Awake and Alive

Chapter Five: An Electrifying Surprise

The next day saw another round of seeds from the night before and a quick pack-up job. Rikka took the opportunity to replace the lukewarm water from her bottle with some of the fresh lake's. Afterwards she was guided onto Tai's back and with a happy farewell, they were off.

The weather was hot and while they had left the telephone poles behind, the ground was still barren and trees were few and far between. They were a good few hours in before four members – Mimi, TK, Palmon and Gomamon – had all collapsed in exhaustion and Tai declared a break time. Luckily for them, they had stopped to rest underneath a bundle of trees that provided a comforting shade. Tai had let Rikka down near TK, Lunamon hopping up to her only to flop into her lap with a satisfied sigh.

"My skin's so dry," Gomamon moaned pitifully. "Is there water nearby? I'm drying up over here."

Rikka frowned when she had reached over to pet the little Digimon; his skin was, true to his word, dry and very warm to the touch. Taking her bag off, she reached inside for her bottle and unscrewed it. She tipped a little of her water onto his head and smiled a bit when he sighed in relief as she gently rubbed it in.

"Come on, come on," Izzy urged. Rikka looked over to see that he was trying to turn it on and she more or less figured his screen decided to stubbornly remain black.

"Hey, I know how to get it working." Tai called, darting forward and grabbing the computer. "You just gotta give it a couple subtle adjustments."

"Hey, stop that!"

Tai was whacking the computer fairly hard and if he had gone any further before Izzy ripped it out of his hands, he could've ripped it in two.

"What's the deal, Izzy? It's just a dumb computer." Tai frowned with a bit of a glare.

"Too bad you're brain isn't as big as your hair," Sora said, standing behind Izzy and glancing disapprovingly at the bushy brunette. "Maybe Izzy doesn't want smudges and dents on his computer."

Tai crossed his arms and huffed, his head turned eye and eye scanning the horizon. Rikka sighed tiredly, waiting for whatever 'clever' response he was going to come up with. But to her surprise he had just ran off towards something with Agumon tailing him, most likely to prevent any further trouble. There was a collection of exasperated sighs, hers included.

"The attention span of a gnat," Joe muttered, looking over in time to see the boy and his dinosaur sprint off somewhere.

"Ah, whatever" Matt groused, not having enough energy to deal with Tai's simple-mindedness.

Izzy started to work on his computer again and Rikka returned to wetting Gomamon's skin. She knew it would be bad if she had used all of her water, but she could argue it wasn't right to let the seal Digimon suffer from a heatstroke.

"Hey, everybody! Get over here!"

Rikka looked up from Gomamon curiously. The others started to run over to him, aside from TK, Patamon and Lunamon who patiently waited for Rikka to get up. To her relief, the ground wasn't entirely rocky and was mainly soft dirt, sand and a few sparing patches of grass. Her ankles duly throbbed at the pressure she was putting on them, but it much better considering she was hissing and cringing in pain just the other day.

Tai had been standing on the edge of a basin, but in the center was a giant factory complete with its black smoke, whirring machines and dull gray panels.

"Looks like some kind of factory," observed Joe.

"Let's hope they can manufacture a way for us to get home." Matt added.

"I wonder what they do make in there." Joe continued.

As they moved down the rocky slope, Tai scooped Rikka into his arms. It didn't take long to find an entrance and upon walking in, they simply stood still to stare around. Noticing the floor was smooth and polished, Rikka squirmed a bit to let her friend know she wanted down. She partially ignored his concerned look and admitted to herself that the rather cool air of the factory was making her feel a lot better.