Digital
Chapter 9 - Seiko
by Senashenta

Eek! ^^ Guess who went and saw Two Towers on opening night yesterday and totally came away inspired! *dances* lol. Anyway, (this is in my profile, too, but I'm saying it here too) I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone, so I narrowed what I want to say down to two things:

1) Does Legolas know how to mount a horse-in-motion or WHAT?! Whoo!

2) THE TREES KICKED ISENGARD ASS!!

Tra la la....

Dedication! Syenite Kai!: You're back! *throws confetti* I lost some of my old reviewers when I took FOREVER to update, so I'm happy to hear from you again! *glomps*

~Digital~
~Chapter Nine~

 

The salvage of weapons and armor from the Orcs had gone relatively well, Takeru decided, though not as well as he would have liked. He, as well as Lee, Terriermon, Iori and Shuichon, had managed to scavenge enough of the daggers (they would have taken swords, but the Orcs that Saruman had bred were large enough that their swords were too large for most of the Chosen and or Tamers to pick up, never mind use) for everyone to have something to defend themselves.

Takeru had also sound a couple of 'smaller' swords that he thought he and Aragorn could handle. Shields were right out of the question, but Takeru had found several bows that were better than his own. After picking through them, he had taken the best ones and assigned Taichi, Iori and Lee each one to carry.

They couldn't use them, of course, but at least they could carry them and they meant they had extra in case something happened and they were needed.

Takeru then traded his 'crappy Earth-made bow' for a new one, and gathered as many quivers of arrows as he could. These, lighter and easier to carry than the bows themselves, were distributed between the rest of the group. Hikari, Shuichon, Merry, Pippin and Takato each carried one, and they managed to strap three onto Guilmon.

Lee had to stop Terriermon from cracking jokes about Guilmon becoming a pack-horse several times.

According to Shuichon's watch, the entire thing- organized by Takeru- took about a half hour. The Child of Hope could barely contain his amazement at the speed that the others worked. Of course, the fact that none of them were too keen on pawing through the dead Orcs might have had something to do with it. Whatever it was, Takeru wasn't complaining.

While the salvage was going on, Taichi and Hikari had been trying to get their D-Terminals to work well enough to contact the others (God knows where they were) or the digimon, all of whom were currently in the Digital World.

They'd had minimal luck, though.

Now, they were all seated near an outcropping of rock they'd found about two miles from where they had been, discussing what could be done. Both Guilmon and Terriermon had fallen asleep shortly after finding their now-meeting place, and Aragorn and Gimli were absent, still off scouting the area.

<Which is dangerous, given the current situation.> Sighing, Takeru had to remind himself that the Ranger and the Dwarf were perfectly capable of defending themselves, and turned his attention back to the conversation at hand. Taichi was saying something about the D-Terminal....

"-but I was thinking that if we hooked ONE terminal up to a D3 directly, and shut all the other Terminals off so they aren't using up energy, we might be able to get it to work." Taichi looked around, "what do you guys think?"

Lee frowned, thinking. "If your Terminals really are constantly using power from your D3s, then it's a good idea. Turning off the other Terminals would cut the leeching of energy at least in half, if not more, and that's just more power toward the one that's still running."

"Exactly."

Iori nodded, "it's worth a try. What do we have to lose?"

"That's a good point."

"Yeah...."

There was a momentary shuffling of D-Terminals, and then Taichi hooked his up, borrowing Hikari's D3- he, as an original Chosen, didn't have one- and they all held their breath, waiting as he pressed the power button.

"Here goes nothing."

The light blinked.

Once.

Twice.

It was on.

"All right!" Takato cheered, "it worked!"

For the first time since arriving on the plains, they were all smiling and laughing. Taichi hurried to type in chat addresses, hoping that he could contact someone. And he did. After a moment, Miyako's voice came through Hikari's D3 and her image appeared on the screen of the D-Terminal.

"Ahh!" She shrieked, then, looking up and to someone else, "you guys! You guys it's working!"

"What?"

A jumble of voices and moving bodies could be heard, and the others all crowded around Miyako. Hikari and Iori were looking over Taichi's shoulder, too, and Takato, Merry and Pippin were on their way to do the same. Lee and Shuichon showed no intention of moving, though they listened carefully.

Takeru closed his eyes and leaned back against the rock. He was happy, yes, that they could contact the others now, but his side was hurting and he was tired. Being an Elf meant a lot of things were different about him, but he still felt pain and it had been a long day.

"Oh my God!" Miyako was gushing, "we've been trying to reach you since, you know, the Digital Field! How did you get your Terminal to WORK?!"

"We turned all the other Terminals off and hooked it directly to Hikari's D3." Iori explained, "you should do the same."

"Yeah, I- hey!" Miyako shouted, annoyed, when Ruki leaned over and snatched the D-Terminal from her hands. "You could have ASKED, you know!"

"Hn." Ruki snorted, then, "let me talk to Takeru."

Taichi looked surprised, but called over to the blond. "Um, Ruki wants to talk to you."

Takeru cracked an eye open and held out his hand with a sigh. Taichi handed the Terminal over and he gave Ruki a flat look. "We don't know for sure where we are," he told her, before she could even ask, "but I think we're in the plains that Renamon was telling us about earlier. Aragorn and Gimli are scouting right now to tell us for sure. You?"

"Mountains. Who've you got?"

"Taichi, Hikari, Iori, Shuichon, Lee, Takato, their digimon, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gimli and myself. What about you?"

"Ken, Daisuke, Hirokazu, Kenta, Juri, Renamon, Miyako, Legolas, Frodo, Sam, Monodramon and Ryo."

"Monodramon and Ryo?"

"It's a long story. You don't know them."

"Ah."

Ruki nodded, "we ran into some Orcs shortly after we were dropped here, but we managed to escape. Right now the lot of us are holed up in a cave partway up one of the mountains. Renamon's off doing her exploring thing."

"Any injuries?"

"No-"

"Hey!" Hirokazu called, interrupting, "that's SO not true!"

Ruki glared irritably, "okay, FINE. No serious ones, though by Hirokazu's whining you'd think he was dying. He's got a gash on his arm and Ken's shoulder's a bit cut up but that's all." She paused, then, "what about you? You don't look great."

"My side." Takeru said my way of an explanation. "You ran into Orcs, too? I'm starting to think this was planned...."

"By the Field?" Ruki asked sarcastically, "you're fucking kidding me, right? Could you BE more of an idiot?!"

"Oh stop it! You are such a bitch!" He snapped this in annoyance, but in reality he didn't mean what he said. He still referred to her as a bitch, but really he had to admit that they were friends. "Of course I meant by a PERSON! Hell, we don't know what's going on at all, do we? Anyone could be behind this."

"Behind WHAT?" Ruki demanded.

"Ruki," Ken's voice said calmly, though he bluenette couldn't be seen on the Terminal screen, "let him talk already."

"Well he's making NO SENSE!"

"You're not helping!"

Takeru groaned, then glanced over toward the others when Merry and Pippin began to snicker. The others looked almost stricken, but the Hobbits had seen Ruki and the Child of Hope duke it out before. They found it funny, of course.

"Here, let me have the Terminal." After a second Ruki handed it over to Ken and the blue-haired boy shook his head as she muttered under her breath. "Takeru, we're all right for now but I think we need to get back together. I don't like us being separated like this. We should focus on that and then figure out what's happening after."

The blond hesitated, but had to agree with Ken. "Yeah, I guess."

"All right, so what do we do?"

A sigh. "I have no idea. I don't even know how far away we are from you."

A blink of yellow and Renamon appeared beside Takeru without even a 'poof', stating, "far."

This time it wasn't just the Child of Hope that jumped- everyone else made less than dignified squeaks and shouts of surprise as well- and they all stared at her in shock. The fox-like digimon simply looked down at Takeru flatly, then flicked her eyes toward the D-Terminal in his hands.

"Fuck!" Takeru snapped, "what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"You're far away." Renamon repeated, ignoring his question. "Getting here took me quite some time."

"Thanks for that." Lee sighed, shaking his head.

"Renamon!" Ken's voice came through the Terminal, sounding surprised. He looked toward Ruki. "What's she doing there?"

"How should I know?!"

"Look," Iori said, interrupting before another argument could break out, "let's focus for a minute. What are we going to do?"

Silence.

Frustration welled up in Takeru and he ground his teeth together in anger. Not being able to do something bothered him to no end, and he felt helpless- not to mention POINTLESS- just sitting there.

<I should have gone with Aragorn and Gimli.>

He had just been thinking they were stupid for going, because of the danger, and now he wished he was with them....

"You probably won't be able to reach each other in this world," Renamon told them finally, "it would take you months to traverse the terrain between you."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Hirokazu demanded through the Terminal.

"What I suggest," the digimon replied slowly, "is that you all find a way to get into the Digital World." Turning to Taichi, she regarded him flatly. "Tell me. From what I know of your world, there are Portals to your Digital World through every computer, are there also Portals all over the Digital World?"

Taichi nodded, "yes."

"Then, can you choose where you appear in the Digital World?"

Again. "Yes."

Renamon gestured with a paw, "then find a computer terminal. Everyone goes to the same out-port, and you're all back together. Simple, really."

"Yeah, sure." Takato looked confused. "Simple."

"There's only one problem with that," Daisuke pointed out. They couldn't see the redhead, but his voice echoed loudly in the cave the others were hiding in. "Um, we're kind of in a cave in the middle of nowhere. Where are we going to get a computer?"

Again, silence.

<Good point, Dai.>

"Could Renamon," Aragorn's voice said, and Takeru turned to glance at the Ranger, who was standing a few yards away with Gimli beside him, "not find a computer....and bring it here? And to the others?"

"When did you get back?" Shuichon wondered, blinking.

"A moment ago."

"Um, oh."

"You know," Miyako spoke up, "they'd have to laptop computers....with battery packs and everything....but he might be right. Could she do that, Ruki?"

"Of course." Ruki responded nonchalantly, "Renamon?"

Renamon nodded. "Yes."

As she vanished again, Takeru turned his attention back to the D-Terminal. "All right, we've got a plan."

"So we stay in the caves and Renamon brings the computer to us." A voice Takeru didn't recognize stated. He assumed it was Ryo. "Sounds simple enough."

"You'd think." Ken sighed, "but we didn't have much luck with caves in Middle Earth...."

"What?"

"Nothing." The bluenette gave a weak smile which Takeru returned. "We'll wait. Keep in touch."

A nod, and Takeru continued to stare at the Terminal for a split second after the image screen blinked off, then quickly handed it back to Taichi, who pocketed it along with Hikari's D3. Standing, he turned to look at Aragorn- the Ranger met his gaze grimly, and Takeru could only assume he and Gimli had bad news for them.

"Well?"

Aragorn considered, then, "we found no signs of civilization in the directions we went, with the exception of what looked like-" he hesitated, then, "-a fortress....near the edge of the plain. I believe the Orcs we fought came from there. We are dangerously close to it, and should move away."

Takeru eyed the man warily. There was something he wasn't telling them.

"So we ARE near one of the Orc nests." Merry stated.

"Hm," Aragorn agreed, "we should travel now, to distance ourselves, and sleep by night."

"Orcs are nocturnal, aren't they?" Iori asked, then when everyone stared at him, "I read about them once in a fantasy book."

"Normally true," Aragorn told him, "but the Orcs we've encountered were manufactured by Saruman, and can travel during the day as well as at night, as you've seen."

"Oh."

"So," Takeru pursed his lips. "We travel now and sleep at night so at least we have the cover of darkness."

"Yes. Can Renamon find us if we move?"

"I should think so," Lee told them, "she's talented."

"We saw." Merry nodded.

Pippin looked at Aragorn, "she found us every time in Middle Earth."

"That she did." Gimli laughed.

"All right, then." Takeru slung his bow- which had been sitting on the ground beside him- over his shoulder, and turned toward the horizon. His eyes skimmed across the pains between it and them, and he started forward. "Let's go."

The walking was hard-going, especially for Hikari, and after a while Taichi ended up half-carrying her. After so many years, she was still relatively frail, and the last few hours had been tough on her. Takeru watched, wishing there was something he could do, but with nothing but grass from where they were out into the middle of nowhere and beyond, there was no shelter in sight.

<And I want to keep going until we can find SOME kind of shelter for the night, but at this rate....>

"Takeru!" A hand clapped across his back and he stumbled forward, propelled by the force behind Gimli's friendly blow. Rolling his eyes, he turned to look at the Dwarf, continuing to walk backward. Gimli grinned and waved a gloved hand toward the front of their group, "Aragorn wants to have a word with you, lad."

Takeru couldn't help grinning back, and paused only long enough to say "thanks" before sprinting up to where Aragorn was walking. The Ranger had taken the lead, mostly because he was the leading type, but also because he and Gimli HAD scouted around a bit, so he had a more accurate grasp of the terrain than anyone else.

"Aragorn!"

The Ranger turned to look at him. "Takeru....Gimli told you I wished to speak with you?"

"Yes." Takeru frowned, concerned by the man's grim look. "What's going on?" After a pause, he continued with, "this is about that fortress Renamon mentioned, isn't it?"

Aragorn nodded, "I'm afraid I was not altogether forthcoming when I told you what Gimli and I had found." He glanced over his shoulder at the Dwarf, who was conversing rowdily with Iori and Shuichon, "the fortress....is no ordinary one." Dark eyes flicked back to Takeru. "I'm afraid we've come dangerously close to a section of....what used to be....Isengard."

"WHAT?!" Takeru demanded, his voice rising loudly.

Behind them, Gimli stopped speaking abruptly and silence reigned from the others as Takeru grabbed Aragorn's arm. The Ranger stopped walking and looked at him. There was a long pause, and then Takeru released his arm.

"What do you mean," the blond grated out, "by a SECTION of Isengard?"

"What we saw was not truly Isengard." Aragorn replied, lowering his voice, "the tower itself was not there. What we did see was part of Saruman's underground fortress, built by the Orcs and his other followers. The entrance, really, but we can assume it was there."

"So what you're saying is that we're two fucking miles away from Saruman's ARMY?!"

"Possibly, yes." Aragorn glanced back the way they had come. The others were continuing to stare, surprised by the almost-altercation that was taking place. "Which is why we must make haste to leave these parts."

"Shit." Takeru was silent. <We might be in more trouble than I first thought->

His thoughts were interrupted by a semi-howl that sounded more like a roar, and he spun, looking past everyone and out to the plains. Beside him, Aragorn's hand had gone to his sword and the weapon was out and ready.

The Ranger's eyes narrowed.

Across the fields, black shaped were bounding toward them. Faster than even Saruman's Orcs could go, Takeru knew. Whatever they were, they were big, fast, most likely strong, and they sounded angry.

"What...." the Child of Hope began, "the HELL...."

"-is THAT...?" Takato finished for him.

Aragorn took a step forward. "Wolf-riders!"

"Wolf-WHAT?!" Shuichon wondered.

"You don't want to know, missy," Gimli told her, pushing both her and Iori to move. "Just go."

"Aragorn, what the hell-?!"

"These," Aragorn told Takeru flatly, "we cannot defeat like this."

"But what-"

"Don't ask....just RUN!"

Whatever the hell was happening, they could find out later.

They ran.

**********

Me: ^^ Whoo! Two Towers rocks! The best part is that I was planning on using a bunch of the things (like the Wolf-riders, for example) from the 2nd book anyway! This just gives me a better idea of how to write them.

Treebeard: *taps my shoulder*

Me: Eep! 0_0;;

Treebeard: I believe....you called....us TREES....in your introduction?

Me: ^^;; Ents! I meant Ents!

Merry: There IS a difference, you know.

Pippin: That was a silly mistake you made, there.

Merry: Really, mixing Ents up with trees....

Me: *glares* Shut up already! I know, I know! And you did it too!

Merry: Well that was rude....

Pippin: Really.

 

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