Chapter 1: Let's Get Digital
The school bell rang at 2:15 in the afternoon. It was a Friday, so students flocked to the hallways to retrieve their things and head home for the weekend. Among the students were two guys, Austin and Justice. The two were juniors at Crete High School. Austin was a heavy-set white guy with short brown hair while Justice was a black guy with a skinny build with a hi-top fade. They were leaving their English class towards the lockers.
"Man, that test was tough," said Justice in a defeated voice. "I'm pretty sure I failed."
"Don't be like that," said Austin. "I'm sure you did fine." He was pretty confident in his performance.
"It's easy for you to say that, you're one of the smartest guys in that class."
Austin took the comment with pride. "Well I do have a knack for that stuff." Justice just rolled his eyes. "Whatever, whatever I get on that test is what I get."
Their lockers were close to each other, so they were headed in the same direction. After grabbing their bags and personal belongings, the two set out for home. As they walked outside, Justice asked Austin a question.
"Hey Austin, are you doing anything today?"
Austin turned to him. "No, my family is going to be out today, so I got the house to myself. Did you want to come over or something?"
"Yeah actually," said Justice. "I don't feel like going home, don't want to deal with family and all that jazz."
"I don't mind," said Austin enthusiastically. "We can chill and play games, watch a movie or something."
"Thanks man. I need to do something to get my mind off school."
Austin and Justice continued to chat on the way to Austin's house. Justice had a rough day, having nearly every class give an exam. He was mentally drained and just wanted to sit down and relax. Austin had a fairly easy day. He had a lot of easy assignments to do in class and ended up with lots of free time. Justice kept telling him how easy he had it, but Austin kept saying he had it hard too. The conversation was interrupted when a message appeared on his phone.
"What the hell is this," asked Austin as he looked at his phone. He opened the message and it was in some language he had never seen. He then looked to Justice who was looking at him with curiosity. "Did you get a weird message too, Justice?"
Justice then gazed at his phone, trying to make out the weird text he was seeing, but to no avail. "No, I put my phone on airplane mode man. Don't want to be bothered by my family. It's probably spam my boy."
"I guess you're right," said Austin. This is probably some kind of spam anyway." Austin deleted the message from his phone and the two continued on their way.
Austin lived around twenty minutes away from the school, so it took them a little bit to get there. Along the way, they stopped at the gas station to pick up some drinks. It was going to be a great time, so they needed the greatest liquid refreshments, RC and Mountain Dew. And they couldn't forget the Funyuns and Flamin' Hot Cheetos. As they left the store, Austin's phone buzzed again. Austin took it out and looked at his friend again.
"Same message I presume?" asked Justice, who raised an eyebrow at him
"Yep. And it's getting deleted again" replied Austin.
"Heh! You know what that means, you got some stalker tryna get your ass."
Austin huffed at the response and deleted the message and blocked the number this time. They continued down the street until they came to the front door of Austin's house. Austin unlocked the door and the two were bombarded by Austin's two dogs, CC and Venus. The two showed them love before going upstairs to Austin's room. Throwing their bags and snacks on his bed, the two set up to play some video games.
"What are we starting with" asked Austin anxiously looking through his games.
"How about Devil May Cry 4," suggested Justice.
"I'm down for that. Are we doing the Vergil story?"
"You know it. Vergil is the best."
"I think Dante is cooler, but you're entitled to your opinion." Austin turned on his PS4 as he handed Justice the controller. "You can start my friend since you're my guest."
Justice accepted the controller. "Thanks, now let me show you why Vergil is the best."
The duo started up the Vergil story on Legendary Dark Knight difficulty. This meant that more enemies would spawn than normal, meaning more stylish combos. Basically, they were getting motivated. Justice played until he finally died in the fourth mission, then Austin took over until he died. They ended up beating the story quicker than they thought they would.
"Wow, we really sped through that one," said Justice surprised.
Austin just shrugged. "I guess we need to pick another game. Any ideas?"
Justice looked at the various games Austin had. He then looked at Austin's bed and saw his skateboard next to it. Justice then realized what they should play.
"Let's pop in a Tony Hawk game."
Austin liked the idea and quickly grabbed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 from his stack of PS1 games. He popped it in the console and the two were once again rising and grinding on that skater status. Austin was pulling off sick tricks and everything, while Justice was fucking around with Spiderman. The two were enjoying their time as the soundtrack played some of the best music from the era, including Rage Against the Machine and Anthrax. As they were getting really into the game, Austin's phones buzzed once more.
"I swear, if it's that stupid message again, I'm gonna punch something," said Austin, who was getting more agitated by it.
"HA! Ah man dude, someone must really want to take your ass out on date and get busy with you," Justice said as he started to air thrust, making fun of Austin.
After that, Justice's phone started to vibrate as well. He looked at his phone in surprise since it's impossible for his phone to receive any messages since it's on airplane mode. He picked up his phone and opened the screen, only for it to reveal the same message as well.
"The hell is this?" he asked, puzzled.
"Not so funny now is it?"
"Shut your ass up! What does yours say?"
Austin gave a snide look at his friend and looked at the new message. "Wait, hold up. This time it's in English."
The two skimmed through the message and both had the most confused and bamboozled looks on their faces. Austin turned to Justice who shook his head signaling he had no idea what to think.
I apologize for the earlier messages not being in your language. I did not realize that you could not understand out language. Now that I got that out of the way, I am telling you that you are destined for something great. You are one of the chosen few that will save the world from a great evil. Together with allies and friends, you will begin a great journey. To survive you must remain trusting of your allies and persevere through the tough times ahead of you. I hope that I will meet you soon, but for now be careful of your surroundings. You never know who an enemy will be.
"Man, this some gay ass shit," said Justice, who quickly deleted the message, "How the hell can somebody message me while my shit's on airplane mode. That's impossible."
"I have no fucking clue. I guess this is some kind of joke, but I have this weird feeling that it isn't."
"Yeah, someone's after our virginities."
Suddenly, their phones began to glow with a bright white light. The entire room was suddenly engulfed in the light. Austin and Justice were looking around frantically like lost puppies.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!" Austin was freaking out.
"I don't know, but suddenly I'm not feeling so good." Justice eyes were beginning to feel heavy to keep open. His legs were starting to give out and he collapsed onto the floor after he said that.
"Justice, are you okay?" Austin tried to walk over to his friend, but he also passed out.
In a dark room, a figure watched a large monitor. He watched with an intense look as a bright white flash appeared and disappeared in an instant. As the light disappeared, two figures were left on the ground. The dark figure in the room stood up quickly. He seemed to be aggravated at the site of these two figures. He pushed a button and a video screen appeared on his monitor. There was no image, only audio.
"Yes, my liege, how may I serve you?" The voice from the screen was low and deep.
"It would appear we'll be having company soon. You are ordered to make contact with them as soon as you can. I am… rather curious about these humans to say the least." The dark figure said, raising his hand on his chin in an intrigued manner.
"Yes master. I'll make contact with them right away."
The screen disappeared, and the dark figure sat back down in his chair. He put his hands together, thinking about his new arrivals
"Let's see they have what it takes to provide some amusement to me."
The sound of water running down a river hitting large rocks began to wake up Austin and Justice. The two sat up and looked around. They were still a little dazed, but they knew they weren't at Austin's house anymore. Justice stood up and looked towards the river. He walked over to splash water on himself as Austin rubbed his eyes to try and gather his thoughts.
"What the hell happened," asked Austin as he stood up, still off balance from the flash of white light.
"I have no idea," said Justice as he kneeled down to splash water on himself. "This place looks like nothing we have back in town. We must have been taken out to some kind of forest preserve."
"I guess, but I'm not familiar with any forest preserve in Crete with a large river." Austin reached for his phone. "I'm going to try and call for help."
Austin tried to make a call, but it was hopeless.
"Fuck, no bars. What about you Justice?"
Justice looked at his phone and shook his head no. He walked back towards Austin. As he got closer, he stepped on something that made him lose his balance and fall over. He looked to see what it was and was confused when he saw a skateboard.
"Why is there a random skateboard on this river bank?"
Austin helped Justice up then took a good look at the board. He was shocked when he realized it was his.
"That's my skateboard, but how did it get here?" Austin went over and picked it up. He then looked back to Justice and noticed something else.
"Hey Justice, when did you change into those clothes?"
Justice looked at him with a dumbfounded look. "What are you talking about? You're the one that changed."
Austin looked at himself and realized he was dressed like a Tony Hawk Pro Skater character. Justice was now wearing a scarf and some black clothes Austin had never seen before.
"Something tells me that we were thrown into SAO", said Justice, who was looking at his clothes. "But these clothes do look kind of Gucci." He turned to Austin. "But my question is since when have you been a skater?" Justice was more interested in how someone as fat as Austin was a skater.
"I've actually been skating for some time now. It's a secret hobby not many know about. But that's not important. What really is though is how are we going to get home from wherever we are. We can't make a phone call, and no one knows that we're here. What if we can never go home? What if we die out here?" Austin was freaking out and started to hyperventilate.
Justice grabbed him and started to shake him.
"Dude don't bitch out on me." He raised his voice. "Nobody likes a bitch, alright?"
Austin started to calm down, but he was still anxious. The two looked around and noticed that the river flowed into what looked like a cave. They walked over to the opening and found that it was actually large enough for them to walk alongside the river.
"I say we go in there," said Justice with curiosity. "Heck, I've never been inside a cave before." Justice started to take steps into the cave, only to turn back to Austin who was still standing at the entrance, giving him a worried look.
"I don't know, it looks kind of dangerous in there." Austin was about to say something else when Justice signaled him to shut up.
He then pointed to something that was standing on a hill in the distance. It had the appearance of a dinosaur. The two looked to each other and then to the thing. It looked in their direction but didn't notice them. It started to walk away, but Austin and Justice were already going deep inside the cave. Austin and Justice went a little bit pale at what they just saw.
"Did we go back in time, because that looked like a goddamn dinosaur," said Austin as he tried to wrap his head around this.
"I'm just glad it didn't see us. We could have been in serious trouble if it noticed us." Justice shined his phone light down the cave. "All the more reason to not step outside again for a while until whatever the hell that was is far away from here"
Justice led the way as Austin followed behind. The cave was surprisingly deep and seemed to go on forever. After walking a few minutes, Austin felt like they were being watched. He turned around to see if something was behind them, but it was too dark to make out any figures. He put the thought out of his head and continued following Justice. Eventually, the two came into some giant room. In this room was where the river flowed into a large pool. Austin and Justice looked into it and were surprised at how deep it was.
"That's a deep pool of water," said Austin as he tried to figure out how deep it could be.
"I'm more surprised at how big this room is, and there's light in here cause of these holes in the ceiling." Justice was mesmerized at the sight of the well-lit room. He wondered why someone would build a structure such as this in the middle of a cave. He then noticed something sitting on what looked like a shrine.
"Hey Austin, there's some kind of shrine over there." He looked to see Austin still thinking about the depth of the water. "Fine then, I'll check it out myself."
Justice walked over and saw that there was some weird rock on top of it. It was red with a flame design and a horn coming from it. Justice had never seen anything like it before. He went to reach for it when Austin walked over to him.
"What are you doing?" Austin was curious at what Justice was doing with this thing.
"I was going to pick it up, but you stopped me by walking over here."
"Oh, then let me get it for you." Austin tried to pick it up, but it wouldn't budge.
"Man, this thing is really stuck. I couldn't even make it move. Don't try to move it, it's not coming out."
Justice was curious now since Austin couldn't move it. He placed his hands around it and began to lift it. It came up easily. Austin couldn't believe it. He started cursing about how it was so heavy and that this must be some kind of trick. Justice started to laugh at him, saying that he was soft and needed to do some more exercise. There was a hole where this rock was, and it began to spray what looked to be a red powder. As the two friends watched with dazed looks, something began to materialize in the cloud. It looked like a watch.
"Is that a watch," asked Justice as he continued to stare at it.
"I think it is, but why is it materializing in this cloud?"
"Should I try and grab it?"
"I guess," said Austin with optimism. "It's worth a try."
Justice reached towards this red conglomeration for the watch. When he got his hand closer, it moved towards his wrist. It then wrapped itself on his wrist. The red cloud also disappeared. Justice pulled his hand back and took a good look at the thing on his wrist now. It looked like a normal watch, but it had what looked like a sun symbol in the middle. There were also no clock hands on this watch, or notches for the numbers.
"What kind of watch has no hands," asked Austin staring at the thing.
"A digital watch, maybe? Now I'm more convinced that were in SAO or an RPG or some shit."
Justice continued to look at it as Austin looked around after he thought he heard something. Austin looked up and noticed that the roof looked like it was shaking. He looked closer and noticed that there was dust falling down. Then some small rocks started falling. Austin knew what was going to happen and he grabbed Justice and pulled him towards the pool again. Just as he did, the roof collapsed, and something fell into the cave. It was a giant dinosaur creature with one large horn on four legs.
"I finally found you two," it said in a deep, grumbling voice. "I've been sent to kill you little humans, so don't make this harder than it should be."
The creature began to walk towards them.
"What the fuck is that thing," screamed Austin as he started to back up.
Justice had no words. He just backed up slowly with Austin. The two were scared out of their minds as this giant triceratops looking thing got closer.
"I'm going to enjoy this, VOLCANIC STRIKE!" A blast of fire balls came hurtling towards the two. They jumped out of the way. Austin ended up next to a wall and Justice jumped into the pool.
The fireballs hit the wall and caused a blast that shook the cave. More rocks started falling from the ceiling into the pool. Justice was trying to get out, but he got caught by a rock on his scarf. It dragged him down into the depths of the pool.
"JUSTICE!" yelled Austin as he tried to get over to the pool to save his friend. Another blast from the dinosaur stopped him.
"You're not going anywhere. Your friend there will drown, and there's nothing you can do about it. Now be a good little human and accept your fate."
Austin had nowhere to go. He was trapped and alone. He couldn't save Justice and he was going down next. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare, but it was all real. As the dinosaur prepared an attack, something stopped him. He was hit in the back legs by something that he didn't notice.
"What was that? Who attacked me?" He looked around and saw what looked like a velociraptor in front of Austin. "What do you think you're doing little pest?"
"I won't let you kill this innocent human Monochromon," said the raptor.
"Like you're going to stop me shrimp. I'm stronger than you in every way. Only a fool would stand up to me." Monochromon laughed at this display of courage. "I'll have to kill you too then."
The raptor creature turned to face Austin. He could see that Austin was scared to death. He was pale and violently shaking. The raptor felt some weird feeling inside him that said to help this kid. He didn't understand it, but he would follow it. He gave a smile to Austin before he turned to face this Monochromon.
"I won't let you do that. I'll keep this guy safe even if I have to sacrifice myself. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, but it just feels right." The raptor moved his arms out and opened his claws. "I'll make sure you get out safe, kid. Just stay behind me."
Austin nodded as the raptor readied his battle stance. Monochromon stared him down. Austin then looked to the pool with fear. He didn't know if Justice was going to be dead or alive. The thought of his friend dying made him shake even harder.
Justice was still alive, but he was in grave danger. His scarf was caught on this rock dragging him to the bottom of the pool. He tried to get free, but the scarf was too tight to take off. When he got to the bottom, he tried to move the rock. He was not strong enough to move it. He desperately tried to undo his scarf, but it was no use.
"Shit, shit, shit! If I don't make it out of here fast, I'm gonna drown! Gotta get to Austin. Gotta get out here. Gotta… get… some… air…"
Justice was at his limit. He was out of air and out of time. As he began to fade out of consciousness, a bright light began to illuminate from the strange rock he pulled out a few moments ago. A figure then came from the light reached his hand out to him. Thinking that it was an angel and it was his time, he slowly started to reach out and blacked out after that. What he didn't know was that the figure had moved the rock and brought him to the surface. The figure put Justice back on dry land and began to revive him. Justice regained consciousness as he coughed up water.
"Thank goodness I'm in time," the figure said, helping him up. "I thought I wasn't going to have a partner for a second there."
Justice looked at the figure. He was met with a creature with a blue and white face with big red eyes staring at him. It had a small horn on its nose, two ear-like appendages on its head, and two yellow upside-down triangle marks under its eye. Justice had never seen anything like it. His first instinct was the freak out, but something told him that the creature was not here to harm or eat him.
"D-did you save me," he asked with a curious look.
"I sure did. If I didn't you would be sleeping with the fishes." The blue creature giggled at his own joke. "The name's Veemon, nice to meet cha!"
Justice could only stare in response to him. He blinked a couple times and rubbed his eyes to see if he was dreaming. He was not.
"What's your name?"
"J-Justice"
"Nice to meet you, Justice! I've been waiting for you for a long-time partner. I was waiting for someone who could pull out the Digimental of Courage!"
"Partner? Digimental of Courage?" Justice didn't understand what Veemon meant by those two. "What even are you and why are you my partner?"
"Oh right, you just got here. I'm a Digimon, and you are my tamer. Basically, we're gonna be best friends."
Justice just stared at Veemon with a puzzled expression. He was trying to make sense out of this situation, but it wasn't working. Justice decided to just roll with it.
"Ok then. If I'm what you say, then what am I supposed to do with you?"
Veemon smiled and pointed to Monochromon fighting the raptor on the other side of the river.
"We fight the evil digimon to make sure that the digital world is kept safe."
Justice was even more confused. That answer only led to more questions. His first question was what is a Monochromon. He then realized Austin was on the other side with that thing.
"Oh shit, Austin got stuck over there. What can we do to help him?"
Veemon pounded his chest. "You can leave that to me. I can help that other digimon fight Monochromon while you get your buddy."
"And what do we do after that?"
"We can fight together to beat that guy."
Justice thought for a second. He realized that despite it being two against one, they wouldn't be enough to defeat that thing.
"No, we're going to get out of here after we get my friend. I don't think fighting that thing is a good idea."
Veemon seemed a bit disappointed that Justice didn't want to fight, but he agreed to the retreat.
"Ok then. Since this is your first time, I guess we can run. But I'm fighting next time we see him."
Justice and Veemon then ran to Austin and the raptor to help them out.
Austin was still sitting against the wall. He was frozen with fear as he watched the raptor and Monochromon fight. The raptor was trying his best, but the size and strength difference was making it hard for him to get any solid hits. Austin knew that this battle would result in a loss for the raptor.
"You're quite tough for a shrimp," said Monochromon. "However, you're not fooling me. I can see that you know that you can't win. Just run now and I'll let you live."
The raptor looked back at Austin. He saw the fear in him. Something inside him said to not leave Austin behind. He still didn't understand it, but he was going to follow this feeling.
"No can do Monochromon. I just can't leave you to kill this human. I'll fight till my last breath against scum like you. Praying on the innocent is unforgiveable."
Monochromon was about to launch another attack, but something stopped him.
"V-HEADBUTT!" Veemon charged in and headbutted Monochromon hard. Monochromon was knocked off-balance.
"What was that," asked the raptor. He then noticed Justice and Veemon next to Austin. "Did you do that?" He was looking at Veemon.
"Yeah I did," said Veemon. "Now let's get out of here while he's confused.
The group ran through a hole in the back of the cave. When Monochromon regained focus, he was furious. He stormed out to try and find the humans.
Outside the cave, the four ran into a small forest. They stopped when they thought it was safe and sighed with relief.
"That was too close," said Austin. He was still shaken. "Thank you for what you did back there, uh whatever your name is."
"The name is Raptormon, and I was only doing what was right. I wasn't going to let that dick get away with murder."
Austin then turned to Justice. He was relieved his friend was unharmed.
"Justice, how did you get out of that pool? I thought you were a goner."
"I was saved by this guy. He said he's my partner or something." Justice was still skeptical about everything Veemon told him.
"I'm Veemon. It's nice to meet cha! A friend of Justice is a friend of mine!"
Austin was extremely confused. He wanted to know so many things. Justice was with him. They both didn't understand anything about this situation.
"What do you mean by partner," asked Austin.
"Oh, I'm Justice's partner Digimon. We're a team now and will be the strongest team in the digital world."
"A team, huh?" Austin didn't understand it, but he was going to roll with it.
Austin looked at Justice and Veemon. He then looked at Raptormon. He wondered if he had a partner. He thought about asking the question.
"Raptormon, do you have a partner?" Austin wasn't sure how Raptormon would react.
"I don't. I don't think you and I are going to be partners either. I only helped you out of the kindness of my heart. I'm getting out of here now because that Monochromon will still look for you."
Raptormon was about to leave when Austin called for him to stop.
"Wait Raptormon. I'd like to thank you personally. If we ever meet again, I'd like to get to know you better."
Austin extended his hand to shake Raptormon's. Raptormon returned the grip.
"We might meet again, but I wouldn't count on it. Just make sure you guys don't get into trouble."
After the two let go, something began to materialize in front of Austin. It was like the thing that appeared before Justice. This one was pink unlike the one that happened with Justice. Austin felt like he should reach out and touch it. When he did, another watch latched itself to his wrist. This one was like Justice's, but it had a heart in the middle instead of a sun symbol.
"What the fuck is this," asked Austin. "What does this mean?"
Veemon looked excited as he answered the question.
"That's your digivice, Austin. It means that you are a tamer like Justice. You and Raptormon must be partners."
Raptormon looked at Austin and chuckled. Austin was confused at this.
"I don't mean to be a dick, but I really don't see it happening."
"What makes you say that," asked Austin in a saddened tone.
"I feel like there isn't a connection. I don't think you and I are cut out for each other. Plus, I'm a loner. I don't do well with multiple people if you catch my drift."
Austin looked down with shame. He was hurt that this digimon was not as willing to become his partner as Veemon was with Justice. Raptormon then said something that gave him hope.
"While I don't think you and I are compatible, I'll hang around for a bit and maybe you can change my mind. Who knows, maybe I'll stick with you. But I'm not guaranteeing anything. So, stop looking all sad, it's making me feel bad."
Austin brightened up his mood. He smiled as he looked back at the raptor digimon. Raptormon turned his head and gave a stern look that meant he was serious. Austin made it his goal at that moment to get Raptormon to accept him as a partner. Justice and Veemon looked at each other and then back to those two. They weren't sure what just happened, but they were happy that some kind of partnership was made between the two.
The two humans had come to this digital world and found two new allies. What seems to be an easy friendship for Justice and Veemon is turning into a hard task for Austin and Raptormon. What new adventures await the group, and what will happen when they meet new friends. Only time will tell what happens when a human meets their digimon.