this could be answered, that was not the response she was expecting. A part of Sparrowmon expected something would have changed. But that was sadly not the case here. If anything, it almost came across as ignorant. Unless she had somehow been the first digimon that had appeared in this part of the Human World. But that would be silly, right? There had to be someone else who had come down before her. The silence told her otherwise. She was likely the first digimon in some time to be visiting Cooktown.

"I would've thought that things would've changed now that I and my friends were coming down. That's all." Sparrowmon answered, her words falling on deaf ears here. So much for this line of question. Was there anything else she had an urgent need to know here? Yes, but all of it paled in comparison to her current situation. Especially with the edge of the forest coming into view. What looked to be a parking lot awaited them. What Sparrowmon could only assume to be ranger pickup trucks had been parked there, likely their next destination before going to Cooktown itself. That was likely it. "Wait. Do I need to ride in the back?"

The park ranger nodded.

"As much as you would like to fly beside you, we can't really have you doing that here." the ranger explained and Sparrowmon looked away. Of course she much rather be flying beside the vehicles. That was plain as day. But sacrifices needed to be made for the sake of playing nice and having a chance at getting to see her partner once more.

"Okay. I'll wait in the bed of one of your people's pickup trucks." Sparrowmon announced as the group reached the pickup trucks. Watching the ranger in charge of her head to the nearest truck, the jet plane digimon followed right behind. Taking care to get into the back of the pickup, Sparrowmon positioned herself in such a way that she could at least see. While tempting as it would be to just take a nap, that would've taken away from the precious time of just looking for Darwin. If she was lucky, maybe they would find him on the side of the road - in need of a helping hand. Or wing in this case. People sometimes forget that she had the capac-

Before Sparrowmon could finish that thought, the pickup truck started up and backed out of the parking space. Nearly knocking the jet plane digimon into the tailgate, the surface of the truck bed managed to prevent that. The one saving grace here. If you could even call it that here. Sparrowmon very much didn't. Instead, she carefully lifted her head up onto the top of the tailgate, taking a moment to get herself comfortable. From this angle, the services provided by the national park looked abysmal. Nothing in the way of restrooms or even a picnic area, what was the point then. Unless this was somehow the point. They didn't want people being out here in the first place. Then why have this parking lot then? Couldn't they not see how stupid this looked from her perspective? Probably not. It was probably just seen as a necessary evil in their books. They needed some way in order to get to certain parts of the Annan River. Yeah. That was probably it. Anything else wo-

Sparrowmon's thought was cut off by the pickup truck slamming on its brakes. Nearly throwing the jet plane digimon out, she somehow managed to hang on.

"Huh." Sparrowmon thought and looked her body over. Everything still looked to be there, which was perhaps the least of her worries here. Instead, she needed to know what the heck was going on. Which meant hovering out of the truck bed and then flying to the front of the vehicle. Pretty easy, all things considered. One would think they would at least close the lid, but this particular model didn't include that as an option. Oh well. Not the end of the world in the slightest as Sparrowmon made it to the front of the vehicle. There, what looked to be a man dressed in a pajama shirt and pants combo was standing in the middle of the road. Holding an umbrella, it was being used to hold what looked to be a second man down. Compared to the first, this particular specimen had gone for a blue shirt with a paper and pencil on it with what looked to be cream-colored cargo tired brown eyes met that of purple hair. Recently dyed, the spikes are a nice touch. "Darwin?"

Sadly, Sparrowmon's words failed to reach her partner. All the more reason to close the distance, even if the park rangers were bound to disagree on that front. Their problem, not hers here.

"Oh my, Darwin. We have company." the first man announced, Darwin deciding to keep his mouth shut here. He did take the time to at least look in the direction of his partner, though. An action that his captor was keen to punish. "I don't know who you are, but you're too late."

Sparrowmon rolled her eyes. She could easily tear right through this strange man with ease. But that would be considered murder and Darwin wouldn't be happy with her. Instead, she would need an alternate strategy here. Perhaps it would be best to just freak him out and hope for the best? Yeah, that could work. Just a matter of being more careful than usual in order to accomplish this.

"What makes you think that?" Sparrowmon inquired, flashing a smile for good measure. That really got on the man's nerves and he flipped her off. For that rude remark, Sparrowmon responded by zooming right past this strange man. Catching him by complete surprise, that was enough to dislodge the umbrella holding Darwin down and allow him to stand up. Punching his kidnapper in the face, he waited a moment for Sparrowmon to come back around. Once she had, the pair made a beeline for the pickup trucks. Mostly on the off-chance that they wouldn't be followed and/or Darwin's kidnapper didn't have some kind of special trick up his sleeve. Considering that they could see his sleeves in the first place, this was likely some kind of twisted stunt more than anything. Right? There was no way this is connected to anything else in the grand scheme of things.

"Because I was taking him back to Neverland, silly!" the man announced and raised his umbrella up. Pointing it in the direction of the pickup trucks, he was more than ready to throw down. The reason was irrelevant here, beyond taking Darwin back into his custody. Charging at the power, all it took was the might of a taser of all weapons to bring him to a stop. Huh. Wouldn't expect park rangers of all people to carry such things. In this new age, I guess it makes sense to have something on you that can create high voltage electricity.

"Do not think that we will not take this lost child back to Neverland." the man announced, shattering into digital data right after. For now, Sparrowmon's gaze shifted to her partner. There were so many things that she wanted to ask here and yet, one thing trumped all of that here.

"Are you okay?" she whispered and Darwin nodded. Looking over to where his assailant had been dispatched, he forced his gaze back over to his partner.

"Yeah, minus that guy jumping me while I was drawing illustrations for my new book." Darwin explained and watched his partner freeze. Was it really that odd to get into writing and drawing? They lived in such a beautiful place, after all. Or at least, a beautiful place to him.

"I'm just happy to see you." Sparrowmon answered and felt herself get pulled in for a hug. Accepting the gesture, a smile formed on the jet plane digimon's face…

Harlequin's Notes:

That wasn't bad and we got to go to Australia. A win-win in my book.