Chapter Text
Takeru picks up Miyako's bag full of food, slinging it up onto his shoulder, over one of the straps of his backpack.
Miyako smiles gratefully, shouldering a two other bags. Takeru feels bad, she's nine times out of ten the one who has to bring all the food, so usually, when she has too many bags, he'll take one from her to make it easier, and chips in with money for all the snacks. She still has to pay for it, despite it all coming from her parents store, and Digimon were awfully hungry creatures.
"Is everyone ready?" Daisuke asks, the typical pep in his voice as he bounces on his heels, Chibimon jumping with similar excitement besides him.
Takeru understands. Despite the amount of times they've been to the Digital World, it's still amazing every single time. Takeru looks forward to it every day.
Takeru looks around the room at the others, carefully moving his head as Patamon is on his normal perch atop the blonds hat, little hands fisted in the fabric so he doesn't fall. At least, on his own, he'd quite easily just topple over with the hat in hand.
Everyone gives varying forms of confirmation, and Daisuke practically vibrates as he moves to the computer, opening up the Gate to the beach.
"Okay!" He cheers, pulling his D-3 out. "See you guys on the other side, then!" With that he points the device at the computer, and he's gone in a flash of blinding light.
Hikari steps forward next with Tailmon at her heels, and disappears into the Digital World the same as Daisuke did.
Ken goes next, and then Takeru, at Miyako's prompting.
The trip is disorienting, more so than usual, and instead of landing on his feet like he normally does he falls face first and smacks his chin on the dirt below him.
He groans, getting up with the help of Ken and Hikari, rubbing his chin with his hand. "Are you okay?" Hikari frets, moving his hand to get a look at his chin.
"..this is not the beach," Takeru says instead of answering her. Instead of sand and water, they're surrounded by heavy greenery. Large trees tower over them, practically blocking out all the light, covered in dangling vines. The ground is a mess of bushes and roots, an accident waiting to happen.
Daisuke laughs from where he stands at the edge of the group, Taichi's old binoculars held up to his eyes. "Great observation, Sherlock," he quips. His next words, however, are serious. Worried. "You recognize this place?"
Takeru's stomach drops, looking to the other two Chosen, who are both staring at him. "..no," he says. And it's weird, truly. He thinks he knows about every place on Server and File Island, if he doesn't know where they are, then no one else will.
"..the gate is closed," Ken says, and Takeru's stomach drops even more.
Daisuke hurries over, handing his binoculars off to V-mon and crouching in front of the TV, and fiddling with tbe buttons. "Damnit," he curses.
Hikari pulls out her D-Terminal, brow furrowing. "My messages aren't sending," She says, and Takeru is quick to whip out his own to make sure it wasn't just her D-Terminal messing up.
His messages don't send either.
Ken stands stiff, Wormmon held in his arms with his chin on the digimon's head. Patamon rubs against Takeru, and he looks down at his digimon partner. "Do you recognize this place, Pata?"
"Nope," the little digimon shakes his head with a sigh. "I have no idea where we are! It's so weird."
Daisuke smacks his hand hard against the TV, grunting in frustration when it, in fact, does not turn back on.
"Okay," He says with a heavy sigh, straightening back up. "Guess we're finding another TV."
"How are we supposed to do that when we have no idea where we are?" Ken asks, seeming to tighten his grip on Wormmon. "We- we can't just wander around, can we?"
Takeru shrugs, fiddling with his D-Terminal. "I mean.. that's what we did, at first, you know? Me and the Original Chosen. It wasn't ideal, but as long as we stay together and have our digimon we should be okay, I think," Is he going to have to remember the survival skills he'd learned the first time? He was only seven, there wasn't a lot he could do..
"What if they get the Gate working, and we're not here?" Hikari asks, pulling Tailmon into her arms. Her expression is soft and worried, and Tailmon is quick to wrap around her, protective as always.
"They'll find us," Takeru says, forcing himself to put on a leader-ish personona. Usually Daisuke wouldn't have a problem with taking that spot, he was loud and brave, and always came up with ridiculous plans, but he kept spirits high. But, Takeru is the one with the most Digiworld know-how, and he has a feeling he's going to be stepping up a lot. "Miyako and Iori will call Koushiro to try and fix it, and Koushiro will most likely call Taichi and Yamato, and those two will find us, no matter what. We'll be okay."
Hikari doesn't seem particularly comforted, but Tailmon rubs her head against her chosen's chin, and Hikari steels her face into something determined, and sets her gaze to the forest around them.
Jungle, Takeru thinks as he does the same, is way more accurate. He doesn't know if words can describe the sheer thickness of all the vetagation, tall and sprawling, and almost dangerous looking. The bushes nearly go up to his waist, and are practically everywhere. Some, from what he can see, are covered in thorns. On top of everything, it's almost completely silent, in a way the Digital World never is, aside from maybe the desert.
He swallows, trying to remain calm, and putting his D-Terminal away. "Tailmon? You've never seen this place either?"
The cat digimon takes a moment to respond, face scrunched up as she thinks. "No," she says, finally. "Never. It's so.. full. It kind of reminds me of Pinochimon's forest, but.. worse."
Takeru's face scrunches at the unpleasant memory of an unpleasant Digimon, but finds himself agreeing with her. Hopefully, this time, there's no weird puppetry going on. Or just puppets in general.
Ken and Daisuke both look at each other, confused, but neither Takeru nor Hikari feel the need to fill them in. It would take a lot of explaining, and they don't have time for all of that.
Takeru tilts his head up to the sky, wondering if it would be worth having their Digimon digivolve to fly above the canopy, risking them having no energy if they get in a fight, or just saving it and walking.
Daisuke grabs his binoculars back from V-mon and holds them to his eyes again, looking up at the trees as well.
"..that's not going to help, Daisuke," Ken says, an exasperated amusement in his typically monotone voice.
Daisuke scoffs, but Takeru can tell his face is lightly tinged pink. "No– it works fine, Ken, buzz off."
Takeru turns away, looking down at Patamon, who looks back up at him with those big, round eyes.
"Let me try, then."
"Wha– no, I'm using them–"
Flying would be faster, and they could get a better view, able to tell how long the jungle went, and when it stopped, changing into a new biome. But the risk of running into digimon at low energy was still high, and they had no idea when they'd come across food to replenish that energy.
Food..
"Then what do you see?"
"Uhh.."
Takeru makes his way over to Miyako's bag, which he had dropped coming in and promptly forgot about. He unzips it, crossing his fingers that there's food inside, and digs through.
"Daisuke."
"Ugh, okay! Fine! It doesn't help, I just see leaves."
Sunscreen, burn ointment, aloe, goggles, towels, water.. no food. Takeru heaves a sigh, setting the bag down on the ground. She must still have the food bag, which.. doesn't really surprise him. Not after he kept sneaking all the good snacks.
"Anything of use?" Hikari asks gently, and Takeru jumps a bit, not having noticed she was even there.
"Uh, no. I was hoping for food, but it seems like she still has all that," Takeru crosses his arms. Officially back to the drawing board, he supposes.
Hikari suppresses a slight giggle. "Well.. that doesn't surprise me, not after what happened last time she trusted you with the food,"
A smile tugs at Takeru's lips, but he can't find it in himself to find it funny, only upset at his past decision because it led here. The butterfly affect, he thinks.
"Well, that's okay," Hikari continues, seeming to try and keep herself upbeat, whether it's for his sake or her's he can't tell. "We'll find some food later, I'm sure of it."
Takeru takes a deep breath, grounded by Patamon rubbing his little face against his leg. He can't panic now. "Right," he manages. "Okay, um, what do you have in your bag?"
Hikari's face drops, just slightly. "My towel," She says, looking down at her bag. "Um, a hat and sunglasses, and my flip-flops, that's it. What about you?"
"About the same," Takeru answers wearily. Two towels, for both him and Patamon, and they took up most of the space within his backpack, plus his own shoes. He turns towards Daiskuke and Ken, and calls, "Hey! What did you guys bring with you?"
Both boys turn, Daisuke's goggles hanging halfway between them. They glance at each other, and then make their way over.
"I brought this!" Daisuke says, waving the binoculars, then slipping the strap over his head, allowing it to dangle around his neck. "Also a compass, water balloons, my shoes, water guns.."
"Any food?" Takeru interrupts.
"Er– no," Daisuke says, looking mildly embarrassed. "I.. I guess I depended on Miyako to do it,"
"We all did," Hikari says. "I think I'm going to start bringing my own food now, though,"
Takeru smiles a bit, and both he and Daisuke nod.
"..I have some food," Ken says quietly, and blushes when all their attention turns to him. "Just– just a few granola bars, though,"
"That's great!" Takeru lights up, glad to have at least one bit of good news, though he quickly finds himself embarrassed at his outbursts. "Er– that's good, Ken. That's way better than nothing,"
Ken gives a small smile, wringing his hands. "Uh, yeah. I also have sunscreen, a towel, a little medkit, um, water, and a flashlight."
"Great," Takeru says, pulls off his backpack, and dumps its contents onto the ground. He grabs the water, sunscreen and burn ointment from Miyako's bag and shoves them into his own. "If you don't have anything useful in your bag I suggest leaving it. They're kind of dead weight."
Hikari drops her bag.
Daisuke digs through his for his compass, and then shoves it and his binoculars into Takeru's bag, and tosses his own by Hikari's. Once they've all sorted through there stuff Takeru stands up straight again, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, and looks at each digimon they have with them.
He ponders for a moment, and then makes up his mind. "How about we have Patamon and Tailmon armor digivolve to fly, but have V-mon and Wormmon stay as is, to conserve their energy incase we need it? We'll just double up on Pegasusmon and Nefertimon."
The other Chosen look at each other, and then back at the blonde. "That sounds like a good idea to me," Ken says softly, and Takeru let's out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
Hikari smiles and pulls out her D-3 pointing it to Tailmon, and Takeru does the same. With a cry of "Digi-Armor energize!" Patamon is covered in a blinding light, and once it fades Pegasusmon is left in his place.
The graceful digimon dips his head low, pressing it briefly against Takeru's chest, and the chosen of hope runs his fingers through the digimon's mane. "Takeru," he greets.
"Pegasusmon," Takeru greets back with ease.
Hikari is already sitting atop Nefertimon and helping Ken up, so Takeru hops up and holds his hand out to Daisuke, who, after a moment, takes it and allows himself to be pulled up, setting V-mon between them.
"You might want to hold on," Takeru teases, leaning forward to carefully wrap his arms around his digimon's neck.
Daisuke scoffs, and Takeru feels V-mon's little arms wrap around him, but the other chosen doesn't do the same. Takeru merely chuckles, knowing Daisuke will have to do it sooner or later.
Flying on Pegasusmon was much different than flying on XV-mon, as for one, XV-mon carried his occupants, and Pegasusmon's body had to angle the direction he was going, and staying on was left entirely up to his occupants.
"Alright," Takeru says, leaning down a bit to press his chest fully again his digimon's neck. "Ready, Pegasusmon!"
The digimon gives a grunt of affirmation, and leaps off into the air with a powerful push of his legs, angling himself upwards and using his wings to propel them into the air.
Daisuke yells in alarm, quickly wrapping his arms around Takeru's entire middle, crushing poor V-mon between the two of them. Takeru laughs, throwing his head back and relishing in the feeling of wind in his hair. He reaches up with one hand to keep his hat safely on his head, feeling confident in his ability to stay atop Pegasusmon, though from Daisuke's alarmed sounds behind him, he doesn't think the other Chosen feels the same.
"Jesus, Takeru!" He yells, barely heard above the rushing air around them. "What the hell! This is terrifying!"
"It's amazing!" Takeru calls back, and let's out another breathless laugh. He loves flying.
It takes them a good few minutes to reach the top of the trees. They're ridiculously tall, taller than most things Takeru has seen, he thinks. And a good few minutes more to find a large enough gap in the leaves, but eventually they do find one, and burst through into the empty sky.
Takeru breaths deeply, and the air feels clearer. He hadn't realized just how stuffy it had been on the ground, but now it's like day and night, and the difference is astounding.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Takeru giggles, turning back a bit to look at Daisuke, who has his face pressed into the other boys shoulder.
The other Chosen only grumbles, and Takeru laughs again. Despite the overall badness of their situation, being with these people makes it easier.
He opens his mouth to say something else, to keep teasing him, but a gust of sharp air hurtles past them and into the leaves below, stopping him before he can speak.
"Dive," Takeru yelps, turning back to face a swarm of various different flying digimon, the only ones he recognizes are a few Airdramon. One of those Airdramon rears back, preparing for an attack. "Go! Dive, Pegasusmon!" Takeru screams, and the digimon under him doesn't hesitate, whirling around and shooting back down to the trees.
"Fatal Tornado!" Comes from above them, and the move blasts into Pegasusmon's side, sending him spiraling downward, no longer in control of his flight.
Takeru screams, clinging harder than he had moments prior as they break through the trees, branches and leaves smacking into them painfully. Pegasusmon snags on vines, quickly getting tangled up with them and jostling his riders, sending them plummeting down to the ground.