Authors' Notes
Authors
This story was written jointly by Cyan (cyan683@hotmail.com, IRC
(Austnet): Cyan683, primarily on #digimon! or
#earthbound) and Bradmon (bradlegar@hotmail.com). It was a
fascinating and productive collaboration: Bradmon wrote the outline and the
story itself, while Cyan wrote a lot of the dialogue, made sure the story
was true to the Digimon series, and contributed many suggestions and
corrections. Time consuming, too. It took us about two months to put all
this together, mostly by collaborating on IRC. I suspect we exchanged three
lines on IRC for every line that ended up in the story.
Digimon Stories
A lot of the Digimon stories on
fanfiction.net are but variations on the same themes, or involve only
the Digidestined. Their Digimon, if they even show up, very often are given
only minor roles. We set out to write a real Digimon story, specific to the
Digidestined and their Digimon, true to the spirit of the series as it is
seen in North America. We did, however, take one big liberty in adding an
extra digidestined and his digimon, Cyan and Cantomon.
Standard Disclaimers
Events portrayed in this story are
fictional, and bear no resemblance to persons living or dead. Not
responsible for lost or broken links. Browser widths are based on reading
experiences on Intel machines; your mileage may vary.
Trademarks
Digimon and the characters contained therein are
copyright © by Toei Animation. Tilley is a registered trademark of
Tilley Endurables
(link will open in a new browser window). Velcro® is a registered
trademark of Velcro
Industries BV.
Copyright
This story is copyright © 2000 by Cyan and
Bradmon. You may download a copy of this story to your computer for your
reading enjoyment, and transmit electronic copies to others, but may not
print a copy on paper or other non-electronic materials.
Chronicler's Note: Cyan related this remarkable tale to me in a
series of conversations and email notes. When I told him I wanted to write a
story based on this, he gave me every encouragement and a lot of his time.
The direct quotes here, aside from being translated from Japanese, are as
close to the originals as he and the others can remember them.
I'd also like to thank the Takaishis (Takeru and Hikari) and Inoue Miyako
for their assistance in putting this together. They opened up their hearts
and their email archives for me, and Takeru even managed to locate Patamon,
who gave me much of the material in chapter 6. Even Daisuke was helpful,
although he was reluctant to talk about that part of his life.
For the benefit of the readers in North America, we mutually decided to
use the North American names of the Digidestined and their digimon.
Chapter 1
Trouble in Digiworld
-
This morning, like always, I rub my sleepy eyes
And energetically say "laugh!"
My head feels like it's still in a dream
As I brush my teeth
I wish on a star
That I could use magic
- "Be All Right" (Takeru's theme)
Near the end of a quiet day the Digidestined gathered together in a grassy field. Today, like yesterday and the day before, an eerie calm had descended over the Digital World. Yet it was not peaceful. The stillness hung heavily in the air, as though the whole world was being stifled into silence. Even the wind had ceased to blow and the birds had stopped their singing.
Here in the grassy field they tried to rest: Yolei on her back beside Hawkmon, staring uneasily into the clear sky. A little further off, Cyan and Cantomon slumbered beneath a large tree. Kari sat with Gatomon by a small splash of flowers near the clearing's edge. Close by with Veemon stood Davis, talking to her and TK. Patamon rested on TK's hat, trying to get some rest. Only Cody seemed unaffected by the unearthly calm as he played and laughed with Armadillomon.
TK and Davis were arguing yet again. All day, ever since their arrival in the Digital World, the two boys had been trading barbs with each other. It was not unusual for them to pass sardonic quips back and forth, but today there was an edge to them that made Patamon nervous. He shuffled about nervously on the hat. TK put up a hand to pat him.
"And what's going on with the Digimon Kaizer?" Davis was saying. "Why hasn't he done anything?"
"Ken seems to have vanished completely," said Kari. "Could he have left the Digital World?"
Gatomon spoke beside her. "I don't think so. Not after how he left his real home."
"He's probably just laying low," said Davis. "Maybe he's crying over how he couldn't control Agumon."
"Haven't you noticed how quiet everything is?" asked Kari. "And how tired all the digimon seem to be? I think there's something wrong here, and we need to find out what it is."
TK agreed with her. "We should worry about what's wrong with the digimon first, and wait to see if Ken does anything, before we act."
"Are you kidding?" asked Davis earnestly. "We can attack Ken now, when he's not ready!"
"How do you know he's not ready for us?" asked TK. "This could all be a trap."
Their arguing had caught Cyan's attention. He and Cantomon wandered over to join in. Davis felt outnumbered: Cyan never agreed with him, siding with TK in any dispute. It didn't help that Cyan was bigger than the rest of them. Here in the Digital World he was an adolescent, about three years older and heavier than Davis and TK, and wore armour, too: a breastplace bearing the image of the crest of Honour. Strangely, whenever they returned to the real world he became the same age as the other two, and his stature diminished to match. His armour also disappeared.
His sleek feline digimon, Cantomon, looked like a well-fed cougar but was smaller, about the size of a German Shepherd dog. His snow white coat sported rings of dark blue similar to Garurumon's. A collar of dark fur encircled his neck just past the ears. Like his Digidestined, Cantomon shrunk in size when entering the real world. There he was just a bit larger than the other cat-like digimon in the group, Gatomon.
The big kid spoke. "Even if it's not a special trap, he's sure to have a ton of his slaves nearby anyway."
Davis persisted. "How can we know it's a trap if we never check?" he demanded.
Kari sighed. As much as she liked Davis and TK, they always seemed to gravitate to her when they had a disagreement, and she felt compelled to mediate. "Why is it so important to go after Ken now?" she asked.
"Hopefully he's as dopey as Patamon there," said Davis, pointing to the digimon dozing on TK's hat. At the mention of his name Patamon woke up again and looked around.
"Davis, this is serious!" said TK, perhaps more forcefully than he had intended to. "Stop being silly! I don't want to go charging into the Kaizer's lair without a bit of preparation."
"Preparation? Hey, if everything in Digiworld is as quiet as this, it'll be a pushover getting into Ken's palace. We could run in there tonight and kick him out before suppertime!"
TK was becoming uncharacteristically heated. "Look, it's that sort of stupid idea that's gotten us into trouble in the past!" he snapped.
"Matt had the same arguments with Tai, and he usually ended up being right," added Cyan.
Kari tried to intervene. "Come on, boys, settle down. At the rate you two are going, you'll end up fighting each other instead of Ken."
Her comment was lost on Davis. "But Tai got things done!" he retorted. "That's why he was the leader. And when he saw how I did things, he made me the leader. That's why I'm saying we should go after Ken now."
"Leader?" shouted TK. Patamon took to the air: TK was moving too much for him to keep a steady footing. "Leader? Tai gives you those goggles and you think you're the leader now? I've been around a lot longer in the Digital World than you, and I know a lot more about what goes on here than you do!"
By now Yolei and Cody had given up trying to ignore the quarreling pair. They came over, Hawkmon and Armadillomon in tow. They clustered around TK, leaving Davis alone by himself.
"You don't want to follow me--fine!" he cried. "I'll just go after him myself!" And to everyone's astonishment, he turned around and marched away from the clearing, Veemon close behind.
"Davis, don't act like an idiot!" Cyan called out after him. "Come back here!"
"Let him go," said TK, fuming.
Kari jumped up. "Don't talk like that," she admonished. "He may be a bit hot-headed, but he's also our friend. Give him a few minutes. He'll cool down and come back."
They waited. Unable to stay angry for long, TK settled down. Patamon returned to his resting place on TK's hat. Cody went back to playing with Armadillomon. The sun slipped lower in the evening sky, but Davis did not appear. Just before it touched the horizon, Cody called everyone together.
"What are we going to do?" he asked the others. "We can't leave Davis here all night. But we should go home before our parents start to worry."
"Why not leave him here?" asked Cyan. "We're better off without him."
"No, we're not," said Kari. "We've been called together for a purpose. If Davis isn't here, the team isn't complete."
"Then we should look for him," said Yolei.
"That should be easy," said TK. "We should be able to find him with our digivices." He picked his up and stared at it a moment, then shook it up and down. "Hey, what's with this?"
In seconds the other kids were looking at theirs. While each seemed to be working normally, Davis was not showing up on any of them. The others registered but faintly.
"There's some kind of interference in the air," said Yolei. "I haven't seen anything like it before."
"And there's no time to find out what's causing it," said TK. "The sun's almost set. We should go."
Reluctantly, the group headed down a trail leading south from the clearing. In minutes their digivices homed in on a signal from a TV set, and they followed the trail until it came into view. It sat on a boulder, its screen impossibly glowing in the absence of any source of power. As the last red rays of the setting sun disappeared beneath the horizon, the kids and their digimon gathered in front of it. But Cyan stood off to one side.
"I was thinking I'd stay behind for a little bit, in case Davis shows up," he told the others.
"Why?" asked Cody, confused. "You don't even like him!"
Cyan shrugged. "I'm supposed to watch out for you guys. That includes Davis, no matter what I think of him myself. I could at least let him know we're not really mad at him."
"We were never really mad at him," said Kari. "Not even TK, for all the shouting he did."
"Besides," said TK, "We're not sure where Davis is right now. You could stay here all night for nothing."
"I wasn't planning on staying all night. Just about an hour or so, in case Davis shows up."
"I think you should come back with us," said TK. "You know Mom's expecting us both to be there for supper."
"Digiport open!" called Yolei, and she and the others jumped through, landing on their feet in the school computer lab. Cyan followed them.
Kari looked around the otherwise deserted room. "Look!" she said. "Here's the Wada Kouji CD I was going to loan Davis. It's still here. That means he hasn't come back yet."
"Or he came back, but was too mad to pick it up," said Cyan.
Kari laughed. "Not this one! I told him I'd accidentally left it here before we went into the Digital World, and he told me he would be sure to pick it up when he came back because he wanted to listen to it so much."
Yolei was busy tapping keys on the computer, scanning Digiworld. "I can't locate Davis from here, either," she reported.
"He can get himself back, I'm sure," said Cyan. "I've been there on my own a lot longer than just a few hours, before."
"I guess you're right," said Cody. "I just hope he makes it back this evening, or we'll have some explaining to do when his parents start calling around."
TK was not concerned. "He'll come back when he gets hungry. Our digivices found a port, and I'm sure his can, too."
"Speaking of hungry, I should be getting home for supper," said Yolei. With
that, they left the computer lab and headed to their own homes.
Back in Digiworld, Davis and Veemon carefully walked along a different trail. They had been moving since Davis had parted company with the others. With the sun now set, it was getting darker. Led by a faint, uncertain signal on Davis' digivice, they located another TV set standing alone on a stone pedestal. Davis approached it. As his digivice came into range, the set sprang to life. They prepared to make the jump.
"Davis," asked Veemon suddenly, "why didn't we go back with the others?"
"I just want to stay away from TQ," Davis responded.
The Digiport powered up, and in moments he and Veemon were back in the
computer lab. Davis looked for the Wada Kouji CD, but it was not there, so he
assumed Kari had taken it with her.
Dinner over, TK and Cyan retreated to TK's room. An hour or so they spent at the computer, reading and sending email, surfing the net. Finally TK spoke aloud what both had been thinking.
"I wonder if Davis came back. Even though it is Davis, I can't help but worry."
"I wouldn't worry about it," said Cyan. "Remember, the Kaizer hasn't attacked at night before, has he?"
TK was not so easily reassured. "Maybe that's why he's been laying low, waiting for a chance to get one of us alone."
"True. With Ken, anything is possible."
"If something happens to him," said TK, "it will be our fault. If we hadn't started arguing with him like that, he wouldn't have left."
Cyan nodded. "You do have a point." But now he shook his head, "Would you prefer having him lead us on some suicide mission?"
"Of course not. But I don't want Davis getting hurt because of us, either."
"Even I don't want that," said Cyan gravely. "I've lost too many friends
there...."
If you want to learn more about Cyan, please
follow
this link.
If you made it this far, either you've read through the whole thing, or you just skipped to the end :)
Either way, please write a review. We put a lot of work into this story!
Thank you from both Cyan and Bradmon.
