Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Ethereal ❯ The Noose ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter VIII

"'You and Koush should be able to break into the defenses easily.' Ha, yeah right," Ken muttered as he stared at the computer screen tiredly. Both he and Koushirou had been working on hacking into the Digital World's defenses for the last three days. During that period of time Takeru hadn't paid any of them a visit to help and Ken found himself growing both worried and aggravated by the whole situation.

Ken turned around and found Koushirou on the floor with his head on the book he was reading an hour ago. They both had decided to take turns at trying to figure out the exact workings of the Digital World's system and Ken had been staring at the computer blankly for the last two hours or so. The screen displayed a series of symbols scrolling down which Ken had just about given up on deciphering. His hands rested on the keyboard and suddenly he was jostled by the phone ringing. Ken looked around and saw that Koushirou was still dead asleep. Sighing, he picked up the phone and answered. "Hello," he said deadpan.

"Ken?"

The dark-haired boy immediately straightened in his seat as he grabbed the phone tightly. "Takeru! Where in the world are you?!" he cried out in frustration. Ken heard Takeru sigh on the other line.

"I've been tracking down the other Destined. How are you and Koush doing? I'm assuming you cracked the code," Takeru said calmly.

Ken glared at the phone. "Cracked the code?! You must forget, Takeru, that neither of us remembers the Digital World very well. We've just been staring at these bizarre symbols scrolling down the screen for the last three days trying our hardest to even begin to comprehend them! And so far we have nothing!" he practically screamed into the phone. Afterwards Ken panted slightly from all his yelling and gripped himself to calm down as Takeru spoke.

"You haven't…? All right, I'll be there in a sec," Takeru replied tonelessly as the line went dead. Ken stared at the phone dubiously and slammed it down back in its cradle. He sat in the chair and stared at the computer screen angrily. At some points he thought he had seen some familiar symbols, but he couldn't quite figure out where they came from. Sitting silently, Ken wracked his mind for answers before a knock was sounded loudly. He snapped his gaze to the door sharply before slowly walking up to open it.

And as soon as he cracked the door open, a tall figure rushed in, nearly pushing Ken to the floor. Ken looked up and saw Takeru take his place at the desk and begin typing. The dark-haired boy sighed and closed the door. "You could have at least said excuse me," he muttered as he sat down next to the blond. Takeru grunted and typed in several keys.

"Sorry, I was in a hurry. The sooner we open the portal to the Digital World, the better," he quickly explained. Ken arched an eyebrow.

"How did you even get here so-whoa," he remarked as the screen suddenly turned bright blue and the symbols a bright green. Ken stared in awe at the screen and completely forgot his question. "What the hell…?"

Takeru's bright blue eyes shone hypnotically in the light as he remained focused on the screen. Suddenly several symbols made its way to the top of the screen as the rest continued scrolling down at an unreadable pace. Ken stared at the symbols before recognizing one of them as his Crest of Kindness. The other was Koushirou's Crest of Knowledge and Hikari's Crest of Light. There were also two more that looked like a cross and teardrop. The symbols began scrolling down at lightning speed now yet Takeru seemed to be able to grab other symbols and put them on top. After a few more seconds, Takeru's fingers were flying over the keyboard at an uncontrollable pace and soon the last and final crest joined up with the rest. The screen froze and the rest of the symbols melted away as the crests burned a fiery red that filled the entire room. Ken stared at Takeru in shock.

"Is that…?" he began as Takeru nodded, looking at Ken for the first time since he got there.

"The portal to the Digital World," he finished as he sat back and allowed the light to beam eerily throughout the room. Ken continued to stare at it awe. "We can't go in it yet. I want to have all the Destined here when we enter," he said as he took out the CD from the computer. He gave it to Ken.

"Start it up on your computer at home. Remember those symbols. They are all of the crests of the Destined. To crack it is like playing a game. You have to track each and every single one of them down before the symbol changes to another. As you get more, the rest of the symbols scroll faster as you witnessed before so you have to be careful because if you choose the wrong one you have to start all over again. After you break the sequence, the portal remains on your computer and you can send the disk to Hikari," he explained in a serious tone. Ken nodded understandingly and Koushirou began stirring from his sleep.

He looked up at both of them sleepily and then blinked in alarm as his room was filled with a red glow. Koushirou stood up and stared around his room before his gaze settled on his computer that was emitting the light. He looked at Takeru and Ken weakly.

"What happened?" he asked. Ken grinned widely and Takeru shook his head before patting the redhead's back and gesturing to Ken.

"He'll answer for you," he replied as he headed out the door with a loud slam. Ken stared at the door blankly and then Koushirou.

"Ah…where to begin?" he started as Koushirou stared at him confusedly.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hunger in the Digital World didn't come as often as it did in the real world. The first time Daisuke realized that, it was after he hadn't eaten for a week. Then he began feeling the familiar pangs of hunger. This was very fortunate for him considering there weren't many places in the Digital World that had food that was edible for humans. Though Daisuke did find himself missing the homemade meals his mother used to cook. Hell, he even missed the burnt toast Jun made for breakfast. Of course it was odd for someone to be thinking about food but when one was looking at a plateful of green mush that Daisuke didn't dare try to touch, it was inevitable. The rest of the Koromon at the table, however, gobbled up the food. Daisuke watched in disgust as several traces of the green mush was left over at the corners of their mouths and shivered involuntarily. Pushing away his plate, he stood up.

Suddenly his hunger disappeared.

"Where are you going, Dais?" Agumon asked as Daisuke made a move for the door. The boy turned around and smiled.

"I can't watch you guys eat without wanting to puke," he answered with a hint of sarcasm though it was very close to the truth. Agumon merely grinned toothily at him, flashing the green mush in between his teeth.

Daisuke's smile was wiped off his face and was replaced with a scowl before he left the small hut. As soon as he breathed fresh air, Daisuke sighed in relief. The digimon were his friends, but sometimes they were too bizarre for him to deal with. It was times like these that Daisuke really wished Wallace was with him or better yet, he was at home with his family. Never would he take his parents or Jun for granted. The thought saddened him and Daisuke began walking out towards the small field, gazing out at the sky, which was the only thing that was exactly like the one back home.

Daisuke closed his eyes as nostalgia made its way to his mind. He remembered the time when he and the other Destined were lost in the Digital World and they spent a day walking around a large tree that refused to help them. Taichi had been in an especially bad mood and had kicked the tree in anger. In retaliation, the tree lifted one of its branches and whacked Taichi squarely in the head. Daisuke snorted in laughter at the memory before sitting down on the soft grass.

"I wonder if I'll ever see them again."

Sometimes Daisuke wished he had never met the Destined. Then he wouldn't be stuck in the Digital World. But then at times like these, he remembered all the fun he had and the great friends he made and that thought was erased. Then the anger would rush in quickly. He was there when Pathogen erased all memory of the Digital World from his friends' minds. He had managed to escape from his bindings in time but Pathogen had already sent them back to the real world.

Then Takeru had bounded in from nowhere and he and Daisuke tried to fight Pathogen before Takeru had also been sent back, except his memory was still intact. By then Pathogen closed the portal and Daisuke had to run away to save himself. He had thought that Takeru would come back with the others. Daisuke had trusted him. That was why he told Takeru to even go through the portal: to gather the others and bring them back. Daisuke hated himself for that decision. Takeru had not come back and probably never would.

Daisuke clenched his fist and an eerie red glow started forming around it. With a loud cry, he emitted a fireball from the palm of his hand. It hit a tree and instantly started burning. Daisuke cursed to himself and walked over to it and put out the fire with a wave of his hand. Fire had always been his specialty-along with Sora and Taichi. The three of them always led the attacks against Pathogen because they had the most destructive powers.

Daisuke thought to himself for a bit. Jyou was most definitely not one to be ignored, however. The tidal waves he caused were more than enough to drown an entire village. In fact all of the Destined had his or her own special ability that was essential to the team. Yamato was usually teamed up with Jyou because they had a similar power-Yamato's being the control over ice. Koushirou often worked with Miyako and Iori worked with Mimi. Then Ken, Hikari, and Takeru would work together. Out of all of them, though, Takeru was the least experienced with his powers. It was discovered in their very first battle against Pathogen. All of them had a good sense of their powers save Takeru. Most of the times, they had to actually protect him from the danger.

Daisuke stared at the crest in his palm and wondered to himself. Gennai had once said that Hope was supposed to play the most essential part in their team. Takeru never did anything worth admiring over, though. Daisuke smirked. It was probably something Gennai said to make Takeru feel better. The only thing the blond could do was transport them from one place to another, though with great difficulty. This was used rarely because it usually left Takeru pretty exhausted days after. Daisuke shook his head at the memories of having to tend to an unconscious Takeru and frowned. He was once close to Takeru, he remembered. The two never had any heart-to-heart conversations, but they were allies and trusted one another with their lives. Now Daisuke trusted very few people because of Takeru-how ironic.

"Daisuke! What are you doing out here, huh??"

Daisuke nearly jumped up when he heard the sudden call. He turned around hastily and saw V-mon making his way over to him. Daisuke breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as the digimon leapt onto Daisuke. "V-mon, you dope. Don't scare me like that," he remarked as the blue digimon continued laughing.

"I scared you?? But I called you so many times. You were staring at the ground really, really seriously," V-mon explained. Daisuke arched an eyebrow. He would have to stop all this daydreaming. If he couldn't even detect V-mon, then any other digimon would have been able to attack him. Putting on a smile, Daisuke shook his head and began walking back to the Koromon hut.

"Come on. And next time, make a lot of noise when you come over, okay?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The first time they ever entered the Digital World was not a very pleasant one. Takeru and the others were at camp and all of them knew each other in some way or the other. It took them a while to realize that they were in the area completely by themselves, though. And then it happened. Koushirou's laptop went haywire and when they all gathered around it to examine it, they were sucked into the Digital World without further details. Takeru couldn't resist a smile in remembrance of their first reaction towards the situation. Everyone was crazy and when they met the digimon, it grew even worse.

Now, as he stared at the portal in Koushirou's computer, he couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Takeru had to admit that he didn't expect breaking into the Digital World's territory would be so easy. The Lighthouse usually restricted that and Takeru expected much more difficulty, which meant one thing-the Lighthouse must have been destroyed. It was just a hypothesis, but if it was true, Takeru was very thankful.

"The Digital World…it's been a long time," Ken slowly murmured.

Takeru glanced at him and nodded in agreement. Fortunately, both his and Koushirou's memories had been restored during the last week. Takeru and Hikari literally put them through drills and Hikari even showed them pictures she had of them in the Digital World. She said she had remembered putting them away in the attic after Pathogen brainwashed everyone. Hikari had thought them to be nothing but old buttons but they turned out to be a goldmine of memories.

Yamato and Taichi, on the other hand, had been a bit harder to persuade.

As much as Takeru hated to do it, he had to drug both of them in order to bring them into the Digital World. Yamato had at some point shown some signs of remembering, but the blond was stubborn and refused to believe Takeru. The same went with Taichi and even when Hikari showed them the pictures, they remained steadfast to their opinion. And though Takeru didn't gather as many of them as he wanted to, at least they could begin to start excavating the Digital World and see what happened during the last four years-and find out if Daisuke made it out alive. Takeru narrowed his eyes in anticipation as they prepped up to leave. Soon the portal turned from bright red to an even more eye piercing blue. Takeru looked at Koushirou and Ken, who were both holding onto the sleeping Yamato and Taichi and then at Hikari.

"You ready to be sucked into the Digital World-again?"

The three grinned at him and all of them held grouped around the computer tightly. The surroundings around them soon began draining away as they felt themselves being drawn into the small portal. With a blinding rush, light passed them and after a few moments, they were all found toppled over each other on the ground. Takeru stood up first and helped the others up as he took in the new area around them. He drew a sharp breath. The land was grey and everything was dark and gloomy. There didn't seem to be any sign of life and everything seemed to be covered by a dark mist. The air was brittle and the entire region seemed to bring him down. He eyed it warily before looking at the others.

"We have to leave quick. Somehow we managed to enter one of the more darker places of the Digital World," he remarked urgently as he helped Koushirou lift Taichi. The taller boy was beginning to wake and blinked groggily up at Takeru.

"What? Takeru??" he asked, staring at the blond. Takeru looked at him and then at the stirring Yamato. After a few more moments, the two were finally completely alert and both glared dangerously at Takeru.

"Brother, you had better have a good-" Yamato started before halting as he stared at the area around them. "This…this…" he stuttered. Takeru walked up to Taichi and Yamato slowly, a look of dead seriousness in his face.

"Do you believe me now?" he asked before a sudden force hammered down on them, knocking everyone to the ground.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

TBC

Aah…yes, they are finally back in the Digital World. Phew. And don't you just love my cliffhanger? In the next part we shall have… Well, I'm assuming you all can guess what's to come so I won't say it. ^^