"Just when I started thinking that I might not be a protagonist…" Artur just wanted a Summer Break with his friends, no freak storms, no mysterious messages… Yet here he was, in the middle of a forest in who knows where, armed only with a Samsung J7 Prime, earphones, a pack of M&Ms and a myriad of random things stuffed in his black hoodie's pockets. In addition there was a weird device stuck on his right forearm, which thanks to his childhood, he recognized as a 01 digivice. Like the rest of his outfit, it was black with red details, he half wondered if the color was chosen to match his clothes or because black and red were his favorite colors. He wasn't exactly sure but the creatures around him made him forget the subject for now.
On the other side, he was surrounded by some of the strangest creatures he'd ever seen. They had forms vaguely similar to wolves, with snouts as long as a crocodile's. Their bright red fur made it a mystery how they managed to sneak up on anything. Long thin yet bushy tails waved slowly as they got closer from all sides. Artur could already see the disgusting saliva dripping from their fangs and the cruel slits in their nasty yellow eyes. Despite the headache, despite the chances of someone who barely reached the average weight for a 15 year old and whose best shot in a fight was knocking out the other guy first, he still tried to think of something, anything. For now, he settled with a large stick, waving it around kept the creatures at bay.
That's when the device on his wrist began to beep. When he advanced with the makeshift weapon on his left hand, the 01 on his right wrist pointed towards one of the creatures. The previously blank screen came to life. Not only an image of the wolf but a name and a small paragraph of information followed by description of its attacks.
Usually, that would be convenient. However the spare second he used seeing it almost cost him when the wolves advanced again. Not wolves, Fangmon. Artur cursed his younger self, did that kid really have to wish for a digimon adventure? Setting his back to a tree, the Fangmon circled him, not like, but exactly the same as a pack of hungry wolves would.
"Well if I'm done for might as well get a laugh out of it, Leeroy…" Artur muttered, if those things would eat him, he would at least give them a stomachache. His blaze of suicidal stupidity were interrupted when the tree behind him was cracked a few centimeters above his head. The union of leaves, twigs, and trunk crushed two of the 5 fangmon. After painfully audible cracks, the squirming predators stopped struggling, their limp forms beneath the wood.
"4 against 1? I know you guys like hunting creatures weaker than yourselves but this is ridiculous!" A new voice, like a teenager called. Artur soon saw who cut the tree, he wasn't big, barely reaching his height thanks to a massive horn. Unlike the fangmon, the new arrival was like a dinosaur, with a semi erect position. His color scheme wasn't so different from the fangmon, dark red scales, black markings, a white underbelly and serpentine yellow eyes. But where the fangmon had mangy red fur and the eyes of wild animals, the newcomer had gleaming red scales and his eyes revealed not just intelligence, but pride. The pride of a fighter.
"Guess you're the reason for that headache, allow me to deal with these bandits before we discuss the situation," The dinosaur's maw twisted into a smile, revealing several sharp canines like a crocodile. The remaining Fangmon adjusted their position and their hackles raised. Artur could interrupt the upcoming struggle with a dumb question, yet he just pointed the 01 towards the dinosaur, he already recognized him from Tamers, but he had to be sure. It had the intended effect, new information soon appeared and something new as well, above the name, there was another word: Partner, and the name of the dinosaur was…
"Alright you measly excuses for champions, time to face Guilmon! ROCK BREAKER!" The dragon shouted proudly before using his triple jointed legs to spring towards the first fangmon, his claws glinting, but the wolf was fast, jumping out of the way. Yet at the last second, Guilmon twisted his body, changing direction and going for the unsuspecting second fangmon.
Oddly enough, Guilmon didn't just cut right through the fangmon, instead he curled his claws into fists, using his weight and momentum to take the air out of the fangmon's stomach. With a surprisingly pathetic yelp, the wolf recoiled in surprise. By now both fangmon joined, staying close to one another. Guilmon was unimpressed, his eyes flashed dangerously.
With furious howls, the remaining fangmon blasted a burst of dark matter from their massive maws, the dark energy launched like a bullet, yet Guilmon just stepped aside, allowing the dark matter to hit and partially consume another tree, without half of its form, the tree came down on the fangmon.
"We should go, they won't be out for long," Guilmon turned to Artur, to the latter's surprise, the headache was gone. Now that he thought about it, it disappeared somewhere between the start of the fight and Guilmons arrival. Adjusting his black hoodie, not covering his head but spreading it over his shoulders and neck, the black haired teen just nodded before the dragon led him elsewhere.
"You mentioned a headache…" Artur began as they walked. The sun was high in the sky, so at least a few hours have passed since he woke up in this place. Guilmon led him through the trees, upon close inspection Artur noticed several trees had three linear gashes cutting diagonally and parallel to each other.
"Yep, a few hours ago, that's when you arrived right?" The reptile succeeded in answering his question and making his own. Guilmon's talons smashed their way through the undergrowth with ease, making it easy for Artur to follow without tripping over a root every 2 or 3 seconds.
"I'm not sure, earlier today I was in my home and opened a weird message, there was a weird flash and next thing I know I'm in this forest surrounded by those fangmon, you didn't kill them right?" Artur answered before asking, if he learned anything from the show was that digimon vanished once defeated, yet he clearly remembered the limp forms beneath the fallen trees.
"They were wild, couldn't even voice their attacks, I admit their methods are cowardly and to be fair, they can be a pain sometimes, but I'm not like those monsters…" Guilmon sprung into movement, using his sharp claws and surprising agility to get on top of the next tree and tear something off its branches.
Artur took a second to register, the trees had food packages hanging like fruit. Unless it was… yep, Guilmon tore one open and ate its contents. To be honest it looked a lot like dog food, not that Guilmon cared, and his maw was large enough to gobble it all.
Seeing Artur watching, he ripped off a second package and tossed to him. Artur was a tad slow so he almost dropped it in surprise. It was surprisingly smooth, like plastic. The dark orange package had a simple latch that he broke easily. Yep, it reminded him of dog food. But Zubamon was looking expectantly towards him.
"You can eat on the way, we have an hour of walking before reaching the village," Guilmon stretched like a wild cat before he jumped off and landed perfectly on the ground. Oddly enough, his visage shifted into a small scowl when he saw all the dirt on his claws, he didn't voice his dislike but Artur decided not to point how his claws were drenched in sap. They resumed making their way through the undergrowth while Artur's courage, and hunger made him start eating the strange edible material.
Good news though, it tasted more like M&Ms than he would have thought. Unless dog food also tasted like that, then there would be jokes later. He hoped not, Fred would… Artur stopped walking, the sudden stop in movement caught Guilmon's attention.
"What's wrong?" The digimon questioned, his eyes darting around looking for signs of trouble. Artur just shook his head, when he had woken up he was in such a rush between the headache and the fangmon ambush he didn't have the time to really reflect on what happened and more importantly, the contents of the message that brought him there. In hindsight, it was unusual for him, even in such situations, to have forgotten something like that, yet…
Indeed, his memories about the contents of the message were a blur, he easily recalled the mild interest in the weird D symbol of the messenger's profile image yet, whatever was written was a mystery to him… wait that was it! Quickly taking his Samsung out of the left pocket of his dark blue jeans, he paused a second, looking at the background pic, it had been several months since the accident but… he just couldn't bring himself to change it. He unlocked his phone with his thumb print just as Guilmon joined him. Technically the dragon was taller than him, but that was only if both were stretched on the ground and accounting his tail. As of now, the dinosaur stuck his head under Artur's arm, looking curiously at the Samsung.
"What are you doing?" Guilmon asked as Artur opened WhatsApp and saw the D symbol and the phone number, he should have thought something was wrong when the entire number consisted of 1s and 0s but… now he opened the messages and…
"I should have thought of this earlier!" Artur allowed himself a brief curse, usually he'd avoid swearing and even poke others when they swore. Yet seeing it offered no relief:
"You and a select group of individuals close to you have been chosen to change the fate of worlds, in a few seconds you and these select individuals will be sent to the location of"
The message was cut, like the sender didn't have time to finish so just sent all he had managed to type. He really wanted to kick his younger self right about now, one thing was wish for an adventure, and wish for his friends to risk their lives was another matter entirely. A more unstable person would likely throw the phone on the ground and throw a fit, Artur just shook his head, sighed, checked to make sure there was really no connection and he couldn't contact anyone… wait, he was offline, so why were they online?
"Could you finish this in the village? Walking in the afternoon is more tiring," Guilmon brought his thoughts back to… not Earth, this world. Artur quickly narrowed down who was online, he didn't have time to see all his contacts but he succeeded in catching his 3 latest conversations. Quickly making a group, he shot a single message:
"Are you guys safe?"
A/N: Due to recent ideas, I had to change Zubamon to Guilmon. Also yes, I'm alive, and yes, I'm back to writing. Life may get in the way but I got an idea to combine two story ideas and the result was the reason I edited this chapter. If you enjoyed please review, seeing you guys cheer me on always helps me get things done faster.