A/N: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I only own my characters, Digimon does not belong to me.

Chapter 11

"Everyone's been down since Tai made Agumon digivolve wrong." Coronamon thought as he trekked along the desert with his partners while he observed the kids.

He wasn't that smart compared to Lunamon, but even he could see how distraught the children were now that they had seen what the crest could do if they did something wrong.

For Lunamon and himself, they knew that Hisoka was doing the best of his capabilities in taking care of everyone, but they kind of wished that their tamer didn't have to put so much weight on his own shoulders.

Speaking of which, it looks like he's the only one relatively comfortable in the heat.

"I'm melting..." Lunamon moaned while she was being carried by Hisoka.

"You're still a solid, Lunamon, but this heat is starting to get to my head too." The green eyed teen commented as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Hisoka frowned at how lightheaded he was feeling; he had been fine before the SkullGreymon incident, could it have something to do with how he was feeling ill?

He couldn't really make out what the other kids were saying, but he did notice that they stopped as soon as a hologram of Gennai stood before them.

"I see you all are rough for wear." The old man commented.

Tai stepped forward with Koromon in hand, "We found the tags and crests like you wanted, but look what happened to poor Agumon! He turned into SkullGreymon and went on a rampage before he turned into Koromon."

Gennai glanced at the sad Digimon before glancing to Hisoka and then back to the other children as he stated. "Merely having crests and tags won't mean automatic power for your Digimon, it also needs you having taken good care of them. Perhaps it was your own negligence that caused Agumon to go through such a situation."

As the kids looked down in self doubt of their actions, Hisoka protested, "Tai didn't do it on purpose, and these are just kids, Gennai. Don't you think a bit of guidance would help more than using the scare tactic to get them to learn?"

"Sometimes you have to learn the hard way." The old man commented, "Besides, you may be the eldest, Hisoka, but remember that spreading yourself thin will only make it easier for yourself to break."

"What-" The camp counselor couldn't utter another word as he felt his body give out from his fatigue and his vision go to black.

The children and his partners yelled in worry as Matt and Joe barely caught him before he fell face first into the sand.

Gennai sighed and advised before he disappeared, "I knew that would happen... Just keep finding the crest kids, and be sure you learned from what has happened. All of the crests and patience will bring about total harmony."

"Is Hisoka alright?" Mimi asked in concern as Joe felt the unconscious teen's forehead.

"He has a high fever. We need to find shade so we can give him some medicine."

"That's easier said than done out here." Matt stated as he stared ahead at desert.

"But how could he have gotten sick?" Izzy pondered as he turned to Coronamon and Lunamon, "Do you two have any ideas?"

Lunamon gave a slight glare at Tai, who didn't noticed as he seemed to be in a sort of horrified trance as if he remembered something, before replying, "Hisoka has been pushing himself even more ever since we found his crest."

"He really tries to take care of everybody, but no one except us check up on him." Coronamon added, "We want to get stronger in return so we can protect Hisoka."

"Going back to the matter at hand, it's clear that he'll get worse if we don't do anything." Joe stated as he shuffled through the camp counselor's backpack to find the medicine, "We need to lie him down, but there's no shade around here, and we may have to worry about dehydration."

Tai seemed to snap out of his trance as he suggested, "Can't one of our Digimon digivolve and help?"

"I don't want to be mean, but you had Agumon eat most of the food, remember?" Mimi replied, "And after what happened earlier, none of our Digimon have the strength to digivolve."

The goggle head winced at the reminder but nodded with a guilty expression, "I know... I just feel like Hisoka getting sick is my fault. It's just like what happened to Kari..." He muttered the last part quietly, but his partner could hear and gave a sad hum.

Sora walked up to Tai and patted him on the shoulder, "I'm sure he'll be okay and back on his feet in no time."

As she said that, the group felt the sandy ground rumble as they stared ahead to see a cruise ship actually treading the desert before it docked not too far from them.

"This is our chance!" Matt yelled as he and Joe stepped forward.

Tai waved at a Numemon that was hauling down the anchor. "Can we come on board?"

As the slimy Digimon sneered, Mimi came forward, "This needs a lady's touch." The pink loving girl pouted and winked, "Oh mister Numemon! Can we please come on board?"

That seemed to work as they were let on the cruise ship, the kids wandering to different areas of the ship; Hisoka was placed in a nearby cabin to rest with Lunamon and Coronamon, Matt, Gabumon, T.K., Tokomon, Izzy, and Tentomon were gorging themselves on food, Mimi and Sora were taking a shower, and Tai, Joe, Koromon, and Gomamon were at the pool.

"Do you think we're taking care of our Digimon properly, now that we have crests?" Tai asked.

Joe sighed, "Who knows, we've done everything except give them allowances."

"It makes me wonder what Hisoka really felt about this whole crest business. He was the first to get his crest, but he acts like he never received it."

"Maybe we should just wait until everyone finds their crests too before we go about getting them to work." Joe suggested with the goggle wearing boy nodding before the older boy remembered something. "By the way, did something happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"You froze when Hisoka collapsed. I mean, it's an understandable response, but you acted like something like that happened to you before."

Tai gulped before he looked away, "Yeah, it kind of did, and it was my fault then too. I really don't want to talk about it."

The oldest camper stared before nodding. "I won't bring it up then, but Hisoka getting sick wasn't your fault."

Out of nowhere, the Numemon attacked as the two tamers were caught in a net with their Digimon getting up, ready to fight as the captain appeared.

"This isn't how you treat guests you know!" Tai exclaimed as he and Joe struggled.

The captain laughed before he exploded, revealing a large chicken. "You fell right into my plans! Kokatorimon is here to steal your crests!"

"That won't happen!" Koromon protested as he hopped down from the table before digivolving back into Agumon as he and Gomamon stood ready for battle.

Kokatorimon put a stop to that as the chicken like Digimon turned the two to stone with it's Petra Fire, alarming their tamers at the sight.

"Agumon!"

"Gomamon!"

The chicken-like Digimon cackled as he took the two crests in his wings, "That's two crests down, there's one more hiding, but that'll be easy to find!"

"What's going on? Where am I?" Hisoka asked as he blearily opened his eyes to see that he was in some sort of room. He put his hand to his forehead to feel that he had a fever. "Am I hallucinating?" "Coronamon? Lunamon?"

"We're right here, Hisoka." Coronamon waved as Lunamon informed.

"It looks like we fell into Etemon's trap. While you were resting, we came across a cruise ship, and thought it was safe for the time being. Tai and Joe got their crests taken and the other Digimon were turned to stone. Luckily, the Numemon that came around here were easy to handle, so we managed to hide while you were resting. We have to do something."

The camp counselor rose, "I guess I'm a walking target with this crest on my chest, but fever or not, we're not pushovers."

"That's right." The two partners nodded before they both digivolved.

"Firamon, you and Hisoka will try to free the kids, I'll scout for the crests." Lekismon stated as Hisoka climbed onto Firamon's back.

"My nose will help locate the kids," The winged lion Digimon stated as he raised his head with a sniff, "Won't be too hard with them sweating."

"I'm counting on you two." Hisoka said as his two partners nodded as Firamon burst out of the cruise ship to search for the kids from the outside while Lekismon handled the interior.

Firamon finding the tied up boys was easy as he spotted them tied up a short distance from the ship. "Hey guys, I think you've had enough sun." Hisoka said as his winged lion partner cast a shadow onto the bound kids.

"We're saved..." Joe muttered as the others gave a groaned cheer.

"Firamon, can you lower me down, so I can untie them, and get them on the ground?"

"Sure thing." Firamon replied as he did what his tamer told him.

Izzy was the last to be put back onto the warm sand as Tai warned, "The ship was a trap!"

"Kokatorimon stole our crests and turned our Digimon to stone!" Joe added.

"Mimi and Sora aren't here, so it can be assumed that they're still in the cruise ship." Izzy concluded.

The camp counselor reassured the boys, "Lekismon is there as well, so I'm sure things will be fine. Getting us all back may be a problem though; Firamon may not be able to fly us all back there, and I know that most of you are starting to get dehydrated from being out here without shade for a while."

"We'll be fine, Hisoka. You're the one that collapsed earlier, so you shouldn't push yourself." Matt stated as he glanced over to an exhausted looking T.K. "But if there's space, give it to T.K. and let us older boys rough it. A little sun's nothing."

"But Matt!" The cap wearing boy protested before Tai added.

"Matt's right. We can handle it, for now we need to get our crests back and find a way to get our Digimon back to normal."

Hisoka nodded as he picked up T.K. onto his partner before mounting Firamon as well. "We don't have time to waste."

By the time the boys had made it onto the ship, they noticed that their Digimon weren't where they were petrified, and heard a crash coming from the main deck of the yacht.

Heading over there, they saw Mimi, Sora, Togemon, Birdramon, Lekismon, along with the other Digimon that were currently turned to stone slowly return to normal before they went to their tamer's side.

"It's good to see you guys are alright!" Tai smiled in relief.

Mimi grinned as she and Sora held a tag and crest, "Even us ladies can beat a pesky chicken. We even got your crests back!"

Lekismon's ear twitched before she eyed a chimney, "We need to go now, Kokatorimon is starting to try and come out."

"We have no time to waste then! T.K. and Tokomon, climb on with me and Firamon; Joe, Gomamon, and Izzy, you're going with Lekismon; Tai and Agumon, with Sora and Birdramon; and Matt and Gabumon, you're with Mimi and Togemon!" Hisoka ordered as they all got off evacuated from the yacht via flying or jumping off before the four champion level Digimon went back to rookie level and the group were running as far from the now active ship as they could get.

"Oh no! Not another mirage!" Mimi whined in annoyance as they ran and saw a massive cactus just ahead of them.

"We better hope that overgrown bird falls for it then!" Hisoka exclaimed as they ran around the prickly plant, making sure it was in front of the cruise ship that was after them.

Much to the group's surprise, the ship actually collided with what was supposed to be a mirage before the cactus was forced forward before recoiling and destroying said ship.

The green eyed camp counselor just sighed in relief and knelt down, "What a miracle... A crest saved us, and it was Mimi's."

Izzy was the one to hear this comment and asked, "What are you saying?"

Hisoka didn't answer as he and the others noticed a beam of light come from the cactus as it blossomed a green crest with a mark of a tear drop.

"The Crest of Sincerity," Hisoka uttered as the crest began to shrink in size as it drifted down to take its place in the pink loving girl's tag, "It may not seem much, but it will always be valued as much as courage and reliability. How long until the fragments of harmony return?"

It seemed that no one in the group, save Lunamon, Coronamon, Izzy, and Tentomon, noticed that as the brunette was muttering, his crest was glowing again in a low blinking manner, as though it imitated a faint heartbeat.

While Hisoka's partners were concerned over their tamer's trance like behavior, Izzy was bewildered.

Just what was happening to their usually strong and brave counselor that acted almost like an older sibling?

The boy genius could only deduce that it had something to do with the crests, but it came to question as to why it was just Hisoka that experienced this odd moment in change of behavior. "More questions are just piling up... Perhaps Gennai knows what is going on around us."

Once Hisoka's crest went back to normal, he blinked, wondering why he had said what he did before shaking his head before he announced, "Well Mimi, you and your crest really saved us there. That makes four of us with crests, another four to go and then finding Gennai to get us home. We're half way there."

Mimi looked down at her crest as she admitted, "Well, I'm not sure if this crest fits me, but if it'll help me take care of Palmon, I'll keep it."

"Oh, Mimi." The plant like Digimon smiled at how much her tamer cared.

The others gave a smile of approval to the sometimes annoying but still caring girl of the group as Tai said, "Well, we couldn't rest for too long, but it ended pretty good for us; Agumon's back to normal, Mimi has her crest, and Hisoka's all healed up!"

"I'll be the judge of that!" Joe declared as he stepped toward the oldest of the group, "You healing your leg and back was something that can't really be explained just like everything else here, but you really collapsed from a fever, and I won't believe that only one tablet of medicine and rest is enough for you!"

Hisoka backed away from the oddly agitated boy, having not expected the outburst, just like the others. "You'd make a good doctor, that's for sure, Joe. Really though, I'm fine; we should just get moving so we can find another place to resupply ourselves on food and water."

"Then until then, I'll help lighten your load." Tai suddenly stated as he took the camp counselor's bag before he fell over from the weight. "How have you managed to carry everything?!"

"I would've warned you, but you fell over before I could." Hisoka blankly replied as the others laughed.

He shook his head and helped the ever enthusiastic boy up. "Honestly, what else did I miss while I was asleep? Next thing I know, you kids will be adults the next time I wake up."

"While such an occurrence may be possible here, it would be difficult to explain once we get home. In any case, simply accepting our help while you're still recovering is best." Izzy stated with Sora adding.

"You're still a kid like us, even though you're almost old enough to be an adult, so let us help too."

The camp counselor blinked before grinning, "That's very mature of you guys, I'm proud of you all. Now then, let's get going; we still have five more crests to go."

As the group went on their way, Hisoka frowned slightly, wondering just how important the crests were, both for the kids and himself. "This is confusing, but I know I'll find my answer once this situation is done and over with."

A/N: Till next time

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