Chapter One:
Let's Play A Game:
By Stray Kat
It was a bright and cheery day, and all the little boys and girls were running around the playground. The high-schoolers weren't too happy about being stuck in school. But the hour and a half lunch made up for it. The teens were scattered across the gym sized room, organized by their clique, Preps at one set of tables, Jocks at another, Goths in a dark corner away from the sunlight. It was hard to find someplace to sit if you didn't have a clique, but that didn't bother half the kids, only the new one's, but no matter their social differences there was always just that one thing that made them all the same, Digimon.
It wasn't a card game or anything like in the past; it is a portable video game that uses special disks that gave your Digimon the powers of other Digimon. Everyone had their own, whether or not they'd admit it, and they play during the lunch hour. Individuals would walk over to the gamer table and challenge someone, which one girl did; the guy she challenged had a bored look on his face and the way he played said the same. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and let out a sigh, as he placed a disk into the reader slot, his opponent's Digimon shattered into a million pixels. She groaned with the loss, and walked off leaving the boy alone at the table. Again he sighed, no one was good enough to give him a challenge, and he would have had to play another, but he was saved by the bell.
He was walking down the street from school, the day over and he was glad, school bored him, and the lame Digi-battles didn't help either. Lighting a cigarette he began to muse, he missed when he was younger when he just started the game, new to the battles and the game, with challenging battles. He walked for awhile lost in thought when his phone started to ring, its e-mail ring. There wasn't anything that could make him happy, so he answered his phone. The e-mail sender address was weird; it was a bunch of symbols and an e-mail provider he didn't recognize, 0!&!oredentul.ink. He read it, and as he did he got that feeling, you know the feeling in the pit of your stomach that warns you of something dangerous. Well he got that feeling, but he wondered why some one would send him an e-mail like this, "Let's play a game."
"What kind of joke is this," he said it aloud to no one in particular, as he did though his phone rang again.
He opened the new e-mail and nearly dropped the phone, "There is no joke, let's play a game." He ran as fast as he could away from there, hoping to leave whoever was watching him behind.
At home, Jake crashed onto his bed hoping to get some sleep, but he somehow managed to keep himself awake. With nothing else to do before he fell asleep, he crawled over to the edge of the bed and turned on his computer. While the Microsoft logo popped onto the screen, he opens a cupboard in his dresser, on which the computer sat, and pulled a can of Dr. Pepper out of it, his secret stash. His mood was sour, and needed to cheer up; his hand moved the mouse over a folder and clicked it. After an episode of Bible Black, he was very amused, "Whoever said hentai was supposed to be perverted never watched them. God that was funny." He chuckled a little more and clicked on another folder, this time he was rewarded with the sound of the Digimon theme song. He watched for ten minutes before he received an e-mail on his computer, as Tai and Matt, tried to drag Joe into the hot tub, he opened it.
"Let's play a game."
Jake couldn't take it anymore and he typed quickly, "Who are you?"
"No one in particular, let's play a game."
He got angry, and plugged his game into his PC, typing, "You want to play, fine, we'll play." Everything went black.
Jake was freaked, and didn't know what was happening, darkness surrounded him. A cool breeze washed over him, and for a moment he thought he left the fan on, but the smell of flowers wafted over him, and he realized his eyes were closed. Embarrassed, he opened his eyes, and shut them against the blaring sunlight.
"What the dang, my curtains are never open," he said out loud letting his eyelids filter the light till he was used to it. He tried again, and this time the sun wasn't as bright. Blinking against the sight till he was sure it wasn't a hallucination, he stood up. Flowers surrounded Jake, and fields of green beyond the flowers.
"Well this is new, mom must have redecorated," he joked to himself. As he stood there in disbelief that his mom would grow plants in his bedroom, his phone rang.
He read the e-mail, and cursed to himself, "Now are you ready to play a game?"
Anger radiated through him and he nearly threw his phone to the ground, and stomped on it, but instead he started texting back, "who are you, what do you want?"
Not even a second passes before he received a new message, "To play; I would run now if I was you."
Confused, Jake looked up from his phone and looked around; he didn't see anything to run from. As he started to type again, a shrill shriek erupted from above, as a bright orange, oversized stag beetle fell towards him.
"Scissors Claw," it screamed as its large talons swung at Jake. He dove to the side and ran; he didn't run long till the sight of a forest willed him faster. The trees surrounded Jake and he felt safe from that thing,
"Kuwagamon, what the heck. That can't be real." He felt through his pockets, his cigarettes were there, so was his lighter. He reached into his hip pouch and felt a smooth hexagonal object.
He pulled it out, "Great, being chased, by a fictional monster and all I have to protect myself, is a useless digi-disk." Apparently his yelling had attracted the Kuwagamon, because in a flash of light and wind the trees around Jake fell to the ground cut in half.
The Kuwagamon roared in triumph at finding Jake, "Scissors Claw." Its attack fell as it realized Jake wasn't even there anymore.
Jake ran, through the trees and the undergrowth, but as he was running he skidded to a halt. In front of him the ground fell as it turned into the sheer face of a cliff, open air was what was left of the ground. Unless I grow wings, I'm stuck; he turned around just as the Kuwagamon came bursting through the trees.
"Scissors Claw," its talons pulled back, Jake braced himself for the pain that was going to come. His hand started to glow, no, not his hand, the disc was glowing. His body shook as it pixilated into his palm, a fire grew in his belly, and the images of an Agumon ran through his mind.
"Pepper Breath," flame erupted from Jake's mouth, the Kuwagamon reeled back in pain. Jake didn't move, not even as the disc reappeared in his hand, and as his attacker turned into a trillion bits, and reformed into a similar disc. Jake stooped to pick it up, and slipped it into his pouch. He pulled his phone out but before he could text, it beeped, "The first move is made, and a knight takes a pawn."
