Hello again. Sorry for the long wait for this new chapter. I've been busy trying to work on my novel, and other irl duties. I hope everyone is well. I feel a bit rusty, so I'd love to hear thoughts about this next chapter. Thanks for reading, as always!

A Second Chance
Chapter 21
Hunting for Power

Yamato went first, followed by Daisuke and Ken. Soon the others followed. Takeru's feet were lead. He managed to lift them, feeling as though time was slower for him than the others. He closed his eyes as he stepped through the portal, squeezing them shut momentarily. He felt softer ground with his next step.

After he opened his eyes, Takeru looked around. The muted forest with its greyed coloration was dreary and depressing. The normal vibrant colour one would expect was completely gone. In its place was a barren wasteland as far as the eye could see. Only rock formations and hills broke up the monotony of the scenery. His breath caught in his throat.

This was all wrong.

"Where's it gone?" Takeru whispered. Not soft enough, as Daisuke loudly made a questioning noise in response.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." Still with lead feet, Takeru started walking. He didn't want or need Daisuke or the others knowing about his past history with Digimon more than they already did. Nor have some sort of sympathy or to constantly ask him if he was okay. None of them could possibly understand. Rather, he couldn't let them understand. He wasn't okay. But not in the way they thought.

Even at the entrance they had in Shinjuku there was more life to the area. It was difficult to grow plants, and they usually grew muted and sickly. But it was still possible. This was beyond that. Was this in patches? Or was it something that was spreading across the Digital World? This was so close to their base of operations. Could that mean all their work trying to restore the patch of land to normal would be for nothing? Just what the heck was going on?

Yamato walked ahead of him, taking the lead. He beckoned the others to follow him. "This is a problem. We haven't landed exactly where we're supposed to be. It will take us an extra six hours to reach our destination. That might extend our stay here another day at least, depending on what's going on."

Yamato took a device out of his jacket. It looked like some sort of fancy tracking device. "Good. It looks like there are no digimon in the immediate area. We should be safe to move forward for a little while."

"What will we do if there is one?" Minami asked.

"We'll have to lay low and potentially prepare for battle," Yamato said. "Even if we hide there's no guarantee we won't be spotted. I have small weapons, so you'll have to rely on your digimon and training in combat. We're on our own out here."

Satoru, Daisuke and Minami all adjusted their packs as they walked, giving each other glances.

There were no clouds in the sky. It was completely clear. It felt like a desert. The air was also dry, and coupled with the lack of wind there wasn't much that could be done to cool them off. Minami had a nosebleed two hours into their walk. They stopped briefly to take care of it. She was given a piece of cloth doused with water from Yamato's water bottle to cover over her face once the bleeding stopped. If she breathed it in, it would help with the dryness. The others all took advantage of the small break, taking swigs from their water bottles and splashing some water on their faces. Takeru gave some water to DemiDevimon.

"We should water our digimon, too," Takeru said. "If they aren't cared for, they'll be of no use to us if we get attacked."

"These things drink water?" Satoru looked down at his Dracmon. That digimon still creeped Takeru out. Being in the Digital World didn't ease that feeling up in the slightest.

"And eat food. It's all in Mr. Tachikawa's reports." Yamato took out some paper as well as the tracking device again. "If you ask me it's a little weird that they mimic real creatures so closely."

"Anyway, digimon require energy to digivolve, too. So they need to be fed," Takeru continued.

"Do we even have enough food in our packs for both ourselves and the digimon?" Daisuke looked down to Vmon. "I haven't fed this guy at all. I didn't think I had to."

"Dr. Tachikawa should have packed enough for the digimon if he already knew about this odd quirk digimon had," Ken said. "I wouldn't worry about it. We should trust him."

"I don't like this," Kairi said, frowning at her Gazimon. She took a bowl from her bag and poured water. "It's too easy to get attached. Get complacent and forget the only reason these things aren't tearing our throats out is because of the dark rings."

Takeru had to bite firmly down on his tongue to not say anything. He could potentially damn himself. Anything he said could put his credibility with this group into question. His eyes flicked over to DemiDevimon and for a moment was caught by the dull gleam of the dark ring and the subtle pulse of the red digiletters. He tore his gaze away, shoving any hint of sympathy aside before his voice could betray him. "If we don't feed them, they're going to be useless to us. Just don't get attached."

There was silence as everyone stared at him. Takeru kept his eyes firmly on the horizon, tapping his foot as he waited. He heard caps twisting onto bottles and bags rummaging. When it stopped, he continued on.

They'd only stop once more for a short drink break before making it to their camp destination. It was already well past nightfall. Everyone pitched in to set up each of the tents. Four tents, with two people per tent. The digimon were to sleep outside. They were to keep watch in case anything tried investigating their camp.

His sleep was restless. Even if it was Yamato he was paired with, there was no relief from the mess of conflicting thoughts, feelings and anxieties that were swirling through his mind. His sleeping bag was warm, but the night was frigid. He remembered a brief thought of the digimon outside in the cold and wondered if they were okay.

Eventually Takeru got up, unable to keep up the facade of trying to sleep. He was exhausted. Out of the two nights he was sure he only got a combined eight hours. Slipping out of his sleeping bag, he shivered as the cool morning air hit his skin. Goosebumps formed all over. Glancing at Yamato's sleeping form, he got dressed and quietly slipped out of the tent to feed DemiDevimon.

The cave the digieggs was only a kilometre or so away. The digimon detection feature in the D-3 wasn't as powerful as the larger machine Yamato had, but it was enough for a few kilometres. There was a digimon nearby. The flashing red dot was just on the periphery of his D-3's screen. They had to be careful.

He got to work making breakfast for himself and DemiDevimon. The other digimon watched him just as silently as before as he started a small fire and put a dish on some hooks, filling it with water and rice. He made enough for two.

DemiDevimon scarfed down the rice with large gulps, smearing pieces over his body as he face-planted into the bowl. A chuckle escaped Takeru's lips, holding the back of his hand over his mouth to keep his own rice from matching.

Minami and Kairi both stepped out of their tents, fully clothed in their military garb.

"Oh! Good morning, Takeru!" Minami chirped. Takeru raised his hand, waiting to swallow before answering back.

"Morning. I hope you had a better sleep than me."

"I slept like a log." Kairi said, walking over to the fire with her own food. Her eyes darted to and lingered on Gazimon. It stared at Takeru eating his food with his ears back, long tail wagging in the dust. "Looks like they're really hungry."

"Well, you didn't feed them." Takeru stuffed another large portion of rice in his mouth. Kairi's head turned to him, her mouth slightly ajar.

"Excuse me? That was Daisuke who said that, not me." Kairi walked over to Takeru, placing a hand on her chest. He glanced at her with half-lidded eyes.

"Am I wrong?"

"Are you angry about something? You've been kind of testy ever since we got here." Kairi placed her hands on her hips, her cheeks puffing.

"Am I wrong?" Takeru asked again. "They all look hungry. There's a digimon within the D-3 scanners' range. If DemiDevimon is the only one that can fight, I can't guarantee we'll finish this mission."

Kairi's jaw clenched, her chest puffing up defensively before sighing. "You're... you're right. I should make Gazimon ready to battle in case something happens."

Minami ignored Kairi's actions and was making her own pot of rice. Labramon inched toward her, making soft whining noises. "Be patient. Goodness, is this what real dogs are like?"

"You've never had a dog, Minami?" Takeru asked. She shook her head.

"Was never allowed. We were in one of the apartments with no pet restrictions." When the rice was done cooking, she separated it into two portions, giving the smaller portion to Labramon.

Yamato and the rest of the boys exited their tents and started making food. Takeru was sitting just outside of camp, watching the scanner on his digimon wasn't moving. Either it was asleep, or it was guarding something. Based on their close approximation to their destination, Takeru could only conclude that was where the digieggs were.

He stood up, taking a few steps in the direction of the dot. He couldn't see much over the hill. It was possible there were other digimon they'd have to deal with. If not, they could skirt around and not have to deal with a battle.

"Takeru, don't wander off." He heard Yamato call, his voice slightly raised. He looked up from his D-3 and turned around.

"I'm not. I just want to check something over here. I'll report back in a little while." Takeru called DemiDevimon to his side, who landed on his shoulder. His attention was half on the D-3 and half on his surroundings.

The land was mostly flat and barren. They were behind a hill, and there was the occasional crack in the ground where deep ravines and crevasses marked deep scars across the earth. Many were shallow enough that he could easily climb out of them again. They could walk along the bottom of these crevasses toward their destination and limit the exposure time they were vulnerable and exposed on flat land.

His chest felt lighter at this revelation. A quick slide down was louder than he'd have liked, the gravel and rocks fell down to the bottom, crashing against each other and those at the bottom with a sickening echo. After a moment of listening for any movement and nervously checking his D3, he moved on.

His steps had more bounce as he quickly traversed the crevasse. It most have been a good half an hour before he got close enough to see the whole immediate area around the cave. There was still only a single digimon sentry. It might have to come down to a battle, but if they could take it out, they'd be able to collect their payload and be off without any major incidents.

Takeru stopped, leaning against a large rock as he dug out his radio. He held it up to his lips, giving an admittedly paranoid glance around before speaking. "Yamato, I found a way to get closer to the eggs without being seen. There's a sentry, but it seems to be the only one."

There was a silent pause before the radio sprang to life with a sharp, grating static. "That's good. But come back to camp, Takeru. Our mission may have been compromised."

A chill ran down Takeru's spine as he processed what Yamato said. How? Were the others in danger? He couldn't hear any sounds of struggle in the background. He ran back to camp, minding the rocks as much as he could to not trip or sprain himself, though he managed a few pinches in the ankle area.

He arrived back at camp dry mouthed and panting at half the time it took to leave. Everything was packed up, even Takeru's backpack items were stored away. The others turned to him when he managed to scramble out of the crevasse.

"Yamato!" Takeru managed through gasps for air. "We-we've been compromised?"

"Seems so," Yamato said, thin-lipped as he looked at the others. "I wasn't sure at first, but after the first hour I noticed a digimon on my radar. It's kept it's distance, but it has been following us since we left the portal."

"Problem is," Daisuke said, arms folded and a sour look on his face. "The digimon is between us and our way home. There's a digimon between us and our goal. We don't know if we go either way the other digimon follows and traps us. So should we risk going home, or pushing forward?"

"I say we push forward," Satoru said. "Look, we're probably in for a fight anyway. We might as well get what we came for instead of running away with our tails between our legs!"

"But Mr. Tachikawa didn't want us to fight so far away from any backup," Minami said. She was rubbing at her arm, her eyes downcast, darting around. "We're not trained enough with our digimon, yet. We've only trained once and had a single fight. Even then, it was mostly Takeru's victory."

"I agree with Satoru," Ken said. "We'll be in a much better position if we risk getting the weapons than if we go home and have to start over again. We might even be worse off if they're both sentries. They'll know immediately what we're after and tighten security around them."

Aoi and Kairi were both for pushing forward. The consensus seemed to lean in favour of getting the eggs. Yamato stood in silence, his hands on his hips. He had a scowl on his face as he listened to the others state their opinions.

"This isn't an election," He stated firmly, stopping a small argument between Kairi and Satoru in its tracks. "We're SDF. You follow my orders regardless of your own thoughts on the matter. Our orders were to get this done without a fight. But your digimon are here just in case of the worst scenario. There is a chance we'd get back to the portal without being detected. But it's not a guarantee. The longer we talk the more danger we put ourselves in staying out in the open. I think under these circumstances we should try and press forward. We'll split up so the digimon behind us can't come in and trap us. We are in for a fight no matter what. So let's make it count."

"Sir!" Everyone said in unison. Takeru grabbed his backpack, and with Yamato's orders, led them to the crevasse. The walk was silent apart from the chorus of boots scraping gravel. Yamato kept a hand on Takeru's shoulder the whole day. He suspected Yamato was keeping a close eye on the monitoring system, looking up only to make sure he didn't trip.

An hour into their trek and they were at the end of their current crevasse. Takeru used DemiDevimon to look around before climbing out. The end was a lot steeper than when they entered. He was barely able to claw his way up to the top without sliding down in a small avalanche of dirt and gravel. He turned around and helped the girls up, then the rest, with Yamato bringing up the rear.

The second crevasse looked like it would take them almost directly to their destination; a cave inside a tall mountain. Yamato pushed them on, wanting to keep them out of sight as much as possible. It was too uncovered above, with the lack of trees and foliage. Takeru wondered what happened to everything that not even dead plants remained rotting on the ground. Perhaps the Digital World operated differently than on Earth. They knew a lot about this place, but there was a lot more to learn and discover.

Eventually their path came to an end. They climbed out, staring up at the large mountain, seeming to stretch to the heavens to infinity. The cave was before them, large enough to easily walk through side by side in groups of three, with a ceiling high enough to fit a bull elephant.

"The payload's inside there. But so is the digimon," Yamato said, looking down at his scanner. "The digimon behind us is also there. We don't want to get trapped, so-"

"I'll investigate the cave," Ken interrupted. "I'll see how the cave looks. It might be a maze inside. It'll do us no good if we can't find what we're looking for, even if we had no digimon to contend with."

Yamato was silent, staring in Ken's direction, though not looking at him. His eyes were unfocused, contemplating. Then he nodded. "All right. We'll keep sentry out here and make sure nothing will sneak up behind you. Make sure your Wormmon is at the ready, and take these."

He handed Ken a flashlight, the scanner and a radio. Ken nodded, saluted and turned toward the cave. His shoulders raised and held for a moment before sinking back into place as he stepped inside, quickly swallowed by the black shadows. Yamato and Daisuke both stayed staring at the cave entrance for a few moments longer. The expressions on both of their faces a mirror of complicated emotions. Eventually, Yamato turned away and ordered camp to be set up.

Satoru and Kairi were tasked with setting up the temporary camp and to watch for Ken. Takeru and Minami were to patrol, looking for the digimon trailing them, as well as any other potential entrances or escape routes. Aoi and Daisuke were tasked with readying in case Ken called for help as well as keeping an eye out for the mystery digimon.

He and Minami made their way around and over the hill the cave was embedded in. There were more hills behind and around it, though they were in tight clusters which were sparse from each other. Farther away were some taller mountains. The lack of foliage made the whole area seem empty and naked.

He had to admit he was happy he got assigned with Minami. She seemed to be the easiest to talk to out of all the others. At the very least he was glad it wasn't Daisuke or Satoru, for various reasons. Still, even with his mind eased a little at the choice of company, he still found himself anxiously looking around. He didn't want to fight a digimon here, plain and simple. He also didn't want to have any of the others put in danger. So far he was the only one who managed to unlock the secrets of digivolution. He had prior experience, sure, but that also put extra pressure on him to succeed more. Even that had its own set of problems, with Daisuke's souring mood toward Takeru's successes and his own lack of accomplishments. How was he supposed to proceed from there? He-

"Takeru?"

"Huh?" Takeru's voice cracked as he dumbly looked up at Minami.

She laughed. "Sorry. I asked what was on your mind. You had quite the scowl on your face."

"Oh, uh... I guess I was just thinking about how great it would be if that digimon would have left." It was only partially a lie. "I don't feel like fighting when we're as vulnerable as we are."

Minami nodded, rubbing her arms. "I know what you mean. I don't know how Daisuke does it. He almost seems itching to fight. Ken, too. Though I kind of understand why he would be. I'm glad he seems to be doing better."

Takeru nodded. It seemed like she wanted to talk to ease the tension. He didn't mind. Though with the sound of beating wings he held his hand up to Minami to silence her, his other hovered a finger over his lips. Minami looked around frantically for any signs of a digimon.

There, high in the sky was a faint orange jellybean. Takeru squinted, holding his hand up to shield his eyes. It was! Patamon somehow found them. So he was the digimon that had been trailing them?

Minami still hadn't seen him. He waved his arms, trying to grab Patamon's attention, to get him to fly away. He stopped when Minami turned around to look in his direction, his hands flying to his sides. It seemed futile, as Minami made a noise of surprise and pointed straight up at him.

At the same time, shouts came from the cave. Takeru grabbed Minami's hand and ran toward the edge of the hills. The team surrounded a small mammalian reptile digimon. It had striped blue fur over yellow skin, and a horn stuck out prominently on its forehead. A gabumon.

Takeru and Minami glanced at each other. They could see the short conversation spread across their faces and nodded. Together, they jumped down, opting for the faster, but riskier route of the steeper path. Takeru held Minami's hand to keep both of them steady. Landing on the ground, he nearly twisted his ankle in the process. Takeru could now see Ken, covered in dirt, struggling to stand. A trail of disturbed dirt trailed from the darkness in the cave to his body.

The others surrounded the Gabumon, who held what looked like figure eight-shaped object, blue and black with a horn sticking out of it. There was an odd symbol behind the horn, not fully visible from the angle the digimon carried it in.

Growling was exchanged between the digimon, the Gabumon baring its teeth as its body hunched and tensed. Labramon and Gazimon's fur stood on end, even the fluffy down-like feathers of Penmon puffed up. Wormmon stood at the ready at Ken's side. He was steady on his feet now, though held his head with a small shake. Gabumon looked around with increasing desperation and held up the digiegg.

A light came from the egg, enveloping Gabumon. The small form of the pudgy digimon grew and distorted. The light faded as a familiar, much larger digimon stood before them. Standing before them was a yellow construction digimon with a forklift for one arm and an earth shovel bucket for the other, running on triangular cab body.

"Look out!" Yamato yelled. Kenkimon lifted the bucket in the air, aiming it at him and Daisuke. The two dove out of the way as the bucket slammed into the dirt, shaking up a cloud of dust. Daisuke shouted for his digimon to attack. Vmon lunged at Kenkimon with a headbutt. The armour digimon didn't notice and Vmon fell to the ground, curled up, holding its head.

"Retriever Bark!" Labramon opened its mouth, waves of echoing pulsations shooting from it with a barking sound. Kenkimon paused, raising both arms as if disturbed by the noise. Takeru himself almost felt the need to cover his ears and he wasn't near the direction of the attack.

"Ice Prism!" Penmon, with Aoi's direction, shot a blast of cold air. Large glacial structures rose from the ground like spikes, aiming for Kenkimon. They hit the armour digimon, flipping it on its side.

"We got it!" Satoru cheered. "Good work, Aoi! Minami!"

"We're not done, yet!" Yamato called out, slicing his arm across as though cutting through the celebration.

"Yamato! The other digimon!" Minami called out, pointing to the air. Takeru silently cursed her for bringing attention to Patamon, and scolded Patamon under his breath for not listening to his pleas to flee. Yamato looked up, seeing Patamon still circling the group, watching everything from above. The expression on his face held some sort of odd mixture of fear.

"We can't let that thing escape and call for backup!" Yamato said. "Or let it get in the cave!"

If Patamon got in the cave, he could digivolve using the digieggs just like Kenkimon did. Takeru didn't even know if the eggs would work on Patamon, but he knew Yamato didn't know that, nor would he want to take the chance to find out.

"Takeru! Send DemiDevimon up there! Keep it from flying away!"

Takeru took a deep breath. "Don't actually hurt him," he whispered as he thrust his arm up, sending DemiDevimon flying. He flew up to Patamon rather quickly, claws stretched out. Patamon stopped in mid-air, dodging DemiDevimon's claws.

Takeru clenched his teeth as he watched his best friend being chased. Was this him being gentle? His attention was broken as Minami pulled him to the ground and landed on top of him. Above, he felt something heavy sweeping over their heads, a burst of air trailing after.

Kenkimon, not to be taken down easily, swung the crane hook wildly around it to keep the division and their digimon at bay until it could right itself. Labramon and Penmon were both hit by the hook and sent flying.

"Dracmon!" Satoru yelled, and Dracmon stepped up confidently with a grin. It held its hands up, showing the eyeballs in the palms of its hands. Takeru shivered as the eyes glowed. Kenkimon stopped lifting its bucket as the red and green flashes filled its eyes. By this time, Labramon and Penmon recovered. Gazimon, covered in dirt, joined them as they rushed Kenkimon with a flurry of attacks, who was shaking off the hypnosis.

"Retriever Bark!"

"Ice Prism!"

Once again, Kenkimon was stunned and tilted on its side. Repeating the same strategy allowed the machine digimon to keep from tipping over fully from the icicle spikes. Penmon and Gazimon ran toward it.

"Sliding Dash!" Penmon slid on its belly at Kenkimon, body slamming the large digimon, followed closely by Gazimon's claws swiping it.

"Gazimon Claw!" The claws did nothing to harm the metal body, but the force of it and Penmon was enough to tip it over completely, and suddenly the large digimon disappeared.

Gazimon had been busy most of the fight digging a pitfall behind Kenkimon while it was distracted. The force of the weight of the large digimon was enough to sink it deep in the pitfall. As Takeru and the others ran to get a look, they saw the remnants of light as Kenkimon de-digivolved back to Gabumon. The digiegg fell to the ground, bouncing off of Gabumon's body and cracked upon hitting the dirt.

Yamato took something out of his backpack after a moment of rummaging and jumped into the pit. Before Gabumon could shake itself out of its confusion, he slapped a dark ring around its neck. Gabumon's body went limp. Everyone around Takeru relaxed in unison with sighs of relief.

Their moment of peaceful victory was interrupted with a cry. Takeru looked up to see a battered Patamon falling from the sky. Without thinking, Takeru sprinted forward, sliding on the ground just in time to catch his partner before he hit the ground. He stood up, wincing at the hot streak the friction left on his skin, glad that while his pants were now filthy, they protected his skin a bit.

Before he realized someone had followed, Daisuke slapped a ring around Patamon's neck.

"That was reckless, Takeru," Daisuke scolded. He took Patamon from Takeru's arms. He couldn't protest. It would make things worse, but he couldn't help but clench his fists all the same. It happened too fast. Somehow, within minutes of realizing he was there, Patamon was lost.

"Still, two digimon captured and the digieggs secured in ten minutes? Not bad, team!" Aoi grinned.

"We still have to find the eggs inside," Yamato said. "But at least now with the threat gone, we should be much safer to all go in."

"Ken, how are you feeling?" Takeru heard Kairi ask after he turned away to recall DemiDevimon to his shoulder.

"I told you to go easy on him," He whispered. Takeru was met with pain in his shoulder as talons dug into soft skin. He made a noise of discomfort as he turned back around.

"I'm fine," Ken said, though he placed a hand on his head. He gave Kairi a gentle smile. "Gabumon knocked me around a bit, but I'm glad I got thrown outside where I could see. I'm just sorry I couldn't contribute anything to the fight."

"You shouldn't apologize, man," Daisuke said. "You were probably seeing double. You got tossed around like a rag doll. We'll have the medics look at you as soon as we get back."

"...Yes, sir." Ken didn't seem thrilled about it, but he didn't look to have the energy to protest his leader, either.

Flashlights were taken out of their bags as they neared the entrance to the cave. Yamato entered first, followed by Daisuke, Ken, Kairi, and Satoru. Takeru followed after them beside Aoi, who was hitting his flickering flashlight against his palm, muttering about batteries.

The cave was wide for about thirty metres from the entrance, then shrank considerably. They crawled on their hands and knees, around protruding rocks and stalagmites, avoiding wet puddles and slipping on wet rocks. Yamato stopped.

Gathering around him as best they could, everyone could see the reason for the halt. There was a sudden drop. They flashed their lights down, barely able to see the bottom.

"It looks to be about a sixty metre drop," Yamato said.

"Great, and I left my spelunking gear in my other pants," Daisuke said, a wry smile on his lips to his own joke.

"We have rope in our bags," Ken said. "We can tie them up to a secure rock and rappel down."

Gathering all the rope they had, they worked on tying them together securely to each other, and to an appropriately sturdy looking stalagmite. Wormmon's sticky netting was used to bind the knots together in case any came loose. Yamato went first, testing the strength. He went slowly, hugging the wall as he descended to the bottom.

He landed safely on the floor, getting a sigh from Takeru. One by one they all descended down the long cavern. Looking back up, the rope hung secure and disappeared into the darkness above.

"It's going to be a pain climbing that again," Kairi said with a pout. "Especially if those eggs are going to be heavy."

"There's water up ahead." Yamato's voice echoed in the cave as he walked through a nine foot tall short corridor of rock, which expanded into a large underground lake. Flashing the lights around, they could see an island toward the back of the cave. On it was a large pile of what looked to be the digieggs.

"Hope you're all up for a swim," Daisuke said, taking off his jacket. "I'm glad we set up camp outside. I'm not looking forward to spending the night in damp clothes."

They stripped down as much as they could. The water was cold on their skin, refreshing at first against the heat and the sweat. There was a biting chill just below the surface that felt unnerving; as though there wasn't a bottom and all there would ever be was a frozen darkness to sink into should one succumb.

Climbing out of the water didn't provide the relief from the cold they hoped for. The dry stone quickly soaked with the water from their bodies and clothes as they climbed out, shivering. Thankfully their delevices were waterproof.

The eggs were in a large clutch. They were in all sorts of shapes from regular egg to something like a flower. They were surprisingly colourful, though the even more oddly-shaped golden eggs stood out among the others. They glittered in the moving lights.

"There's a good dozen of different ones," Yamato noted. "Look for different ones and use your delevice to scan them. Then we'll take back what ever we can."

Takeru approached the eggs, taking a round, orange one in his hand. He smiled at it. It looked like it had wings like Patamon on it. He scanned it first, and the egg disappeared within the thin scanning bar and into his delevice. He then went on to scan the two varieties of golden eggs, then the rest.

Some of the others hadn't started scanning yet, a little preoccupied with some of their digimon that hadn't made the journey over with them. Labramon, Gazimon and Gabumon opted to stay over on the other side, all surrounding a rather catatonic Patamon.

"Odd," Satoru said. "I thought they'd follow us no matter what."

"Maybe the girls let their control on them relax too much. They're too soft. Just because their digimon are kind of cute and fluffy." Aoi scratched the back of his head and turned around to start his scanning. "Doesn't matter. This place is claustrophobic. Let's do this quick and get out of here."

Daisuke and Ken also finished their collections, and like Takeru were stuffing more eggs inside their bags when a loud scream echoed through the cave.

"Shaking Pulse!"

A pulsing shock wave hit the rocks near the entrance. Large boulders broke off of the ceiling, crashing down at the entrance. The whole room shook, splashing water around the island.

"Get down!" Daisuke cried, wrapping an arm around Kairi and Satoru. Takeru and the others fell to the ground, curling to protect their vitals, arms shielding their heads.

When the shaking stopped, they looked up. A thin layer of dust was settling. The ceiling on the other side was a lot higher than it had been, with the dry land nearly covered in rocks. The digimon on that side took shelter in a far corner that was untouched. Their way back to the ropes was completely blocked off.

In the water, there was a dark triangular shape cutting through the depths. A large, dark shadow just beneath the surface.