Disclaimer thingy:

I do not own Digimon

I think Bandai does... or Toei... or somebody... but not me

Some of the Digimon in this story are made up by me... all other Digimon are owned by the above noted company or companies

All of the humans in this story are made up by me... although some humans mentioned in this story are owned by the above

Having said all that and thinking of nothing else to say... I leave you to the story

enjoy

Chapter 1

Running Head Start

"Go… FASTER!"

"What are you complaining about now?"

"Sorry Tank, just trying to beat this game," I replied. I need to remember that he actually sleeps at night.

I paused the game and set the controller down. "Time for a break," I muttered to myself. I jumped up and went into the kitchen. The dishes still needed to be done. It was my turn, but I didn't feel like doing them just yet. I looked in the fridge and sighed. "Lots of food, but nothing to eat." I shut the fridge and walked to Tank's door. "I'm going to go get some food on campus," I called through the closed door.

"Are you taking the car?"

"What the heck for?"

"Because it's two in the morning, it's about forty degrees outside, and campus is five…" he paused briefly. "Never mind, go freeze your ass off. But I'm not nursing a sick nineteen year old when you get back."

"I can't get sick," I called back jokingly, "I'm still a teenager. I'm invincible."

I grabbed my jacket off the wall, stepped through the door, and started walking down the stairs. I jogged over to the mailbox. "Let's see… anything for Ryan Goodspeed? Bill, bill, bill, credit card offer, bill, bill… sheesh, thirteen bills, two credit card offers, and a letter to Tank from his parents. Guess that's what happens when no one checks the mail for a week." I stuffed the envelopes in my jacket pocket and started to jog toward campus. "Five miles, at a decent pace, should be about half an hour."

Running has always helped me organize my thoughts. And I had a lot to think about. My grades were slipping. My family was getting ready to move several states away. I needed a job in the next couple of months, or I was going to run out of money. I had a new girlfriend, and although that helps relieve some stress, you also add another person's stresses to your own. And Kali had a lot of stresses. But, no matter what happens, you just have to keep going. That was all I could do. Just keep running and try to keep up the best I could. No one knows what the future will hold. "I just… I just wish there was something more. It feels like there has to be more than just this. Something I'm missing, something I'm not seeing even though it's right under my nose. But what?" I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the wind running through my hair. It was cold, but it was soothing. I ran for about thirty seconds with my eyes closed, just enjoying the breeze. Then, when I opened them back up, something caught my attention.

I slowed down to a walk. "Where am I? I didn't think there was anyplace like this anywhere near campus." I looked around, but all I could see were trees in every direction. I had made this jog many times before, and I was certain there was no forest in the middle of downtown. The forest was dense, too, and the trees stretched at least fifty feet into the air. The tops of the trees formed a thick canopy that the moonlight could barely pierce. "Are those… palm trees?" Palm trees do not grow in northern Indiana. They just don't, period. Something weird was going on.

I kept walking in the same direction I had been. In theory, I'll eventually come out of the forest or find a stream to follow or something. I wasn't paying attention when I got here, as I could tell from the fact that last I checked I was running on a sidewalk next to a street. I turned and looked behind me, but saw only trees. No sign of street, sidewalk, or even buildings. Turning back now would only make me second-guess myself and cause me to end up even more lost. I simply needed to press forward.

After about five minutes, I started to get worried. By ten minutes, I was turning into a nervous wreck. I started calling out to see if anyone was around. "Hello! Is anybody here? I'm kinda lost! Hello?" I continued walking for about twenty more minutes, until finally, I saw a break in the trees.

I could feel the hope returning and I started running forward towards the edge of the forest. I emerged from the trees and looked around. A huge plain stretched from the forest to as far as I could see. There were miles of nothing but grass and flowers. "Ummm… Toto, I don't think were in Indiana anymore." Suddenly a loud crashing noise came from behind me. I swung around and saw one of the trees about fifty feet from the edge of the forest fall to the ground. Then another crash, followed by a closer tree falling down. "That… cannot be good." Then something burst from the edge of the forest. A large creature on four legs with a giant horn on its head charging strait for me. "What the hell?" I turned and started running as fast as I could. In the dark I couldn't tell if it was a rhino, a dinosaur, or something else, and honestly, I didn't care. It was coming right at me and was not showing any signs of slowing down. I made a sharp right turn to try and lose it, but it turned and continued following me. I was starting to panic. I knew I couldn't outrun this thing form much longer. I was getting tired and running out of breath. I turned my head back to look. I was starting to lose my ground.

My foot hit something hard, and I tripped flying face first into the ground. "Ouch…" I pushed off the ground with my hands and shook my head. Then remembered the creature that was chasing me. I flipped around, sure that I would be trampled at any second, but it was just standing there. No, something was blocking it. My vision slowly cleared from hitting the ground. Standing just between me and the giant rhino dinosaur thing, was another creature. It looked like a small velociraptor, maybe four feet tall. But the head was different. It looked more like the head of a python, and it was wearing goggles over its eyes. Its long tail ended in large blade. It was crouched down on one knee with its tail swept up over its body. The large blade at the end pushed up against the huge horn of the other beast. Despite being only a fraction of its size, he was holding the other creature at bay with nothing but his tail. The smaller creature turned its head toward me and then it spoke.

"Hey, you know if you go ahead and get out of the way, I could let this guy go and we wouldn't both get trampled."

I sat there for a second, shocked; this creature just spoke to me. I shook my head, jumped to my feet, and dashed of to the left. As soon as I was clear, the small reptile dipped his tail toward the ground and jumped backwards in one fluid motion. The giant beast rammed his snout into the ground and skidded to a halt ten feet away, its nose carving a large trench the entire way. "What the hell is that thing?" I asked staring at it.

The smaller creature, which now stood beside me, answered, "That's a Monochromon."

I was again surprised to hear it talk. I wasn't actually expecting an answer. I stayed focused on the large beast. "A what?"

"A Monochromon."

I turned and looked at him. "For that matter, what are you?"

"You can call me Jetomon."

"Are you… a Digimon?" I wasn't sure how I knew that word. I was certain I had never heard it before, but somehow, I just knew this thing and the larger one stuck in the ground were Digimon. Whatever a Digimon was.

"That's right. You must be a human. I've never seen a human before."

"Well then, I guess we're even, cause I've never seen a Digimon before. My name is Ryan."

"Well Ryan, I hope you're ready for round two."

"Huh?" I turned back toward the larger creature, the Monochromon. It had pulled its head from the ground and was shaking it to get all of the dirt off of it.

"So, what exactly did you do to make old gray scale so mad at you?" Jetomon asked.

"I didn't do anything, I was just walking out of the forest and he started charging me out of no where." The Monochromon turned its head from side to side, looking for something. It turned around and saw what it was looking for… me.

Jetomon continued talking, "That figures, there seems to be a bug going around recently. Don't know what's causing it, but Digimon all over have been getting violent for no reason. Well, gunna have to put him down. Those are the orders."

"Orders?" I asked. "You mean kill him?"

"Yup." The Monochromon charged at us again. I jumped to the left and spun around. Jetomon jumped to the right and slashed at its side with his tail, and then shouted, "Sonic Boom!" A large wave of sound distorted the air around him and flew at the Monochromon, hitting him in the back. As I ran back toward Jetomon, the Monochromon slowed to a stop. There was a large gash in the side of the creature where Jetomon had hit him with his tail. Bright lights swam from inside the injury. Jetomon ran forward at incredible speed, and jumped into the air. "Sonic Boom!" Another shockwave flew towards the Monochromon and hit right on the pre-existing cut. The armor skin around it began to crumble and Monochromon seemed to vibrate for a few seconds before letting out a loud painful roar. And then he just disintegrated. Thousands of specs of light dissipated every direction, and then a bright light emerged from the center of where it had stood. The light took the form of an egg, then the light faded, and the egg fell to the ground. I walked toward the egg slowly. It looked bright silver in the moonlight with large dark gray spots on it. It was the biggest egg I had ever seen in my life. "Is that… Monochromon?"

"Well, when a Digimon dies, it doesn't really die. Its data just gets reformatted and he returns to an egg form. Eventually the egg hatches and the Digimon gets to live on. What, it doesn't do that for humans?"

"No way!" I replied back quickly.

Jetomon looked up at the sky. "Well, the sun will be coming up in a few hours, you should probably get back to your home."

"Shouldn't we do something with this egg first?" I asked.

"Nah, Swanmon will show up in a few minutes to take the egg back to the nursery. They're keeping extra careful watch lately with this random bug going around. But humans don't hold a very high opinion around here. Some Digimon blame them for the problem. So you should probably get out of here."

"Well, the problem is, I don't know how to get home. I don't even know how I got here." I answered. "Heck I don't even know where here is."

Jetomon thought for a second. "Well I can tell you where you are. You're in the digital world. The Network continent, to be specific." He explained, although I had no idea what he was talking about. "As for how to get back, try to remember what you were doing when you ended up here."

I thought for a few seconds. "I was… thinking. About wanting to find something new."

Jetomon replied, "Well then, maybe thinking about wanting to go home will take you home."

It made a little sense, I guess. As much sense as a talking snake-dinosaur wearing goggles can make. I closed my eyes and concentrated. "Home… I want to go home." I pictured my warm comfy bed with my nice warm blankets and fluffy pillow. I opened my eyes. Jetomon stood in front of me still. I looked around. Nothing had changed. I was still sitting in a giant field with a huge forest off to my side.

"Ummm… it's not working."

"I can see that," replied Jetomon. "Was there anything else you were doing, besides just thinking?"

"Ummm…" I thought for several seconds. "Oh yeah! I was running, duh!"

Jetomon smiled, and I could see the two large snake fangs in his mouth. At least I think he was smiling. "Well then start running. I'll make it interesting. I'll race you. We'll see who's ahead until you get back to your world."

I smiled back, "Oh you are on. I'll have you know that I've never lost a race in my life." I crouched down and got set up for a sprint along the edge of the forest.

"Neither have I. Ready… Set… Go!"

I dashed forward as quickly as I could. But Jetomon shot forward like a gunshot. He had to be running at least fifty or sixty miles an hour. "Damn, I guess that's why they call him Jetomon." I concentrated on going home again as I ran. As I concentrated, the area around me warped. The trees faded away and were replaced by buildings. The grass beneath my feet melted away into cement sidewalk. After a few seconds, everything was back to the normal city, just a few blocks from my apartment.

Up ahead, about seventy feet away or so, stood Jetomon in the middle of the street. The moonlight reflected off his slick skin and goggles. "How did you get here?" I yelled out to him.

"I dunno!" he yelled back. "I guess I was thinking about home, too! But I don't have a home, so I guess I just ended up coming with you! But I can get back on my own!"

I could hear the sadness in his voice. I knew what it was like to feel like you had no home. My family moved a lot when I was a kid, and they were getting ready to move again. And for him to have just made a friend only to have him leave moments later. Well, he did save my life. I made up my mind.

"Hey!" I called back. "How about we race all the way home."

"You mean it?" He yelled in response.

"Heck yeah! Let's go home!"

"You're on!" He yelled, and with that he took off running again.

I ran forward to the next intersection and stopped. "Hey Jetomon!" He stopped running and looked back. "Home is this way!" I yelled and dashed down the other street. I only had two blocks to go, and all I had to do was make sure he didn't pass me on the way. I ran as fast as I could. One block left. I couldn't turn and see where he was as that would only slow me down. I had to put everything into this. There was the apartment. I dashed up the steps and put my hand on the door. Three seconds before Jetomon reached it.

I grinned at him. "I told you I've never lost a race."

"You just won because I didn't know where your home was. Next time, things will be different."

I patted him on the head. "Whatever you have to tell yourself." I knew he was probably right, but I didn't care. That was the most exhilarating race I had ever run in my life. It was amazing. My heart was practically beating out of my chest. I leaned against the door for a second to catch my breath.

"Alright," I said, regaining my composure. "My roommate lives in here. I don't want to have to try to explain you to him, and he's sleeping right now, so we need to be extra quiet. Understand?"

"Gotcha." Jetomon replied quietly.

"Alright, my door is the second door on the left. Let's go." I opened the door and walked towards my room. Jetomon followed me and after we both got inside, I quietly shut the door behind me.

"Alright Jetomon, I'm going to sleep. You can… sleep on the floor, I guess… I'll get you something more comfy later."

"Okay," he quietly replied.

I laid down in bed and got under the covers. "Wow… what an amazing day." I got chased by a giant rhino dinosaur called Monochromon, and made friends with a Digimon named Jetomon. I just knew I had finally found what I thought was missing from my life. Things were sure to be interesting from that point on. This was destined to be my greatest adventure ever. The adventure of Ryan Goodspeed.

"Oh, crap. I'm still hungry!"

Author's notes...

This chapter is written in a very fast style to reflect the character's personality

Subsequent chapters will be written from the viewpoints of different characters, each with his/her own style (4 in total)

There are 26 planned chapters for this story, so yes, it's going to be a long one

Drama, angst, and such are sure to come up at some point

Chapter 2 is due soon