Digiworld Adventure

Part One

There are many things in this world that are strange. Most of which are unexplainable, hence their being called strange. Most of these things just go by unnoticed by human beings, the race I am sad to say to be a part of, mainly because even if they did manage to see it, they would make it become a false reality to them, as if they didn't want to see it.

For the longest time I had been told that what I see, what I hear, that is out of the ordinary, things that science and or religion can't explain are just in my imagination. My 'wild' imagination, as the adults around me call it, has seen and heard many things that 'aren't there.' There are far too many of these to even attempt to tell, but there is one story of my life that I found to be the most shattering part of my entire world.

My name is Ian; I'm fifteen and I live in Chilliwack BC, Canada. I have an older brother who's twenty-one, and a twin brother who I despise with every fibre of my body. I live with my twin and my parents in a large house on one acre of land. It is here that I have passed the past ten years hating them, waiting for my chance to escape, to break free of this hate filled life.

The story started at the beginning of my second semester at Sardis Senior High School. It was a crisp Canadian winter day; no snow, but frost, wind chill, and frozen ground. I was sitting on the bus home like I do every day, trying to keep my eye contact away from one particular girl a couple seats ahead of me when I heard the strangest thing.

It was a piercing shriek of a bird unlike any I had ever heard before. It was a monstrous sounding bird, like the size of the bus for just its body, and that's not including the wingspan. I jumped from my seat looking around wildly for the source of the sound. It sounded like it was just overtop the bus, but when I looked, there was nothing there.

The other people on the bus were staring at me like I was a madman, and although I was used to receiving this kind of attention, I was mostly bothered because no one else seemed to have heard it.

I ignored them, like I usually do, and tried once again to find the source of the sound. Seeing nothing, and hearing no more screeches, I dropped the idea and tried to resume my regular posture of pretending like I wasn't there.

Normally, now, I get off at the opposite side of one street; I get home at the same time, but I get seven minutes less of walking. Today, though, I really needed to clear my head. There was something very strange about that sound I had heard earlier on the bus ride. I knew it had been real, but I couldn't explain why no one else had heard it. I stepped off the bus, looked around, then crossed the street, heading towards a side alley that broke off from one main road and led to another. There were very few people that were ever there, so I was free to talk to myself and not be bothered.

It was a bit chilly, walking down the gravel lane, but I refused to be bothered by it and only pulled my signature brown jacket closer to my body. "I know what I heard," I said aloud, ignoring a small white dog barking at my side, his slightly larger brown companion merely looking at me. "Although, if I say anything…" I remembered the time a few nights ago where I had exploded at my parents for calling me paranoid. There had been times when I thought that they were seriously considering having me sent to an institute of some sort, but I didn't want to let them calling me 'paranoid' become real. "I'm not paranoid, because it was real," I stated aloud, convincing myself of what I had heard.

Suddenly, something pulled at my pant leg, causing me to stumble several feet to the left and into someone's backyard. I had just enough time to look around and see that there was a person on a scooter whizzing at full speed where I had been walking only seconds before. I might've heard it coming any other time, but I had been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I had completely missed it.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, realising how bad that could've turned out. I looked down to see what had pulled at my leg, but there was nothing there. No animals, no branches, plants or anything remotely similar to such that could've snagged my pants and pulled me over.

I stood there, dumbstruck. "There's something strange going on," I said, "something indeed very strange."

From there, I trudged on back home, making sure that every couple of seconds I would look back for oncoming traffic, and looking down to make sure that there was nothing to make me trip or stumble.

The rest of the day was spent like it normally was: me trying to avoid confrontation and conversation with the adult figures of the house, while at the same time trying to become invisible to my evil twin counterpart. I noticed that he smelled especially strong of marijuana and liquor today. Plus whatever else he might smoke at that druggy school down the street.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say: I go to the high school across town for French Immersion because the high school whose area I'm in (or rather down the street from) doesn't support the program due to a lack of teachers. That seemed to be my only reprieve from my brother and his hell-bound friends.

That night, I lay in bed, pondering the day's memories. I had heard things before and I was almost used to it, but never before had I felt anything that seemed out of the ordinary. There was no one that I could talk to about it, because I think that if I told my friends about it, they would probably start to act the way they did before when all my strange obsessions and feelings started to take over me. I had worked hard at building a proper social standing in high school, especially since I didn't have that rotten counterpart spreading rumours and making friends that would go out of their way to make me feel worse than I had when I was at the same middle school as him.

I decided that I would dismiss the thoughts; I wouldn't forget them, but I would put them aside until they became useful again. With that, I rolled onto my side and closed my eyes, familiar images dancing before them in no time whatsoever.

The next day of school came and went like it usually did, no screw ups, nothing out of the ordinary, and there was even an almost bright side to the end of the day. I would be going into Vancouver that day, directly after school for a fitting for my new dance jacket. The downside, however: I would be going with the mother figure.

I waited with my friends for a while, waiting for her to get there while they waited for their respective buses. When I saw her silver station wagon pull into the lot, I hugged my friends, said goodbye and dashed to the vehicle, avoiding buses as I went.

"Hi, Ian," she exclaimed as I flomped into my seat, "how was your day?"

"My day was fine," I answered. I had discovered after many, many months of having the same question asked to me that replying with a decent, yet indisputable answer such as 'fine,' there were rarely any more questions about it.

I must make a note to someday go and find whoever made radio, because it really saved me from the pitiful small talk during a one and a bit hour car ride. I didn't even have to pay attention to whatever the hell they were talking about, just look out the window and pretend to be thinking about something serious in the eyes of a parent figure. Like math, or English class or something.

As usual, there was a lull in traffic at the Port Mann Bridge, and I groaned as the cars around us slowed down to a steady 20kph.

A loud, earth-shattering roar broke the calm, and not only did I jump a foot in the air, but I could feel the rumbling in my feet, and it wasn't the movement of the car. The mother figure looked directly at me, a strange look on her face. A flicker of movement caught my eyes, and when I looked out the window, an amazing spectacle appeared before me.

There was a giant sea serpent in the water, and a monstrous red bird flying down at it. Since the mother figure obviously couldn't see it, I thought of a quick lie.

"I think I'm going to be sick," I exclaimed, flinging the door open and rolling off the seat, my backpack on my shoulder.

"Ian!" she screamed, "what the hell are you doing?"

The door slammed shut as traffic urged her forwards in a siege of movement.

The bird screeched loudly, and I immediately recognised it as the one from the day before. I watched in amazement and horror as the red bird scraped its talons on the serpent's scaly side. Before I could let myself get frozen up, I turned in the opposite direction of traffic and darted down the sidewalk.

Each roar and every piercing cry only drove me faster, and I cursed as my school supplies came tumbling out the main pocket of my backpack. In under a minute, I made it to the first side of the bridge, and I leapt over the railing and dropped ten feet onto a grassy hill. There was a pathway under the bridge, and I ran down it towards the water. It had to be real, because even the logs at the far side of the river were quaking from the wake that was building up.

I made it down to the water's edge after slipping between a few small buildings, kicked off my shoes, and then waded in until it reached my knees. There was nothing I could do but watch, now, as the two colossal beasts duked it out.

Now I let the tension get to me. My whole body seemed to freeze up in shock as the reality of what was happening started to sink in. The fight didn't seem to have a winner or a loser, but rather just a fight consisting of equal opponents.

Then, the serpent bit into the bird's leg and pulled it down into the water, blood squirting out and even more waves being made from the thrashing. One particularly big one made its way to me and soaked my up to my lower chest and drenched the bottom of my backpack. The bird beat its wings furiously, trying to get out of the water, then it got the idea to peck the serpent's face. This worked extremely well, but when the serpent let go, the bird lost control of its flight pattern and came soaring over towards the bridge above me.

My legs didn't seem to want to work, now, at the most crucial time. There was a loud crash and the bird soared right into the bridge. I looked up and saw a giant piece of concrete unhinge itself from the rest of the bridge and start its way down towards me.

A scream emitted from my mouth, and then I was suddenly tackled by a red blur. I splashed into the water, struggling to get up, but whatever had hit me was holding me out of the way. Then came the crash of the rock hitting the river. I heard it shatter and felt the water that surrounded me recede. I knew that that meant it was going to make a wave, so I grabbed onto the thing that was holding me down and started screaming again. The wave hit and I was pitched backwards, the red thing releasing the grip on me as it too was hurled backwards.

The ground below me seemed to have dropped several metres, and my feet couldn't seem to find anything to stand on. I coughed up water and squeezed my eyes closed to avoid getting anything in them. Whatever had tackled me was obviously trying to swim, but I was holing onto a part of it. I shook my head, opened my eyes, and found myself clinging onto the arm of a giant red lizard. It had a white belly and strange black marking in its head, arms, shoulders and chest, and I assumed that there would be more on its legs.

"What the hell?" I cried, kicking my legs and praising myself for taking off my shoes before going into the water.

"No time!" it said in a voice that seemed very childish. Obviously a boy.

I let go of his arm and followed it as it swam to shore. The giant bird seemed to have made its way back into the sky, but the serpent was still looking around for it, roaring with a deafening intensity. Trying my best to ignore it, I soon found ground beneath my feet and pulled myself out of the water.

Slightly ahead of me, the lizard pulled himself out of the water then looked behind at me, his amber eyes flashing in fear. He opened his mouth and shouted, "pyro sphere!" There was a burst of light and a ball of red energy came sailing by my side. It exploded in the water directly behind me and there was another ground rumbling roar, but this time it felt like it was much closer than ever before. I whipped around, water flying in my face and I saw the serpent's tail start to recoil, for it seemed to have been right where the red lizard had attacked.

He started running forwards, now completely out of the water, and I slowly followed suit. I realised that he had just saved my life twice in a minute. My legs spurred into action and I bolted after him, my soaked clothes and backpack making me lag behind. "Wait!" I called, as he started to disappear into the small buildings that surrounded the river. My foot ran over a piece of glass and it cut directly into my heel. I stumbled forwards, but kept running.

He whipped around a small grey building, and when I slid to a halt at the end of the alley, he was gone. I paced quietly down the alley, looking from side to side. "Where are you?" I called out. Without any reason that I could see, a surge of fear bolted through me. I darted down the alley, looking around like crazy and only stopping whenever I tripped or stumbled over something.

I heard the serpent's cry from far away, and then the giant bird who seemed to be almost overhead. Probably making a fly around to attack again. Then there was a gust of wind and I was pitched forwards onto my knees, bruising them. I rolled onto my back and saw the giant bird fly directly overtop of me; and then, as if it had spotted me, it landed on top of the building beside me emitting a loud crunching sound from it.

With whatever effort I could muster, I started to stand up. The bird let out a deafening screech and started to bend down towards me. I didn't scream now, but I only watched in horror as its beak started to open up.

Then, my breath shot out of my chest as the red lizard came hurling out at me, knocking me to the side along with himself. The bird screeched and pecked at the ground leaving a deep dent in the pavement. "We need to get out of here!" he shouted, his voice still oddly childish. He quickly stood up beside me and I found that he was about the same height as me, possibly a bit taller. "Come on!" he said, turning down the alley in the opposite direction.

The bird shrieked indignantly, obviously frustrated that it had missed us. I didn't even take a second to look back before I started following the lizard back down the alley. Once we were in the street, he turned in the direction of the bridge, and although I knew that that was the way back to the mother figure, I didn't seem to have much choice in the matter. I bolted down as fast as I could, not letting him get out of my sight this time. "Where do we go?" I called ahead. "There can't be many places that a giant bird monster like that can't get at!"

"Birdramon!" he called back, "its name is Birdramon! We should hide under the bridge!"

I didn't even have time to argue before I felt a gust of wind throw me several feet forwards; I only just landed on my feet, had it been any stronger or weaker, I definitely would've fallen. "Well what's your name?" I was nearly out of breath, but it was strange just thinking of this… creature as a nameless thing.

He looked around at me, and despite the peril that was following close behind us, he smiled. "I'm Guilmon," he said happily, as if he had been meaning to say it for quite some time. I was about to introduce myself, but he continued. "And you're Ian-mon," he said with a big grin.

I didn't have time under the circumstances to be confused as to why he knew my name, but it didn't fade from my mind. The traffic from the Port Mann Bridge seemed to have come to a complete halt, which wasn't surprising considering the big piece of the bridge that was missing. I was afraid that someone might try to come and get me, but fortunately there didn't seem to be any such attempts. We finally made it underneath the bridge, but he didn't stop there. He ran up the hill, the bridge above us closing in quite quickly, but he didn't stop until we had reached the crevasse just between the ground and the bridge. He had just finished lying into the gap as I got there, and I could hear the enraged screams of fury coming from Birdramon. I crawled down beside him and kept quiet, watching as the giant bird monster soared around atop the bridge, while the serpent was still thrashing in the water.

The serpent let out another roar, catching Birdramon's attention and starting the clash of titans that had originally attracted my attention.

It was only then, when I seemed to be out of danger, that I felt the throbbing pain from my foot. I dropped my hand towards it, wincing in pain as it ran over the open wound. I wasn't worried about infection, just that I might make it worse without having shoes on. Whatever the case, it wasn't my biggest problem at the time. I looked over to my side and saw Guilmon's amber eyes watching the battle with rapt attention.

"How did you know who I was?" I asked quietly.

He seemed to jump, as if he had forgotten I was there. Then he shook his head and the childish look came back to his face. "There are many who know your name, Ian-mon," he said, "we've been trying for so long to get to you. And now I have!"

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused, "what would people want with me? And what people?"

"There is a…" he stumbled over his words. "A… mm…" He looked down at the ground, trying to remember the right word. "You must come," he said finally, "and we can show you."

"Who?" I asked again, "who wants to see me?"

"The digimon!" he exclaimed, "all of us!"

Much time had passed while we waited for the two monsters to pass. It had mostly been spent in silence as we watched them constantly hurl themselves at each other. I was getting a little worried that someone would come and find us, but maybe the two monsters were keeping people away. I didn't know, because we still hadn't left the spot when darkness started to fall. The only real movement that I had made was when I pulled off my backpack and laid my jacket out overtop of it to dry.

Finally, the inevitable came: my stomach started to growl in hunger. "Guilmon," I whispered, "can we move out of here?"

"We must wait," he replied quickly, his eyes never leaving the battle that still raged on. "Otherwise we'll never make it back."

I didn't have to ask to know that he was talking of whatever world he had come from. "How long will we have to wait?" I asked, trying not to seem impatient, after all, he had saved my life three times in one day.

"Not much longer," he said, "we must just wait for the portal to open."

The darkness was lit up, and not for the first time, with fireballs raining from the sky where the bird had just been. Apparently it was another attack that it could use, whereas the Seadramon (which happened to be the name of the serpent) used a blast of white light or something that froze whatever it had hit.

Another hour passed and I saw the moon start to appear from behind a cloud.

Guilmon seemed to stop moving entirely at the sight of it. His eyes shrunk down, and then he started quivering. "It's coming," he said, as if it was a warning.

I took the incentive and wrapped my jacket around my waist and slid my backpack on.

I gazed out over the battle scene to see that it had changed. Where the moon hit the water, there seemed to be a light glowing back out at it, though it was much bigger and brighter. Seadramon seemed to be sinking into it, and even Birdramon was having difficulties keeping away from it.

Suddenly, Guilmon stood up, making me stand up beside him. "It's coming!" he said again, his body now completely shaking. A beeping sound started to emit from my backpack, and when I pulled it off, there was a light shining through the smallest front pocket.

As I opened the zipper, Birdramon hit the water in a last attempt to attack its enemy and started to sink in itself. The light from my backpack was almost blinding, and when I put my hand inside, I pulled out a strange device that I had never seen before. It was grey; it had three buttons on it and a screen that was the source of all the light.

Then Guilmon seemed to glow with the same light as from the device and he roared in pain. "Guilmon!" I cried, my hand reaching for his shoulder.

There was an explosion of light, much brighter than any firework, another roar of pain, and the crunching sound of concrete. When the light subsided, there was in place of Guilmon, a giant version of him with new markings on him. He was probably twenty feet tall and had a long white mane of hair. My jaw dropped in awe and fear and my backpack fell to my feet. I shoved the device in my pocket and jumped onto the new Guilmon's leg as he started to move into towards the water.

"Guilmon!" I cried again. I quickly scaled up his leg and made it onto his back, which was much easier than it should've been.

"Hold on!" he called back, his voice still the same as it had been before. He crouched down and leapt into the air. I shouted in fear as the ground plummeted beneath me and I felt my stomach churn.

The wind rushed up at me as we flew down towards the water and I felt myself start to throw up. I looked up at the sky to see the moon and the stars shining down on us, while the lights of Vancouver seemed to be going haywire. There was mass flickering, but I barely had time to notice it before I felt water rush up to me. Then I just let it go, and as I became completely submerged in the water, I threw up.

But that was the last thing I knew before I whited out.