AN: And so it begins. With school being out, I've been doing quite a bit of reading on the site and ran across quite a few that I love. One particular story by Crazyeight had such an interesting concept that it was a shame that he doesn't update it. Or at least I think he isn't updating it. Don't get me wrong, I love his other stories as well and I find myself re-reading quite a few of em but I just couldn't resist taking his story "Out of Body, Out of Mind" and running all the possible scenarios in my head as though I was waiting for the next episode to come out. When it looked like he took a break after completely his more famous epic "Tamer's Requiem" (yes I know people need breaks but I'm impatient), I finally gave up hope of the story being updated soon and came out of my lurking to give fanfiction a try. While the initial concept remains the same, you'll notice that this isn't a season 3/5 crossover but rather 2/3. The reason for this is quite simple. I don't hate the 5th season but I have never actually seen it. Even with the bits I picked up from this site here and there, there's no way I'm gonna be able to add enough detail to make a story out of it. Besides, this might be a good thing since keeping everything the same might be too much of a rip off of Crazyeights original story.
Digimon and all its characters aren't mine and yada yada yada.
Are these disclamers really even necessary?
He woke up to a cool breeze brushing against his body. To most people going about their day doing who knows what, this would have been a wonderful sensation, but to the sleeping boy, it just told him that it was drafty and he probably left the window open.
Too lazy to do anything about it, or even open his eyes for that matter, Takato Matsuki rolled over to his other side only to come upon his second revelation.
He was lying on grass.
Immediately Takato's eyes shot open expecting to find his bed and in extension, his room, but instead found wide open plains littered with grass. As he slowly sat upright, one could almost hear the gears in his head turning to process the information. The dazed boy looked up to see a clear blue sky with a few flurry clouds instead of his bland white ceiling. In front of him was a large, serene pond instead of his closet.
"Did I fall asleep at the park or something?"
Turning his head to take in the details for a second time, the tamer quickly realized that this wasn't the case. First of all, Takato could've drawn a map of the park blindfolded after all the meetings and experiences he had there. This place on the other hand, was completely alien to him. Secondly, the place just had a certain feeling to it. After mulling over his thoughts, he finally placed it on the fact that the place looked too nice to be in Shinjuku. Heck, a place this nice probably doesn't exist in Japan period. Not that he hated the landscape of his own country, but rather it seemed like something out of a fairytale. No misplaced dirt, no random branches on the ground, no nothing. The place was absolutely untouched and gorgeous.
Standing up brought about another interesting fact. Since the moment he woke up, a nice breeze fluttered throughout the fields, adding to the whole "serene" feeling the place gave off, but now Takato noticed that he felt the breeze throughout his whole body.
His face snapped down in alarm, completely expecting to find himself nude and in for an extraordinarily embarrassing experience, what he found instead, was a short orange body where his own was supposed to be. Most noticeably, the large claws extending out of his feet, or what should be his feet.
Confusion spreading through his head once again, the poor gears in his head were practically screeching from being overworked twice in such a short span of time.
"Okay, that definitely shouldn't be there", he said to no one in particular.
Slowly walking up to the pond, Takato began to look down into his own reflection, pausing a moment realizing that he might be afraid of what he'd find. The face that looked back was most definitely not his face yet was one he recognized immediately. His body was completely orange and almost simplistic, attached to over sized hands and feet (if he could call them hands and feet). The limbs were further attached to large and somewhat menacing claws. A long orange snout portruded from his head. His head itself was angular with green eyes on completely opposite sides of his head, similar to dinosaur.
Yes too similar to a dinosaur, and a recognizable one at that.
Staring at his own reflection for what seemed like hours, the conclusion finally sputtered out of his mouth as though he was making an awkward confession to a girl.
"I-I'm an Agum-m-mon". The poor digimon turned boy, still understandably in shock, continued to stare at his claws. "What happened? How did this happen? How is this even possible?", the former gogglehead, in his confusion, continuously spouted questions until finally calming down by taking another look at his new image in the water.
"Okay think, if I'm a digimon then this is probably the digital world." Looking around for the third time, Takato made a quick comparison.
"This looks nothing like the digital world! Wheres the wasteland! The crazy data streams! The packets of data!" His anxiety growing with each word, he quickly took a breath, effectively calming himself down again and began thinking.
"Me and the others have been through enough weird situations to deal with this …....... That's it! Maybe Henry or Rika are nearby. If I'm here, maybe everyone will be here. I just gotta find em and we'll find out what the hecks going on!"
With that thought, Takato quickly broke into a mad dash in a random direction, only to end up tripping over his new legs. The leader of the tamers has never been known for his grace as a human and his new claws certainly wasn't helping him gain any bearings.
With a grunt, he fell onto a soft cushion of grass, mentally noting to get used to his temporary body. Or at least he hoped it was temporary. As cool as it was seeing his childhood iconic hero, Takato always wanted to be partners with one. Actually becoming an Agumon physically, although an interesting thought, never quite crossed his mind.
"Well, if I can feel pain, at least I know this isn't a dream. Not that it makes me feel any better."
His one sided conversation was abruptly cut short when he heard a rustling in the trees. Glancing over, he noticed a figure hidden in the shade of the foliage, quickly making his way over to the open fields. The newly turned Agumon froze in its place, trying to discern the new entity as he silently prayed to no one in particular that it wouldn't try to eat him.
Soon enough, a large beetle like digimon that Takato recognized as Kuwagamon, emerged. The first thing Kuwagamon did was look down at the trembling rookie. Takato stared back at the champion level with well placed fear. Although he never actually met any in his own experiences, a Kuwagamon had never made a friendly appearance in the show. "But hey, that's just a cartoon right? Maybe this ones nice."
The staring contest between the two lasted a bit longer. In an attempt to break the awkward silence and save himself from a heart attack caused by the tension, the smaller of the two spoke up.
"So... uh....... nice weather we're having huh?"
"RAWWWWRRRRRRR."
"AWWW NUTS.", was all Takato had time to say before breaking into another sprint in the opposite direction. This attempt ended as poorly as the last one as he toppled over his own feet as quickly as he stood up. The experience would have been much more humiliating if his sense of fear didn't completely overwhelm everything else at the moment.
Before turning back to look at his assailant, Takato noticed more figures in the distance running towards his directions. Still he didn't exactly have the time to process this new bit as he turned back just in time to see the red bug rushing at him with its huge pincers. Shutting his eyes as tight as he could while waiting for the inevitable, Takato felt a new instinct bubbling up in his throat. Having nothing left to lose, he let it take control.
"Pepper Blast!" With a shout, the orange digimon let loose a fireblast. As it came out, Takato noticed that it had more differences from the original Pepper Breath attack than just it's name. The original Agumon's pepper breath wasn't quite that intimidating, comparable to Patamon's boom bubble with the exception that it was wreathed in flames. Now that he mentioned it, none of the chosen's rookie digimon were as intimidating as the tamer's, Takato realized. In the show, it was mainly about levels vs levels, most of the serious threats were against someone with the bare minimum of champion level, and thus, the heroes fought back accordingly. Agumon came across as a sort of a default placeholder form for Greymon unlike Guilmon who was able to take on Champions with or without the help of cards. Takato would have swelled in pride at this thought if he weren't so mesmerized by the ball of fire that literally erupted from his own mouth.
The Pepper Blast attack struck Kuwagamon head on in a way that resembled Guilmon's Pyro Sphere instead of Agumon's Pepper Breath. The explosion halting the beetle in its tracks and made it roar in agony. Takato began dreading what he just did thinking perhaps agitating the guy wasn't the smartest idea but was quickly relieved when it turned around and left, apparently deciding that the dinosaur wasn't worth the trouble.
Breathing a sigh of relief from being given a second chance at life, Takato's heart stopped for what seemed to be the millionth time in the hour when he heard a new voice.
"Wow, that was amazing!"
The new voice didn't sound threatening, in fact it sounded almost familiar, the name of its speaker eluding the digimon's head at the moment, but quickly rectified itself when Takato turned his head to see who it was.
The person was a boy, clearly a bit older than him. He wore a white dress shirt which was covered by a green school jacket. The set was completed with grey pants. In sharp contrast to the bland set up, his brown hair was wild and seemed to defy the laws of physics in several ways. The hair being a giveaway, it didn't take long for the stunned digimon to place the name of the new stranger.
Takato Matsuki the Agumon was staring at none other than Tai Kamiya, the leader of the digidestined.
AN: My first attempt at writing other than the essays and reports for school. So, how did I do? Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.