(Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Digimon besides OC Characters and Digimon that are a result of my own mind.)

When Is a Hazard a Friend?

Chapter 4: Aren't These Dreams For The Dreamer?

Shinjuku Central Park
Rika was sitting on one of the swings in a children's playground in the middle of Central Park. She hummed softly to herself, swinging her legs without a care in the world. "Having fun, sweetie?" A voice asked her. She slowed her hum and eventually stopped. She turned her head and smiled to the man standing over her.

"Push me?" She looked expectantly at the man and he nodded, a large smile crossing his face as he complied, pushing her softly on the swing.

"How do you like the dress?" He asked after a while of comfortable silence. Rika was wearing a light blue dress that went down to her knees with small frills at the collar. A white stripe ran across her waist.

"It's pretty." She nodded.

"A great early birthday present?" He looked down at her and saw the large smile on her face accompanied by her violet eyes. He pushed some stray red hairs from his own forehead and spiked them like the rest of his styled hair.

"It's hardly early, my birthday's tomorrow, silly." She giggled, looking up to the man vivaciously.

"Still, your mother thought you might like at least one present earlier than tomorrow." He pushed her a little harder, not too much though, she was only five years old, and five year olds don't have much strength to hold onto a swing if launched like a rocket.

"I know, thank you daddy." Her father looked down at her and gestured over to the bench a few meters away. Rika didn't get the hint at first but as soon as her father walked towards it, she realised he had asked her to go with him. She jumped off the swing and ran over to him. He bent down and lifted his daughter up onto the bench to sit next to him.

Her feet didn't quite reach the ground, so she opted to swing them back and forth as if she had still been sitting on the swing. "I need you to do something for daddy." Rika's father said. She looked curiously at him and pouted, whenever her parents usually asked her to do something for them, it was long and boring.

"Don't give me that look." He chuckled, "I need you to keep a close eye on Takato for me." He asked, more seriously now. Rika was confused by the name he had mentioned.

"Who?" She questioned, trying to figure out who she knew was named Takato. Maybe she was getting an animal named Takato and her dad was trying to hint it at her?

"Takato Matsuki, you know, the Tamer? Your friend?" He started to say things that were supposed to remind her of the name and then it all came flooding into Rika's consciousness. Takato was a Tamer, partnered with Guilmon, a Digimon that Takato created himself. He was the reason Guilmon had turned into Megidramon and nearly destroyed the whole Digital World. He had saved Jeri from the D-Reaper and defeated it as Gallantmon: Crimson Mode. He had stopped the Digital Vortex bringing through Parisimon as Gallantmon: Crimson Mode too.

"What the fuck!?" Rika exploded. She tried to always refrain from swearing, but sometimes there were just some things that crossed the line and this dream turned twisted was definitely one of those things. She found her feet now touched the ground and she was wearing her usual attire, except her full heart T-shirt didn't have the heart on it at all. She looked across to her father and found he was disappearing into a puff of black smoke that seemed to make the area around it darker.

"What the hell is going on?" She roared, angry that she was having a dream about a particular someone that she really didn't want to think about.

"I need you to watch him, make sure he doesn't screw up and get himself killed, and watch him until the end of his journey." The voice was deep now, it had changed and could even be malicious if its choice of appearance wasn't one that could be blown away by a fan.

"No offence, but Gogglehead can look after himself. He did beat D-Reaper and stop the invasion of Parisimon. Not to mention teamed with Henry and I to defeat Gulfmon." She spat, why the hell was she dreaming this anyways?

"He and Guilmon won't survive on their own. They need you and Renamon to guide them." The voice informed.

"Are you serious? This is just a stupid dream that I'll wake up from any moment." She huffed, crossing her arms under her chest.

"Then why don't you." The voice was mocking her and she knew it. But she persisted anyways, she clenched her eyes shut and slowly opened them. Instead of seeing the black smoke on the bench beside her, she was now in an infinite white expanse, the black anomaly still beside her.

"Surprise," The voice laughed. Rika began to redden in the face with anger and was ready to hit something, though the only solid thing in her view to hit was herself. "Now are you going to listen to me?" He asked, Rika wasn't even sure it was a he, she was just guessing from the way the voice sounded.

"What do you want?" She sighed irately. Giving in and hoping she could put the dream behind her.

"Takato and Guilmon are in the Digi-World." The voice said rather bluntly. Rika's eyes widened in surprise, she was sure this was just a dream but in light of Takato's recent reoccurring experience, she wasn't going to deny this being completely real. Then something made itself known, something she had forgotten about until just now.

"Yamaki concreted up the portal. It's gone." She explained, returning to a calm state.

"It was concreted up, as you said, but it wasn't destroyed at all. Yamaki was a fool for thinking that simply encasing it in concrete would get rid of it." The voice scoffed, it seemed to Rika that whoever, or whatever, it was didn't like Yamaki much.

"Still, Takato doesn't need protection." She realised that she was speaking sincerely. As much of an idiot she thought he was, he was strong with Guilmon and they could handle themselves. They'd proved that on many occasions.

"Not protect. Guide." He clarified. "They are on a dangerous journey and will need the help of someone they already know, being you and your partner."

"Why not Kazu? Or Henry? Even Kenta?" She asked, surely they were just as good a candidate as her.

"Kazu and Kenta aren't as strong as you. Henry may feel too much sympathy for him, you won't show nearly as much and I trust you to keep him on the right path." He finished, Rika could swear she saw a figure shift in the smoke, but it ended up just being a trick of its uncontrollable movement.

"Say what you're telling me is true…" Rika began but was cut off by the voice.

"It is."

"How will I know what this stupid path even is?" She wondered, she was growing impatient with this whole situation and cursed Takato for running off without telling her and Henry.

"You won't know exactly. He'll choose to do certain things and you have to go along with it, making sure he doesn't make a wrong decision." Rika was now less impatient and instead was listening intently, things were staring to get a little interesting the more she thought about them and this just might be the thing that makes her mundane holidays more exciting. 'Though is all this supposed danger worth it?' She wondered, she had lost her constant need for fighting over the years and was content when things were peaceful, but a part of her still wanted to fight. To feel the adrenaline rush through her veins as Renamon showed her prowess in battle.

"What do you mean by wrong, exactly?" She queried.

"Some of his options in situations may result in him being seen as immoral, even if he only has the best intentions of others' in his mind. Guilmon is too obedient to disobey his oldest friend." She had to admit, Guilmon would follow Takato to the ends of the earth and do what his Tamer wanted, if Takato were to make a wrong decision Guilmon could possibly hurt a lot of innocent Digimon or do some major damage to his surrounding area.

"And what if I don't do any of this?" She asked, shifting her weight to her right foot.

"You will." The smoke dispersed after the words were said and Rika blinked, only to find herself lying in her bed. She sighed and let her head fall to the side, her eyes met with the cool blue of Renamon's. The golden kitsune looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"What?" Rika asked, Renamon had something to say, she could sense it and the suspense of waiting for her to say it of her own accord would kill her.

"You were talking in your sleep." She stated, setting her back straighter so she could sit more rigidly and respectfully, even though it was unnecessary.

"Good, then I won't have to explain it to you." Rika sighed, pushing her blankets back and standing up. She shivered slightly in the cool air of her room. Apparently her tracksuit pants and singlet weren't enough to keep her warm.

'I'll have to get changed after I call the bakery.' She surmised, walking out of her room and down the hall. Renamon didn't feel the need to follow her Tamer and instead phased onto the roof of the house and sat patiently for when she was needed.

"Morning, dear." Seiko greeted her granddaughter who had just trudged into the kitchen.

"Morning," she replied distractedly, "Do you know where that note with the phone numbers on it is?" Rika asked, searching through some drawers near the phone.

"It's on the fridge." Seiko smiled and gestured to the green note stuck to the fridge. Rika turned around and pulled it off, holding it next to her while she dialled the number of the Matsuki Bakery, written in her grandmother's neat and cursive writing.

"Hello, this is the Matsuki Bakery, Takehiro speaking. How may I help you?" The voice at the other end of the line asked happily. Takehiro and Mie always seemed to be in a good mood, that way their customers always felt comfortable in their store and it projected to people that they were open and friendly people, which they were.

"Hello, Mr Matsuki. It's Rika. I was wondering if Takato was home." She asked, wanting to get straight to the point but not being disrespectful to the middle-aged man. She also had to use Takato's name instead of calling him 'Gogglehead', one of the rare times he was never referred to as that by her.

"I'm not actually sure, Rika. I'll just go check." The sound of the phone being set down reached Rika's ears and she heard Takehiro's footsteps fade away.

'He better be home or there's going to be hell to pay.' Rika thought, hoping for Takato's sake that the voice had just been a figment of her imagination.

"Sorry Rika, but it seems like Takato's already left." Takehiro chuckled, not realising what his response had brought on in Rika's mind.

"It's no problem, Mr Matsuki. Thank you anyways." Rika replied through gritted teeth.

"See you another time." He said, hanging up the phone on his end.

Rika slammed the phone down into its hook and felt the anger boiling up inside of her. How could that idiot just run off to the Digital World? Had he known about the portal the whole time? Rika couldn't comprehend why Takato would do this and not tell anyone. It just didn't seem like him to do something like that and it made Rika livid.

"What's wrong, dear?" Seiko asked politely, wondering what caused Rika to get angry so quickly.

"Takato was supposed to meet Henry and I at his house but he's gone somewhere and forgotten about us. I rung up to see if he had woken up and found out he's left!" She slammed her fist on the table and sat down in a slump.

Seiko looked at her granddaughter curiously, Rika rarely showed a level of anger where she hit something in front of people and this worried her. Whatever it was they were meeting for must've been important. "May I suggest you search the park for him then? That seems to be a usual spot for you all." Seiko suggested and Rika looked at her. The young redhead nodded and stood up from the position she had taken on a chair not moments ago, she gave a quick hug to her grandmother and walked back towards her room.

She closed the door behind her and contemplated putting her bed away, she resorted to straightening out her blankets instead of rolling it up and putting it away. She walked over to her cupboard and pulled out her clothes. She exchanged her trousers for her jeans with the leather straps around the left leg. She hooked her card holder onto her belt and checked to make sure her cards were inside. She clipped her blue trimmed Digivice onto her jeans and took off her singlet, putting a cleaner one on instead, she then took out her usual full heart t-shirt and slid that on and decided she was ready. Her hair was up, though a few loose strands weren't tied up properly but she decided that it didn't really matter.

"Renamon?" She asked aloud. The empty space in front of her was soon occupied by her kitsune partner. "Can you take us to Goggleheads?"

"Of course." Renamon replied, scooping her up into her purple gloved arms.

"I'll just pack some things into a bag quickly."

With Renamon's speed and knowledge of the layout of West Shinjuku, they reached Takato's house in virtually no time at all. They were both surprised to see the worried gazes of Henry, Terriermon, Takehiro and Mie, all out front of the bakery. Renamon's keen eyesight helped her to see that someone had put up a closed sign in the window of the bakery. Henry had obviously told them some shocking news that made them decide to close the shop.

"What's going on here?" Rika asked as Renamon set her down. Henry saw her and walked over to her, grabbing her arm and leading her away from the bakers.

"I had this weird dream." Henry said abruptly, not seeing any point in delaying the discussion. He was expecting Rika to be surprised and was shocked himself when she shrugged.

"So did I, that voice said Takato was in the Digital World and that Renamon and I had to go and guide him." She huffed, leaning up against the wall next to her.

"That's sort of like mine." Henry said, he continued when Rika raised an eyebrow at him.

Flashback
"But why do you need Rika and Renamon exactly?" Henry asked the billowing smoke in front of his eyes, the only other thing besides him in an expanse of divine white.

"She will have a greater influence on him than any other. She won't sympathise with him as much as others." The voice echoed and seemed to come from every direction.

"You mean as much as Terriermon and I?" Henry clarified, knowing what whoever it is was trying to say. "I guess I see your point. But what exactly is Rika guiding him to? What are they supposed to achieve?" He wondered aloud.

"That is for Rika to find out, but she will never know clearly what it is." The voice rather mystically put. Henry sat down and was about to ask another question when he blinked and was sprawled out on his bed.
End Flashback

"I see. So what made you come here?" Rika asked the blue haired teen.

"I figured I'd come and see if Takato was here or not, I wasn't sure if it was real or not but Mrs Matsuki found a note in his room. All it said was: Going to Digital World, Guilmon and I will be back soon. Sorry. Love, Takato. It's not like him to just go with only a note to inform people." Henry sighed, he had a massive headache and the stress of overthinking was getting to him.

"I have no idea why I came here, but I'm glad I did. We have two options; we can go to see Yamaki and figure something out, or we could search for the portal ourselves." Rika stated, readjusting her light blue bag on her back to a more comfortable position. An idea formed in Henry's head and he decided it'd be an even better solution.

"I assume you know where the portal is?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"I have an idea, yeah." Rika nodded.

"You go and find the portal, I'll go with Takato's parents to see Yamaki and we'll tell your grandmother and your mum too. We'll try and keep an eye on things if we can find a way to." Rika was pleased with Henry's plan, it meant she didn't have to fuss around with the formality that Yamaki would have them be put through before they were allowed to go into the Digital World. It was a great plan in her eyes.

"Let's do that. Make sure my grandma and mum are okay for me, please?" She asked as she walked past and saw Henry nod in response from the corner of her eye. She knew Henry wouldn't let her down, he was too good of a person for that.

"Don't worry Mr and Mrs Matsuki. I'll find Takato and drag him back for you." She said with a smile. Her smile faded internally as she realised that maybe she wasn't going to be able to drag Takato and Guilmon back. She was supposed to guide them to whatever, but why was she suddenly coming to accept that she was going to be guiding them?

"Thank you, Rika." Mie answered, pushing her hair out of her face. Rika nodded confidently and Renamon whisked her away, headed for Shinjuku Central Park.

Southern Quadrant – Snow Level
"So how did you two say you got here again?" A giant snowman with black button eyes asked Takato after handing him a mug of coffee, something Takato didn't expect to ever see in the Digital World. He knew they didn't need food or drink to survive but it was still a great feeling when the warmth trickled down his throat.

"We entered a Digi-Portal and were falling towards the desert level. We had almost landed when a data stream caught us. It got us before we even hit the ground…" Takato sighed. He had no way of knowing which level of this Digital World was closer the Sovereign Plane, but he would have preferred being in the desert, a place where he had been before.

"Wow, that's harsh." The Frigimon breathed. "Where were you planning on going?" He asked, maybe he could help these strangers.

"I was planning on seeing either Zhuquiaomon or Azulongmon." Takato responded , taking another gracious sip at the coffee.

"Tell you what. I'll help you get to the Sovereign Plane, if you help me with a little firebug problem I have." Frigimon stood up and gestured for Takato and Guilmon to follow him across the snowy ground towards the tree line they had chosen to sit near.

"Oh? What do you mean?" Takato wondered, his curiosity getting the best of him once more in his life.

"There is SkullMeramon in the forest ahead. He came in a few months ago and started killing off other Frigimon. He is a danger to my village and I want to know if you'd scare him off for me?"

Takato couldn't refuse Frigimon's offer. He wanted to avoid fighting if he could, but that SkullMeramon sounded as if he wasn't going to go without one. "Of course." He replied to Frigimon's delight.

They had been walking through the trees for a while when Frigimon turned around to face his new friends. "He should be just up ahead. I can feel the heat already." Frigimon murmured. Guilmon began to growl from deep within his throat and Takato pulled out his gold trimmed Digivice, ready to retaliate to almost anything. Almost being the key word.

A chain that was surrounded in blue flames shot out from behind a tree and wrapped itself around Frigimon's neck a few times. Takato yelped and jumped to the side. He moved to make Guilmon digivolve but the defeated and depressed look in Frigimon's eyes told him it was already too late for him. A boot kicked Frigimon in his large stomach, and because of the chain holding the snowman's neck in place, it did just that. Frigimon's body tore from his neck and violently exploded in a cloud of shimmering data that was absorbed into a biker looking Digimon. He was wearing some metallic armor in a few places on his body. He wore black pants and steel boots, a chain wrapped around his fist that was still wrapped around the slowly deleting head of Frigimon, a look of utter fear still plastered onto his face. Takato felt the anger rise up in his body and the familiar light of Digivolution encompassed him as he fall back onto Guilmon. If he didn't do anything now then he'd surely end up like Frigimon.

"Guilmon, Biomerge to…

Gallantmon!"

The exalted knight rushed forwards and tried to launch an attack at the Ultimate level, but he was expecting it and just side-stepped, laughing as he did so. "You can't beat me with sheer speed like that!" He taunted and begun to lash out at the knight with his chain, no longer having Frigimon's head within its grip. Gallantmon managed to raise Aegis just in time to deflect the unrelenting barrage of whips.

With each hit that SkullMeramon managed to strike against the shield, Gallantmon felt his arm getting weaker. He frantically thought of a plan as Guilmon took over the body almost completely, having an idea in his head of what could possibly work and end the battle quickly if performed right.

As the chain came swinging down overhead, Guilmon tilted the shield slightly and the chain wrapped around it. Gallantmon let go at Guilmon's will and, not expecting the extra weight, SkullMeramon stumbled backwards, flinging the shield from the chains grasp. He turned to attack again but was stopped at he saw a few specks of data float up in front of his eyes. He looked down and the very tip of Gallantmon's lance, Gram, was in his stomach. He fearfully looked into Gallantmon's eyes and saw that the knight was still not done with him.

"Lightning Joust!"

Lightning cackled at the handle of Gram and slowly travelled down its length, but the more SkullMeramon tried to struggle, the more damage Gram did, until eventually, the lightening reached the tip, inside of SkullMeramon, and exploded. SkullMeramon burst into data. Some of it floated away, but the rest was too burnt and fell to the ground in ashes.

Gallantmon picked Aegis up and ran frantically into the forest, partly in anger at SkullMeramon, partly in fear of how merciless he had just been. Unbeknownst to him, the symbol of the Hazard had pulsed ever so slightly while he had fought.

West Shinjuku – Hypnos Headquarters
"Your son is an idiot." Yamaki huffed disappointedly. Henry had informed him of everything that had happened. From Takato first mentioning his dream to himself and Rika, to where he had gone to the Matsuki Bakery. He left out no details, hoping that some of it would be of help, but so far Yamaki had only ranted about how much of an idiot Takato was in not telling him or his parents.

"You are too, Henry. Sending Rika off like that." He sighed, flicking his zippo lighter at a fast pace. "It can't be helped, what's done is done. I suppose that we can somehow form a connection to the Digital World that can either let us talk to them, or view them. Tally! See if you can establish a connection at all." He called out to his blonde associate.

"I'll go and help her, it'll get done faster that way." Shibumi hurried off to help Tally and almost knocked over Riley who was on her way out to see Yamaki.

"Sir, there's a Digimon that is trying to come through, it hasn't yet but it's destroyed two tracers already." Yamaki sighed at the news she brought him, things were going wrong at an increasingly fast pace. Takato and Guilmon are in the Digital World and Rika and Renamon are most likely there now as well. He still had to inform Rika's guardians of where she was and now a Digimon decides to bio-emerge.

"Show Henry where it is, if he gets there before the field materialises completely then the Digimon should be particularly weaker than normal. Riley nodded and grabbed Henry's arm, leading him and Terriermon out of the room.

"Damn it, Takato." Yamaki dropped his lighter on the ground and made no move to pick it up. He was too frustrated with everything to bother making the effort.

Shinjuku Central Park
Rika ignored the beeping of her Digivice as Renamon drilled through the concrete floor of the utilitarian shed. Rika had slashed through a card that gave Renamon the power to use Digmon's drills and she was making quick work, almost having it how Rika once remembered Guilmon having dug it out. Although the saurian had done it with his bare claws over the course of time.

'Hopefully he hasn't gotten himself into trouble and I don't need to save him.' Rika would've laughed at her having to save a knight if the reason she had thought that hadn't made her so frustrated.

"I've got it, Rika." Renamon called out, the drills on her arms dissipating into spare data. Rika slid down into the hole beside her partner and could not only see the portal, but she could also see the direction from where Takato and Guilmon had found it. It was almost one hundred and thirty degrees from where she was. Renamon grabbed Rika's arm and moved towards the portal, knowing full well that Rika had no hesitations about wanting to go inside.

'I'm coming you complete buffoon.' Rika thought as she and Renamon disappeared into the portal.

End of Chapter.

Whew! I changed that one a fair few times before it turned out how I wanted, though I still feel it could've been a little better. I may come back at another time and edit out any mistakes. It's late right now and can hardly keep my eyes open but I just couldn't bring myself to stop work on it.

Hope you enjoyed!

-DW96

Next time on 'When is a Hazard a Friend?'

-"What the hell do we do now?"-

-"Takato!?"-

-"If you help me with this, then I'll take you to Azulongmon and we can go from there."-

-"Momentai!"-