Digimon Frontier 02 Chapter 20

“Ow, watch it!”
“Sorry Zoe… it’s so dark in here, I can’t tell where I’m going.”
“I didn’t mean to snap at you J.P. I am just a little nervous. First Takuya somehow gets separated from his digi spirit, next we all somehow regain our elemental powers, leading to some hooligans suddenly showing up and kidnapping us all.”
Kouichi glanced back towards Zoe and JP. It was too dark to see, but he could imagine the group’s expressions. “We are all feeling the same… We just need to keep moving forward and avoid causing too much racket.”
“This ventilation system almost seems too convenient…” Kouji murmured quietly to himself, but the enclosed walls and semi quiet shaft allowed for the whole group to hear.
“That has been a nagging concern of mine the moment we first entered this air vent.” Zoe stiffened with uneasy as she voiced her worries. Was this all just another trap to further inflict a sense of hopelessness, to weaken the groups resolve…?
“Guys… do you hear something?” Tommy shifted his weight to lean against the side with his ear pressed against the metal to hear better. The group went quiet, listening intently, but all that could be heard was the sounds of heavy breathing.
“I don’t hear anything…” J.P. broke the silence first, adjusting his body into a sitting position with a heavy sigh. “I don’t like this, all this waiting and eerie silence…”  
“J.P., we can’t rest. We have to keep moving! Tommy, we didn’t hear anything, but I don’t want to take any chances, keep listening for whatever you were hearing and warn us if it gets louder. Can you do that?” Kouji, in the heat of the moment, took command. The group quieted at that and the heavy breathing in the shaft died down as heart rates slowed into a steady, more natural pace. Having an authoritative figure eased away most of the groups concerns.
“You’ve got it Kouji!” Tommy replied enthusiastically. J.P immediately switched back into his crawling position and Zoe’s tense shoulders relaxed.
“Lead the way Kouji!” She added with a more cheerful tone.
Kouji swallowed as he realized the position he just created for himself.
“Um… right. So… let’s bring down the noise level and keep to our whispering voices. J.P., since you are at the back of the group, pay attention to what’s behind us. I don’t mean to frighten anyone with this suggestion, it’s just better to be aware of our surroundings. Zoe, I want you to watch over Tommy and help keep your ears pierced for any unusual noises you hear. And Kouichi… I don’t really have a task for you. I guess just assist the back of the group with anything that might pop up. So… let’s start moving again…” With their new roles in mind, the group followed silently behind. It was easier to forget their troubles, when their attention was focused on accomplishing their tasks.
“I see a light up ahead. Let’s try to be as quiet as possible as we pass by.” The group in the back tried to look past each other to see ahead and sure enough, a small ray of light was filtering in through the air vent.
Inching forward, Kouji approached the light cautiously. The source of the light was a vent. Looking through the metal bars, he went ridged. Just below the opening stood Shadowmon. Kouji pulled back immediately.
“What’s the mat…mgh..” Kouji quickly clamped his brothers mouth closed. The light was allowing just enough visibility to see his brother’s distressed expression. That wasn’t the only thing he noticed, his brothers hand was also shaking against his lips. The back of the group still looked on oblivious, although curiosity was making them a little impatient but there warning to remain silent was enough to prevent any questions from being spoken out loud. Kouji lowered his arm lowly. Looking down at the metal flooring, he noticed his arms were shaking heavily.
‘Fear? Am I really scared? Stop shaking… dangit… stop shaking!’ Kouji brought his hands up to his chest and clenched them together. ‘Is this what helplessness feels like? Without our digital powers, can we really hope to escape here… Calm down, the group is relying on you to keep it together... Oh… where are you Takuya… you always seem to know precisely what to do and how to keep everyone’s spirits up… ?’
Zoe clicked her tongue in impatience and quietly called out, “what’s the hold up?” Kouichi shifted his body to sit against the wall somewhat and get everyone’s attention.
“We need to be extremely quiet. Shadowmon’s right on the other side of this vent in front of us!”
That relevation made the whole group stiffen into a dead silence. J.P. started glancing back every few seconds with worry, and Tommy reached out a nervous hand to grip Zoe’s. Zoe gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, but her shaky palms weren’t very convincing.
Snapping out of his trance, Kouji strained his eyes against the darkness to see his friends’ worried expressions. Shaking off his own fear, he crept back to the vent and tuned his ears to listen in. Shadowmon was mostly just mumbling to himself and going through paper work on a messy desk.
“Sign… wdkfje reject…. Hm… move you over here… gjdne… ejfandaw...”
Feeling her legs cramping up, Zoe twisted her body into a sitting position with her legs off to the side, but as she moved, her shoe tapped the side of the metal wall, with a ting.
Kouji jumped at the sudden noise and went ridged as Shadowmon glanced up for a second. However he only eyed the ceiling for a few heartbeats, before shrugging and resuming his organization.
Zoe gasped in shock at her mistake, Tommy pulled closer to her in fear, JP held his breathe and Kouichi mentally prepared himself for the worse. All eyes intently watched Kouji’s reaction, but he only stiffened for a second, before relaxing.
“Our plans are almost complete…” Shadowmon set down his writing utensil and picked up one of the sheets of paper to read over it. Kouji leaned in to hear more fully. “Now we’ve just gotta wait for the little fire brat!’
‘He must be taking about Takuya, but why do they need all of us? Sitting around here isn’t going to help much, we should proceed on and continue looking for an escape route.’
Just as Kouji was about to lead the group onwards, the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard on the other side of the door, followed by loud pounding knocks. Turning away from his paperwork, Shadowmon addressed the visitor.
“Come in!” Shadowmon commanded. Without a second delay, the door was thrown open and a troubled Impmon burst into the room.
“Premission to speak sir!”
“Permission granted! Now speak up!”
“The prisoners escaped!”
“They WHAT!?!” Shadowmon shouted in rage. “How!?”
“We don’t know sir. We are currently patrolling the halls, but there seems to be no sign of them. The only clues we’ve found is a large pool of water flooding the cell.”
“Water… Is there anything else?”
“The only possible solution to their escape is through the air vents. We’ve already sent bakemon and pagumon into the shafts. If the children are still in this base, we are sure to flush them out.”
“Argh… we can’t afford to lose them now. Be sure to not fail me or there will be consequencessss…!” Pushing Impmon out of the way, Shadowmon slithered out of the room with a nasty hiss. Impmon shuddered in fear, and hastily followed Shadowmon out of the room.
Kouji pushed off of his stomach and twisted his head towards the group. Everyone had heard and were fidgeting nervously.
“We’ve got to get out of here and fast!” The group nodded their agreement, and without a second to waste, they sped up their crawling speed. With the cramped space, it wasn’t all that easy to be quick and quiet but with each passing minute, they came that much closer to being caught.
Reaching a fork in the road, Kouji paused for a second, contemplating which tunnel would be best. After a few seconds of silence, a slight draft rushed out of the tunnel on the left. Decision made, they were off again.
“Kouji… I am getting really scared…” Zoe gently patted Tommy’s back and smiled, it was too dark to see, but the gesture was appreciated.
“I know Tommy, but as long as we are together, everything will be fine!” Kouichi also quickly stopped to pat his shoulder. Tommy smiled warmly at his friends support. He wasn’t alone, and Kouichi was right, they had survived time and time again in difficult situations.
A sudden ray of light lit the adjacent air vent in front of them, causing the group to halt, and the sound of approaching voices had the group back peddling to get away from the light. As they tried to quickly retreat, JP yelp with surprise as his feet suddenly feel out from under him and the tunnel they occupied suddenly brightened. The next thing he knew, he was free falling. Zoe whipped around startled and tried to reach for her friend, but he was already gone. The approaching light also flickered for a second before it was redirected to another shaft. JP’s yelp must have carried down the shaft and threw off the pursuers. Sound always seemed to come from all directions at once when in a tunnel. Feeling relieved, Kouji turned around, “is everything all right? I heard JP yell.”
“No! Everything is not all right! JP fell!!!”
“He what!?!”
Zoe cautiously approached the hole and glanced in. To her relief, she found JP sitting in what looked like a fancy bathtub. He was soaked but unharmed. Did Digimon bathe like humans?
“JP’s okay!” Zoe called out happily. The group sighed in relief, and looked to Kouji for orders.
“Oh… right… um… let’s go ahead and drop down as well. But let’s try to close up the opening so no Digimon follows us.”
“Righto!” Happy to finally be out of the tight confinement of the ventilation, Zoe landed gracefully next to JP, who was currently trying to dry himself off by wringing out his clothes as best he could.
“Catch Tommy!” Kouichi carefully lowered Tommy down to Zoe, who stretched out her arms, before dropping him. Kouichi dropped down next, followed by Kouji, who at first hung from the opening to replace the metal sheet, before dropping into the water with a splash.
“We need to avoid dripping water so we don’t leave a trail. Let’s take a couple minutes to dry off.”
”You’re the boss!” JP added with a cheesy thumbs up. Kouji rolled his eyes and quietly slipped over to the door to peer out. Someone needed to keep watch and his nerves were telling him danger was very close.
“Kouichi, while I keep watch, can you look out the windows and tell me what you see?”
“Sure thing.” Peering out the windows, he noted that they were in a building resting on a mountain side. From where they currently were, escaping out the windows wouldn’t be an option. There was a drop off directly below them.
“We are on a mountain side. We won’t be able to escape through these windows, but if we start working our way both downwards, and towards the back of this place, we can gradually work our way to the mountain side and climb down from there.”
“Alright… so is everyone about ready?”
“Yes!” Zoe heavily emphasized the word. She was more than ready to get out of confinement. The others just nodded.
“Then let’s get outta here!”