Welcome to the Network

Art and Fanfic blog for my Digimon Fanseries. Writing and art by Dollie unless otherwise stated.

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode VII

Masato’s Stand

Previous Episode

What got the group more than anything was the silence.

Equimon led the way, following coordinates he had gotten from a deep cover contact to where the auction was supposed to take place. Masato kept close to him, but was staying silent, which was surprising, Aki was afraid that Masato would start bugging Equimon about being his partner and accidentally alert the auction that they were there. It actually surprised him, Masato genuinely seemed to think that saving the children was more important than getting a partner. Never would have guessed from his behavior over the last couple of days.

Isamu and Wemicmon stayed behind them, glancing every direction every few steps. Isamu had his goggles on and was keeping a lookout for strange Digimon. Occasionally he would stop and tense up, but continue on his way. Lutrimon assured Aki that he was probably picking up data from wild Digimon that wouldn’t bother them. Lutrimon stayed on his shoulder, and Ju walked beside him. Her partners never stayed in the same place though, sometimes they were running up ahead and sometimes trailing behind.

Aki kept his eyes on their surroundings, remaining in awe of the landscape even though they had been walking for nearly an hour. The Digital World didn’t seem that much different for their own, it had trees, rocks, roads, and structures that he supposed were bridges of some kind. A light fog made it difficult to see more than about fifteen feet in any direction, but that was hardly a problem.  Occasionally, a bit of data would chip off a plant or one of the structures to remind Aki that this was the Digital World, but nothing was jumping out at them so he was starting to relax a bit.

It was kind of spooky, but not a deal breaker for the world. Something about the Digiital World had an eerie, dream like quality to it. It almost felt like he had been there before.

The sky was dark, and the roads were a bit on the shambled side, but all in all it didn’t seem too bad. What were the Digimon making such a fuss about?

He glanced over to Ju, and saw a concerned look on her face, “What’s wrong?” He asked.

She nodded to the ground, “The roads...” She mumbled, “The roads weren’t this bad the last time I was here. And those bridges, some of them look like they’ll fall apart any minute.”

“They look like they’re ancient.” Aki replied, with a shrug “They’re bound to be a little crumbly.”

Ju shook her head, “Look again...see those burn marks there? Something definitely blasted that bridge. And the fog...I don’t know, there just something about it that doesn’t feel right,” She said, and stopped for a moment, making Aki pause, “Listen, Aki, I don’t want to scare you, but I’m not going to lie...The Digital World is faring way worse than I imagined.”

Aki wanted to argue, to say that it was probably her imagination and that this seemed pretty normal, but then again, Ju had been to the Digital World before. He hadn’t. Who was he to judge? On his shoulder, Lutrimon leaned closer, “She’s right, I haven’t been away that long and there’s way more damage than even I was expecting...This war is getting really out of hand.”

There they went mentioning a war again, Aki wanted to stomp his foot and scream until someone finally explained all the details to him. But that would be stupid. Especially since the group ahead of them had come to a stop, which could only mean one thing.

They had arrived.

--

Back in the Network, Liv was sitting at a table in one of the many food courts, The emptiness of the city had her on edge, but she was also feeling pretty tired from being awake at a time that was so late for her...or Early, depending on how you looked at it. She rested her hands in her palms, eyes closed, maybe if she just tuned out all her thoughts she could fall asleep right here and get a little rest before she went back to the coliseum. There ought to be plenty of Bugs to clear out after that attack...

Faces flashed under her eyelids. Kids, no more than ten, maybe eleven. A whole busload of them...She’d thought nothing in the world could be more important than rescuing those kids...they were his age, after all. She opened her eyes with a gasp, and slapped her cheeks to wake herself up. No, she couldn’t think about those sorts of things.

Scorfamon trotted up and bumped her knee with his snout. “Andromon is waiting at the gate.” He said, looking up at her with pleading eyes, “Those guys from before won’t make it on their own...We’re not really going to sit this one out, are we?”

Liv looked away from him, “I don’t...I just...Can’t...” A terrible knot settled in her stomach, pressing in like a weight that made her sick.

Her partner’s head rubbed against her hand and he nuzzled her lovingly, “Livvie...remember what we used to say when we used to go out? What if it was Sammie...?” He asked, and seemed to hesitate for a moment before deciding it was alright to continue, “What if it was Dan?”

Tears bubbled in her eyes, and she pictured their faces...One boy’s face came to mind, a soft bright smile that she could never stay mad at, no matter how much of a brat he could be. Liv turned and started to run toward the gate to the Digital World, Scorfamon was quick to join her with a determined grunt.

She knew what needed to be done.

--

Things spiraled out of control faster than expected.

The plan was supposed to be for the Digimon to pose as customers and keep the Auctioneers busy with questions and pointless chatter. Equimon’s team leader, Andromon would be there shortly to handle the heavy fighting while the Tamers and their partners saved the children and got them out. Tamers were an essential part of the rescue, children didn’t know which Digimon to trust, but they tended to follow other humans with no questions.

It was unfortunate that one of Wemicmon’s distracting comments started a fight. To be fair, none of their partners looked comfortable discussing how to pay for a human and how much, but when Wemicmon stood up to say that a bond with a human was special, a Digimon called Clockmon hit him with a hammer to shut him up. One thing led to another, the twins and Lutrimon both came to his defense, starting a bigger fight and eventually blowing their cover by revealing that they had partners.

That was when all hell really did break loose. Isamu, Ju and Aki were forced onto the battlefield to support their partners with their, regrettably, limited amount of items. Masato was left as the only human to be there to be a comforting presence for the children. He prayed that Andromon would show up soon.

Okay, so maybe that chick from the Network was right, they were in no way prepared for this, but by god, Masato was not just going to give up.

“Come on!” He growled, yanking as hard on the door as he could, but it still didn’t budge. No amount of American action movies had prepared him for a situation like this.

The kids were being kept in barred carriages, five in total, with eight to ten crying kids in each, it was like the kids had been picked up from a field trip. Briefly, Masato wondered if there had been any adults with them when they were taken, and if so, what had happened to them now? An explosion rocked the ground, almost making him fall to his knees, but Masato steadied himself and tried to open the door again. He dared not look behind him to see if that last blast was from one of the baddies or his friends.

Things didn’t sound good either way.

The leader was a Digimon that Isamu had called SkullMeramon, one of those Ultimate levels the blonde girl had mentioned. He was the strongest, and all he had done since they’d attacked was laugh at them. The Bakemon, like the one he’d talked to at the Network, were little more than grunts but they were still a problem. There were a few other Digimon there, a mix of guards and customers that were fighting to protect the merchandise.

“Out of the way.” The voice belonged to Equimon, the two of them were setting the children free while Masato’s friends were doing all the fighting. From the looks of things, Equimon was doing most of the freeing too. Four of the carriages were already open with the freed kids flocking toward the older human.

Equimon hit the door with the Bo in his hand and the knob broke off, letting the door swing open. Kids came rushing out. Now for the tough part, getting them back to the Network safely. According to Ju, the Digital Gate they’d opened to get here would reopen once someone with a D-Gauntlet came up to it. Masato didn’t have a D-Gauntlet, they would have to wait for the others, or at least one of them.

But there really wasn’t time to wait, eventually one of those Baddies was going to turn around and notice that he and Equimon had freed their merchandise. The kids whimpered and turned to Masato.

“What do we do?” One of them asked, a little girl with freckles and a stubby nose, looking at him like she expected him to know exactly what he was doing.

Never in his life had Masato felt like such a fraud.

“It’ll be okay.” He told them and looked at the group, at a guess there had to have been at least thirty of them, and he didn’t know if he could save even one of them.

Still, he had to act like he knew what he was doing. Masato imagined himself in place of one of the teen protagonists from his favorite films and took a breath. After a moment, he had a plan, not a very good one, but it was better than nothing.

He nodded to the forest, “Find a buddy and hold hands. We’re going to head for those trees there. Get in line, two people at a time, on my mark...” He instructed, trying to sound as calm and authoritative as possible.

Masato turned to the battle, waiting for a moment when someone’s attack would mask the sound of him shouting to the children. Wemicmon had Digivolved, the twins were tag teaming with Lutrimon, trying up enemies three or four at a time, while she knocked them out with high pressure streams.

“Inferno Bane!” Namaemon cried, unleashing a breath of fire that charged a few of the Bakemon.

Skullmeramon unleashed a flame attack that completely engulfed Namaemon’s technique. “Metal fireball!”

“Alright go!....Go!...Go!” He timed it so that no pair left until the one ahead was halfway to the trees. The fog was getting denser, which was good for their escape but it was making it harder for Masato to keep an eye on them.

“Neptune Rush!” Lutrimon’s water technique caused Skullmeramon to take a step back, taking a moment to reignite his flaming chain before he turned on her.

She was small and fast so his assault did not last long before he was distracted by Cannismon and Leptomon’s Eclipse Snare. Usually the technique could buy the twins some time, but Skullmeramon broke through it like it was nothing.

“Blazing Iron Whip” He lashed out with the chain, aiming to catch one of them, but Namaemon stepped between them and took the hit.

Half the kids were gone when someone finally noticed them, a weird creature that looked like a Scarecrow. It wasn’t big, and Masato was certain it was one of the ones that was trying to buy a child, not sell them.

“Hey, you stop!” The creature rushed toward them, the kids screamed and started to bolt, drawing the attention of the bigger monsters.

“No! Stop them!”

The scarecrow was almost on one of the little girls attempting to flee into the woods, Masato only had seconds to act. He dived forward, tackling the kid to the ground and shielding her with his body’ only just noticing that she was the one who had spoken to him before.

She screamed and clung to Masato, who had no idea what to do to save either of them when Equimon leaped between them, the ends of his staff began to glow.

“Dreamer Wave!” he shouted, brandishing the staff and unleashing a swell of purple energy and blew the Scarecrow back.

Masato was impressed but Equimon turned to Masato, “That won’t hold them off, get the kids out of here, I’ll cover you!”

“How!?” Masato asked, “The guys back there aren’t doing much better and two of them are Champions!”

“A little time is all you need, if I can buy you that much that’s all that matters!” Equimon replied, “Now go!”

Masato stood up and carried the girl as he ran to the tree line. He counted each kid when he arrived,  thirty four in total, and turned back to the battle. “Equimon, we made it!” He shouted, but the horse-like Digimon didn’t even turn around.

That was when Masato realized he wasn’t coming. Equimon was going to buy them as much time as he could, even if it meant sacrificing his life. The child he was carrying tugged on Masato’s shirt, “Whadda we do now, mister?” She asked again.

Masato was torn, in his heart he knew he should try to lead the kids back to the Digital Gate, maybe if he pounded on it and shouted and screamed someone on the other side would notice and let them back through. But he also couldn’t let Equimon get killed for them. He tore his eyes from the battle and set the little girl down, they needed his help more than Equimon did. “We’re going to-”

“-Heavy Metal Fire!”

“Harmonious Barrier!”

The human turned his head to see a shield appear around Equimon just in time to spare him the full force of the blast that came his way. But the attack of an Ultimate level Digimon was far too strong for a Rookie to completely protect themselves from. The Barrier broke, and the smaller Digimon was blown back toward the trees.

“Equimon!” Masato ran out from the trees toward the fallen hero.

“Masato...?” Equimon tried to stand, but stumbled, Masato had to catch him. “Get out of here!”

“Come with me!” Masato begged, “We can get to the Network and somebody will have one of those Digimeds to fix you right up. You can make it out of this too!”

“Masato, watch out!” The warning came from Lutrimon, “Sea Pulse!”

The otter Digimon’s water attacks were the most effective against the larger Digimon, but not enough. It slowed Skullmeramon down enough for Masato to haul Equimon up and run.

He didn’t go for the trees though, Skullmeramon knew where he was now, he couldn’t lead him to the children.

“Put me down, I can hold him off!”Equimon said, “You need to lead those kids to safety.”

“There is no safety!” Masato replied, “We’re not going to make it without someone to open the gate, and if we can’t get someone to open the gate then we can at least hold them off together!”

All Masato could think about was luring the bad Digimon away from the kidnapped children, if he could buy the others enough time to pick them up and get them to the gate then maybe they stood a chance at saving somebody! Masato almost didn’t notice the glow on his wrist, but he was shocked to a stop when he did. The light faded and a purple glove was on his hand, complete with a beeping watch.

“A D-Gauntlet...?” He gasped.

“I...Feel strange...”Equimon said as he started to glow too. Before Masato could react, suddenly the Digimon was changing, “Equimon Digivolve to...Destriemon!”

Next thing Masato knew he was riding a very large, armored horse. Well, a horse-like creature, his ears were large flaps, and rather than hooves, Destriemon had white paws with long claws. Masato dug his hands into a thick pale mane to keep from falling as the freshly evolved Destriemon tested his new form by taking off into a gallop that put far more distance between them and Skullmeramon, and the children too.

“Man...what did I do!?” Masato asked.

“You helped me evolve!” Destriemon replied, “We’re partners now!”

“Yeah, I got that much, but how did I make you evolve so quickly?”

“I think I’d save questions like that until after we’ve survived!” Destriemon told him as he circled back toward the others. The Digimon looking to buy had decided that this was not worth their money and were starting to make a break for it, but the Bakemon and Skullmeramon remained.

“What do you think the odds are that we can win this?” Masato shouted to Ju from atop Destriemon’s back.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times, plainly in shock at his ability to get Destriemon to evolve so quickly, but perhaps she shouldn’t complain. “I...I don’t know, Strong Ultimates have been known to battle up to ten champions with no trouble.”

“So you’re saying even with Equimon’s help, we’re still outmatched?” Aki gaped, everyone looked at Isamu as if he would have some miracle solution for them.

And he sort of did, Isamu started to turn as his goggles were picking up a series of new signals, “Something’s coming, I think it’s Andromon!”

“Lightning blade!” The attack that knocked Skullmeramon off his feet proved that Isamu ws right, but Andromon was not the only one who arrived.

“Head’s up newbies! Here comes the Cavalry!” Everyone turned in amazement to see a large group of Digimon heading their way.

“It’s Olivia and Taivenmon!” Isamu shouted and waved them down, despite that she could obviously see them. The party split up, chasing Bakemon and surrounding Skullmeramon. Isamu wiped his goggles, like he was trying to clear a smudge “Andromon, Jewelbeemon, Mummymon,Vermillimon, Blossomon- these are all Ultimate level Digimon.” He observed.

“Gotta have the right company if you’re going to be out here.” Liv replied, patting Taivenmon’s side, riding upon him the same way that Masato rode Destriemon. She noted the purple D-Gauntlet on his hand and gave him a quick nod of acknowledgement, “Where are the kids?” She asked.

“The forest.” Masato replied, nodding to the treeline, but found it invisible through the fog when he looked. “That way.”

“Right. You and I are gonna lead the kids back to the Network, the rest of you cover us.” She said.

Isamu put his hands on his hips, “Hold up, who died and put you in charge?” Masato recognized the joke in the other boy’s tone, but Olivia clearly didn’t and glared at him.

“The senior party buck-o” Taivenmon replied with a snort, “Don’t like it you can put ‘em up and come at me.”

“Not now, Taivenmon.” Olivia told him, patting his side again, “Okay, newbie, with me, now.”

“It’s Masato. And your name’s Olivia- was it?” Masato introduced himself, as he led her toward where the children were hiding.

“Just Liv.” She said, guiding her boar-like partner after them.

Masato called out, knowing the children would recognize his voice, “Come out, we’re going to get you somewhere that’s safe.” He said.

Liv pulled up beside him, “I’ll guard the front end, he’ll cover the rear.” She instructed, “You stay between us and we’ll make sure you get to the Network.”

“Get where?” A kid asked.

“You’re not going anywh-” The voice belonged to a Bakemon, but he was cut off by Taivenmon whirling around and driving his tusks forward to catch the ghost Digimon and throw him away from the children. No special attack required.

Liv didn’t even have a hair out of place when it was over and her partner turned back around, “No time to explain, get a move on it!”

There were no further questions, aside from Masato’s “Why do you get to lead?” Liv simply glared at him and Taivenmon snorted as he galloped ahead.

Destriemon answered for them, “She has more experience with this, she probably knows what sort of dangers to watch out for on the way back.”

Masato frowned, “I’m sure she does, but she doesn’t have to be so cold.”

“She must have a reason.” Destriemon continued, “I’ve heard stories about her. No one just has a personality switch like that, there must have been some kind of trigger. And I bet one of these auction Raids has something to do with it.”

That really hadn’t occurred to Masato and he contemplated that while the kids wandered out from the trees to follow Liv. Perhaps she’d lost a friend on a raid once-well maybe no, she certainly acted as if she’d lost friends during these raids before, one more wouldn’t be that traumatic. Still, Masato had a feeling like he was close, she lost something...The kids came out and went forward in pairs, the same buddies they’d picked when Masato and Equimon had first sprung them. He counted them to be sure, two, four six, eight...

Thirty four in total, that was all of them. Destriemon trotted behind the group while Masato kept an eye over his shoulder to look out for danger. Occasionally Destriemon would stop, Masato turned to him to see his ears swiveling, listening for something but then moving on. Probably the wild Digimon that Isamu had analyzed earlier, but better keep their guard up anyway.

The trip back to the gate they’d opened seemed to take twice as long but Liv beckoned him over.

“This is how you open the gate back to the Network.” She said, pressing a few buttons on her D-Guantlet, and lifting her wrist so he could see which ones. As if she expected him to be able to remember.

“The gate can transport ten at a time.” Liv instructed, hopping down from Taivenmon to separate the frightened children into groups, “Any more than that and you could overload the system. It doesn’t take more than a couple of seconds, but wait until I give you the signal. Once you’re through you’ll see more monsters, but they’re friends like these guys here, so don’t panic. Wait for me and Masato on the other side and don’t wander off until we get there. Alright?”

Liv’s tone was far more gentle when she was speaking to the kids. Her calm but firm presence seemed to put them all at ease and they nodded in understanding. The American girl told the first group to go, they passed through the distortion and the gate flashed for a few seconds, then she gave the clear for the second group. Once more the gate flashed a few times and Liv ordered the third group to go.

Only four children left.

Liv turned to Masato, “Call your friends, tell them we have all the kids safe and they can come back now.”

He blinked at her, “How do I do that?”

She reached over and hit the top right button on his D-Gauntlet twice, an input line appeared on the screen. “Hit the left bottom button to change the number and the bottom right to move to the next digit.” She said, “Put in one of their IDs, they’ll tell the others.” Masato didn’t move and still looked lost, Liv put her hands on her hips, “You haven’t swapped IDs with any of them!?” She hissed.

Masato frowned, offended by her tone. “Hey, Equimon and I have only been partners for about fifteen minutes!”

“Fine, we’ll just have to go get them.” Liv said, and turned back to the four children that were still waiting for her signal, “Remember what I said; don’t go anywhere until Masato and I come to get you. Go, now.”

She waited until they were through and then climbed back on to Taivenmon and patted his side to command him to hurry. Masato did the same, but Destriemon didn’t understand the signal so the human had to tell him to just keep up with Liv and Taivenmon. At their top speed, the four of them were back in only moments.

Just in time it seemed, Ju had drawn her partners back, tending to the white one with a Digicure as Namaemon attempted to knock Lutrimon free from Skullmeramon’s grasp. Liv’s friends had the Auction boss surrounded, but none dared attack while he had a hostage.

“Lutrimon!” Aki cried, frantically fiddling with his D-Gauntlet, trying to unlock some kind of power up for her. But this was Aki’s first trip to the Network, the only items he had were his hub prize and the Rainbow Plate they’d won from the Betamon that had attacked him. Neither of those did Lutrimon any good at the moment.

Someone else did, though.

“Hey Goldilocks, catch!” Liv lifted her D-Guantlet as an item appeared from it’s storage. She tossed it to Aki who blinked in confusion for a moment, before Liv gave an annoyed huff an explained, “Scan the item into your D-Gauntlet and use it to save your partner!”

Aki looked over at Ju, who nodded at him, “Top left button to scan, hit it twice to activate it.”

Aki did exactly that, light exploded from Skullmeramon’s hand,  a shield of pure energy surrounded Lutrimon, making the bigger Digimon unable to hold her any longer. Lutrimon was quick to leap to the ground and run toward the other Digimon. With her safely out of the way, every remaining Raiders moved into an offensive position.

“Ready to surrender?” Liv asked, “Or is this going to have to get really ugly?”

Skullmeramon didn’t appear to be the brightest candle, but he certainly seemed to know when he was beaten and allowed Andromon to put restraints on him. The Raiders all gave their thanks to the new team of Tamers for all the work they’d done to rescue the children and wished them well, but parted ways with them; taking Skullmeramon deeper into the Digital World while the Tamers returned to the Network.

Even Liv had to give them her compliments, as they made their way back to the Network together. Destriemon and Taivenmon only had room for one human on each of them, so Namaemon took the burden of carrying Ju and Aki on his shoulders while holding Isamu in his arms. It was not a comfortable ride, but Isamu didn’t dare complain when Ju fought to keep balance and try to get hold of both her partners still so they didn’t fall off.

“Not bad for your first time out.” She said with her arms folded, “Especially given how ill-equipped you were, but still...Next time there’s an auction...could I have your IDs to give you a call for backup?”

Taivenmon’s eyes lit up, “So we’re back in the business?” He asked, padding his hooves into the ground.

“Yep.” Liv replied and turned to the others with a sterner look on her face, “Of course, I expect you to be training for it in the future. The games and prizes in the city aren’t just to play with, everything in the Network is meant to prepare you for a real battle. I’d even coach you through some of the tough games.”

Everyone gave nods, though Ju hadn’t said anything of the sort when she had introduced him to the games, Isamu had gotten that impression from the heavy strategy and combat based games. Whoever designed these games definitely wanted them to be ready.

But for what? Just random Digimon attacks, or was there something else they were being prepared for?

Masato was the first to snap out of the silence, “Well, that’s all of us with partners now.” He said patting Destriemon’s side, “I think we should celebrate. Why don’t you guys all come over to my place? I know a great frozen yogurt shop, it’ll be my treat.”

“Frozen Yogurt? What’s that?” Namaemon asked, shifting his shoulders a bit making Ju and Aki cry out as they tried to keep themselves and their partners balanced on them.

Isamu sighed, for the moment wishing his partner was fully quadrupedal like the other Digimon, it would be much easier to ride him than to be carried like a doll while his friends fought to stay on his shoulders. True Namaemon could move between two legs and four, he was stubbornly insisting that caring all three of them was “A piece of cake”

“It’s a kind of food.” Isamu explained.

“Sounds yummy!” Lutrimon exclaimed, despite not knowing what kind of food this Frozen Yogurt was, the Digimon all seemed to be in agreement, going as far as Taivenmon telling them it was one of his favorite desserts, which got Lutrimon even more excited.

Of course, Liv placed her hand on Taivenmon’s face, silently reminding him that they weren’t part of the group, but Masato called over to her, “You and Taivenmon can come too. I mean- if you want. We woulda been toast without you, so if you’re not doing anything-”

“I’ll pa-” Liv was about to turn down the offer but Taivenmon turned his head up with pleading eyes that the American couldn’t seem to resist and she gave a sigh but turned to Masato with a smile, “I’d be delighted. I can’t stay long though, Taivenmon and I have to be home before morning or mom’s gonna freak.”

“Morning?” Aki asked, “That’s a long way of- oh wait. Time zones, I forgot.”

Ju nodded, “You’ll get used to that in the Network,” She said, “I was once on a team for one of the games with a kid from Germany and one from Alaska and our D-Gauntlets were all set to different times so we ended up losing because we didn’t synchronize them before the game and totally messed up our timing.”

They reached the gate and Masato tried to open it, only to have to be corrected by Liv. The evolved Digimon degenerated back to Rookie before going through the gate where the American girl and her partner then showed them where to find the safe house in the Network for auction victims where they took the children.

“What’s going to happen to them?” Aki asked, looking back toward the shelter where the kids were being tended to by older Tamers. Word that the Network was open seemed to be spreading, there were definitely more people than when they had left.

Isamu wondered if the attack on the Network and the Auction had been planned together. He didn’t know much about either the Demon Court or the Auctioneers, they seemed to have different goals between forcing human partnerships and wiping them out. But the timing felt too perfect to be a coincidence.

Liv shrugged, “Depends on them.” She said, “This group of kids has been missing for a couple of weeks in the real world, and no adult is going to believe them when they say they were kidnapped by monsters. They could decide to go home and try to forget but some of them might not be ready to go back yet and stick around to find partners here in the City. I know a few kids that were rescued from auctions and turned out to be pretty good Tamers.”

She looked sad at this and Masato almost wanted to ask, but decided to change the subject. He wasn’t at all a master at this D-Gauntlet stuff, but he had pieced together enough to know that if they came in through Ju’s computer they could come out through his, “So who’s ready for Frozen Yogurt?” He asked.

The Digimon all turned to him with excited cries, the Tamers rolled their eyes with chuckles and giggles.

--

A quick internet search revealed to Kaiyo that she wasn’t the only one who had questions about Digimon. Apparently there were several forums dedicated to asking what they were, but she didn’t have time to read them all. She was only on a fifteen minute break, but just knowing that there was something to look a little more closely at was reassuring.

Especially this Network site she’d found.

From just a quick look, it seemed like this could be the actual role play site that Isamu was referencing in his note. There were forums, daily challenges and score boards and even a login page, but Kaiyo didn’t see anyplace to sign up for a new account. That was weird, maybe she just wasn’t looking hard enough.

Aw well, the rest of that could wait until her shift was over.

After school, Kaiyo always helped her grandparents out at their convenience store, though she wasn’t technically an employee, she was treated like one and it was time to get back to the front counter. It was a little sad that neither of her uncles had married and had children, and that both of them had moved so far away.

Because of that, her grandparents had to hire outside the family in order to keep the business going, and since her mother had died so young, Kaiyo had no younger siblings to help either. The family owned and operated a store that her grandparents built hardly belonged to the family anymore. She supposed that was okay in some right, after all, her grandparents hired such nice people.

The paid employee welcomed her back and left the cash register in her care while they worked on restocking the freezer in the back. Kaiyo sighed and looked out the door, to the cars passing by. The store was empty for now, but in about an hour people on their way home from work would stop in for coffee or a pack of cigarettes.

Her thoughts drifted to the Network and it’s mysterious connection to her friend, Puckmon, who was definitely not just some mmorpg character. What exactly were Digimon...?

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode VI

Previous episode

Welcome to the Network

If Aki kept opening up his bag to check on Lutrimon he was going to be caught for sure.  The partners had been inseparable since Aki had returned and proudly showed off his bright blue D-Gauntlet, and because Lutrimon was small enough to fit in his swimming bag, that meant they really were inseparable. Unless of course the teacher saw.

“Those two are going to make me sick.” Masato practically hissed, looking as though he were ready to throw his pencil carrier at Aki.

Isamu couldn’t blame him for his reaction, even though Wemicmon was a little too rowdy and loud to hide, he was starting to get a little jealous that Aki’s partner could fit in his bag. Silently Isamu sort of hoped the teacher would walk by and start asking questions.

“Don’t worry, I think Aki just didn’t want to leave her with the other Digimon because he’s excited. He probably won’t be taking her with him everywhere.” He said.

“Does he have to be feeding her under his desk though?” Ju added from Isamu’s other side, not quite able to hide her jealousy either, she’d never fit one of her partners in her bag, let alone both of them.

“Guys chill.” Isamu whispered.

“I don’t want to chill.” Masato growled, gripping his pen, either trying to calculate the trajectory to hit Aki in the head with it, or break it in half. “I want to meet my Digimon partner!”

“Be quiet,” Ju whispered over Isamu, “Digimon are supposed to be a secret!”

“You both are being too loud.” Isamu tried to tell them, but it was too late, the teacher looked their way.

“That’s it, you three have not been able to keep quiet all day.”  Ms. Mazawa scolded pointing at them and gesturing around the room, “Namura go sit over by Anami, and Ling, swap places with Nakano,”

The students in question all did as instructed, and the lesson continued, though Isamu, Masato and Ju all continued to send the occasional glare Aki’s way. Eventually Isamu resigned himself to his note taking and wondered once again if Ms. Mazawa was secretly a Hannya or some other demon of folklore.

Beside him, Kaiyo tapped her pen against his hand and pushed her paper closer to him. For a moment, Isamu was confused, but then he saw the question written on it. ‘What are Digimon?’

Realizing the trio had been speaking too loud, and aware that the Digimon were supposed to be a secret as Ju had said earlier, Isamu had no idea how to respond. After a moment he scribbled a vague reply, ‘It’s an internet thing’.

Kaiyo wrote back, ‘You mean like an MORPG?’

‘Yeah, kinda’ Isamu replied, technically it wasn’t a lie, the Network was accessible from the internet and the site looked kind of like a role play community if you didn’t have an account.

To his relief, Kaiyo didn’t press the matter, and the rest of the class went on in peace. Isamu forgot about the conversation as he headed to lunch to sit with his friends. They chose to eat in the courtyard, where the rest of the Digimon were waiting to see their partners for even this brief meeting. Most of the other students were inside, but just in case the Digimon stayed in the bush.

“My god, you were feeding her all morning, how in the world can she still be hungry?” Masato griped as Aki slipped more food to Lutrimon.

Ju gave a shrug, “Digimon eat a lot, it’s how they keep their power up, if they get too hungry they might not have the energy to fight, or could end up degenerating to a lower level.”

With this information, Aki looked ready to give Lutrimon all of his lunch, though the little otter seemed content with just his dessert. Isamu wasn’t as lucky as Wemicmon had already consumed half his lunch and eyed his box as if to sneak more while he wasn’t looking. Ju always seemed to pack enough food to share with her Digimon without them feeling the need to beg for more.

“There’s some good news, though.” Isamu said, “I got an e-mail this morning, from the Admins. It’s safe to go back to the Network. There’s still some damage and there’s a warning to keep an eye out for Bugs, but we could probably go right after school to find you a partner.”

Masato practically jumped off of the bench, probably seconds away from asking if they could just go now since they were on lunch, when the door opened and another student stepped out into the courtyard.

“Oh!” Kaiyo gasped, seeing the gathering. The Digimon had ducked out of sight but she clearly must have seen something. “Are the rabbits out on the campus already?” She asked, and Isamu gave a mental sigh of relief. It was awkward enough to have told her that Digimon was an internet thing, but to have to explain that he’d been lying would be very awkward.

“Yeah, rabbits.” Ju replied, a nervous bead of sweat slid down by her ear “They’re probably already on the other side of the courtyard by now, if you want to go take a look at them. That’s how they move around, running through the bushes, I mean.” She added.

Kaiyo smiled, a very sweet smile that made Isamu feel pretty bad about lying to such a kind girl, “No, that’s alright, I was just passing through. I’m meeting a friend for lunch!” She explained and moved on, waving to them as she walked by “See you guys when we get back to class.”

They waited until Kaiyo was out of earshot before letting out a collective sigh of relief and continued their discussion, “I know what you’re thinking, Masato, and no.” Ju said, “We wouldn’t have time to go now,  you might be able to talk to a few Digimon, but no way you could actually find a partner in the Network in the time we have. It’ll be better to just wait until after school and meet at my place.”

Masato looked disappointed but Isamu was distracted from the rest of the conversation when he saw a figure running across the roof of the school. It took him a moment to recognize Puckmon; the Digimon he and Ju had met at the cabin. He remembered that they had discussed the idea of convincing Puckmon to be Masato’s partner and almost said something, but the rookie level troublemaker vanished again in moments.

Isamu shook his head, besides, if the Network was open again surely they’d find someone a little more suitable for Masato there. He turned his attention to helping Ju describe what the Network was like and the prizes that were available to win in the games.

-

Out in the field, Kaiyo waited with her lunch box for her friend. The pair had only met a few days ago, but sharing meals with the little creature called Puckmon had become one of the highlights of Kaiyo’s day.  She could see him on the roof of the school and sat down on her uniform jacket as if it were a picnic blanket.

She was concerned about what Isamu had said earlier, about Digimon. Some kind of online game with a name so similar to her friend? It couldn’t be a coincidence, maybe Puckmon would have more answers for her. He jumped down from the roof and sprinted toward her with his hands out stretched.

“Please?” He said without being prompted.

Kaiyo smiled proudly at him, “Very good! I brought you something extra special today.” She said, patting the ground next to her, and opened up her lunch box to reveal home baked cupcakes with hand made icing, “I found this recipe for ‘Piñata’ cupcakes on an American website and Nana helped me with the conversions. Try one!”

“With pleasure!” Puckmon replied, tossing a whole cupcake in his mouth and chewing happily as he savored the fluffy treat seemingly without even noticing what exactly made it a Piñata cupcake. “It’s delicious!” He exclaimed happily.

Kaiyo laughed and let him have another “Take it one bite at a time, now. Do you notice anything?”

Puckmon did as he was told and took a smaller bite, his eyes widened to notice that there were little candies baked into the center. “Can I have another!?” He asked.

Kaiyo shook her head to his obvious disappointment, but Kaiyo insisted that they eat something healthy before they had any more dessert. Puckmon was happy to agree to those terms.

The small creature slowed down after eating two cupcakes, a sandwich and half an apple, but he kept looking toward the lunchbox to see if she had anything else tasty stashed away. Kaiyo withheld more until he finished his apple, waiting to see if he even wanted another cupcake after all that.

“Say, Puckmon? I have a question.” She said  after a moment and waited for him to grunt ‘what question?’ before she asked, “Are you a Digimon?”

He replied bluntly, “Of course I am. And you’re a human, what of it?”

Kaiyo blinked, “I just...I heard some kids in my class talking about you- them- Digimon. And I don’t understand, what exactly is a Digimon?”

“We’re exactly what we sound like,” Puckmon answered, “Digital Monsters.”

“Digital monsters, Digimon...Oh! Digi-mon, I get it.” Kaiyo beamed, “So you come from the internet then? Like out of a computer?”

“No, I come from the Digital World, the internet is a much creepier place, trust me.” Puckmon made a big show of shuttering, but laid back, “Still, the Digital World ain’t what it used to be, that’s why so many of Digimon are coming over here lately and looking for part-.” he cut himself off, “Never mind.”

“Wait, what’s going on in your world? You’re looking for what? Part time jobs?” The last part was intended as a joke, but Puckmon’s lips didn’t even twitch and her friend looked lost in thought..

He stood up suddenly, seemingly no longer interested in talking to her, or even eating, “I don’t need a Tamer. I’m good enough on my own!” He declared, more to himself than Kaiyo, though he turned to her with a nod, “Thanks for lunch.” He said and took off back toward the rooftop.

“Puckmon, wait!” Kaiyo shouted after him, but he didn’t slow down or look back.

With a sigh she closed her lunchbox and collected her jacket. Well, one question was answered, but now she had even more. She supposed if what Puckmon said was true about the Digimon coming from a Digital World then maybe Isamu was telling the truth about  them being an internet thing, she’d have to look them up tonight and see if she could get more answers.

If not, she could always ask Isamu again.

-

The lunch bell rang and the students all began filing back into class. The remaining subjects were boring and with the three talkative students separated there were no distractions either. It seemed like the day dragged on forever, but when the bell finally rang, Masato was the first one out of his seat.

Boy, the kid could really move when he wanted to. Masato rushed to the locker room to put on his casual clothes, if he was going to meet his partner today he wasn’t going to do it in this dumb uniform! Isamu and Aki followed behind him as well as a few other boys from their class, all eager to get out of their uniforms and into real clothes.

“So when we get to the Network, you’ll take me to the hub to get my entry prize and Ju will take Masato to see if they can find a partner.” Aki said aloud, recounting the discussion they’d had at lunch, “That’s the plan right?”

“Sounds like a good plan to me!” Lutrimon piped from the bag, “As long as I get to stretch my legs out, I feel like I’ve been stuck in here for days!”

Aki smiled, “I’ll let you out when we get to Ju’s, alright?”

Masato was more interested in talking to Ju about the Digimon that were looking for partners in the Network, “Anybody cool, like Nemaemon?”

“All Digimon are cool.” Ju corrected, “But if you mean big champion level ones, I’ve seen a few, but the shelter they gather at is always getting in new guests as some don’t find what they're looking for in a partner and leave, or meet just the right person. I can’t tell you who might be there when we talk to them.”

“I just want a partner that can kick big time butt!” Masato pumped the air, Isamu laughed while Ju rolled her eyes, Aki smiled at his friend’s enthusiasm but was a little busy with Lutrimon.

Ju let them in and showed them into her room where she booted up her computer and signed into the Network while Isamu opened the window to let the other Digimon in. The computer screen began to glow and Isamu grinned, “Here we go.”

The strange sensation of being sucked through the computer screen still made Isamu feel a little nauseated, but from the groans behind him, Isamu could tell that Aki and Masato had fared much worse. Good, that meant Masato could make it to the Network without a D-Gauntlet.

“Is it going to be like that every time?”  Aki pushed up his glasses, as Isamu pulled down his goggles to read about the Digimon in the plaza.

The city did not look like it had been under attack recently, aside from an occasional damage reading on his goggles, and a glitch or two on the street it looked brand new. Isamu didn’t know much about the Admins that had been repairing the Network for the last week, but they definitely knew what they were doing.

A large monitor that usually played live footage from the Coliseum had what seemed to be a news report about the attack. A grainy recording of a Digimon, the image wasn’t clear enough for his goggles to identify it, but Isamu didn’t need his analyzer to know that the Demon-like Digimon was clearly far more powerful than any he’d encountered yet. An ultimate level Digimon, maybe even a Mega.

As Masato and Aki continued to moan and clutch their sides. Ju waved at them, the only one of the group who didn’t look even a tiny bit dizzy. “You get used to it, I promise.” She said and started walking, “Come on, Masato, the Digimon who come to the Network looking for partners stay in a shelter a few blocks this way. Isamu, you remember where the hub is, right?”

The group split up, Ju led Masato to the shelter while Cannismon and Leptomon dashed ahead to keep the way clear if any Bugs showed up. She noticed with some dismay that while the Network seemed busy, there were not nearly as big of crowds wandering out. Could it be that word just hadn’t spread quite yet that the Network was open again?

“Here we are,” She announced, and looked in the door, once again a little disappointed to see that there weren’t that many Digimon in the shelter, and some of them looked pretty ragged and tired, like they desperately needed a Digicure.

Masato stepped inside and gasped in awe, “So who are these guys?” Clearly he still didn’t know Digimon well enough to see how sorry the group looked.

Still, each of them raised their heads at the sound of a human voice and a few of them came bounding over to meet their potential partner, just as eager as Masato himself was. “My name is Elecmon, I’m a mammal Digimon with electric abilities, as my name implies!”

“I’m a Bakemon, a ghost Digimon, and if anyone ever picks on you I’ll haunt them senseless with my evil charm!” Ju touched Masato’s shoulder to warn him that Bakemon was a Champion level virus Digimon and would probably be a bit much for him, but judging by Masato’s expression he didn’t need the warning.

Just as well, more Digimon were starting to swarm.“No pick me! I’m Penguinmon!”

“Tsukaimon!”

“Kamemon!”

Masato was quickly surrounded and Ju had to help him herd them all to tables and convince them to sit down and talk with him one at a time to see if something sparked between them. Ju was grateful Aki already had his partner, she wasn’t sure that the other boy could handle the crowding Digimon without getting overwhelmed, even Masato was starting to look like he was going to need a break before he found a partner.

-

Across the world, Liv had fallen asleep in her clothes with her phone in her hand. She was dreaming of playing with Scrofamon in the woods with her family when the phone vibrated a text message for her. Groggily she opened her eyes to see that it was still pitch black, whoever was texting her better have a good reason-

It was from Andromon, informing her that the Network was open again and asking if she was going to join the auction raid.  Liv made a mental countdown in her head, yes, this was the date that auction was supposed to be on. Some deep instinct made her want to agree immediately, but she stopped herself. Still, Andromon was her friend and she didn’t want to keep disappointing him.

It’s still super early here, I need to wake up first, but I’ll think about it. If I decide to, I’ll meet you in the usual place, but if not go without me. Liv texted and waited several minutes for an answer. Andromon didn’t reply.

Awake now, and with the Network open again, Liv couldn’t just go back to sleep and shook her partner awake, “Hey, you want to stretch your legs a bit?” She asked.

Scrofamon snorted, “No.” he replied, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

Liv gave a small chuckle, picked him up and headed for her computer, “Yeah you do, you lazy bum.”

Scrofamon blinked sleepily in her arms for a moment but seemed to wake up instantly when he realized that she was going to her computer and what the only possible meaning for that was. “The Network is back up!?” He asked excitedly, getting a nod in return, “Are we going to go to the Auction, today?...The Coliseum is fine too.”

Liv noted the excitement in Scrofamon’s voice at the idea of going to the Auction, and the more bored tone when mentioning the Coliseum. She frowned and remembered what she’d texted to Andromon, “We’ll see.” Liv said and opened the gate.

-

A few blocks from where Liv entered the Network, Ju was leaving the shelter after her partners. She had been standing to the side and watching a few interviews, but soon enough Cannismon and Leptomon grew bored and left out the open door,  forcing Ju to follow her partners as they excitedly scrambled around.

A few figures turned the corner and Ju understood what had gotten them so excited, “Wemicmon! Lutrimon! Over here!” Leptomon barked loudly, while Cannismon waved her tail at their approach.

Ju chuckled and waved her hand to greet Aki and Isamu. The Digimon acted like they hadn’t seen each other in years, “How’d it go?” She asked.

“I got a battle item.” Aki said, lifting his D-Gauntlet proudly, “It says it’s the Blue Sword and Shield combo, a permanent battle item that can only be used by Ultimate level Digimon. ”

Isamu nodded, “We don’t know what that means.” He said sheepishly.

Ju smiled at him, “That means that it won’t disappear when you use it like Isamu’s basic shield item did when he used it against Apemon. You get to keep it forever. But it also means you can’t use it unless Lutrimon Digivolves to her next form.”

“Next form?”

“Yeah,” Ju explained, “Digimon have the same basic levels, Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega, there are a few others that can only be achieved through certain means, like Armor level, but all Digimon can achieve those six.”

“So after reaching Champion, the Digimon can evolve to Ultimate?” Isamu asked.

Ju nodded “Yes, though it’s not as simple as Digivolving from Rookie to Champion. The D-Gauntlets help achieve Champion but reaching Ultimate can take years of training just on your own.” She said, she saw Aki’s disheartened look and quickly added “I don’t personally know anyone who’s achieved it, but rumor has it you the admins programmed a really rare item that you can win and achieve Ultimate by activating it like the D-Gauntlets”

The boys took a moment to let that sink in, Aki opened his mouth, Ju expected him to ask how Masato was doing looking for a partner, but his gaze was behind her. “What’s going on over there?”

A small crowd had gathered, and curiosity drove the small group forward to where a Digimon the same size as Wemicmon was standing, speaking to the crowd. The Digimon was light brown with purple markings. He  had a horse-like appearance, but with a black nose like a dog and stood on two legs. The hooves on his arms were split like fingers, probably to help him grip the bo staff that was strapped to his back.

“Listen, I know you’ve been told the Digital World is incredibly dangerous, and it is, don’t get me wrong.” He was saying, “But you’re Tamers for crying out loud! If you can’t help them, who will?”

Ju cast a look to Isamu, who had his goggles down to read information on the new Digimon, “His name is Equimon, he’s a rookie level Digimon, Vaccine type, says here his special attacks are all based on mental energy.”

“I wonder what he’s talking about?” Aki asked.

“What who’s talking about?” They all jumped a little when Masato appeared behind them. He looked up at the Digimon that was speaking.

“Come on, you’re scared I understand, but you here who have partner Digimon have the power to make them stronger so they can protect you.” Equimon said, “Imagine what it must be like for those poor children. Children younger than you, taken from an unsuspecting day care while the attending adult was distracted. Taken and held hostage in the Digital World while their captors prepared for this day, so that they can be sold to the highest bidder, to Digimon who think of humans as little more than slaves to make them Digivolve. Won’t any of you help me go rescue those poor kids?”

There were murmurs in the crowd, dismayed moans and terrified whispers “I just got my partner a few weeks ago, I couldn’t possibly risk losing him. I’m not strong enough.”

“We can’t even get a decent score on the battle simulator, we’d be obliterated.”

“I can’t battle evil Digimon, rescue children and protect my partner at the same time, I don’t have enough experience.”

“We’re just not good enough.”

Equimon put his hooves on his side, “I’ll go by myself if I have to, but don’t any of you want to join me? You don’t have to do much, you just need to distract the guards while I free the kids, the risk should be minimal.”

Ju couldn’t help but notice that the only ones that had returned to the Network so far were a bunch of inexperienced Tamers with Digimon that couldn’t put up much of a fight. Was this just a coincidence, or had the group that orchestrated the attack been counting on that in order to pull off this auction?

As she contemplated this, Masato stepped forward, “I’ll go!” He said.

The crowd turned to him, no one recognized him from the games or coliseum and quickly noticed his lack of a D-Gauntlet, “Where’s your partner?” One kid with a Gostumon asked.

Masato stared them down with a determined glint, “I don’t have one. But there are defenseless children out there, and if Equimon is willing to go alone, then so am I. Partner or no partner.”

Ju was about to point out what a terrible idea that was, when Isamu and Wemicmon both took a step forward to back him up, “We’ll go too.” Isamu said, “We might not have a lot of experience, but some fire power is better than no fire power.”

Lutrimon crawled up her Tamer’s shoulder, “Aki, let’s go too.” She said, “I believe in you, and Isamu and Wemicmon. We can do this if we work together.”

Aki nodded, but of the volunteers he seemed the least certain that they could really pull it off, “Y-yeah, let’s do it.”

As the Tamer with the most experience, Ju couldn’t let them go without her, after all, Isamu may have gotten Wemicmon to Digivolve before she got her partners to, he still had a lot to learn about battling. “So will we.” She said, bringing her two partners forward.

Equimon looked ready to pass out with pride as he ran over to them, “Thank you kids so much!” He declared, counting the number of volunteers he had to accompany him, “Four humans and five Digimon should be enough to keep the guards distracted, we’ll have those children out in no time.”

“More like you’ll all be killed in no time.” Everyone turned at the sound of the newcomer.

Everyone except Masato, Aki, Lutrimon and Equimon gave a sharp gasp when Liv Campion, the queen of the Coliseum stepped forward, and likely only didn’t react that way because they didn’t know who she was. She approached them with her partner Scrofamon in tow.

“Do you think these Auctions just have a few bumbling guards that you can just knock out and steal the keys from? The Digimon in charge of these things usually have more than one trick up their sleeve and there’s always at least one Ultimate level overseeing the Auction. If you aren’t eaten alive by the Bakemon, the head honcho will take you out without a sweat, and  even if you somehow manage to make it passed them alive you still need to free the children and high tail it out before backup arrives, because I guarantee somewhere in the chaos, somebody went to get reinforcements. Your Digimon will be killed, and you’ll be sold at the Auction too.”

Liv said this with the certainty of someone who had seen it a hundred times, which she probably had. Though Ju was not the one to comment on it. Wemicmon raised his voice, “Hey, aren’t you famous for going to these Auctions and rescuing kids? How about you stop talking like that and come with us if you know so much? Or are you too scared?”

Something that he said seemed to strike a nerve with Liv, but she quickly hid her jarred emotions behind a mask of anger, Scrofamon bolted forward matching his Tamer’s glare, “Watch what you say, rookie! Talk to Liv like that and you have to go through me! Come on, put up your dukes and fight me!”

His Tamer hushed him, “It’s alright Scrofamon, let the wannabe heroes have their moment of glory.” She said, beckoning her partner back to her side, “They can be a warning to the rest of the newbies about what happens if you go into the Digital World unprepared.” She turned around to leave.

Isamu called out after her, “Hey! The only way to be prepared is to learn from experience. We’re going to save those children, and you could help! What happened to make you turn your back on people in need?”

Liv paused for a moment, but continued to ignore him and left, with Scrofamon only turning back to snort a challenge at Wemicmon, promising that if they somehow managed to make it back alive, the boar-like Digimon was still up for a fight to defend his Tamer’s honor.

There was silence for a moment before Aki, of all people, spoke up “Well, are we just going to let her get away with saying that, or are we going to prove her wrong?”

Lutrimon beamed at him, “That’s the spirit Aki!”

Equimon nodded, “It’ll be dangerous, but I have faith in all of you.” He turned to Masato, seemingly most impressed by the human that volunteered despite not having a partner at all, “I don’t have a Tamer so you and I are in the same boat. Those guys can keep the guards busy while you and I free the children, having another human there might help ease their nerves. I promise I’ll do my best to protect you if worst comes to worst”

Masato gave him a thumbs up, “Sounds like a plan to me. So how do we get to the Digital World?”

Ju pointed, “There’s a gate on the other side of the City, if we have the coordinates to the Auction we can punch in a nearby location and make a more thorough plan for those of us who can fight.”

Equimon nodded, “I’ve got intel from Andromon, I know when and where it is.” He said, pulling out a small orb of data, “And don’t listen to Liv, there will be a whole Raider team there so we won’t be going without our own backup.”

Isamu touched his goggles, “I can use these to find out if the guards have any specific weaknesses.” This seemed to impress Equimon even more, although none of it seemed enough to convince any of the other young Tamers to gather their courage and come with them.

Lutrimon nuzzled Aki’s cheek, “Our first adventure as partners, Aki!” She trilled, “Isn’t this exciting!?”

“Terrifying, is what I’d say,” Aki replied, and added in a hushed whisper “So let’s go before I change my mind.”

Wemicmon grinned, “This is exactly what I wanted to do when I met my Tamer! Let’s go save those kids!”

Next Episode

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode V

Previous episode

The Deep End

It was a beautiful day so when class was out, Kaiyo immediately went to the locker room to change out of her uniform and into casual clothes. A lot of students just waited until they got home, but there were a few other girls changing in the locker room, including the transfer student, and Kaiyo noticed Isamu heading for the men’s locker room with Aki and Masato in tow.

She smiled, looked like the three of them got things sorted out. She wondered if they’d made friends with Ju yet. Kaiyo rushed out of the school and headed straight for her favorite bakery. Nana had given her some money to pick up a loaf of bread for dinner and she had saved enough to splurge on a few spendy pastries for an after school snack.

The sky was clear and the sun was warm, with the weather so nice she decided to cut through the park and enjoy the clearer air, rather than sticking to the streets and car exhaust. The girl rummaged through her bag for the treats and pulled out a stick of Dango to munch on as she walked. There was a slight rustling in the bush to her left, Kaiyo ignored it, thinking it was probably a bird or an animal, but gave a short shriek when something leaped out at her.

“Give me some of that!” The stranger demanded, stomping the ground and raising his fists. Kaiyo blinked.

It looked like a young kid wearing some kind of costume, a really well made one, but he spoke with the clarity of an older kid. He stomped his foot, er, his hoof impatiently while awaiting her to follow through with his demand.

Kaiyo clutched her bag of treats closer to her, whatever this thing was- a kid in a costume or some spirit who lived in this park- he had very poor manners, and Papa and Nana had raised her not to deal with this kind of attitude. “Say please first!” She instructed, standing straighter, digging her shoes into the dirt and refusing to give into his rudeness.

“What?” the stranger cocked his head, clearly not used to people standing their ground in front of him.

Kaiyo reiterated, “Ask nicely and say please, and I’ll give you some of my pastries.” She said, raising one hand away from the bag to wave her pointer finger at him “But I’m not handing them over to some jerk who jumps out of the bushes at me!”

His eyes widened in surprise, but narrowed quickly, “That’s stupid! Do you have any idea what I could do to you? Just give me some of your food!” Kaiyo refused to be intimidated and began stepping away, turning around and breaking into a run. It wasn’t long before the creature was shouting after her, “Wait, come back! Come on! I need something to eat! I’m begging you!”

The desperation in his voice made her stop and turn back around, “If you’re willing to beg, what’s so hard about saying please?” She asked as the little creature ran to catch up with her.

He leaned over panting for a second and refused to look her in the eyes as he spat out, “Fine, give me some of your food, please!”

“Tsk tsk. That’s still not very nice.” She waved her finger at him a second time, and gave him another chance “Try ‘may I have some of your food, please?’”

Papa taught her to be firm, Nana taught her to be polite, and both of them taught her not to waste her time on people who could do the same for her.

The stranger glared at Kaiyo, she was starting to feel a little mean, the poor thing was obviously starving, but she couldn’t back down now. “May I have… some of your food…please?” He seemed to struggle to make himself say that, his pale green face was turning pink from humiliation.

Kaiyo smiled and proudly announced, “That’s better! It could use a little work next time, but a deal’s a deal!” She reached back into her bag, and pulled out the desserts she’d bought. “Sorry, I don’t have any real food, I just bought some treats.”

The little guy’s eyes lit up regardless, as he snatched them out of her hand like he was afraid she’d change her mind.

She’d intended to bring them home for her grandparents and have some for her lunches this week, but this guy definitely needed it more than she did. He scarfed down her Imagawayaki, Manju, and Daifuki and didn’t seem to be slowing down. Looked like his  table manners needed some help too.

Nana and Papa would have to be happy with whatever was left for them, she supposed.

“My name’s Kaiyo Nakano.” She introduced herself, deciding that at the very least they should know each other’s names.

Her strange little companion had his mouth full of food, but nodded to acknowledge her, and seemed to know better than to answer without swallowing first.

“Puckmon” He said bluntly, and reached toward her for more.

However, Kaiyo closed her bag and lied about being out of food just to ensure that she had anything to bring back for her grandparents. “What do we say after someone gives us something nice?” She said with a half teasing tone.

The creature looked away from her, the color rising back to his cheeks, and quietly muttered, “…Thank you.”

Kaiyp giggled and gave him a quick pat on the head for knowing the right answer, he pouted and growled when she did but Kaiyo laughed it off and turned to continue her way through the park.

“Come back tomorrow, Kaiyo!” he shouted behind her, making her turn again and open her mouth to correct him, but he seemed to realize his mistake immediately, “I mean- will you please, come back tomorrow, Kaiyo? Please?” He added an extra please to the end as if trying to butter her up.

Kaiyo giggled and waved to him, “Sure! And I’ll bring something with actual nutrition! You work on those manners, alright!” She heard him grumbling to himself before he shouted an agreement and she was allowed to leave.

She looked back though, Puckmon was nowhere on the trail, but her near empty bag was all the proof Kaiyo needed to know she hadn’t imagined the encounter. The girl turned around again and continued her walk home, thinking about Puckmon, overcome with an odd feeling, like something really important had just happened to her.

Finally she got through the park and started down the street to the convenience store her grandparents managed. She covered shifts from time to time, but not tonight, Kaiyo wanted to prepare for meeting Puckmon again by getting him something good. Ahead of her, she recognized Aki from her class. His face was bright red and he shifted his duffel bag around his shoulder nervously, must have forgotten it at school and had to go back for it.

The pair waved to each other as they passed, but didn’t stop to chat as Kaiyo went to her family’s store and Aki continued the other way toward the warehouse district to meet his friends. “I can’t believe I forgot my bag!” He muttered to himself as he picked up his pace.

A block passed the park Isamu, Masato and Ju were waiting at the corner where he’d realized he’d forgotten his bag and run back to the school to go get it. They were checking out the warehouse District for abandoned buildings to hide their Digimon at until they decided it was safe to go back to the cabin Isamu and Ju had found earlier.

Though, with how run down this part of town was, Aki wondered if maybe it was a better idea to stay here. Maybe he’d make that suggestion when he found his partner and actually got a say in where they hid them.

“Alright, you didn’t forget anything else, did you?” Masato teased.

“Nope.” Aki assured them, “I even double checked my locker to make sure I didn’t leave my homework.”

“Right, I believe you,” Ju grinned, “So where was I?”

“You just just finished explaining the hub prizes.” Isamu said, “So tell us about these Bugs.”

“I want to hear about the Court of Demons.” Masato argued.

Ju chose to explain the Bugs first, “The Network is a man made Digital Space, like an online RPG it has its share of technical issues, most common it’s glitches with building structure or gravity, but sometimes they manifest as Bugs.” She told them, “Rumor has it that they were originally an attempt by humans to create artificial Digimon but they’ve grown into their own Digital life form and attack the city. Admins keep a lookout for them and all captured Bugs are kept in the Bug Core below the City to use as enemies in the Coliseum.”

“That sounds like a practical use for them.” Aki said, pushing up his glasses, “So we don’t really need to worry about Bugs too much then, right?”

“We always need to worry about Bugs.” Ju said, shaking her head slightly and inadvertently making Aki feel really stupid “Even Rookie level Digimon can handle a small pack of Bugs, but if a horde shows up it could be very dangerous. The attack on the Network that we got that e-mail about is bound to draw a horde to the City, the Admins will be up to their necks cleaning up damage and fending off Bugs, it might take up to a week before the Network is running again.”

Masato groaned, never having enough patience, “That’s not fair, I want to meet my Digimon partner!”

Aki for one was a little relieved, having to wait a week gave him time to prepare himself to talk to Digimon about a partnership. He wasn’t very smart, and wasn’t good at much aside from swimming, he needed to make sure he could present himself in a way that might convince a Digimon he was worth teaming up with. No way he could get someone cool like Namaemon, but a small, calm Digimon might be something he could take care of and rely on.

They approached a building that Ju pointed to, “This is the place I was thinking we could hide the Digimon.” She said, “I had Cannismon and Leptomon check it out, they like it. It’s not that different than the warehouse I hid them in back in Beijing.”

“Speaking of the attack,” Masato said, barely acknowledging Ju’s comment about the warehouse, “You mention something about a Demon Council, what was that about?”

“The Court of Demons.” Ju corrected, and ushered them inside where the Digimon were already making themselves at home, having gone ahead when Aki turned back to get his bag. Ju sat down and bit her lip, “The thing you guys need to understand about the Digital World is that it’s very dangerous, that’s why the Network exists, so Tamers can meet with their partners in a safe environment”

It was one large room, probably once storage for one of the businesses that had gone under a couple of years back. There were boxes still stacked together, though the bottom ones had been torn open by rats or squatters. Others had been toppled over with brand name clothes spilling out, old and dusty but with price tags still attached. There were large windows above them that let in the light, and stairways to landings that had other storage units that would provide cover if anyone but the kids came in.

After taking in the sight, Ju continued her explanation “One of the leading reasons the Digital World is such a mess is because of the War. It’s been going on for years, and there used to be hundreds of different armies fighting for control. These days there’s only two major groups left, the Court of Demons and the Court of Angels.”

“If there’s only two armies left, why is it still so dangerous?” Aki asked, and again felt like an idiot for not coming to what should have been an easy conclusion when Ju explained

“Because the reason there’s only two left is because the other armies eventually all took one side of the other, making the war primarily over one thing,” She said, pausing for a heartbeat and glancing at all of them to make sure they were all paying attention to what she was saying “Whether Digimon should join with humans or exterminate them.”

“The Court of Demons was the group that’s attacking the Network, isn’t it?” Isamu asked, Ju nodded in repose, “So is Gray with the Court of Angels and that’s how he knew about the attack?”

Aki wished he had Isamu’s confidence.

Ju shrugged, “I don’t know how Gray knew. Nobody knows how Gray knows these things. The reason he’s so famous is because he hasn’t left the Digital World in years, it’s probably that he has lots of contacts.”

Silence fell on the group, Aki was having second thoughts about this Tamer business when he remembered that because of the Network they would never need to get mixed up in this war. He relaxed a little, if he found a partner and they trained together in the Network, maybe he could work up the courage to enter the actual Digital World and help refugees or something, but what could someone like him do to stop a war?

Finally Isamu spoke up again, “Well, it's huge and it looks like the Digimon like it here.” He said, “I think maybe we could move some of those boxes around and have some makeshift furniture, until we can scrap together some money for real chairs.  With a little time and effort this could be a great hideout, Puckmon can keep that cabin I was thinking of.” He leaned down to pick up a bit of ripped newspaper and move it into a nearby box.

“Puckmon?” Masato asked, raising a brow as he did a head count of the Digimon in their group.

Isamu “Oh, right. He’s a rookie Digimon Ju and I met a few days ago. Did you guys hear about the monster in the woods the news reported? That was him.” Isamu said, and gave a slight shrug, “He’s a little on the obnoxious side, but I don’t think he’s dangerous. Actually, I was thinking he might be a good partner for Masato.”

“Really? Where is he now, I want to talk to him!” Masato exclaimed, but Isamu and Ju calmed him down, saying that after the news report Puckmon probably went into hiding.

Aki’s heart sank a little. Isamu and Ju already met another Digimon that could be a potential partner and immediately felt like he’d be good for Masato, not him. Granted, based on what they said, Aki could agree that kind of Digimon was definitely not his type, but it still nagged at him to not have someone think of him first.

As his friends continued to talk about the mischievous Digimon, Aki suddenly felt very excluded and like he didn’t belong with this group. He didn’t want to leave without saying anything, but he also had no idea what to say, or if they’d even listen to him.

Thankfully his phone gave him just the excuse he needed to leave. Beep! He checked the text while everyone turned as if remembering for the first time he was here. “That’s my mom.” He told them and quickly shoved the phone into his pocket, afraid to interrupt their conversation. “She wants me to go to the market and pick up some vegetables for her. I’d better go.” Aki said, backing away.

“Oh, okay.” Isamu said, “You can come back later and play with the Digimon when you’re done.” He added.

“Bring us back some treats!” Leptomon piped, rubbing against his leg, causing Aki to jump a little since he hadn’t seen the white twin come up. Her sister padded up beside her looking up to Aki with a similarly hopeful look, but said nothing.

“Um…okay.”  Aki replied, sweating a little, Wemicmon bounded over too, but Isamu stepped in front of him to give Aki space to hurry out, relieved to be away from them, while Isamu scolded his partner. All these Digimon... it was a little overwhelming. What was he thinking?

He could never be a Tamer. The thought echoed in his head as Aki made his way out of the warehouse district.

He wasn’t good enough for this sort of responsibility.

Aki joylessly completed his errand, his mom had a list for him and promised to pay him back every expense that came out of his allowance. This was the only thing he was good for, swimming and being man of the house for his single mom. Maybe someone out there had it way worse, but that didn’t stop Aki from being miserable...Things would have been different if dad and Yūko hadn’t…

No, Aki, don’t do that to yourself, he reminded himself, Have all the pity parties you want about how pathetic you are but don’t think about them

To save himself time going home from the market, Aki chose to cut through the park. It was a really nice day and the clean air helped him relax. It wasn’t long before he got the surprise of his life. He heard rustling in the bushes to his left, and walked a little faster, assuming it was a bird or small animal, and was taken aback when something leaped out at him.

“Found you!” A small femine voice greeted, “Aki Mikami, I’m going to be your partner!” The voice belonged to a creature that resembled an otter, she had long ribbon-like ears and light blue hair with dotted markings on her face the same color, her main body was covered with brown fur.

Most noticeable was the gold ring around her front left paw, there was some sort of inscription on it, but the boy didn’t recognize any of the symbols.

Aki may have only learned about Digimon a few hours ago, but he certainly knew enough already to recognize one when he saw them. Or at least recognize what the term partner entailed. “M-my partner!?”

That was... fast.

The Otter nodded,and bounced around happily “My name is Lutrimon!” She greeted,  and jumped up so suddenly that Aki almost  didn’t have time to catch her, “I’m really looking forward to working with you, Aki!” Lutrimon cried, nuzzling her tiny head into his neck.

Aki was speechless as he stroked the Digimon’s long body. His Digimon? She wasn’t exactly calm, but she was small, he could probably fit her in his bag, and her form and colors strongly suggested a water element.

She was absolutely perfect! “I’m looking forward to working with you too!” He grinned, Aki was so excited about this sudden development that he didn’t even stop to consider how odd this encounter was. Just wait until Masato and the others saw this! That reminded him “Oh! I should introduce you to the other Tamers!” He said, unzipping his duffel bag to invite her in, “Do you mind? I’d like you to be a surprise” He grinned widely

Lutrimon nodded enthusiastically, “Sure thing! Great idea, Aki!” She declared and climbed in, Aki made sure she was nice and comfortable before turning back the way he’d come and running back to show off his partner.

His friends jumped when he burst through the door, “Guys, you’re never going to believe what just happened!” He shouted, reaching for his bag to let Lutrimon out.

“Did you accidentally leave something here?” Masato started to laugh but was silenced when Lutrimon jumped out of Aki’s bag and shook herself off.

“Hello!” She greeted, “My name is Lutrimon, I’m Aki’s partner Digimon! It’s nice to meet you!”

The other Digimon immediately came forward to greet the newcomer while the humans stood dumbfounded at the very sudden partnership. “I can’t believe this!” Masato groaned, “How did you meet your partner before I met mine?”

Aki opened and closed his mouth, only now was it dawning on him that Lutrimon had  known him by name and sought him out. He gave his partner a quizzical glance, but Lutrimon had an answer for that, “I saw Aki at the swimming championships and I’ve been looking for him since!” She said, giving him a determined nod. “I knew he was the one I’ve been looking for! He’s the best swimmer in the district!”

He had to think about it, “Championships? You mean the annual swimming school competition?” Lutrimon nodded, but it only threw Aki for another loop “That was months ago!” Aki gasped, she’d been looking for him that long? He could have had a partner before he even met Isamu, let alone, Ju.

“Uh-huh!” She purred and leaped into his arms again.

Isamu pulled down his goggles to get a reading on the new Digimon, “Lutrimon, champion level Holy Beast type.” Isamu pulled his goggles back up and squinted at Lutrimon before pulling the goggles back down, to double check the information. “That’s what it says, Champion level Holy Beast.”

“Digimon come in all sorts of sizes, so it’s not odd to see a Champion this small.” Ju spoke up, reaching over to gesture to the gold ring that Aki had noticed earlier, “She’s got a Holy Ring,” She said, looking at it in awe.

“Champion? Holy Beast?” Aki blinked awkwardly, not understanding what any of that meant.

Isamu took the job of explaining, “Remember earlier when Wemicmon Digivolved? He’s a Rookie level Digimon, the Champion level is the next stage up. That means Lutrimon is the same level as Namaemon.”

“And she’s a Holy Digimon.” Ju added, lifting up her D-Guantlet to show a few images from her catalogue of Digimon she had encountered “There’s a few different varieties like Beast, Dragon, Knight and Bird, but in the grand scheme, Holy Digimon are actually pretty rare.”

“Wh-what does that mean?” Aki asked, still confused, and starting to get a little uneasy.

Lutrimon turned to him with a happy smile, “It means I’m pretty special, so we need to take good care of each other!”

The joy Aki was feeling started to drain out of him, Lutrimon was a special Digimon, and he was beyond inadequate. There had to be some kind of mistake, he couldn’t really be partners with this Digimon. Masato provided just the right comment to completely shatter the delusions he’d been having since meeting Lutrimon in the park.

“Where’s the glove-thing? Aren’t you supposed to get a glove-thing when you meet your partner?” Masato asked, while Isamu and Ju corrected him by reminding him that it was called a ‘D-Guantlet’

Aki put Lutrimon down on a nearby box, looking at her sadly... he’d been so excited too, “I didn’t get one.”

“Aki, it does-” Lutrimon started but Aki felt tears well up in his eyes and turned around to run out of the warehouse, “Aki, wait!” Lutrimon called and Aki could practically feel her running after him, while Ju and Isamu shouted his name too.

Well, he wasn’t much of a runner, but Aki had longer legs, if he could just keep moving maybe he’d get away and not have to face the disappointment of not being her Tamer. If only it was that easy. Aki was right about having longer legs, but Lutrimon had more stamina and a good sense of smell. She followed him for at least two hours, seemingly not caring if any other humans saw her.

Finally it seemed like he lost her, Aki was out of breath and his nerves were completely shot. His flight had brought him back to school, the pool was still open for swimming team members to keep their exercise up between competitions and Aki thought a few laps would help him relax.

The pool was completely empty, Aki thought it was weird that not even the pool supervisor seemed to be in his office, perhaps he was out getting a bite to eat. Aw well, he knew Aki wasn’t going to drown, he wouldn’t mind the boy taking a few unsupervised laps around the pool. Aki kept his swimming trunks and towel in his duffel bag, which was why he carried it around everywhere, and quickly changed so he could get started.

He didn’t notice that he wasn’t really alone in the pool until he’d completed two laps, and it was too late.

A shape flew at him in the water, all but tackling him and forcing him under the water. Aki was expecting Lutrimon, the small otter-like Digimon was just dedicated enough that he supposed she would have figured out he’d gone to the pool.

But he was wrong.

He didn’t know what this Digimon was, but he knew it wasn’t as friendly as Lutrimon. It reminded him of a tadpole that had gotten it’s legs but hadn’t quite become a frog yet, it was green and had a big red sail on its head. Was it going to kill him?

The Digimon spoke, being an aquatic type, it only needed it’s gills to breathe under the water. “I am Betamon! I need to get stronger! Be my Tamer and I’ll let you live!”

Aki, unfortunately, didn’t have gills, he couldn’t speak underwater, and tried to communicate that to the rogue Digimon by desperately pointing to the surface, but the Digimon only growled and threatened to drown him if he didn’t answer. He could hold his breath far longer than Masato, one of the few things Aki could claim to be proud of was that he could even hold his breath longer than the rest of the swim team. But even Aki couldn’t hold his breath forever, bubbles of air slipped passed his lips, and his vision started to go black.

Lutrimon!

Aki didn’t remember what happened next, one moment he was slipping into unconsciousness, the next his head was bobbing above the water. Something small and furry was guiding him to the edge of the pool, “Aki, wake up, please, he’s coming!”

He didn’t need another wake up call, he remembered the creature that had been threatening him. Though weak and dizzy, Aki managed to swim to the edge and crawl out. Coughing and sputtering he looked up with blurry vision to see Lutrimon hop out of the water with him, “Are you okay?” She asked, touching her paw to his hand gently.

“Y-yeah.” He mumbled around a coughing fit.

Lutrimon nodded to him, and turned back to the pool, “Do you think threatening to drown humans is really going to get you a Tamer, Betamon?” She asked the strange Digimon who was still in the pool, “It won’t, you’ll just kill them, and I won’t stand for that! Aki is my Tamer and I won’t let you hurt him!” She cried and jumped back in the water.

“Lutrimon, don’t!” Aki called out, “ I can’t be your Tamer, I don’t have one of those glove things! I can’t make you Digivolve!”

Lutrimon paused in the water and turned back to him with a smile, “You don’t need to make me Digivolve, I’m already a Champion, remember? I don’t need to Digivolve to beat this creep!” She winked and dived under the water where she zipped around at incredible speed.

The battling Digimon jumped out of the pool together, heading straight toward each other “Beta Slugger!” Betamon began slicing at the air, trying to dice the little otter up with his sharp claws.

Lutrimon was prepared for this, “Neptune Rush!” She called out, and her body became surrounded with a blue aura, water rose from the pool and projected toward Betamon in pressurized streams.

Betamon was knocked off course by the attack and flailed helplessly in the air, but Lutrimon’s attack wasn’t finished. Her blue aura blasted off her body similar to Namaemon’s final attack earlier that day, only her attack was made from pure energy, not fire and it took the shape of some winged being, Aki wasn’t sure what that was about.

Whatever it meant, it knocked Betamon out cold. The tadpole Digimon splashed into the water and floated belly up on the surface, just unconscious for now. Lutrimon twirled in the air, landed gracefully in the pool and began swimming back toward him.

Aki opened his arms to catch her, already knowing that she was going to leap out of the water at him, “Lutrimon, that was amazing!” He exclaimed.

Lutrimon laughed, “So, will you be my Tamer now, Aki?” She asked, Aki hesitated to answer and the otter pulled away from his embrace, she looked at him with sad eyes, “Is there something wrong with me?” Lutrimon asked.

“No! Never! The problem is me!” Aki replied quickly, and noticed Lutrimon’s confused blink. He sighed and started to tell her the truth, “My dad was ...a really smart guy, he had a great job and won a lot of competitions. My older sister was doing long division when she was in first grade, but me…I couldn’t even get 100% on a subtraction test.”

“Aki…” Lutrimon put a paw on his shoulder.

“It was like that as long as I could remember, Dad and sis were always going off to competition after competition while mom and I were left behind, never good enough. One day Dad took my sister to an international tournament in America and never came back, I was in second grade.”

Aki had always blamed himself for never being good enough, no matter how much his mother tried to encourage him that he could do anything he set his mind to. He couldn’t...Maybe he wouldn’t.

“I don’t understand,” Lutrimon said, cocking her head, “What does that have to do with you being my Tamer.”

Aki frowned, “I’m not good enough for you!” He said bluntly, “Look at you, you’re a Champion level who could fight off another Digimon without my help and you’re a Holy Digimon. You’re…You’re perfect! I’m not worthy of you!” Tears slipped over his eyes.

He was afraid of letting down everyone who believed in him…

Or afraid that he would succeed and leave them all behind...

He felt Lutrimon bury her face in his neck, nuzzling him slightly, “It’s not about being worthy Aki.” She told him, “You don’t need to be able to win a bunch of competitions or get 100% on a test to be a good Tamer. Do you know why I want you to be my Tamer?”

Aki shook his head. She’d mentioned that she’d been searching for him since seeing  him compete in the Swimming Championships, but if competitions didn’t matter to her then why?

She pulled away and smiled at him, “Because I think you’re perfect!” She said, “You may not be an academic like your dad or your sister, but look at what you accomplished  through your dedication to your passion. You’re a champion swimmer and are going on to big leagues next season! I believe you can do great things Aki. You just need a little encouragement and to dedicate yourself to them! I want to be there for you, glove-thing or no glove-thing, I’m your partner!”

Aki felt tears welling up in his eyes again, but for a different reason than moments ago. “Th-thank you Lutrimon!” He said, hugging her close, “I wish I could be your Tamer, for real!”

Just as he said that, a light started to glow on his right hand, and when it faded, a bright Blue glove with a strange watch was now on his wrist. “A glov- I mean- what did Ju call them?- A D-Gauntlet!” Aki gasped, staring at it in wonder.

Lutrimon smiled, “See, Aki? I knew you were the one!” She wiggled in his grasp and pawed at the device, “We better take care of that Betamon. He could kill someone next time. Push these buttons to convert him into scan data, your friends can help you find a way to get him back to the Digital world later.”

“Okay.” Aki replied and did as she instructed, he didn’t even fumble and mess up the sequence, the scan went smoothly. “Conversion completed. Rainbow Plate detected. Equip or Store, Rainbow Plate?”

“What’s a Rainbow Plate?” He asked.

“It’s a rare item that’s used to power up Aquatic Digimon,”Lutrimon replied, “But only champion level Digimon can use them. I guess Betamon wanted a partner so bad so he could use the Plate before someone won it from him.”

“Oh.” Aki replied, “I guess you just won it fair and square then. Hm, we’re not in battle, so I guess we’ll store it for now.” He decided.

“Storing Rainbow Plate.” The D- Gauntlet announced.

With that out of the way, Aki returned to the locker room and changed back into his clothes. Lutrimon waited in his bag, content to take a nap after her battle, even if it had been a brief one. Aki couldn't remember the last time he’d felt so good, even earlier when he first met Lutrimon he’d had a small feeling of doubt.

He left the pool just as the Supervisor was returning and informed him that he’d let it slide this one time, but warned him not to use the pool without an adult around to contact in case of an emergency. Aki agreed, after his close call earlier he supposed it would have been better to wait anyway. He continued on, stopping at a convenience store to buy treats for the Digimon like he had promised, and to the hideout where they happily greeted him. His human friends were nowhere to be seen.

Having not been allowed to ask for snacks earlier, Wemicmon was eager to speak up and inform him what had happened to them, “They went out to look for you!” He piped around a candy bar, “Ju said that sometimes D-Gauntlets won’t appear until after you battle together, Isamu wanted to try setting up a mock battle between me and Lutrimon”

Aki started to feel like an idiot again, but the little voice in his head that usually mocked him for not coming to the obvious conclusion instead reminded him that he had no way of knowing that a D-Gauntlet didn’t just appear when a human and Digimon met. It was okay that he didn’t know that, and there was a lot of stuff he still needed to learn. It was okay to be an ametuer.

“Well,” Aki said, lifting up his D-Gauntlet to show off to the surrounding Digimon, who gawked up in amazement, “ I better call them and tell them ‘too late’ I guess” He laughed.

Leptomon jumped up and pawed at his knees enthusiastically, “Congratulations, Aki!” She beamed.

Even Cannismon, the quieter of the two waved her tail happily, “And congratulations to Lutrimon!” She said approvingly, “Where is she, anyway?”

Aki put a finger to his mouth in a shushing motion, “She’s taking a nap.” He said and pointed to his bag, “I need to get home, mom’s going to want those vegetables.” He stood up,

thinking about lifting Lutrimon out to stay with the other Digimon, but decided against it.

It was their first night as partners, they had a lot to talk about.

On his way home, his partner started to stir, “Hey, Aki?” Lutrimon poked her head out of the duffle bag, “I think you’re going to be a great Tamer.” She said, leaning her face against his arm.

Aki found himself smiling, and scratched behind one of Lutrimon’s ribbon-like ears.  “I think I will, too” He replied.

And he believed it

Next Chapter

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode IV

Previous Episode

Leo’s Pride

Isamu was having lunch with the transfer student today.

Aki glanced over at Masato, noticing this fact as well. Mastato tapped his foot under the table, yeah, he knew Isamu had the right to sit wherever he wanted and talk to whoever he wanted, but he was spending an awful lot of time with the new girl.

“Do you think he’s going to stop hanging out with us?” Aki asked, worriedly adjusting his glasses with a disappointed frown, it wouldn’t have been the first time this happened to the duo.

Masato tapped his foot faster, “The least he could do is give us a proper ‘bye guys’ instead of this silent treatment.” The long haired boy huffed and tossed glare over at Imasu and Ju as they ate lunch together, “What does she have that we don’t?” He was more upset than Aki about this, he’d genuinely liked Isamu and believed that he’d stick around. After all the time they’d spent practicing for soccer and tryouts coming up soon...

Can’t be right all the time, Masato supposed.

Their comments did not go unheard, however, as it just so happened that Kaiyo Nakano was passing by their table with her bento box, “She’s got charm and wit, for one thing,” The brown haired girl said as she stopped and sat at their table with them, “And he’s smart and nice. Maybe they like each other.” She suggested.

“They’ve known each other for less than a week.” Masato pointed out, with an unimpressed sigh, “How could they possibly like each other that much?”

Kaiyo smiled and took a bite of her rice, “I haven’t known either of them very long, but I like them both just fine.” She announced.

Aki brushed some of his blond hair behind his ear, “That’s different, Nakano, you like everyone.”

“Just call me, Kaiyo. And I don’t see how that matters, there’s no waiting period to see if you like someone- unless” She started to snicker, “You thought I meant like-like!” Kaiyo giggled and broke into a laugh, “I just meant- he- she-! Haha guys and girls can just be friends you know!”

Masato and Aki stared at her, blushes rising to their cheeks as they realized how they’d misinterpreted her comment. Kaiyo wasn’t done teasing them though.

“Oh! But wait, what if they are in love!? Maybe they were star crossed lovers in a past life, bound to meet again and again in each lifetime, always to be torn apart, haha! It’s just like a Shoujo manga! Ha! Oh, don’t tell me, one of you is the reborn rival; here to win Ju away from him-wait not, it’s Isamu you’re upset about losing! Is he the love interest then?!”

“Th-that’s enough!” The pair sputtered in unison, making a few heads turn in their direction, but Kaiyo did manage to calm herself down before they drew too much attention.

Kaiyo chewed another bite of rice before speaking up again, “I don’t know Isamu very well, but when he served that detention for  Ms. Mazawa, he couldn’t stop talking about meeting you two at the park. He didn’t even mention that you were practicing soccer until I asked him, he just wanted to hang out with you.”

“R-really?” Aki asked, “Soccer is his favorite thing, he didn’t mention it at all?”

“Nope.” Kaiyo answered, “I know he’s been spending a lot of time with Ju the last few days, but she’s still adjusting to living in Japan, once she’s settled maybe Isamu will introduce the three of you. Who knows? Maybe you’ll like her too. Lord knows you boys could use a girl or two in your friend circle.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Masato asked, Kaiyo giggled and continued her meal instead of answering.

Isamu and Ju stood from their table and started outside without emptying the remains of their lunch in the garbage bin. Masato stood up too, and started to follow them, leaving his lunch untouched on his table while Aki scarfed down a few bites and went after Masato, properly disposing of his lunch waste as he passed the bin.

Left alone at the table, with Masato apparently not hungry enough to care, Kaiyo reached into his bento box and swiped his dessert, “Well if he doesn’t want it.” She grinned.

Aki followed Masato into the court yard where they spotted Isamu and Ju sitting on a bench, looking over a nearby bush. More than anything, Aki wanted to tug on his friend’s sleeve and tell him to go back inside- whether it was just because whatever Isamu and Ju were doing was none of their business, or because he didn’t want to find out that Kaiyo was wrong about the situation, he wasn’t sure.

But he also knew that Masato wouldn’t stop, even if he did tug on his sleeve and insist they leave Isamu and Ju alone. They’re backs were to the approaching boys, both of them had put their lunch down and it looked as if they had decided to finish eating outside while the weather was still nice. Only Ju had her laptop resting on her knees, and Isamu appeared to be dropping bits of food into the bush.

Aki heard Ju speaking, “The Admins are all Tamers too,  but they don’t access the Network like everyone else, they program all city events, create new games, organize tournaments for the coliseum and monitor for bugs, all from the outside.”

“Do Tamers become Admins when they get too old?” asked a voice that came from the direction of Isamu, but didn’t sound like Isamu.

Ju shook her head, “No, Admins…I don’t really know actually, what qualifies someone to be an admin, I heard that the youngest admin is only seventeen.”

What in the world were they talking about?

Aki might have asked, but Masato was faster and bolder than him, and reached to tap Isamu on the shoulder, but in doing so came into Ju’s eye line. She gave a startled screech that made Isamu jump and shout in surprise. He whirled around, eyes wide searching for whatever had made Ju scream and his gaze settled on Masato and Aki, immediately relaxing.

However, it seemed he was not the only one looking. From the bush, three shapes leaped out at them, Aki screamed as a brown and red furry…thing knocked him to the ground, Masato gave a similar cry as two creatures, black and white dog-like animals, did the same to him.

“It’s alright Ju, we’ve got it, prepare the Digital con-” The white one on top of Masato started, but cut off when it realized that he was human and not…whatever it was expecting.

The creature on top of Aki noticed this detail too, and hopped off him, wide eyed and flashing a guilty look at Isamu. The brown haired boy fiddled with his goggles awkwardly “Er, Aki, Masato, I can explai-”

Aki didn’t give him a chance, once the initial shock was over he scrambled to his feet with a scream and made a break for the sports field. If he could make it passed to the road, maybe he could flag down a car or something. It flashed through Aki’s head that maybe he was being a bit of a wuss, but any thoughts about turning back to hear what Isamu had to say were dispelled the moment he realized Masato was running too.

Well, at least they were being wusses together.

“What the hell were those things!?” Aki shouted as he ran.

“I don’t know, I don’t care, just keep moving!” Masato replied.

Behind them, Aki heard Isamu call after them, “Guys wait!” They turned their head slightly to see that Isamu and Ju were both chasing after them, along with the three strange creatures that had jumped out of the bush at them.

It was the one that had landed on Aki, the cat-like animal with a red mohawk that shouted at them, “Watch out for the Digital gate!”

The what? Aki saw Masato turn his head back, and skid to a halt, but Aki wasn’t fast enough to stop and ran into him.  The force made them both tumble forward, into a strange distortion in the air he hadn’t seen until they were right on top of it. “Guys!” He heard Isamu shout before all sounds were cut off entirely.

Masato’s face planted into the ground, and was smooshed deeper into it when Aki landed on top of him. Dazed and confused it took Masato a moment to realize that he was not on school property anymore. Aki gave a terrified gasp at their surroundings.

All around them was blackness, a series of lines and dots lit the floor, going through a slow rainbow gradient. What Masato initially thought was a building, on closer inspection just seemed to be a block with no doors or windows. It almost looked like a Microchip. In the distance, Masato could just make out an outline of what appeared to be real buildings, a city of some sort.

Aki squeaked suddenly as Masato stared in awe, “Yeah, I’m seeing this, where are we?”

“N-no, Masato-” Aki tugged his sleeve and pointed across the strange space where a large furry creature stood glaring at them, “What is that thing?”

In response, the monster snarled, “Call me a thing, do you? I am Apemon! And I will crush all human parasites in the name of my Lord Nabermon!” The monster rushed them, as his name implied he was very apelike with wild yellow fur and a large bone strapped to his back.

“Masato!” Aki cried, clutching his sleeve.

The longer haired boy yanked him to his feet, “Run for it Aki!” He yelled, dodging to their right as the monster leaped into the air and brought his bone down like a club, completely obliterating the section of the floor they’d dropped onto only seconds ago and revealing more circuit-like lights underneath. Masato pushed Aki ahead of him, ducking behind one of the smaller block structures for momentary cover. “Go that way, I’ll draw it’s attention this way” Masato told him, pointing off in the direction of the distant city “When it’s clear you head back toward that gate thing Isamu mentioned!”

“”What about you!?” Aki gasped, clearly already out of breath from their previous flight.

Used to running for far longer, Masato waved his hand, “I can outlast you any day of the week, if I stay behind I can buy you enough time to get home and get help.”

“Like Isamu and the transfer student?” Aki asked.

Masato remembered the creatures that were with them, Isamu and Ju hadn’t seemed bothered by the presence, and, now that he was thinking about it, they must have been feeding them behind the bushes. Maybe those creatures could help. “Yeah, go find them, they can’t be far behind us.”

Right on cue, as if summoned by their names, Isamu, Ju and the creatures that accompanied them appeared through the gate. Apemon still stood between them and the two boys.

Isamu looked around in awe, “Is this the Digital world?” he asked.

“No,” Wemicmon replied, and pointed toward the far off city, “That’s the Network, over there, this entire plane is the dimension between our worlds. The Digital World is below us somewhere, I think.”

“Actually,” Ju corrected and pointed to a gateway across from the one they’d just come through, “The Digital World would be through there.”

Both of them fizzled in the air for a moment, they would close soon. Isamu feared for a second that if they missed their chance they might get stuck, but remembered that they could return to the real world through the Network.

“Where do you learn this stuff?” Isamu asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.

“I’ve been a Tamer for three years.” She reminded him with a smirk. “Don’t worry, you’ll pick it up.”

There was no need to open a Digital Construct in this space, so Isamu and Ju kept one eye on the battle while they searched the nearby area for Aki and Masato. It didn’t take long to find them, and give a brief explanation of where they were and what the Digimon were.

“But if we’re friends with these guys, why does the big one want to kill us for that lord Nabler- Nobba…” Aki struggled to remember the name that Apemon had called out earlier.

Isamu didn’t have the first clue what he meant, but Ju’s eyes narrowed as she thought about it, “Nabermon?” She asked.

“Yes!” Masato nodded, “That’s the one. Who is he?”

Ju didn’t answer, just pointed back to the Gate, “You two need to get back to the real world now. Isamu, you and I should lure the Digimon closer to the Network so we can call for backup.”

“What? Why, what’s happening?” Isamu asked, pulling down his goggles to scan the enemy Digimon.

Apemon was a champion level Vaccine Digimon, who used the bone club as his primary weapon. He didn’t seem that much different than the first enemy he and Wemicmon had faced together.

“Because if he’s with the Court of Demons we can’t afford to underestimate him.”

“The Court of what?” Masato asked.

“I’ll explain later, just get to the Gate!” Ju lifted her D-Gauntlet and punched in a code, activating a speed boosting item she had won in the Network. Cannismon and Leptomon began running faster, easily dodging Apemon’s attacks.

Isamu punched in his own code, he’d only played a few games at the City and mostly got more Digicures, but he did get one item that would be of use at the moment. Apemon wasn’t stupid, and realized that he would never catch the twins and turned on the much slower Wemicmon, the bone club swung down on him, but Isamu’s item activated a shield that deflected the blow.

The inventory menu on his D-Gauntlet had told Isamu that the basic shield item he won was only good for a single use in battle, he hoped they could get help on time.

“Fever claw!” Wemicmon shouted, slicing Apemon across the face and leaving a mark over his eye.

“Moon Surge!”

“Sun Blast!”  The twins attacked from either side of the yellow animal Digimon.

Their team attack usually worked like a charm, since their target could not defend against both attacks at once, but Apemon ducked low, “Metallic Fur!” He snarled, and the hairs on his body hardened to needles, shooting out and knocking the two canine Digimon out of the air.

Still on the ground, Wemicmon was spared the assault, but was also helpless to do anything to help his friends as Apemon’s fists caught flame next, “Magical Monkey Punch!” He shouted as he pumped them with his fire attack.

“Cannismon! Leptomon!” The golden haired Digimon shouted, his whole body began to glow “Lynx Fla-”

“Mega Bone Stick!”

Too slow to get out of the way in time, Wemicmon was thrown to the side by the blow. Cannismon and Leptomon were pinned to the ground by the needles and with Wemicmon out of the way the path was clear for Apemon to reach the children.

Wemicmon hopped back to his feet and dashed back toward the battle, but his Tamer knew he’d never make it in time.

Isamu swallowed hard, “Run!” he urged the others.

He grabbed Ju’s hand and dragged her away, they didn’t have time to call the Network for help they needed to get out of here and find a place to hide.

There wasn’t time for that either, and Isamu knew it, but if he could just buy a few seconds, maybe Aki and Masato could make it out. Apemon’s shadow loomed over him, he pulled on Ju’s arm and threw her ahead of him, hoping that maybe she could get out too.

“Isamu!” Wemicmon shouted, and his claws lit up for an attack but Isamu knew he was done for. He raised his hands to hide his face, it wouldn’t help but some instinct deeply rooted into human nature made him throw his arms up to block the attack. He knew he was going to die.

At least until his D-Gauntlet started reacting!

The light from his D-Gauntlet blinded Apemon, and the large Digimon stumbled back away from it. The device beeped wildly, and the boy shut his eyes against the light.

“Isamu! What did you press?” He heard Ju call over the beeping.

“I didn’t press anything!” He answered, Masato was running back toward them, reaching to pull Isamu back so they could escape, but Aki was staring out passed Apemon.

He pointed out where Isamu had last seen Wemicmon, “What’s happening to the cat guy?”

Isamu squinted, trying to see Wemicmon through the light of his D-Gauntlet, but couldn’t see him anywhere. It took him a moment to realize that the reason why was because Wemicmon was now glowing the same as his D-Gauntlet.

“Wemicmon Digivolve to…!”

A shape grew out of the smear of light that Wemicmon had become, growing taller, and bigger, the light quickly faded to reveal a new creature, similar to what Isamu had seen become of Scrofamon his first night in the Network.

“Nemaemon!”

The light faded from Isamu’s D-Gauntlet, and even Apemon had turned to see the new Digimon. He was the same color as Wemicmon, larger with a full mane, looking more like a lion. He had a belt wrapped around his torso that was keeping shoulder armor on Nameamon’s left arm, clothlike tendrils sprouted from his back between feathery patches of fur.

“His horn disappeared.” Isamu gaped, noticing that Wemic-no, Nemaemon’s face was far more cat-like than ever.

“Not going to comment on all those belts he’s suddenly wearing?”  Ju blinked.

“How about that he’s got to be like ten feet tall!?” Masato shouted in a near panic.

This detail was what Aki noticed too, and he shrunk back, “He’s not going to hurt us, is he?”

Apemon seemed to lose interest in the humans at the sight of the new challenger. Isamu dropped his goggles over his eyes again to read the scan data on his partner’s new form. Nemaemon,  mythical Digimon, Data type, Jungle Troopers. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, this was Wemicmon? How cool!

“Metallic fur!” Apemon shouted, shooting needles toward Namaemon, who simply ducked low and his new shell deflected the attack.

Nemaemon rushed the enemy, dropping to all fours and now fast enough to keep up, “Inferno Bane!” He said, body slamming the other Digimon, raising back to two feet and holding Apemon down while breathing fire into his face.

Apemon grunted with pain and picked up his bone.

“Mega Bone Sti-”

“Eclipse Snare!” Everyone had been watching Nemaemon in awe, and hadn’t noticed the twins recover from the attacks they’d endured. Apemon was bound tightly by the beams of light and darkness that Cannismon and Leptomon wrapped around him, “Nemaemon, now!” Cannismon hissed.

The lion-like Digimon didn’t need to be told twice, “Leo’s Pride!”  He raised a fiery fist, the flames shot out and took the form of a lion, running toward the trapped digimon and engulfing him in the fire.

“-Lord Nabermon, grant me-” Apemon dropped midsentence, knocked out completely, Isamu raised his D-Gauntlet and entered the sequence to convert Apemon to scan Data.

The Digimon pixelated and was drawn into the device, but more than that, the computer voice of the D-Gauntlet had an announcement, “Conversion completed. Map piece detected, would you like to view?”

“Um, not now.” Isamu said, Nemaemon stomped over to them and shrank back down to Wemicmon.

Isamu was a little disappointed at seeing his partner return to normal so soon, but at the same time, he knew he was having a hard enough time hiding Wemicmon, he’d never be able to keep Nemaemon out of sight.

He scooped up Wemicmon, “Let’s get out of here!” He said.

Nobody argued, Ju led the way out and the Digital gate closed behind them.

-

After the kids disappeared, a set of shadowy figures looked down at the former battle field, “You weren’t ever going to grant him the blessing of a Demon Lord were you?” The female figure said, almost with a laugh.

The bestial Digimon only grumbled in response, the clearest no that he could be bothered to give. That seemed to be enough because the woman did start to laugh.

“I thought so. So his mission was nothing but a wild goose chase them?” Again her companion did not give a real answer, but that didn’t seem to matter to her, “Oh well, those Tamers didn’t seem to be too experienced. Only one of them evolved their partner. A Digimon who cannot beat such fledglings is not worth of the scum beneath our feet, let alone our blessing”

“Indeed” The other replied, speaking for the first time, and turning away, “Come then, Mephistomon will want a real candidate selected soon…”

-

Back in the real world, Masato resisted the urge to drop to the ground and start kissing the grass after their close call. Aki said nothing, but his face was still white as a sheet, so Masato put on a brave face and was the first to speak as they started to wander back to where Isamu had Ju had been feeding their Digimon.

“So...A Digital Gate, huh?” It was sort of a pathetic question, but at least it wasn’t total awkward silence.

Isamu continued to carry Wemicmon, who yawned sleepily in his arms, “Yeah, they connect our world to the one we just came from” He said, and nodded to Ju, “She knows more about it than I do, I’ve only been a Tamer for a little while.”

“That’s pretty much the gist of Digital Gates. It's kind of weird, though...” She commented, “I’ve never seen two Digital Gates open up so close together. Back in Beijing they always appeared months apart.”

They reached the bench and Isamu set Wemic down so he could rest after his battle. He lifted his D-Gauntlet in amazement, he’d been able to make Wemicmon Digivolve to champion. That was incredible! Ju said that she’d had her partners for three years and she hadn’t been able to do that.

The corners of the screen glowed in sequence, a new code he needed to memorize, Isamu mouthed along with it, top right, top left, left, bottom right, top loft again.” He fished his pen out of his pocket and wrote that sequence down on his hand so he could transfer it to his notebook later.

He’d ask Ju about that after school maybe, but right now they had a lot of questions to answer from Aki and Masato, and not a lot of time to explain. Lunch break would be over soon. Even with the two of them telling the story together it was clear that the boys didn’t fully understand, Isamu didn’t blame them, he had first had experience as a Tamer and he still wasn’t sure he understood it all.

“Could we be Tamers?” Masato asked excitedly, as he paced back and forth in the courtyard “Where do we find Digimon partners?”

“How do we get the D-Gauntlets?” Aki pushed his glasses up, showing extreme interest in this, which was sort of a surprise for him.

“There’s always Digimon in the Network who are looking for Tamers.” Ju said, “Maybe you could talk to them sometime this weekend, you might get lucky.”

“Can they get into the Network without an ID?” Isamu asked as Aki and Masato quietly celebrated the idea of maybe becoming a Tamer like their friend.

Ju shrugged, as they reached the bench they’d started at “I don’t know, but I didn’t want them running off to go looking for a partner. We have until the weekend to figure something out.” She checked the time on her D-Gauntlet and slung her bag back off her shoulders, pulling her laptop out to check her email.

“So what kind of Digimon are there in the Network?” Masato asked, “I want to partner with someone cool, like Nemaemon.”

“Aw, shucks, I’m not that cool.” Wemicmon blushed, Isamu rolled his eyes and ruffled his Digimon’s mohawk earring a squawk of protest.

“All kinds of Digimon,” Ju shrugged, “But remember I said you might get lucky, just because you meet someone cool doesn’t mean you’ll get to be partners. I’ll talk to a few of them tonight and see if anyone’s interes-” She cut off suddenly and her eyes narrowed at the sight of something on her screen, “Isamu, have you checked your email recently?” She asked.

“No, why?” Ju pointed her screen toward him, Aki and Masato exchanged confused looks.

Isamu read the email out loud.

Urgent, do not enter the Network. All Digimon and Tamers be advised that the Court of Demons is planning a strike against the Network this week. A new Firewall is being programmed to shield most damage, but as a precaution, if you are not an Admin, please do not put yourself at risk by coming to the Network.

Gray.

He glanced at Ju, with a startled blink “Gray, like, as in the legendary Tamer, Gray?”

She nodded, “This is the same email he contacted me from three years ago.” Ju went back to her inbox where several more emails with subject lines warning them to stay out of the Network were waiting.

“The Court of Demons,” Aki repeated, “You said something about those guys earlier…who are they?”

The bell summoning them back to class rang, cutting short their conversation. Ju stood up, closing her laptop and putting it back in her bag, “The bad guys.” She said, “No one’s going to the Network until we get an all clear. Being a Tamer isn’t a game, so you’d better think hard about if you really want to do it.” She added with a note of finality and packed up so they could go.

Aki and Masato turned to Isamu for an explanation, but this was the first he had heard of this Court, the Digimon looked frightened though.

“We should head back.” he said, moving Wemicmon back into the bush,Cannismon and Leptomon ducked into it too, where they would hide until school was out and their Tamers came to pick them up.

As they passed by the fountain in the middle of the courtyard, the trio  continued to talk quietly about the Digimon and failed to notice a small shape swimming in the water. A small furry face poked out to stare after the group, at a particular boy.

“I found him!” A feminine voice said, and brown eyes sparkled happily, “My Tamer!”

Next Episode

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode III

Previous episode

Puckmon Ruins Everything

"Shakkomon, Digivolve to...Ebidramon!"

"Scorfamon, Digivolve to...Taivenmon!"

Once the two opponents finished evolving the announcer went on with his summary of the match, "The final round is about the begin folks! Our champion Olivia and her partner Taivenmon are still in the lead, but challengers Dietrich and Ebidramon are not far behind"

Liv glared across the stadium at the other Tamer, who was too far away to see her expression himself, but there was a huge monitor behind each of them so that the audience could better see the action. Judging by the way Dietrich flinched, he must have looked up into the monitor while a camera panned over her determined expression.

Taivenmon trotted to her side, she patted his snout affectionately and whispered "Don’t hold back".

After a few moments of anticipation the announcer returned to lay out the rules for the game. As he spoke, obstacles appeared on the field, "Your challenge is to make it to the center of the Maze, clearing out as many Bugs as you can. When both opponents reach the center, the battle begins! We will have a three hit point system, and a total of three turns, hit are worth 100 points, with a maximum of 900 points available in the battle segment"

The gates releasing the Digimon into the arena started to rise, revealing a labyrinth that aerial shots showed was littered with Bugs.

"Every Bug is tagged with a counter, destroying one Bug is worth ten points. The winner will be determined by who tallies the most points between the puzzle segment and the battle segment. Challengers, on your mark! GO!"

Liv tapped away at her D-Gauntlet, equipping Taivenmon with low grade armor so that the Bugs couldn't do too much damage. They were about the same in power as a champion level Digimon, and in small groups like in a standard Coliseum match they were easy enough to take out, so Liv didn't want to waste higher quality armor.

There were enough Bugs in the maze to make a swarm, which could be nasty if they all found each other, but the game moderators made sure to keep them contained away from one another. If they did swarm the participants would likely be destroyed since the level limit for the Coliseum was Champion. If a Digimon could evolve further than that, they could no longer sign up for the Coliseum events. Liv didn't know the secret to unlock her partner’s next evolution and doubted many of the spectators did, either.

But it didn't matter, Liv wasn’t looking to evolve Scorfamon further anymore. She needed to focus on the challenge that was in front of her, and nothing else.

Liv tried her best to guide Taivenmon through the maze and keep track of the number of Bugs he eliminated, but the cameras could not pick up every detail of the match. Ebidramon beat them to the arena in the center, but Taivenmon had turned into many dead-ends simply to look for Bugs. Victory was all that mattered, and if there was a chance that a higher Bug count could mean that Ebidramon and Dietrich could win, he wasn’t taking it.

Finally Taivenmon was bored of the Bug hunt and barreled his way to the center, knocking down walls and crushing Bugs that got in his way. The low grade armor glitched and vanished, sustaining too much damage to be of any use anymore but it didn’t matter. Rookies could use battle items, but Champion level Digimon weren't allowed the handicap unless it was for use against obstacles.

Taivenmon burst into the arena with a few Bugs on his tail. Liv crossed her arms in a confident stance for the camera "Finish him, Taivenmon!" She shouted, as the battle began.

-

It was close to 9:00 pm before Olivia and Scrofamon returned from the Network to their quiet home in the American Northwest. The boar-like Digimon snorted and hopped up on the bed, ready to fall straight to sleep and his partner turned back to her computer to check her e-mail.

For the most part it was spam from a few stores she had a membership at and homework reminders from her teachers, there was nothing much there. Except for a E-mail from Andromon, a former contact of hers. She hovered over the e-mail titled AUCTION: TWO WEEKS, but was distracted from actually reading it by her bedroom door opening.

Samantha, her little sister beamed when she saw they were back, “I knew it was you, Liv!” She said in a hushed, but excited tone as she invited herself in to pet Scrofamon, who raised his head and grunted happily, “Mom’s pretty mad at you for not calling, but I talked her into saving you some dinner.”

The sisters had the same face, although the younger had wider, brighter eyes. Sammie, as she was called, kept her short, naturally red hair held in place with a green headband.

“Yeah, thanks.” Liv replied, closing out of her e-mail and lowering all her browsers, but not before Sammie saw the blog page for the Network, and the Coliseum leaderboard where her sister’s name was printed at the top.

“Is that the game you’re always playing?” The little girl asked dropping her hands from Scrofamon to skip over to her sister’s computer curiously, “Can I have a turn?”

Liv stood from her computer abruptly, “Get out of my room Sammie!” She demanded with a sudden burst of anger that made even Scrofamon jump. “Shouldn’t you have gone to bed hours ago anyway!?”

Sammie looked hurt, in fact, Liv could see tears welling up in her bright green eyes, but her little sister retreated out of the room without complaint…Although once the door was closed again, Liv made out the faint sound of her sister’s sobs. She sat back down and buried her face in her hands, wanting to cry herself.

“Liv? You gonna be okay, kiddo?” Scrofamon asked, standing up on her bed.

She looked over at him with a nod, “I…I’ll be fine…” She lied, and her lie became even more obvious when her eyes landed on a photograph on her desk. The picture showed Olivia holding up Sammie for the photo, but at her side was another red-haired child, younger than Liv, but older than Sammie.

Tears welled up in Liv’s eyes, she slammed the photograph down, and stood back up once more. “I’m going to go get that dinner, do you want anything to drink?”

Scrofamon laid back down. “No…I’m fine…” He said, snuggling into his partner’s bed sheets. Liv tiptoed out of her room, Sammie may have noticed she was back, but the last thing she wanted was to explain to her parents what she’d been doing out so late.

-

A world away, the day was just beginning for Isamu and Ju.

“Wemicmon, stay off the path or someone might see you!” Isamu hissed, while he waited for Aki to pick up. His Digimon pouted and tried to argue, but a jogger coming down the trail forced him to duck back into the bush, “Hey, Aki!” Isamu said when his friend finally picked up, “Yeah, man, I’m sorry to bail last minute, but Ju- yeah, the transfer student, yes- yeah she still has some catching up to do so she and I are going to be studying today.”

He paused for  a moment to let Aki speak, “No, it’s okay, I already called Masato and he told me the same thing. I’ll try to be there tomorrow, but I can’t make any promises. Hey! It’s a tough course, maybe you could benefit from a little studying. Aww, go practice swimming you fish out of water!” Isamu laughed as Aki teased him and taunted the other boy right back in a playful manner. “Alright…Alright, yeah, hopefully tomorrow. If not, catch ya Monday. See you!”

Isamu sighed when he finally hung up, “You know, you could tell me where you saw this cabin and I could find it myself.” Ju said, adjusting the straps of her backpack absentmindedly, “Then you could play soccer with your friends.”

“You’re my friend too, Ju,” Isamu said, “And don’t worry, Aki and Masato are fine with this.”

“But you’re lying to them,” She replied, “We’re not studying, we’re trying to find a place to keep our Digimon.”

This was true, Ju had made it clear the same night that Isamu got the goggles he was now proudly wearing, that the Digimon could not be kept in their homes for very long. Ju had Cannismon and Leptomon hide out in an abandoned warehouse that wasn’t far from her family’s home before they moved to Japan. She’d been on the look out for a similar place now that they were here.

Isamu wished he could keep Wemicmon at his apartment, but the rapscallion was too rowdy, his mother wasn’t going to buy that Isamu was just talking too loud on the phone for very long. His suggestion was an old cabin he’d found while exploring the nearby woods a few weeks ago. His original plan had been to clean it up and use it as a hang out for when he started making friends with everyone.

Ha. Two months after changing schools and he had six friends, only three of which were human. “Cannismon, Leptommon, you’re going the wrong way!” Isamu called, looking out for the twin Digimon that were partnered to Ju, “That’s the main trail, everyone goes that way!”

“And you’re sure that you went down this fork, not one of the other ones?” Ju asked, nervously looking back as if she was trying to keep track of their location.

“Yeah, I walked this way three or four times just to be sure I memorized the path.” Isamu said. Cannismon and Leptomon ran out ahead of them, playfully nipping at each other’s ears and tails. “So how do you meet Twin One and Twin Two?” He asked.

Ju smiled after her partners, “Not like how you met Wemicmon.” She said, and went quiet for a few minutes. “I was never good at making friends. I was always inside reading or drawing when I was little and when I was old enough, I made all of my friends online. That’s actually how I first heard about the Network. I kept reading about it on forums and things, but I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to get an account there.”

Isamu blinked, remembering the login screen on the Network’s page and how it didn’t seem to have an option to allow new members to register. “Huh, so I guess people can’t just stumble across the Network, can they?”

She shook her head, “Nope. I kept trying to get in though, I e-mailed some friends I made and tried to get a good word in to Admins, but that didn’t work, so I eventually tried to hack my way in.”

“They didn’t like that?”

“I don’t think they noticed.” Ju said with a shrug, “But someone else did.”

Isamu turned to her curiously, “Who?”

“Gray.” Ju replied, ahead of them, Cannismon and Leptomon stopped and turned back, waving their tails excitedly at the mention of the name, “He’s the most famous Tamer ever. He’s said to be one of the first humans to ever partner with Digimon and helped build the Network. Of course I didn’t know that at the time.”

“What did he say to you?”

Ju smiled again, “He didn’t say anything. I got an e-mail regarding my attempts at hacking, I thought I was in trouble, but when I finished reading he was requesting that I apply as a beta tester. It took me nearly a week to decide that it was a legit offer before I accepted…” She trailed off.

“And then what happened?” Isamu asked, stepping closer to her.

“I was sucked into the Digital World.” She answered, “Not the Network, but the actual Digital World, where the Digimon come from. Gray was waiting for me there. He  told me everything about the Digital world, and the Digimon. We talked for hours. At the end he asked me a few questions about where I learned code and my thoughts on balance and teamwork was. After a while he seemed to decide I was a good applicant and he gave me a Digi-egg.”

“A whatnow? Is that like the Digicures?”

“No, A Digi-egg is what Digimon start off as.” Ju explained, “All those Digimon you saw in the Network, all the big and little ones, no matter what species or type, they all hatched from Digi-eggs and evolved into the forms you saw there.”

“I see.” Isamu said, and looked back at their Digimon, and filled in the blanks for himself, “Then that egg that Gray gave you, it hatched into Cannismon and Leptomon, didn’t it?”

Ju nodded, “Twin Digimon are incredibly rare, to my understanding. I only know one other species set, Terriermon and Lopmon.” She pulled up her D-Gauntlet and pressed a button to scroll through her Digimon Analyzer to show Isamu the twins, two little Rabbit looking Digimon who, like Cannismon and Leptomomon, differed in only color and minor details.

She put her hand back down, “Gray told me that a very special Digimon was going to hatch from this egg and that they needed a very special Tamer if they were going to grow up right. He told me not to accept the Digi-egg if I didn’t think I could handle the responsibility.”

“Wow. And you accepted it?” Isamu gave an impressed whistle, “Man, if someone told me something like that, I’d think they had the wrong guy.”

“That crossed my mind, but…” Ju placed her hand on her D-Gauntlet, “I don’t know, when I saw the egg…when I touched it…I knew I had to hatch it and take care of the Digimon that came out.” She paused and laughed, “They’re a bit of a handful, but I know I made the right decision.”

She looked up when Leptomon called, “Look! There it is! Cannismon, I told you Isamu wouldn’t get us lost!”

“I didn’t say I thought he would, I just said I hoped he wouldn’t.” Cannismon muttered, casting a glance at Isamu as if apologizing for doubting him.

The twins raced each other to the cabin, but Wemicmon was the first to get there. And that, of course, meant he was the first to get into trouble that was waiting. Just as Wemicmon was declaring himself the victor, a circle of black gems encased in multicolored fire appeared around him and shrank in on his body, making him cry out in pain.

“Wemicmon!” Isamu ran to check on his partner, Wemicmon looked more surprised than hurt, and hopped to his feet immediately.

“Who’s there!?” He demanded, flashing his claws defensively, “Show yourself!”

A snicker answered him, “Well, well, what a surprise! I didn’t know the circus performed this deep in the woods.” The voice came from the roof of the cabin, where a small humanoid figure was looking down at them, “This is my place, I found it first!”

Isamu pulled down his goggles to get a reading on the Digimon, “Puckmon, rookie level,  says he's a fairy type Digimon.”  Isamu read the facts off for Ju so she wouldn’t have to scan the enemy Digimon, “He's part of the Nature Spirits and Virus Busters with a Data attribute.”

Puckmon stood up and leaned over the rooftop, revealing himself a little better. He certainly didn’t bring to mind the image of a fairy. At a glance he could have been mistaken for a child in a costume, looking largely human except for his long tail and cloven hooves. He had pale green skin and a small animal-like nose, feathered red hair and a set of horns poked out of the back of his slightly oversized helmet, resembling a faun from English folklore. Puckmon wore a torn black poncho, gloves, and pants.

He tapped his hoof in an annoyed fashion, “You seem to know an awful lot about me, dweeb.” Puckmon snorted, “You stalking me or something?”

Isamu pushed his goggles back on top of his forehead, “No! I just-”

Ju cut him off, “-We’re sorry to disturb you,” She said, “But how long have you been here?”

Puckmon crossed his arms, with a smirk on his face, “Got here this morning!”

Seeing the opportunity to wipe that smug look off his face, Isamu mirrored his action of crossing his arms and glared up at Puckmon, ready to announce that, actually they’d found this place first-

-But Wemicmon beat him to the punch, “Too bad, sucker!” The cat-like Digimon said, raising his claws, “Isamu scoped out this place weeks ago! It’s our spot!”

Puckmon almost fell off the roof in surprise, “What!? No way, you’re lying!”

Leptomon backed up her friend, “Nope. Isamu said he found this place while he was exploring!”

A low growl came from the roof, “I’ve been searching days for a place to crash! I’m not gonna give it up that easily!” Puckmon snarled, he snapped his fingers and the same circle of black stones appeared “Lurid Crystals!”

Wemicmon once again found himself as the victim of this attack, becoming trapped in the ring of Crystals that shrank inwards on him. “Wemicmon!” Isamu started to reach for his D-Gauntlet to use a Digicure, but Ju stopped him.

“Better save Digicures for emergencies only.” She said and turned back to the battle, “Cannismon! Leptomon!”

The twins leaped onto the roof with Puckmon, appearing on either side of him, which caused him to jump back and- stumble over the edge. “Wah! Ooof!” Both Puckmon and Wemicmon groaned in pain as the black-clad Digimon landed on the other.

Unperplexed by this development, the twins jumped back down to face Puckmon, Wemicmon threw the other Digimon off him and raised his fists, claws beginning to glow with his signature technique “Fever-”

Puckmon jumped up, waving his hands wildly, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!  I was just playing! You’re welcome to stay at my place!” He declared and dusted himself off, “Besides, three on one? Puh-lease! In a real fight you’d need at least three more guys before you could take me on!”

The Digimon glanced at their human partners, clearly seeing through this guy’s boasting. Isamu decided to let it slide for now as he tapped Ju on the shoulder, “I think this guy is just a harmless stray Digimon.” he whispered.

Ju nodded in agreement as Puckmon, warily shook hands with Wemicmon and attempted to open the door to the cabin. “I think so too.” She replied, “He might be here looking for a partner. Maybe we should help him out.”

“Door’s open, come on in, guys. What’s that saying? Me kas-ha is two Kas-ha or something like that?” Puckmon said, waving for all of them to enter.

“What does that mean?” Cannismon asked as she followed her sister inside.

Puckmon shugged, “Eh, I don’t know it’s some human language, I think it’s French. I heard someone say it a couple times.” He seemed to glare at the humans as they approached the door, but didn’t say anything as they entered.

“Oh! Mi casa es tu casa.” Ju exclaimed as she turned to Isamu, “I’m pretty sure that’s Spanish.” She corrected.

The Digimon scattered to check out the cabin. It was very dusty and plants were growing out of the floor, but none of them seemed to mind. Isamu and Ju wiped the table and chairs with disinfectant towels that Ju had brought and sat down while the Digimon explored and evaluated.

“I’ve only been here for a few days,” Ju said, “I don’t know anyone well enough to even begin trying to match as a Tamer for Puckmon.”

“You told me Digimon don’t choose their partner.” Isamu reminded her.

Ju shrugged, “The bond between Digimon and Tamers is complicated, sometimes humans just need to talk to each other and sometimes they need to fight together before a partnership is formed.” She explained, “And no matter what, Puckmon needs to at least meet a few people before he can get a partner. So got any ideas?”

Isamu frowned, he had a few, but none of them were good. “I haven’t been here very long either. I pretty much only know two…Actually three people we might be able to talk to.”

“And who are they?” Ju asked, “Aki and Masato?”

“Yeah, that’s two of them…but…I don’t know, Puckmon seems a bit too rough for Aki, that Digimon would eat him alive. And Masato…He’s a bit of a trouble maker, they’d probably only encourage each other’s bad behaviors.”

“Uh-huh…” Ju mulled this information over, “And the third? You said you know three people.”

Isamu nodded, “Yeah, the third….Well…” He’d been thinking about that girl, Kaiyo Nakano. They’d really only talked a couple of times, but she seemed nice enough. Isamu thought it might be nice to get to know her a little better.

But as a partner for Puckmon….Isamu frowned, imagining that Puckmon would be too rough for Kaiyo too, and scare her away.

“You know what? Never mind. Just Aki and Masato.” He said.

“Okay. Aki is the blond kid with glasses, right?” Ju asked, getting a nod in response, “Yeah, I agree, that boy wouldn’t survive Taming a Digimon like Puckmon.”

“And I don’t think any of us would survive Masato trying to tame him.” Isamu added, writing his name in the dust.

“But just meeting him doesn’t mean they’ll be partners.” Ju reminded him, “I think it’s worth a shot as an icebreaker to finding Puckmon a partner. Do you think you can call Masato and get him to meet us up here to at least talk to him?”

“I can try,” Isamu got out his phone and started to dial for Masato when Ju suddenly grabbed his hand. That was when he, too, noticed how quiet it had become “Where are the Digimon!?”

-

Outside, Puckmon was leading the small band back toward the main trail, “We shouldn’t be up here,” Cannismon said, “Someone could see us.”

Puckmon put on an over dramatic look of surprise, “She speaks! And here I thought your sister was so gabby to make up for you not talking!”

“Hey!” Leptomon cut in, “I don’t talk that much!”

Wemicmon pushed his way toward the front of the line, “Cannismon is right, though, if we get too close to the main trail, humans could see us.”

“Pfff. what are they gonna do? Let ‘em see us!” Puckmon waved his hand dismissively, “Those kids of yours have you trained really well, don’t they? Got you operating in secret and everything. Do they dress you up in cute little ribbons too?”

Wemicmon’s face flushed and he raised his fists, “That’s not what being partners means!”

“I like the ribbons Ju sometimes ties to my collar.” Leptomon said, Cannismon gave an approving nod as well. Neither of them were helping Wemicmon’s case.

“Ah, I see.” Puckmon taunted, “So because humans can make you evolve you think it’s fine to play their little dancing monkey routine, that about right?” He sneered

The cat-like Digimon bristled, “No! It’s about more than that! The bond between me and Isamu is special! So is Cannismon and Leptomon’s bond to Ju! They’re special in different ways, unique ways that’s why we can’t be partnered to anyone else! Why Ju and Isamu can’t have different Digimon!”

Something about that last statement seemed to strike a nerve with Puckmon, he visibly flinched, “You really believe that load? You better get that thought out of your head before you get hurt, dork-o.” He said putting his hands behind his head, “Humans and Digimon are exactly alike in one manner: both of them come and go at their own convenience, there’s nothing special about it at all.”

“That’s not true-” Wemicmon started to object when Puckmon silenced him by putting a hand over his mouth.

The other Digimon smirked, “Listen.” He said, and they all went quiet for a moment before they heard the distinct sound of laughter coming from up the hill. “Some of your precious humans are up there. Sounds like a picnic. Anyone up for lunch?”

Wemicmon crossed his arms, “You mean stealing it from them? Absolutely not!”

“No.” Cannismon said flat out, “We’ll get caught.”

Leptomon sat down beside her sister, and ignored her growling stomach to add “Ju packed a picnic for us anyway.”

Puckmon seemed surprised that none of them were on board with his plan to raid the picnic area, “Suit yourselves.” He said and before they could stop him, took off toward the humans, “Jinx Shot!”

Black crystals appeared in the air and Puckmon kicked them down on to the unsuspecting picnickers. There were three tables of them, with packages and balloon’s reading ‘Happy Birthday’, some of the adults were hit, but mostly the crystals just disrupted the tables and sent food flying. Children screamed and the adults ushered them to get up.

“Hey, stop that! What do you think you’re doing!?” Wemicmon shouted, and leaped after Puckmon. His whole body glowed with his forthcoming attack “Lynx Flash!” The energetic image of a large cat shot out from his chest and knocked Puckmon out of the air. On the ground, Cannismon and Leptomon rushed him.

“Moon Surge!”

“Sun Bash!”

“Monsters!” A child began to cry, and the adults started to evacuate them from the area while the Digimon fought.

“Ugh, you brats are ruining everything!” Puckmon shouted, snapping his fingers and entrapping Leptomon in his ring of gems, “Lurid Crystals!”

Leptomon whimpered when she was hit and that seemed to enrage Cannismon, “No, you’re the one ruining everything!”

At that point, Ju and Isamu had heard the commotion and finally arrived. They noticed the abandoned picnic area immediately, “Oh, no. Someone had to have seen them!” Isamu said and reached for his D-Gauntlet, hoping he had memorized how to put up a Digital Construct.

“Obviously.” Ju said, also raising her D-Gauntlet, but she began the sequence for Data Conversion instead, “Cannismon! Leptomon, we need to get out of here!” She said, and her Digimon turned to her obediently she scanned them into her D-Gauntlet.

“What are you doing?” Isamu asked.

“Those people are going to go straight to the park ranger and if he finds the Digimon he’s probably going to shoot them.” She said, “We need to retreat , there’s no time for a fight. Get Wemicmon converted now.”

Isamu felt terrible about not letting his partner continue the battle, but the thought of having Wemicmon get shot and reported as a monster made him sick to his stomach and he tapped in the sequence. “Wemicmon! Sorry buddy!”

“Hey- what are you!?” Wemicmon froze mid sentence when the scanning process began.

Ju finished converting Cannismon and Leptomon and raised her D-Gauntlet to Puckmon, “Your turn.” She said.

The remaining Digimon jumped out of the way of he scanning beam, “Nuh-uh! You’re not putting me in some over glorified watch!” He said, and ran back down through the trees, “Tamers are so stupid!  Ending a fight when it was just getting good! This is why I’m better off alone!”

Isamu started to run after him, but Ju called him back, “Let him go, we should get out of here before someone comes and starts asking us questions.” She said.

“What about the cabin?” Isamu asked, “It was such a great spot.”

“If Puckmon is smart- which I doubt, he’ll know it’s not safe to go back to it while people are looking for monsters in the forest, and neither should we.” Ju said, and shook her head sadly, “You and I can hang out there to make sure stray Digimon know that’s our spot, but our partners might need to hide out in the Network for a week or so while the heat blows over. C’mon. Let’s get back to my apartment so we can redigitize them. Digimon can’t stay as scan data for very long.”

Isamu pouted and looked back into the woods, as much trouble as Puckmon had caused, he did hope that the little Digimon would be alright. He had a feeling that they were going to be seeing him again, and maybe next time they’d be able to send him back to the Digital World…

-

Back in America, Liv woke up suddenly. It was still pitch black out, but dawn couldn’t be far away. She shivered and pulled her blankets up, but had no idea what had woken her up. Her insomnia was getting worse, so Liv knew she wouldn’t be falling back asleep anytime soon.

The girl rolled off her bed and stumbled toward her computer, maybe a few rounds of solitaire would get her bored enough to go back to bed. Her moving around woke her partner.

“Liv?” Scrofamon yawned, “We going on a mission today, or is it back to the Coliseum again? I’m fine either way.” The orange haired boar snorted.

Liv shook her head, “Scrofamon it’s the middle of the night, we’re not going anywhere.” She said, starting up her laptop. “I’m just a little restless so I’m going to put on a game.”

“Oh, okay…” Liv wasn’t sure that Scrofamon really heard her reply, he already seemed to have fallen right back to sleep. She smiled softly in the darkness, sometimes she really envied him.

The computer turned on fully and by instinct Liv opened up the internet, remembering the e-mail from Andromon she’d gotten earlier, Liv shrugged and decided maybe now she should actually read it…Maybe this time she’d go out like she used to…

All plans stopped when she saw a new e-mail waiting in her inbox. Her blood froze with excitement and dread. The sender was listed only as Gray. The Legendary Tamer Gray, e-mailing her? Under any other Circumstance Liv would have been beyond thrilled, but the subject line of the e-mail made her heart pound.

GRAY: URGENT DO NOT ENTER THE NETWORK

[digimonnetwork-project]

Can we be just who we are?   Doesn't matter if the road is far 'Cause there are no regrets and there is no stress     Together we are limit, limitless Limitless by Amaranthe

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode II

Previous episode 

Partners

Isamu woke with a start. Dreams of a slimy tongue and fighting monsters had plagued him all night so he’d hardly rested, but Isamu wasn’t enough of a fool to dismiss all of them as bad dreams. He only had to look at his phone and the new number added to his contacts to know how very real his encounter the day before had been.

He got up and started to head downstairs for breakfast when he heard his phone beep with a text alert and went to check it. After saving him, Ju had tried to explain what exactly had been going on, but a lot of it still didn’t make a lot of sense, so they had exchanged phone numbers so they could talk more about it later that night.

Isamu stared at the text for a moment, recalling all the facts Ju had told him last night when she had called. He hadn’t really been expecting her to follow through on her promise to explain so he had been surprised, and brought his phone down with him as he recalled what he had been told the night previous.

"That guy was a Digimon," Ju had explained as she walked home with him, "So are Cannismon and Leptomon. They came from a Digital dimension that exists alongside ours"

"And I guess that Tamers work in secret with friendly Digimon to stop bad ones?" Isamu had asked, surely if this were common he'd hear something about a Digimon attack on the news now and again.

Ju had laughed, a charming giggle that brought a small smile to Isamu's face, she wasn’t laughing at him, "Something like that" She'd replied, "But Tamers do lots of things."

There was some kind of war going on, and Digimon had started to flee into the real world seeking human partners, because humans had some sort of special power that could increase a Digimon’s strength. Ju said that the power could be channeled through the device on her glove, which she identified as a D-Gauntlet, but the power came from the humans themselves.

They’d talked all the way home and then texted late into the night, discussing details about how a human with a Digimon partner was referred to as a Tamer, and-despite what Chamelemon seemed to think- partners couldn’t just choose one another, they had to have some sort of special bond, that no one could yet identify.

"Tamers and their partners come in all sorts of combinations"

Before Isamu had fallen asleep in his phone, Ju had gone on to explain that humans and Digimon have lived side by side for decades at least, with some Tamers ranging from young children to adults with jobs, there were even rumors that members from governments around the world were secretly part of the Network.

Isamu prepared his breakfast and frowned, this was the part that had confused him the most over the phone. Ju had described a digital city that existed between their world and the Digital one called the city of Network, or just the Network. He  couldn’t quite wrap his head around there being a whole other world, let alone a world between worlds. By the time they’d gotten to that part of the story, it was getting pretty late and Ju had promised that if he was interested, she could tell him more some other time.

At last Isamu opened the text, finding an invitation for just that purpose:

MEET ME DURING LUNCH IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE QUESTIONS.(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ

That text was on his mind all day.

Isamu could hardly go a few minutes without glancing toward Ju during class, though to be fair the most interesting thing he was learning from any of the teachers was that Mr. Oyama, the math teacher, might be a Kyōkotsu. One time, Isamu looked her way and she was looking back at him and Isamu immediately looked away again.

He had hundreds of questions, like, how did someone become a Tamer? Was there someway to tell when you've met the right Digimon? How do you enter the Network? What other things did Tamers do?

There was no way they were going to be able to get through all of them during lunch. Maybe they could hang out after school and talk about it then. Isamu wasn’t sure that was a good idea either. In truth, if Ju was right about Chamelemon being onto something about Isamu's potential to be a Tamer, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to.

Isamu thought about Kaiyo and setting up the fundraiser with her the day before. That wasn’t how he normally made friends, but it certainly felt like the first time he had a chance at really having a social life in the weeks since he'd moved. Would being a Tamer take him away from that again?

Whenever he wasn’t writing notes for his classes, or glancing at Ju, Isamu was looking at the clock. He was feeling every second that ticked by until lunch. Eventually it got to the point where Isamu could no longer sit next to the Digimon Tamer without at least letting her know what he was thinking. Isamu folded up a piece of paper and scribbled a handwritten note on it and subtly passed it to Ju.

It took her a moment to notice it, and when she did, Ju stared at it for several seconds before sliding it closer so that she could write a reply. A few moments later, Isamu felt the paper poke his arm.

His original note read: I don’t think we should meet during lunch. Can you come to the park after school?

The reply Ju had written was: No, I have errands to run while my family and I get settled. You can call me around 6:00.

Isamu frowned and began writing again: I’m going to dinner with my parents at 6:00, is it alright if I call at 7:30?

Ju responded, flashing him a smile as she passed the note back: Any time after 6:00 is fine.

He grinned back and took the paper again, ready to write another response when the paper was snatched out of his hand by none other than the living skeleton himself. “Passing love notes, are we?” Mr. Oyama said, unfolding the paper and reading it’s contents out loud.

A wave of giggles passed through the class, Isamu’s face turned red. Not only was that a terrible misunderstanding about the note’s intention, but this was the second day in a row the class was laughing at his expense.

Ju saved them both from the further embarrassment of a detention by standing up and explaining, “I’m sorry, sir, you misunderstand, I simply asked Isamu if he would study buddy with me. I’m a little lost in the lecture.” She said.

Mr. Oyama quirked an eyebrow, but remembered that Ju had just transferred and seemed to buy the excuse. Ju sat back down, “You owe me.” She whispered.

“How about during lunch I buy you something from the vending machine?” Isamu offered, Ju smiled but didn't reply as she got right back to her note taking.

Isamu did the same, but his thoughts were now entirely on 7:30 when he would call to ask Ju about the Digimon. The rest of the day was spent in a blur, even lunch with Aki and Masato. Isamu didn’t remember saying more than one or two things to them as his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Digimon. For her part, Ju seemed to be excited about having someone to talk to about Digimon, he didn't doubt that she was looking forward to 7:30 too.

Isamu made a mental checklist of all the questions he had, and which ones he would ask first.

The final bell rang and the class filed out, Isamu managed to catch Ju for one last confirmation that he would call her before he started on his way home. To his surprise, he saw another of his classmates heading the same way he was, Kaiyo, which was odd because he never saw her coming this way after school- even when she wasn't volunteering her time for the clubs.

“Oh, Naka- Kaiyo…” The girl turned when she heard her name, Isamu quickly added, “I’ve never seen you come this way before. Don’t you usually go the other way?”

Kaiyo nodded, “I do, but I need to make a few stops before I go home.” She said, “The flower shop down this way is the only one in town that sells Stargazer lilies.”

“I see.” Isamu said, walking alongside her, “Something for one of the clubs?" He asked.

Kaiyo stopped mid step, looking hurt, “For my mother’s grave. The cemetery is the next stop.” Isamu felt insensitive, but Kaiyo seemed to see that and smiled, adding “It’s okay, you didn’t know, not a lot of people do, I don’t talk about it much.”

“Oh, I get it, was it a long time ago then?” He asked, hoping he wasn’t prying.

She nodded, “When I was three. There was a traffic accident, a three car pile up. I made it out. Mom didn’t.”

Isamu blinked, taken back when he heard that Kaiyo was in the same crash that killed her mother. “I’m sorry.” Was all he could think to say.

The girl smiled again, “It’s alright, like I said, it was a long time ago. It’s just kind of my tradition. You have to remember the people you love, but you don’t need to be stuck in the past forever right?” She dropped the subject after that, instead she told Isamu how nice it was that he was helping Ju get caught up and how she hoped that Ju adjusted to their class.

Kaiyo was a really good person, Isamu decided; to lose her mother at such a young age and still be so kind. She was much better than a certain someone he knew at least. Isamu’s own half brother Seichiirou, had never forgiven their mother for remarrying after his father’s death and never tried to get along with her new husband or Isamu himself.

His phone beeped another text alert. Speaking of his half brother, it was from Seichiirou.

SORRY TO BAIL LAST MINUTE, BUT SOMETHING CAME UP AT SCHOOL, I GOTTA CRAM.

Isamu wasn’t surprised or even disappointed that his brother wasn’t even coming to meet them for the family dinner they’d been planning for weeks. Seichiirou had been absent throughout most of Isamu’s childhood, always off with friends and blowing them off, Isamu had stopped expecting different a long time ago.

He pushed the thoughts of his half brother aside, and focused on chit chatting with Kaiyo while they walked together. Mostly about the school clubs, Kaiyo recommended he join the chess club so he had something to do while he was waiting for soccer tryouts- Isamu forgot for a moment that Kaiyo was in Chess Club already until she offered to play teaching games with him if he didn't know the game.

"Oh, uh, I know know the basics, it's just not for me" Isamu replied "I'm not a fan of sitting for long periods of time, I'd rather be running around"

Kaiyo giggled "Oh, is that why you have such a hard time focusing in class?" She teased.

They’d reached the flower shop before Isamu realized that he should have turned several blocks back in order to get home and said good-bye to his classmate when she went in to pick up the lilies for her mother. He waved to her through the window, thinking about how normal she seemed. Everyone at the fundraiser knew and was friendly with her; he wanted so much to have what she had, maybe a little more if he could just get back on the social wagon.

Being a Tamer sounded cool in theory. But a normal life, like he used to have before finding out about this Digimon business sounded just as good.

Isamu wasn’t quite as familiar with this part of town and the roads seemed like a maze. Trying to find his way back to his unused alley ways was practically impossible, so he settled for trying to find the park, he knew how to get home from there.

Isamu wandered for almost half an hour before he finally found the right road. The park was empty, the weather forecast was calling for heavy rain tonight so the children that usually played here after school had been picked up early by their parents so that they didn’t get soaked. Isamu was on the wrong side of the park so he crossed in silence.

That silence was the very reason he realized something was wrong. At first Isamu ignored the gentle hum in his ears, but as he got closer to the center of the park, it was getting louder and more irritating. Curiosity made him investigate, following the sound to its source and being surprised by what he found there.

Hovering a few meters off the ground was a strange distortion in the air. Isamu had no idea what he was looking at, it almost seemed like a worm hole. Small pixels broke off the distortion and vanished. Isamu gasped, recognizing the pattern. Whatever this was, it was pixelating the same way Chamelemon had when Ju had converted his data…whatever that actually meant.

The only conclusion Isamu could come to was that this had to have something to do with Digimon. He yanked his phone out of his pocket and hit Ju’s name in his contacts before he even realized what he was doing. It didn’t take the transfer student long to pick up, “Isamu? I thought you weren’t going to call until 7:30?”

“There’s something happening in the park!” He told her, and without being prompted, Isamu described what he saw, only pausing when Ju asked him to tell her how big it was. “What is it?” He asked when he finished.

“It’s a Digital Gate.” Ju said, “Get out of there fast or find a place to hide. A Digimon is about to come into the real world, and there’s no way to know if it’s going to be friendly.”

“What? There’s no way to close it?” Isamu asked, taking Ju’s advice and running for the trees, trying to find cover..

“No, the Digimon has to emerge and the gate will disappear on its own. It could be harmless or it could be hostile. I’ll have to convert it when I find it. Are you hiding?”

“Yes.” Isamu replied, peeking out from the tree. “There aren’t guards keeping hostile Digimon from using them?”

He heard Ju sigh over the phone as she struggled to explain, “The Network has secure firewall that keeps hostile Digimon from getting to our world through it, but Digital Gates are a natural gateways directly from Digiworld, there’s no telling what will come through”

She paused for a moment, Isamu could hear the voices of her Digimon saying something over the line, but couldn’t make anything out.

“I’m on my way. I already have Cannismon and Leptomon with me, we’ll be there in five minutes. If the Digimon emerges before then, can you describe it to me?”

“Sure thing.” Isamu replied, but before he could ask anymore questions about what to do, Ju hung up on him.

He was on his own.

He stared at the gate, both thrilled and horrified at what Digimon might be coming through. Would it be a small one like Cannismon and Leptomonmon, or would it be something bigger, like Chamelemon? His stomach churned, wondering if behind the tree was a good enough hiding place if the Digimon turned out to be hostile.

Isamu didn’t have to wait long. A large red shape leaped out of the gate, and landed with a thud. The creature looked humanoid, but extremely ugly, it reminded him of an oni, with long white hair, and a huge jaw lined with pointy teeth. The Digimon stretched and hiked a large club over it’s hunched shoulders, “So this is the human world is it?” He laughed, “Shouldn’t be too hard to pick up a partner here.” He declared and began stomping around, doing what?

Isamu didn’t know, he didn’t dare look either.

Figuring that he was likely to be heard if he called and spoke to Ju, Isamu put his text alert on vibrate and started to type a description of the beast that had emerged from the gate. However, just as he had finished typing the words RED AND UGLY, a light flashed and he heard another voice crying out in surprise and anger.

Isamu peeked out from behind the tree again to see another Digimon, way smaller than the first, tumble through the gate. The new arrival bounced and landed on his face, but hopped back to his feet with his fists in the air.  “Where are you, Fugamon!? I’ ain’t done with you yet!”

This Digimon was also bipedal, but was more cat-like in appearance, his body was covered in dark brown and beige fur, his long tail ended with a tuft of red hair that matched the mohawk on his head. A small dark grey horn shot off the end of his muzzle and he wore yellow gloves on each hand, where long claws ripped through the fabric.

The large red creature, Fugamon, turned around with a glower, “Well, I’m done with you Wemicmon! Stay out of my way, pipsqueak, I’ve got a human to find.”

“No way!” Wemicmon shouted, “I’m not gonna let you try to get a Tamer!”

Instead of using words, Fugamon used his club to whack the smaller Digimon away from him. Wemicmon screamed and was thrown passed the tree where Isamu was hiding, but thankfully seemed too focused on Fugamon to notice the human.

“Fugamon, you don’t understand what Tamers are!” Wemicmon continued, “If you try to force one to be your partner you’ll just get them killed!”

Fugamon beat his club into his hand, “If the human dies it's because they didn’t give me the power to save them. Not my problem.”

Wemicmon rolled out of the way of the club as Fugamon tried to ram it down on him. “Yes! Your problem!” He argued, “The bond between a Tamer and a Digimon isn’t just a means to be more powerful! You have to care about them too! It’s a team effort!”

Isamu raised his head, looking out from behind the tree, no longer caring if he was seen or not, and his phone sitting uselessly in his hand as he was too invested in what he was hearing to remember to text Ju. Wemicmon reminded him of Ju’s partners, but the drive and passion in his voice as he spoke about the bond between Digimon and Tamers sounded like something he’d heard a coach tell his soccer team.

“Bah! Teamwork is for weaklings who aren’t strong enough to survive on their own!  Once the human gives me the power I need, I’ll be on my way!” Wemicmon was too slow to dodge the club and was sent sailing toward Isamu again.

This time the small Digimon didn’t get up nearly as quickly. Wemicmon struggled to stand and fell back to the ground once, before he got back onto his feet. On his second attempt to stand, Wemicmon looked toward Isamu, and his eyes widened when he realized there was a human here.

Wemicmon tore his gaze away, trying to hide his discovery from Fugamon, but the larger Digimon stomped their way, it was only a matter of time before he noticed Isamu was there too. Fugamon brushed passed his tree and picked up Wemicmon, gripping him by the throat with one hand.

“Give it up numbskull, I need a Tamer before Jezemon finds me, and you’ll never stop me from getting one” Fugamon declared, shaking Wemicmon violently, “A weakling like you would have to have a Tamer of his own before you could beat me! Haha, and what human would want you for a partner!?”

“I would!” Without thinking, Isamu threw his phone at Fugamon’s head. The small device hurt enough to at least make the red ogre say ‘ow’ and drop Wemicmon out of surprise.

In the few seconds that Fugamon took to rub his head and turn around to face his attacker, Isamu dived passed his legs to scoop up Wemicmon and hoisted him up on his back. “What are you-”

Isamu cut him off, calling for Fugamon’s attention and glaring at him. “You’re a power hungry bully! I wouldn’t be your Tamer if my life depended on it!” He declared and turned his head slightly toward Wemicmon, “This guy though…If he really means what he said a minute ago, I’ll gladly give him all the power he needs to keep you from hurting someone!”

“Hey, kid! I appreciate the speech, but you aren’t my Tamer, run or you’re gonna get killed!” Wemicmon hissed in his ear. Fugamon raised his club, threatening to do just that, Isamu and Wemicmon both screamed and Isamu turned to run. “I’m too heavy! You’ll never escape with me weighing you down!”

“I’m not going to leave you to him!”

“Sun Bash!”

“Moon Surge!”

A familiar set of black and white Digimon appeared, jumping between Isamu and Fugamon. “Cannismon! Leptomon!” He cried out in relief, the air pixelated around them, a Digital Construct had been put up, he glanced around, “Ju!”

“Isamu, over here!”  Ju ran toward them, her eyes widened when she saw the injured Digimon, Isamu filled her in on the details as she inspected Wemicmon’s condition, “This is pretty bad.” She concluded

Wemicmon struggled to climb off Isamu’s back, “They… need my help!” He said looking back to Cannismon and Leptomon. “I gotta…Fight!”

“Is there anything you can do to help him?” Isamu asked, “Like is there a Digidoctor or something?”

“There are healing items you can win at the Network, but I’m all out.” Ju replied, with a flash of guilt on her face, “Remember those errands I said I need to run? I was going to go get more.”

Isamu felt terrible, Wemicmon clearly wasn’t doing well and the Digimon knew it too. Wemicmon smiled at him, “Your name’s Isamu?”

“Yeah. And you’re Wemicmon?”

He got a nod in response, “I… always believed there was… something more to Tamers than just a quick power boost…Something s-5pecial…I went to the Network -error- to find a p-partn3r…But no-0-body se_emed right…”

Wemicmon started to cough and pixelate, Isamu turned to Ju but she wasn’t converting his data, she had tears in her eyes and had her hand over her mouth to hide a gasp, “What’s happening to him?”

Isamu felt Wemicmon tug his sleeve and turned back to him, “Isamu…Thank you for sticking up for me.” He whispered, “I cOuLD hav3 -error met you 5-soon3r…You seem like the perfect- error- PERFECT 7-Tam3R for M_m3- Me.”

Wemicmon whole body fluctuated with pixels, Isamu grasped him close, as if trying to hold him together, “Wemicmon!”

A bright light suddenly erupted from his wrist. Isamu flinched against it, but stared in awe as a device and glove like what Ju used appeared on his hand. The screen glowed and beeped, something seemed to be coming from it. Over the beeping Isamu heard Ju speak up, “A Digicure! Isamu, quick, give that to Wemicmon!”

“What do I do with it?” Isamu had barely asked the question when it answered itself, the Digicure merged into Wemicmon’s body and he stopped pixelating.

The same robotic voice from the day before announced "Digicure activated" Wemicmon's body became engulfed in light, which faded momentarily, when it did, Wemicmon was solid again.

“I feel…Fantastic!” Wemicmon piped, and turned around to join the fight against Fugamon. “Like I could take you on by myself!”

Cannismon and Leptomon sounded offended when they replied, “Hey! This is our fight too!” Their bodies began to glow and left an energy trail behind them, “Eclipse snare!”

Fugamon became tied up in the beam. “Hey! Let go of me you little twerps!”

“Your turn!” Cannismon called to Wemicmon, “Show us what you got!”

Wemicmon leaped into the air and his claws glowed gold as he dove down to Fugamon,  “Fever claw!” He cried. The attack caused their opponent to stop squirming. Dead? No, just passed out.

Isamu looked at his watch-like device, “What was that thing you did yesterday?”

“Data conversion.” Ju replied, and held up hers, “Allow me to give you a D-Gauntlet crash course.” She pressed buttons slowly so he could see, opening up a menu and toggling to an option labelled convert to data and the computer voice announced each step as it had last time.

Fugamon vanished into her device and the air pixelated as the Digital Construct was released. The Digimon ran toward them happily, “Isamu! Isamu!” Wemicmon practically tackled him in excitement, “I can’t believe this! You saved me! You’re my Tamer!”

Isamu laughed, “I’m a Tamer!” He repeated, as if testing the word, “I’m a Tamer!”

Funny, just a few hours ago, Isamu had been thinking that being a Tamer might not be what he wanted. But as he and Wemicmon embraced he didn't have a doubt in his mind; he was a Tamer, and if Wemicmon was at his side he would do everything that it entailed.

Cannismon and Leptomon sat at Ju’s feet, yipping happily as she bent down to pet their heads, “When you two are done cuddling, we’d be happy to show you the best part!” Leptomon declared.

“Best part?” Isamu asked, pushing Wemicmon off him. Ju helped him up, and told him to follow. "What about the Digital Gate?"

Ju waved off the question, "They usually only stay open long enough for one Digimon to get through at a time. We're lucky that Wemicmon followed Fugamon through."

Wemicmon pumped his fists, "I didn't see anyone else around when I went through," He assured them, "It didn’t exactly appear in a crowded room, so I bet it’ll close before anyone else finds it."

With this explanation Ju took Isamu by the hand and led him out of the park. They were wrong though. Not long after they were gone, the Digital Gate flashed again, and one last Digimon made it into the real world before the gate closed.

"So this is the human world…" It was a child sized Digimon  which scaled a nearby tree to have a better look at the city, his tail waved devilishly and wind blew his red hair back and forth underneath the black helmet he wore over his face.  "Heh, can't say I'm impressed. Ah well, better find a place to crash." The new arrival hopped back down and scampered through the park.

On the streets, the humans took the main road while Wemicmon and Ju’s partners traveled along the side alleys, Leptomon leading the way. They came to an apartment complex where Isamu correctly guessed Ju lived, and she invited him inside.

“My parents won’t be home for another few hours, so we can take all the time you need.” Ju said, leading him to her room and the computer, “Hit the top right button on your D-Gauntlet, it’ll show you your ID code.”

“My ID?” Isamu did as instructed while Ju let the trio of Digimon in through her window.

“Yeah, you need that ID to access a lot of areas in the Network, security is pretty tight.” Ju turned on the computer and typed in a url address. A fairly standard looking social media blog turned up, but it asked for a User ID with no option to make a new account. Ju typed in what must be her own ID, “Brace yourself the first time can be a little weird.”

“Brace for wha-” The screen turned really bright and a sucking motion pulled Isamu toward the screen. He felt like he was on a roller coaster, with the world flying passed him as he sat still. When it was over Isamu stumbled forward feeling very sick. “What was…that…?” He trailed off to stare in awe at the sight before him.

They were no longer in Ju’s bedroom, behind them was a series of structures, like phone booths but with a computer monitor inside. Ahead of them, buildings loomed high into the oddly colored sky, they’d been transferred to a huge city. Isamu thought their town had been big, but this place dwarfed it, he couldn’t imagine that he’d ever be able to explore the whole place.

And that wasn’t even the impressive part, the shapes that occupied the streets were the real sight.

Ju laughed at him, “Welcome to the Network, Isamu.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him along, “C’mon! New users get a free prize at the hub!”

Isamu didn’t even question what that meant and drank in the sights and sounds around him. There were people everywhere, like a real city, only now for every person there were monsters of all shapes and sizes accompanying them. Wemicmon and the others ran to keep up with them.

They’d must have gone to the very center of the city before Ju finally stopped at what looked like a massive keyboard. Or, a more accurate description was several giant keyboards, a bright sphere similar to the Digicure he’d gotten floated above them and a stream of data connected it to the board surrounding a large pit.

“Enter your ID here.” Ju instructed and pointed to the stream, “When you win at the games it’s recorded and the Hub gives you a prize based on how well you performed, or there’s a 2% possibility that you might get a rare item as a prize. First time users get random prizes, I got 1000 Digicures as my prize, but I knew a kid once who got a map piece, and someone once claimed they got a Chrome Sword, but mostly people get upgrades and cures.”

Isamu typed in his ID, a lot of this still made no sense whatsoever, but it sounded like fun. The data he’d typed in went up the stream and into the hub. Nothing happened for a few seconds and Isamu almost asked if he’d done something wrong, but as he opened his mouth a data file came back down and a prize was awarded to him from the port.

He opened the box and found a pair of red goggles. He lifted them up in confusion, which was made even more so when Ju gasped. “Oh, my gosh! Isamu, Goggles are really rare items! I’ve heard only three people have gotten them as their entry prize since the Network was built!”

Isamu blinked and put them on, Ju seemed very excited for something that could be bought at a discount store for less than his weekly allowance. When they went over his eyes, Isamu saw why goggles were such a big deal. An information screen popped up in his vision, giving vital information for every Digimon species in view.

“Whoa!” He looked around, identifying Digimon instantly. Lopmon, Hawkmon, Andromon, Archemon, Tyranomon, Gomamon, Floramon, Kyubiemon, Magiamon, there were so many! Each one was labeled with a different attribute typing, Data, Virus, or Vaccine. Even a few attacks were registered with an elemental alignment.

“Usually, a Tamer needs to convert a newly encountered Digimon to get their scan data so they can study the species later. It can take years to gather enough information to be an effective Tamer” Ju said, folding her hand behind her back with a sly smile, “The goggles come with a build in Digimon Analyzer, so they’re  highly sought after, and the people who have them are rumored to be destined to be great leaders. Hold on to them tight, Isamu.”

“This is incredible” He gasped, as a new Digimon appeared in his vision, just popped up out of nowhere, the information screen identified it as Scrofamon: a Rookie level wild boar type Digimon with a Vaccine Attribute. Wondering where it had come from, Isamu took off his goggles and realized the Digimon was on a projection screen.

Noting his gaze, Ju explained, “That’s the coliseum, Tamers meet there for battle and highly anticipated matches are broadcast across the Network. Mostly it’s tournament rounds against bugs so that your partner can train for a real fight, but everyone likes to test their skill against each other in battle.”

A girl appeared on the screen next to Scrofamon, she looked American but Isamu couldn’t really tell, with her bleach blonde hair tied in pigtails that flowed over her shoulders. Her innocent look hardly matched the fierce glimmer in her eyes as her partner was pitted against three others and an assortment of odd looking figures  looked nothing like any of the Digimon he had seen on the streets.

Those must be the Bugs.

Isamu was certain she was going to get creamed, but the blonde girl pressed a button on her D-Gauntlet and Scrofamon became enveloped in light. When it faded, Scrofamon was bigger. Ju noted Isamu’s dropped jaw and giggled, “She evolved him, that’s one of the tricks that Tamers can do to make their Digimon more powerful. Check it out.” She pushed the goggles back onto his eyes.

Scrofamon was now labeled as Taivenmon. The three competing Digimon all dived to avoid his big tusks, but none of them were successful. Isamu watched in awe as Taivenmon easily wiped out the bugs and knocked his opponents aside, claiming victory in just a few minutes. He  trotted to his Tamer’s side and the girl brushed her hand up his snout affectionately, the hard look on her face softening as she congratulated her partner.

“Who is that?” Isamu asked.

“That’s Olivia Campion.” Leptomon told him, “She’s the strongest Tamer in the coliseum, no one can beat her and Scrofamon.”

“And not for lack of trying, either.” Cannismon added.

Ju finished, “She’s been a Tamer for, I think, four years, but she really only started going to the Colosseum a few weeks ago. Before that she did all her training in the Digital World rescuing people that had been kidnapped by Digimon.”

Isamu cocked his head, “Rescuing people? Why did she stop?”

Ju shrugged, “No one knows.”

That was odd, Isamu looked back at the screen as Olivia turned away from her partner and her eyes settled on the camera that was filming her battle. A chill went through him, like she was looking directly at him with those eyes that were alight with challenge, even though he knew that was impossible. Isamu couldn’t hold her gaze and looked away.

His sights settled on Wemicmon, who was staring up at the screen in awe as well, “Scrofamon’s pretty amazing, isn’t he? Just look at how smoothly he fights! I hope I can be like that one day!”

Isamu considered that statement for a moment, Olivia had handled herself with no hesitation and all seriousness. She was a goddess of battle, who lived and breathed completely in sync with her Digimon. Could he and Wemicmon ever be as strong as those two? Isamu smiled to himself.

He sure hoped so.

Next Episode

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode I

The seeds are sown...

“Shidou...Shidou....Isamu Shidou pay attention!” There was a dull thud as Isamu was thrown out of his thoughts by the sudden acquaintance of his head and the teacher’s book. At his old school, the boy in question would never have gotten in trouble for daydreaming in class, let alone assaulted for it.

“Gah! I’m sorry, Ms. Mazawa! It won’t happen again!” Isamu exclaimed, bolting from his chair and bowing repeatedly while he rubbed the back of his skull, certain a bump would develop where he’d been struck with the teacher’s book. He pictured something large and swelling, hopefully enough to get him out of math next period, but would go down before soccer practice after school.

“Honestly!” She huffed, twirling her graying hair in exasperation, “Shidou, this is the third time this week. You know I hate doing this, but if you can’t be bothered to pay attention to the lesson I’m going to have to keep you after school.”

Aside from the streaks of grey in her hair, Ms. Mazawa didn’t look more than a few years passed thirty, but her barbaric teaching methods made her seem centuries older. Isamu suspected she might be one of the old monsters of folklore, maybe Arikura-no-baba or Osakabe, but Isamu really didn’t care enough to try to research which one she could be.

“Yeah right you don’t like doing it, you keep kids after school all the time.” A chill ran up Isamu’s spine as Ms Mazawa’s irritated scowl deepened into a glare, making him overly aware of the fact that he had said this out loud instead of keeping it in his head.

She swatted him upside the head with her book a second time. “Shidou, I was just going to keep you in class for thirty minutes to reread today’s lesson, but your smart mouth just earned you a detention spent setting up the cafeteria for the archery club’s fundraiser tonight!” She declared.

“Y-yes ma’am!” Isamu stuttered, getting a giggle out of his classmates, “I’m sorry ma’am!”

“I hope you are.” Ms. Mazawa replied and turned to go back to the front of the class.

Isamu sighed and returned to his seat, brushing brown bangs out of his face and looking at his desk. At his old school, his classmates would have been laughing with him, not at him, he thought reminiscing, again, about his former life. The bangs he just moved fell right back into his eyes. He really needed to find something to keep his hair in place.

“Psst! Isamu!” He turned around at the sound of his name and saw his classmate Masato Namura give him a thumbs up. Beside him, Aki Mikami pushed up his glasses and awkwardly waved at him.

Isamu gave a small nod of acknowledgment to the both of them before facing the front of the class. The two of them were nowhere near the top of the food chain in this school’s social hierarchy, but they were the only friends he had here. He turned his head back out the window, catching his phantom reflection in the glass. How was it that he only had two friends? At his old school he was the cool popular kid that was friends with everyone, how did he become so bad at connecting to people?

In the glass, Isamu noticed more than just his own blue-eyed reflection. Just outside the door way he could make out the faint image of someone standing just outside their classroom. He looked that way just to be sure it wasn’t a trick of the light. Yes, there was a girl standing there, waiting to be invited in.

“Now that that’s out of the way, class...” Ms. Mazawa said, turning to the door, “We have a new student transferring today. Please give her a warm welcome. You can come in now, dear.”

The girl stepped in front of the class with her head held high. The students all have short gasps of amazement at the fact that she dared come in without her uniform on. The transfer student was wearing casual clothes, ankle length beige pants with green trimming that matched her Chinese style shirt  and held her bag in front of her like a purse, rather than a backpack. Oddly, the thing that stood out about her wasn’t her lack of uniform, but the fact that she was wearing a white fingerless glove on her left hand with what appeared to be a strange digital watch over it.

“Hello.” She said to them, pulling a strand of her black hair behind her ear. “My name is Ju Ling, my family and I just moved here from Bejing. I don’t have my school uniform yet because of a mix up that gave me the wrong size.” She looked over at Ms. Mazawa who waved her hands for her to continue, “I'm an only child who likes computers, though I’m not necessarily very good with them. Thank you for having me, I look forward to joining your class.”

With a bow, she concluded her introduction and looked at Ms. Mazawa again who directed her to take the open seat next to Isamu. They whispered something to each other and Ju giggled as she came forward, Ms, Mazawa had probably instructed her to make sure he didn’t start daydreaming again. Isamu sighed and began scratching notes on the lecture.

This was going to be a long day...

When the last bell of the day rang, Isamu almost forgot about his detention and started out the door with Aki and Masato when Ms. Mazawa reminded him of his unwanted duties. Basically he was setting up chairs and tables for an hour and half, rather than the half hour lesson he would have gotten if he hadn’t mouthed off,  but still that was an hour and a half Isamu wasn’t spending at the park practicing with Aki and Masato.

Another defeated sigh escaped him, tryouts for the Soccer team were a few weeks away, Masato was the right midfielder and Isamu had been the striker for the team at his old school, but Aki had never played an official game. Isamu felt terrible that he had to miss out on training Aki, the blond haired boy wasn’t awful by any means but he needed as much support as possible.

The archery club supervisor met him outside the door where he saw another of his classmates, Kaiyo Nakano, lined up as a volunteer. Isamu knew she was a volunteer, number one because he knew she hadn’t gotten in trouble, secondly because Kaiyo seemed to volunteer to help out with every club, though she was only an active member of the chess club.

“Hey, Shidou, I’ve already signed us both in” Kaiyo greeted, taking the opportunity to partner up with him, “It’s easier for me to work when I’m not in a skirt, so I’m going to change out of my uniform before we start. You go ahead and change too, that way you can just leave right after we’re done.”

“Oh? Okay, thanks.” Isamu replied, he hadn’t even known they were supposed to sign in as volunteers, but with Ms. Mazawa nowhere in sight, he supposed there had to be some way for them to prove he’d actually done the detention work. Deciding not to waste time, Isamu went to his locker at a slight jog and grabbed his casual clothes to change in the nearby boys bathroom.

As he swapped clothes Isamu’s text alert beeped and he juggled his phone to check it as long as there was no one to scold him for texting when he should be working. The message was from Gorou, a friend from his old school. Isamu’s heart skipped a beat, he’d messaged Gorou about hanging out over the weekend three days ago, what had taken him so long to reply? To his disappointment, Isamu opened the text to find a simple “Sorry, can’t come ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” in response to his invitation.

Isamu dejectedly put his phone away without replying and finished changing so he could get to work. He stepped out of the stall sporting a pair of capris and white shirt with the word “REAL” printed in english lettering on the front, and a black track jacket with blue stripes running down the sleeves. He folded his uniform into his school bag and started back to the gym, running into Kaiyo again on the way.

Apparently she’d had the same idea to change in the girl’s bathroom. She was dressed in a pale pink shirt with the words ‘Be Kind” written under a graphic resembling a heart made out of an arrow, an army green jacket, light shorts, and long striped socks.

“Looking sharp. Leave your bag by the door and don’t forget to pick it up when you leave” She winked at him with a friendly, teasing tone and led the way back, and took him over to a supply closet once they dropped off their bags. She went on to explain “It's actually not a lot of work to get this all set up, but it takes two people to carry one table, sometimes more for the big ones. Mr. Kojima and Mrs. Arai will tell us where to put them, we just have to coordinate and do the heavy lifting.”

She wasn’t kidding about it being heavy, Isamu could hear her grunt as she pulled a table out from the closet and was soon grunting himself as he grabbed the other end and helped her lift it away. “And you volunteered to do this?” He blurted without thinking, he really needed to stop that, it usually got a laugh in his old town, but around here, it usually got him in trouble.

But to his surprise, Kaiyo did laugh, “What can I say? I like to keep busy. It sure beats going straight to my homework.” She said, they both paused for a moment while the supervisors instructed them on where to move the table to. Kaiyo showed him how to set it up, and they were quick to return to the supply closet to get another table.

For a little while, Isamu actually felt like he was finally connecting to people as Kaiyo introduced him to other students from around the school. He’d never needed anything but soccer in his life for a long time, but as he was socializing with the volunteers and other kids in detention, Isamu thought Kaiyo probably had the right idea by volunteering with other clubs outside of his personal interests.

It didn’t take long to get everything set up, and as much fun as this had surprisingly turned out to be,  Isamu was the first one out the door when everything was done- after just barely an hour rather than the hour and a half they’d thought it would take. What were the odds that Aki and Masato were still at the park? Isamu didn’t want to leave them hanging, and considered texting them when he found there was no need to.

They were waiting outside the school gates for him, already changed out of their uniforms. Masato had dark grey jeans with yellow stripes on the side, and a vest half zipped over an old graphic tee from the 80s. His dark brown hair was kept out of his bangs with a red bandana that, for some reason, Ms. Mazawa let him where in class.

“Man, they sure kept you in there long enough, did’ja have to clean the toilets with a toothbrush or something?” Masato griped as he picked his bag off the ground and stood back from the school gate.

“Ms. Mazawa told him to help set up for the archery club, I don’t think that’s what they do in detention.” Aki told him  and pushed up his glasses, his white jacket was zipped up all the way and had an orange stripe running horizontally across his chest and shoulders. He had dark green pants tucked into long boots, and his bag was strapped over his shoulder.

“What would you know about it? You’ve never gotten a detention!” Masato teased, lightly punching Aki’s shoulder, playfully, Aki stepped on his foot in response.

“He will if he keeps hanging out with you.” Isamu joked back and turned to Aki, “And yeah, I was totally scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush, all detention kids have to!”

The look on Aki’s face was priceless, it took all of his will power not to laugh, “Y-you’re kidding, right!?” His glasses slipped further down his nose and once more he had to push them back into place.

“About the toilets or about you getting in detention because of me?” Masato slinging his arms around each of their shoulders, at which point Isamu couldn’t help laughing, ruining the joke entirely.

“Well, never mind.” He said, freeing himself from Masato and  sticking his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “Sorry to have kept you guys waiting, you still free for practice or-”

“-Shidou!” All three of them turned to look, surprised to hear Kaiyo calling for Isamu.

She  was running toward them from the school entrance. She’d been a volunteer and was free to go whenever, but Isamu was under the impression that she was going to stick around to decorate too. His face flushed a little when he saw the reason she was running to catch up with him.

“What’s up Nakano, can’t you see we’re trying to escape from this place?” Masato trilled with a mischievous grin.

Kaiyo skidded to a stop and panted for a second before she looked at Isamu and smiled as she handed him the bag she was carrying with her. His bag, that he must have left at the fundraiser despite her warning not to. “You forgot this.” She winked at him, “Tanizaki wanted to hang it from the basketball hoop but I told him it was mine. You owe me big time.”

“Ah, th-thanks Nakano.” Isamu replied, taking his bag back and flipping it over his shoulders.

She waved her hand dismissively, “You can just call me Kaiyo if you want.” she said, hiking her own bag onto her shoulders and turned away, heading down another street, before shouting over her shoulder  “See you guys in class tomorrow! Don’t forget your homework again, Namura or Ms. Mazawa might actually make you eat lunch in the hall this time!”

Masato made a face while Isamu quirked his eyebrow at the bizarre sounding punishment, “It’s worse than it sounds,” Masato said, “Anyway, I guess I better get home and do that homework. You guys alright practicing without me?”

“Actually, I’d better do the homework too.” Aki said, pushing up his glasses and looking at the ground, “After all we have that math test coming up and it’s my worst subject.”

“You say that about every subject.” Isamu rolled his eyes slighting, very aware that he needed the practice for the math test more than he needed practice for the soccer try-outs, “Man, sorry about the detention guys, I hate to have you waiting for me and not have time to actually practice.”

Masato clapped his shoulder, “It’s alright, we can practice for a while and then do homework together at the park. I fail, you fail, what do you say? We can always practice more this weekend, you guys free?”

“I’m always free.” Aki replied with a shrug. “And studying together would probably be good for all of us, too” they both turned to Isamu, waiting to hear his answer.

His  fingers brushed his phone and thought about Gorou, but remembered that his friend claimed to be too busy to hang out this weekend- somethin he was never too busy for when they lived on the same side of the river. “Yeah, I’m free too. Who wants to race- huh?”

Isamu paused mid sentence, staring up at the building across the street where the air had seemed to distort for a second. Aki and Masato both looked the same way, but there was nothing to see. Isamu quickly dismissed it as a trick of the light, “Sorry, seeing things I guess.” He said, though he couldn’t shake the sudden feeling of being watched, “Anyway, I’ll race you guys to the park!” He pushed his way passed them and took off at a run, giving them no choice but to give chase.

Isamu laughed as he ran, Masato quickly started gaining on him with Aki no more than a few feet behind. The park was a few blocks away, and all three of them were exhausted from the run, “I’m.. so...slow…” Aki complained as they panted by the water fountain.

Masato checked the clock on his phone, “Actually... I think we... broke our record” He said.

Isamu clapped Aki’s shoulder, coughing slightly, “And you... kept up, just fine...I had guys on my team… At my old school...who were much slower…” He told him.

It took a few more minutes to convince Aki that he had done well, before they all agreed to sit at a picnic table and complete one page of homework before they started practice. Working together they actually managed to complete two pages before they remembered they wanted to practice some, too. Aki had a duffle bag which he kept his swimming trunks and towel in, as well as his uniform and clothes when he needed to change, and now it had become home to their soccer ball.

Between homework and practice, Isamu forgot about the strange distortion he’d seen outside the school, but while they were practicing the feeling of being watched started to creep up on him again. Not wanting to frighten Aki or Masato, he ignored the feeling and focused entirely on being the instructor, teaching both of them a trick he’d picked up at his old school to pass the ball between teammates while feigning a shot at the goal to confuse the other team.

At long last, they’d had enough practice and went back to their homework where it was harder to ignore the feeling of being watched. It was starting to alarm Isamu greatly, “Man, guys, I’m starting to get really tired” He sad, stretching to try to avoid suspicion of why he was suddenly backing out of the study group, “I think I’m finally getting this, so I’m going to head home for dinner and finish up tonight. I can text if I need extra help right?”

Masato nodded, “Yeah, it’s starting to get late, too” he said, “My aunt will get worried if I don’t at least call.” Aki agreed, and they all got up to leave the park- the feeling following Isamu, though neither Aki nor Masato seemed to be concerned. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to put them in danger so he tried to discreetly hurry them along.

However, the three of them spent a few extra minutes talking on the side of the road and finalizing plans for their weekend meet up before they finally parted ways. Aki and Masato lived three blocks away from each other, but Isamu lived in an apartment in the opposite direction.  

Having lived down here long enough to have learned a few short cuts, Isamu avoided the crowded main roads by taking less used alleyways, hoping to lose whatever was haunting him. This particular street was a back road behind a few convenience stores that occasionally company trucks used for deliveries, but Isamu rarely saw anyone actually using them.

His text alert beeped again, making him jump slightly, but he stopped to check it, this time the message was from another of his friends from his old school canceling their plans to hang out the next day. Isamu frowned and put his phone in his pocket without texting back. He’d only moved across the river for his father’s new job. Why was it so hard for everyone to meet him?

The boy became so lost in his thoughts that his sense of alertness started to fail. Isamu had his phone out again, looking up what assignments he had to for his classes and trying to decide what he needed to complete after dinner and what could be done during lunch tomorrow when he noticed movement. Isamu looked up, now absolutely certain that it was not just his imagination, or a trick of the light.

Where he had seen nothing but an odd ripple from the corner of his eye,  something melded into view. It looked like a giant chameleon wearing military gear. “Found a good one!” A raspy voice called out from the monster’s direction. Wait- that thing wasn’t the one speaking was it?

Faster than Isamu could make a run for it, a long slimy tongue lashed out of the creature’s mouth and wrapped around his body. He screamed and wiggled desperately, but was yanked closer to the chameleon’s open maw. Isamu closed his eyes, not wanting to see his upcoming doom, and wondering if the creature would kill him first or if it intended to swallow him whole and alive.

Neither option appeared to be the case, however as mere meters from the beast’s jaws, the tongue suddenly lifted him high. Isamu hardly dared to open his eyes again, but eventually had to when the raspy voice demanded he did, confirming that it was in fact the giant chameleon that was speaking.

Isamu struggled to breathe in the firm grip of the tongue, but did as commanded and opened his eyes to look at the creature, which was scrutinizing him the same way he might inspect the latest electronics while deciding what was better quality.

“Yes, yes. You’ll do.” The monster muttered,  Isamu whimpered as the tongue started to retract back toward the creature’s mouth, certain that this time he was going to be lizard chow, but to his relief, Isamu’s toes brushed the ground and he was released. Isamu toppled over, landing face first onto the pavement. “You’ll do just fine.”

Instinct told Isamu to get up and run, but logic reminded him that the creature would catch him with its tongue again if he tried...and maybe this time he would end up as dinner. “I...I’ll do just fine for what...?” Isamu asked, clearly food wasn’t what this monster was after, for now at least, but he had no idea what it really wanted from him.

The answer came with a massive foot being pressed onto his back, pinning him to the ground. “My Tamer!” The creature replied, “I am Chamelemon! And I need a leader like you to make me stronger!”

Chamelemon spoke as if Isamu should know what that meant, “You seem plenty strong to me!” He said, and wound up again regretting his tendency to say what was on his mind, when the pressure on his back increased as Chamelemon pushed him harder into the ground.

“Don’t be a fool! I barely scrapped through the war on my own! I need you to be my Tamer!” Chamelemon growled, “Now, make me stronger or I’ll kill you!”

Isamu wasn’t really in a position to say no, even if that’s all he wanted to do. Who did this thing think he was, what did he mean leader? Sure he had taken charge of Soccer practice but that hardly made him a leader. What could someone as powerless as Isamu do to make Chamelemon stronger? Two shapes appeared in Isamu’s peripheral vision, a black one and a white one. Female voices cried out strange words.

"Moon Surge!”

“Sun Bash!”

He managed to turn his head just enough to see the white shape, some kind of dog-like animal, shoot a small blast of light energy at Chamelemon. Though Isamu couldn’t see it, the black one on the other side of him was doing the same thing. The combined blast was powerful enough to knock Chamelemon back, allowing Isamu to scramble away.

With a good look at his rescuers now, Isamu realized that they were an almost identical pair. The canine features extended only to their faces and body shapes, their ears were long and tipped with tuffs of fur that were red on the black creature and blue on the other. They had long tails with spikes on the end.

“Ju! Get ready” The white one called, glancing behind her, passed Isamu forcing him to look as well.

He was surprised to see the girl that had transferred into class just that day. Ju looked equally surprised to see him, but didn’t dwell on it long as she focused on whatever it was that the white creature had told her to prepare for. Ju lifted her arm, pressing buttons on her digital watch.

The black one dodged a lashing from Chamelemon’s tongue, “Leptomon! Ju! We need to act now!”

“Don’t rush her, Cannismon!” the other replied, shooting another blast of energy from her mouth.

“All set!” Ju called, looking up from her glove, “Do it!”

The small dogs leaped between Isamu and Chamelemon, and their bodies began to glow. “Eclipse Snare!” they cried in unison and bounded forward, black and white energy trailed their every move.

Chamelemon attempted to squash them with both his tongue and his claws but Cannismon and Leptomon were much faster than him. The pair encircled him several times before their glow diminished and they sprinted away . The trail of energy they’d left behind tightened like a noose, trapping Chamelemon in its coil!

Ju took a few long strides forward, holding her gloved hand in front of her, “Initiate data conversion!” She shouted.

A computerized voice replied “Data conversion initiating.” A beam of light shot out of Ju’s watch and struck the giant lizard. Chamelemon started to pixelate, “Conversion in progress.”

“No!” Chamelemon struggled in his bonds, much like Isamu had while trapped by his tongue, and just as fruitlessly. Bits of his body broke off in small pixels and were dragged down the beam into the watch. The process was slow at first but picked up speed, and soon there wasn’t enough of Chamelemon left to struggle.

When he vanished entirely, the beam returned to Ju’s watch and the computer voice announced, “Conversion complete. Scanning new data....Scan complete. Digimon identified: Chamelemon. Would you like to view Chamelemon’s profile?”

“Not now.” Ju said and lowered her arm, pressing another button on her wristwatch.

The air around them pixelated in a similar manner to how Chamelemon had vanished, but aside from that, nothing seemed to change. “Digital Construct deactivated.” The computer said.

Ju then turned to Isamu, “You alright?” She asked.

Isamu’s mouth was hanging open in shock, “Wha- Did you kill it?” He asked.

Ju laughed, “What? No! No, I never kill Digimon. I just converted his data into something a little easier to carry.”

Isamu jumped when two small bodies suddenly pressed up against him, “If a Tamer converts a realized Digimon back into scan data, they can take them back to the Network, or even all the way back to the Digital World!” The one that had been called Leptomon said, bumping her head against Isamu’s hand like she wanted him to pet her.

“We always send the hostile ones back to the Digital World. If they attack humans in this world they’re not going to be welcome in the Network.” Cannismon added, wagging her tail, but keeping back from Isamu.

“Digimon? Network? Digital World?” Isamu looked at Ju for some kind of explanation, but the transfer student was busy giggling.

Finally she stepped over and offered him her hand to help him back to his feet. “That’s a little hard to explain, but Cannismon and Leptomon seem to like you, and they don’t usually warm up to strangers. Maybe Chamelemon was onto something, choosing you.”

“I don’t understand.” Isamu exclaimed, digging his hands into his pocket, “Choosing me for what?”

“To be a Digimon Tamer.” She replied, lifting her glove to him so that he could see that it was not a watch on her wrist. She lowered it and held her hand out again, this time in greeting. “I know I introduced myself this morning, but I think we should have a more proper one. I’m Ju Ling, I’ve been a Tamer for three years. These are my partners, Cannismon, and Leptomon.”

“Nice to meet you!” Leptomon said with a sing-song-voice, Cannismon gave the same response in a less enthusiastic tone.

“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Isamu Shidou.” He replied, shaking Ju’s hand and looking at the creatures at their feet for a moment before turning his eyes back to Ju. “What’s a Tamer?”

Next episode

[digimonnetwork-project]

Episode 0

In ages long passed, Digimon waged a merciless war against one an other until at last a cruel victor emerged. For centuries, the weak were subjugated to the will of the strong, and none dared fight for their freedom. Hope had been lost to them.

That is, until a handful of humans came from another world.

Although they were at first unwelcome, it was soon discovered that by working with the humans, the Digimon gained a new power and thus the Digimon Tamers and their partners rose to fight back against the Evil that had dominated the Digital World for so long.

A hard won peace spread over their world, but as expected, it was a peace that could not last. Digimon who desired the power of humans began to cross into the other world seeking partners of their own, and not always by respectable means. Others became revolted at the concept and sought instead gain power by their own means by eliminating humans and the Digimon who sympathized with them.

A great divide grew between the Digimon, and before long new factions were rising, falling and consuming the Digital World. Fearful of their own world becoming caught in the conflict, humans retreated from the Digital plain, but were reluctant to leave their partners behind. A bridge between worlds was created, a Safe Haven known as the City of Network where humans and Digimon could meet in peace while war continued to plunder the Digital World.

Yet even this solution will not bring lasting peace to the Digimon Tamers. Out of hundreds of armies, two now remain; the Court of Angels and the Court of Demons. Their war for control of the Digital World and the threads of destiny will now once again lead the Tamers to the center of the war.

And the choice of one will rule the fate of all

[digimonnetwork-project]

Reboot in progress!

Hey there, tumblr, long time no see. Quick reintroduction, I’m the artist/writer formerly known as Zae, currently going by Dollie. As you can guess from this blog, I’m managing the Digimon FDD project Digimon: Network, which I began in 2016/17 ish and then it sort of went on an unplanned hiatus.

Well , so over the past year or so, I’ve been working on Network again, rebooting it with new artwork and rereleasing chapters with new content within them and finally reached the point where I left off here and began new episodes and other content.

I’ve had it all uploaded on my Deviantart account, and you can read it here if you don’t want to wait for me to rerelease the episodes on tumblr. My plan right now is to delete all the old stuff from here and reupload the new episodes periodically so I’m not spamming tags daily

[digimonnetwork-project]

Still not dead!

After the Christmas rush, one of my co-workers broke her hip so I’ve been having to cover for her, but it’s starting to look like I might have some more time to get writing again soon! That said I have a question for all the FDD artists and fans.

When you see a line up of fictional Digidestined what sort of visual tells do you have, if any, that a character is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu/Bad OC?

[digimonnetwork-project]

hey, not to bother you, but is this project dead? ;^; i understand if you've been busy or had other things to worry about but i hope you'll still continue this fic at some point!!!

Hey there! Thanks for the ask, you're no bother! No, this project is not dead, but it is unfortunately sort of in a coma. My work hours have changed since I started writing it and, especially with the holidays now, I just have not found the time to write. I hope to get back soon as this is a project I have a lot of passion for and wish to see through to the end.

[digimonnetwork-project]

Working on your fanseries, designing the humans, the Digis, their lines, important OC enemies/allies and writing the damn fic like

[digimonnetwork-project]

ａ    ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ             ｏｆ     ｍａｌａｋｈｉｍ

Featuring Malakhimon from Digimon Network @digimonnetwork-project and Malakhimon from @digimonreconnect

[digimonnetwork-project]

7 and 9

Fanfic Questions

7: Where did the title come from?

Network has a double meaning, the obvious one is that it’s named after the City of Network, an important location in the story that is at the center of much of the plot either as a simple hang out for the Tamers or a base of operations. The second is that ‘Network’ is referencing the vast network of relationships between the characters, both those who have been introduced and those yet to make their debut. Some of these relationships are stuff that I really only thought of as I started writing, for example, Malphmon went from being kind of a voiceless grunt in my head to a one of the bigger threats in my original draft and then to something of a tragic character in the final version because of the new relationships I formed for him while I was writing.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Boy howdy, I could write a book just on the alternate versions I almost did.

For one thing, the bigger cast I mentioned earlier was 12 human characters who had these crest-like items that were based on the 12 Astrology Zodiac Signs. You can still see seeds of it in the final project, like Tarrasmon’s technique, Leo’s Pride, is in reference to the fact that Isamu’s Sign was Leo.

Speaking of Isamu, for a while after I started reworking the idea, Isamu’s partner was going to be a snake Digimon, but I could never come up with a design I liked and eventually created Wemicmon instead. However some of my early concept art had him a little bigger, more Guilmon sized.

There was another Tamer and his Digimon too, who I eventually changed to the characters Masato and Equimon. You wouldn’t have called it because he was a snobby rich boy named Shou with a pretentious little blue bird Digimon who actually bullied Isamu and the character who became Aki. Aki, in this draft was a girl named Anelia.

Liv’s name for a very long time was Mikaela, and my concept drawings for her had her hair down and she was more confrontal, demanding fights almost as much as Scrofamon. Her little sister, Sammie, was going to have a partner who was a little like how Puckmon is going to turn out in the end.

I think the only two members of the Courts who’s names haven’t changed a million times are Baphomon and Focalomon, who have yet to make their debut. 

A more recent change is the evolution items that will allow the Digimon to reach their Ultimate level, I originally had the Zodiac but when I dropped that idea I changed them to a sort of rune stone that aligned with certain elements and would only activate for Digimon of that element, but I quickly decided that was a bit too Pokemon for me. The new evolution items will be revealed in full soon!

[digimonnetwork-project]

1, 8, 11, 13

Fanfic questions

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Network is a combination of elements ranging from almost life long dreams to me simply being a bitter old lady.

The D-Gauntlets have their origin from when my sisters and I would play in the backyard and pretend our watches were Digivices, inspiring me to always want a Digivice that could be easily mistaken for a watch, I added the glove portion because I thought it was cool. Cannismon and Zerdamon are based off one of my earliest Digimon OCs and, really the only one that was any good back in the day.

There are a few elements, however, that are directly inspired by theories for existing Digimon series I had as a child that didn’t pan out, and character arcs that didn’t meet my expectations. Liv, for example, you might notice has some parallels to Rika, being a tough girl who is a famous Tamer known for her battle prowess, the two characters have temperament issues and don’t get along with the rest of the cast for a while. My disappointment with Rika was that we were well passed halfway through Tamers before we learned that the source of her anger was that her father left, mentioned in passing and never brought up again, or even resolved in the movie that did touch on it a little more. I solved this with Liv by hinting toward her brother’s death early on and addressing it as the source of her emotional instability and the fact that she’s experiencing this grief is something that she struggles with through Network until she eventually reaches the acceptance.

8. Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

...I can’t really think of anything in specific, but my real life twin sister has been a big part of Network’s development. Nothing gets from an idea in my head to something that seriously happens unless I run it passed her first, if she agrees it’s a good idea, I do it, if she says, it’s not she’ll help me brain storm something better. 

11: What do you like best about this fic?

I like how easily the story for Network came together once I had the right cast for it. To elaborate, the original idea that became Network had a big cast of characters that didn’t really have anything to do so I struggled with working a story around them and eventually decided I needed to cut them down a lot, keeping only a handful of character designs I liked and changing their ages. 

The real story didn’t get kicking until I came up with Kaiyo and suddenly I had a full cast of characters who balanced each other well and could carry a decent slice of life story between the human characters through their relationships and personal problems they need to overcome. Add in the Digimon, a threat to the world as we know it, and a solution to that threat and now I really had something special. 

It really did come down to the fact that I had too many characters in my original plan and none of them really fit well together, but once I cut the cast, reworked them and added fresh face, suddenly everything fell into place and that’s just so amazing.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Let’s see, the least spoilery answer to this is anything by the group Amaranthe, I don’t know, there’s just something about their music that really gets me in the mood for Digimon. Their song Limitless is the unofficial closing theme for Network, and another song will be featured as a Duet for one of the Best Tamer Albums (which I will be creating and uploading as some of the songs get less spoilery). Additionally, the female vocalist, Elize Ryd, also is the guest vocalist in the song At the Break of Dawn  by Arion which is Network’s unofficial opening theme. 

This takes care of mood music for the human world and Network segments, but music for the Digital World and the Courts is definitely more along the lines of Epica’s album The Holographic Principle

[digimonnetwork-project]

Reblog if you are a fanfiction author and would like your readers to put one of your fic titles in your ask + questions about it

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

2: What scene did you first put down?

3: What's your favorite line of narration?

4: What's your favorite line of dialogue?

5: What part was hardest to write?

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

7: Where did the title come from?

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

11: What do you like best about this fic?

12: What do you like least about this fic?

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?