Digimon does not belong to me.
Sirens blared through a small room, two women furiously typing away at computers while a man stood in front of his own. A woman's voice came in over the intercom:
"I am in pursuit of Raptor One, but subject has proven to be more powerful than anticipated. Clearance level two is requested."
"Not yet. Your mission is to capture and contain- clearance level two would be too public. For now, herd him into an uninhabited area and await backup."
"Roger."
It was another day for Marcus Damon- he had just knocked fifteen punks flat on their asses in thirty seconds, leaving them all groaning in pain.
Now he was bored.
It was really too bad- they didn't even put up a fight. None of them were even trained, they were just thugs who waved around sticks to intimidate people.
He supposed that was the curse of being as good as he was- nothing human could even challenge him anymore.
There were some sirens blaring in the distance, but he ignored them, as well as the warning about the gas leak. He didn't really care, he could handle a bit of toxic gasses or fire. Besides, the air smelled fine.
Then, as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed something. It was a giant lizard standing on two legs, with a ridiculously huge mouth and red… wristbands? It was hard to tell exactly what the red strips of cloth wrapped around its talons were.
Regardless, it looked like a miniature T-Rex. That was awesome.
"What in the hell even are you?" Marcus muttered to himself as he approached the creature.
"Excuse you?" it muttered, its voice a high-pitched growl.
"Woah, you can talk?!" Marcus couldn't help but be impressed- not only was it a miniature T-Rex, but it was a talking miniature T-Rex. Sweet.
"Yeah, I can talk all right. And if you don't scram right now, you're dead," said the dinosaur, baring its giant fangs at the young man.
"Hey, I don't know who you are, but you're standing in the middle of my turf."
The dinosaur merely growled.
"This is my training ground! I'm the greatest fighter who ever lived, you try and cross me and you're dead!"
"You, the greatest fighter ever? Boy, you're really full of yourself, huh? You're no different from any other human, all talk and no action. I'd tear you apart!"
"Hey, keep it up and I'll knock you out like I did these guys!"
"What'd ya do, just talk 'em all to sleep?"
Then a woman's voice echoed out from behind the two.
"Hey, you! Stop right there! You can't fight that creature, he's too dangerous!"
Marcus glanced over, noticing what appeared to be a female police officer clad in a pink uniform.
"Look toots, the only dangerous thing here is me! I don't need some meter maid obsessed with pink telling me what's dangerous!"
"That's right!" chimed in the dinosaur. "This is between him and me!"
The woman was very confused.
"This is a fight between real men, so stay out of it!" cried the teenager.
"This is your last warning!" cried the woman.
Marcus and the dinosaur growled at each other one last time before charging. Punches, kicks, and swipes were thrown over and over and over, neither able to get in a good hit. Then they both threw a punch at the same time, Marcus's fist and the dinosaur's claws smashing against the other's cheek. They were both thrown back by the sheer force of the blow, but neither one stayed down, quickly getting back up before resuming their fight.
The woman couldn't help but gape. This teenage boy was equally as powerful as a Rookie Digimon capable of bending steel bars. Just what was he?
The setting sun illuminated the two combatants, now lying on the ground, covered in sweat, panting, and leaning against each other for support.
"You're… pretty good," said the Dinosaur. "For a human."
"You're pretty good yourself," replied Marcus. "I haven't been this tired since I was a little kid!"
The dinosaur slowly raised one arm towards the sky despite his aches and bruises protesting.
"Let's call it a draw."
Marcus clasped the dinosaur's claw with his own hand.
"I'm Agumon," said the Dinosaur.
"Marcus. Marcus Damon!"
The two slowly sat up, smiles on their faces.
"It's a pleasure to meet ya, buddy!" said Agumon.
"Buddy, huh? Yeah, I like the sound of that!" replied Marcus.
"But don't get any ideas," added Agumon. "I'm not just gonna blindly follow your orders or anything. We're equals, so that means we treat each other like equals."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
The tender moment was interrupted by the policewoman, who had been watching them the whole time. Marcus had admittedly forgotten about her. Then she pulled out a white device of some sort before crying, "Lalamon, realize!" In a flash of pink light and a swirl of square blocks of light, something emerged from it. It was a giant pink-and-green cherry blossom with eyes and a propeller as well as stumpy little limbs.
"So, are you gonna come quietly, or do I have to use force?" said the woman who was clearly not a police officer.
"Who's she talking to, you or me?" muttered Marcus.
"Don't let them take me back, please! If they do, they'll destroy me for sure!" cried Agumon.
Marcus couldn't let them hurt his new buddy. With a grunt, he lifted Agumon onto his back.
"Hey, what are you doing?" cried the woman.
"I've never met anyone who can actually challenge me like this. Now he's my friend, too, and I ain't lettin you kill him," said Marcus. With a grunt of pain from his aching legs, Marcus ran as fast as he could. The pink flower thing then shot seeds at them that exploded on contact- they stung like hell, but only a few actually hit him.
"Let me handle this, buddy," said Agumon. Flames slowly built in his mouth before he loosed them, spewing a fireball at the flower. It let out another spray of seeds, but the two attacks exploded, creating a giant cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Marcus was nowhere to be found.
Police sirens blared out through the city, while a lone tower stood silent. Inside, however, was not so silent.
"I gotta hand it to ya pal, that was a great escape!"
"Thanks Agumon," said Marcus. "But there's one thing that worries me. Who are we running away from?! What even are you, anyway? Where did you come from?"
"Gee, I dunno," said Agumon. "I've never really been outside until today. Those guys always kept me locked up, ever since I was born. Please don't let them take me back there."
Marcus grunted to himself before standing up. "What am I getting myself into this time?" he asked rhetorically. "It doesn't matter who or what you are, you can talk, and that means you're a person. They shouldn't be able to keep you locked up your whole life."
"Oh, thank you!" cried Agumon. "I'll never ask for anything else, I swear!" His stomach then growled rather loudly. "Except food. I'm starving!"
"Suck it up like a man!" said Marcus. "I'm hungry too, but I'm not complaining."
"But I'm a growing boy!" cried Agumon, who began to wail. Marcus tried to make him shut up, but it didn't work.
"I haven't eaten since yesterday! They only fed me once a day, and I just spent hours fighting you!" The dinosaur's open maw began swirling about as he stumbled, before he accidentally fell towards Marcus, who promptly hit him on the head.
"Hey, I ain't on the menu!" he yelled.
"I wasn't gonna eat you, I just can't stand straight I'm so hungry!"
Marcus couldn't help but give a wry smile. "Alright, fine, I'll go grab you some food. But next time, don't flash me your teeth when you're complaining about how hungry you are! Wait here, I'll be back soon."
"Thanks, buddy!" said Agumon.
"I mean it, stay put! Don't let anyone see or hear you!"
There was thankfully a convenience store nearby, filled with tons of prepackaged food, which Marcus loaded up on. He didn't know what Agumon could eat, so he got a little bit of everything for them to share, including plenty of meat. Given the size of those fangs, Marcus congratulated himself on being so smart.
Then, as the cashier began ringing him up, a familiar voice called out, "And, uh, add this too, please," adding a pudding cup to his total. It was the woman from before, now in her civvies. "Is that okay? After all, you have plenty of cash thanks to this afternoon, Marcus Damon."
The two had found a park bench to talk. The woman ate her pudding with appreciative little moans, talking about how she loved it because of nostalgia.
"You owe me a buck," said Marcus. "That money was for my family."
"So animals are now family for you?" she mocked.
"As it so happens, yes. That one is a good friend in need, and my friends are family too."
"You acting like an RPG hero aside, I'll strike you a deal: I'll pay you back fifty times as much if you tell me where Raptor One is."
"Raptor One? What's that? I've never heard of it. And besides, I'd never tell you anything even if I did know. I don't take kindly to people who keep others in cages their whole lives."
"Well, in that case, I'll have to take you in for witness interrogation, Mister Damon."
"Hey, how do you know my name, anyway?"
"I know everything about you. Marcus Damon, born April 2nd in Tokyo, Blood Type B, Otori High School, ninth grade. Your father disappeared ten years ago, and you now live with your mother Sarah and your little sister Christie, who looks up to you even though you're a punk who beats up other people and takes their money. Do I paint an accurate picture?"
"Who are you?"
The woman held up a badge with the word DATS written on it. "I'm special agent Yoshino Fujieda. I'm with the Digital Accident Tactical Squad, or DATS for short."
"What do you do?"
"Our job is to control creatures known as Digimon, who come here from a place known as the digital world. We protect the general public from them."
"Oh, sure, because people totally need protecting from a little baby digimon. I don't care who you are or who you work for, you're nothing but a bunch of jerks. Where the hell do you get off jailing someone from birth?!"
"Digimon are highly dangerous creatures. Most of them would go on a rampage."
"So that justifies putting a baby behind bars his whole life?!"
"Digimon don't have babies! They don't die, either- they're reborn as an egg. Raptor One is no different. He's still the same monster he always was. Or did you forget the kaiju attacks of 1999 like everyone else tries to?"
"Who cares if he used to be someone else? You said it yourself, Agumon was reborn. He's not like that, and he never was, because that was a different person!"
Yoshino could see that she was losing him. In a last-ditch effort, she said whatever came to mind to make him comply.
"Digimon can't eat regular food, they need special food. Food that only we can make. If you don't come with me, he'll starve to death."
Marcus screwed his eyes shut for a moment before replying. "Okay, fine. But I'm still not bringing him with me, not unless you and your boss can promise me he won't be imprisoned again for someone else's crimes."
Yoshie only nodded in agreement. She couldn't really promise that, but it was also the only way she could get him to comply.
Marcus and Yoshino walked into the main headquarters of DATS, the former wowed by all the monitors and the occasional digimon performing some task.
"Fujieda reporting back!" said Yoshino to an imposing man in a blue trenchcoat with a white ferret or weasel around his neck, its body ringed with gold.
"So, you're Marcus Damon. My name is Commander Sampson. The DATS team welcomes you."
Then, to Marcus's surprise, the weasel around Sampson's neck began to talk in a smooth voice.
"Interesting that this is the boy that fought Raptor One, because nothing indicates that he can fight at that level."
"Hey, what's with the talking scarf?" said Marcus. Said talking scarf took offense to that, but Sampson scratched his partner's head before replying.
"This is Kudamon. He's my digimon partner."
"Each human member of DATS is teamed up with their own digimon," said Yoshie, her flower thing floating into her arms. "This is mine, Lalamon. We here at DATS team up with digimon to handle digimon crimes."
A turtle-like digimon walked up with a cup of tea, offering it to Marcus, but he still didn't exactly trust them, so he declined.
"I've had enough of this nonsense! I have someone waiting for me to get back, so let's get on with it. Say what you have to say and stop wasting my time!"
"Calm down, don't get angry," said Sampson. "Whether Raptor One is saved or not depends on you. We are currently in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. The wall between the human world and the digital world is starting to collapse. The reason is unknown, but the fact is that digimon are appearing more frequently in the human world than ever before."
"Our primary objective is to maintain harmony between the human world and the digital world," said Kudamon. "Therefor, renegades like Raptor One must be kept under control."
"Wait a minute, why are you calling him a renegade?" asked Marcus.
"Because, Raptor One has already entered the human world and made contact with human beings, so he can not be allowed to go free."
"Please cooperate," said Sampson. "The future relationship between humans and digimon depends on you returning Raptor One to us."
"Yeah, not interested," said Marcus.
"Why not?"
"Why not?" said Marcus, slamming his drink down on the table, realizing who had given it to him. "Because I don't owe you people a single thing! I don't know about all this 'the future depends on me' stuff, but I do know that Agumon depends on me, and no one has mentioned anything about what he needs! I know he appeared in this world as an egg, so he hasn't even done anything except be born! Maybe his parent wanted a better life for him! Maybe they didn't have a choice! Either way, he's innocent, and you can't punish him for what his parent did! And if he gets into any sort of trouble, I'll claim full responsibility for his actions, but only if you give me some of that special digimon food!"
Suddenly, alarms started blaring and showering the room in red light. One of the girls at the computers said, "Commander, digimon detected in D-59. A hamburger stand is being attacked by an unknown creature!"
"Possibly Raptor One- that's right where I found you, Marcus," said Yoshie.
"Hold it!" said Marcus. "Didn't you say digimon only eat special food? What would Agumon attack a hamburger stand for?"
"You didn't give him anything to eat, right?"
"Only because you stopped me before I could! Which means that he's only attacking out of hunger, which is a crime of passion at most."
"Do you now see why hiding him has created a security breach for all of us? Why digimon are dangerous when left unchecked?" said Kudamon. "We are not like humans- we have no societies or cities. We fend for ourselves, and only obey those more powerful than us. I, and all the digimon here, work together with DATS because we recognize that society is a greater good. Other digimon do not care."
Marcus ran off. Yoshie tried to stop him, but he ignored her. Agumon was either causing trouble or in trouble- either way, someone was gonna be punched.
The tower was empty. Agumon was gone.
"So this is where you were hiding Raptor One," said Yoshino, having followed Marcus. "A lot of good it did you, because we confirmed it was definitely him who attacked the hamburger stand."
"It's my fault," said Marcus. "I should have returned to him sooner, to give him something to eat and make sure nothing happened to him."
The two stood there in contemplation for a moment before an explosion from outside lit up the room.
"Listen Marcus, this is dangerous, so you wait here," said Yoshino. Unfortunately for her, Marcus had already ran off to the elevator, which closed in her face.
As he ran out the doors and towards the raging fire, Marcus screamed at Agumon. Then he heard his voice- away from the fire.
Agumon's head was stuck in a trashcan. And he was coming from the wrong direction- no way he had caused the fire.
"Agumon?"
"Keep talking Marcus, so I can find you!"
Marcus ran up and pulled the can off of his friend's snout, and Agumon took a deep breath.
"Why'd you run off?" he asked.
"Because, Marcus, I was hungry, and you never came back! I found some old food in this thing. It wasn't very tasty, but I was desperate."
The smoke from the explosions began to clear, revealing a literal giant chicken with a black plume and white feathers tipped with red.
It began kicking cars around, throwing them into nearby buildings. One hit the tower that Yoshie was still climbing down.
"Hey, what is that thing?" asked Agumon.
"I dunno, but I do know that those DATS guys blamed you for what that thing's doing! Let's go, Agumon!" cried Marcus.
The two ran forwards with a battle cry that was drowned out by the chicken's crowing. Marcus climbed it, while Agumon peppered it with fireballs, barely avoiding the chicken's laser eyes.
As Marcus finally reached the monster's neck, it moved to step on Agumon.
"No!" he cried. "Agumon!"
But Agumon was fine, if strained- he was strong enough to hold the whole chicken up, just barely.
"How about I lend you a fist?" cried Marcus. The chicken began to move about to shake him off, but he held firm before striking its neck. As its head leaned back, Yoshie cried out to him, "Hey, what do you think you're doing? That's dangerous!"
"I'm a fighter, and a true fighter is always willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the people he cares about!"
Then the chicken's tail began to glow, and it let out a giant laser from its mouth across the ground. Agumon was caught in the blast, sent flying back. Marcus jumped off and ran to him, crying his name. "Agumon! Agumon!"
As he came to his new friend, the little dinosaur lay still, not hearing Marcus's cries or shakes. He… he was gone.
As if responding to his tears, the sky opened up, letting down a rain of its own.
"Agumon."
Marcus slowly stood up, facing his foe once more.
"You've made a huge mistake, you giant chicken! I'm gonna beat you so hard, there won't be nothing left!"
The chicken's tail feathers glowed, and it crowed in challenge. Marcus ran forwards faster than he had ever ran, dodging the lasers, and jumped, all the way up to its face. He landed a single, powerful blow that knocked it over.
Suddenly, his body began to glow with orange energy. He felt powerful.
"Hey!" said a voice from behind. It was an old man with a fishing pole.
"Get back, old man!" screamed Marcus. "This is dangerous!" The old man tried to protest, but Marcus didn't care. "Go! Get out of here! I've got this!"
The energy flowed through him. He felt it coursing through his very being. And he knew, somehow, that it wasn't truly his- it was taken from his foe, stolen somehow.
That didn't matter. All that mattered was frying that chicken, and Agumon. Suddenly, as if responding to his thoughts, Agumon cried out.
"Marcus!"
Marcus rushed over to his side. The yellow dinosaur looked so frail, but he was alive. That was all that mattered.
"Agumon! You're okay!"
"Yeah. I'm not dead yet. After all, who else would keep up with you?"
Marcus couldn't help but laugh, and embraced his friend. The energy flowed between them, strengthened in their friendship.
And Agumon began to change.
His body grew, lengthening and shifting, and letting out a light so bright it blinded all who looked. The red energy flowed over him, changing his form. What emerged was not a T-Rex, but an elongated, feathery thing easily as big as the chicken, covered in scales and tipped with white feathers.
"Marcus…" said Agumon, his voice deeper.
"Agumon…"
"No, not Agumon. I've digivolved. I'm Velocimon!"
Velocimon bellowed, and Marcus jumped on. The two charged forwards, blurring out of the way of the Chicken's lasers- Velocimon was insanely fast, easily dodging everything their foe threw at them. Marcus leapt forwards, knocking their foe back, and Velocimon's feathers glowed with a bright light before releasing a laser of his own, far more powerful than the chicken's. Their foe's form shrank into pixels, leaving behind nothing but an egg.
"That'll teach ya!" cried Marcus. "That'll teach you to mess with us!"
As Marcus looked up and behind him towards Velocimon, he noticed only empty air- until Agumon cried out for him, his stomach growling.
"Hey, Marcus, I'm hungry."
Marcus couldn't help but give a wry smile. "What else is new? I'm just glad you're okay."
"Thanks."
The entirety of DATS openly gaped at what had just happened. Marcus had achieved partner digivolution without a digivice, and, from the looks of things, by directly stealing digital code from his foe through a punch.
This was entirely unprecedented. This boy had not only achieved in seconds what most took years to accomplish, both in taming a digimon and achieving digivolution,, but had done so in a way no one had even considered.
There was no way in hell they were letting him slip through their fingers.
The sun rose above Marcus, Agumon, and Yoshino. Marcus and Agumon bantered about food for a bit, but then he noticed Yoshie picking up the egg.
"Hey, where do you think you're taking that?" asked Marcus.
"To DATS headquarters, so it can be contained and sent back to the digital world if necessary," replied Yoshino.
"I don't think so. You guys would just keep it in a cage, then send it back to the jungle. I'm taking it. I'll give it a nice home to grow up in, take care of it."
"Please, like I could trust you to take care of two digimon. Unless, of course, you'd be willing to join DATS. I know you don't trust us, but you'd still have full control over its well-being; we'd just be monitoring it, in case it turns out to be dangerous. Plus, you'd be helping us stop other dangerous digimon. Kokatorimon was destructive, but it's not the only one that causes havoc in our world."
Marcus hesitated. That is, until Yoshie continued.
"Also, you'd be fighting tons of strong digimon. You said so yourself that no human could challenge you, right?"
Marcus couldn't help but grin.