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Disclaimer:
Some characters herein are trademarked by Bandai and/or Toei. This work is derivative of season 3 of the Digimon television series (Digimon Tamers) and is in no way meant to imply ownership or infringe on any trademark or copyright.
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Author's Notes:
BE WARNED: "Puppy Love" is an ironic title. This is a tragedy, not a romance!
Thanks to NKC for suggesting I tell this story. The more I thought about it the more it came alive for me until I just had to write it.
You don't need to read Wild Card first to understand this story but you should.
A picture of Coyomon (Rookie) can be found through the link on my bio page.
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Puppy Love
by Eqgz
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Chapter 1
Birth Pains
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I really needed to stretch.
I pushed and felt resistance. I pushed again and something gave way, letting me move my arm a bit. I pushed and shoved and kicked more vigorously and bits of the hard material surrounding me fell away, leaving me blinking at the suddenly bright light and sprawled on a hard, flat surface.
I rested for a while and let my eyes adjust to the light. When the world came into focus I was a bit puzzled. I felt that things should look different somehow-- ghostly images of sand and red mesas flitted through my mind. I sat up and looked around the grimy buildings and littered asphalt in curiosity. Along with all the new sights, unfamiliar smells and sounds assaulted me, making it all so hard to sort out and understand.
I caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye and jumped to my feet, spinning around to see what had moved so close to me. Nothing was there. Then I saw it again, right behind me. This time I grabbed as I spun and found myself holding a bushy thing that seemed to be attached to my butt. My tail-- of course! How could I be so dumb? I dropped my tail and stood staring at my hands, turning them over and watching them as I made my fingers move and clench.
There was a sudden loud noise as a door into one of the buildings banged open and a man came out carrying and can full of very smelly stuff. I watched in interest as he lifted the can and tipped its contents into a large rectangular metal container. Some of the smells were very nice.
As he lowered the can he saw me watching him and his impassive face turned into an angry scowl. He shouted angrily and grabbed something out of the container and threw it at me.
I knew what this was: An attack! I watched the thing tumble through the air-- it looked like the big can the man had been carrying but a lot smaller. I could have dodged it but I couldn't understand how such a little thing was supposed to hurt me so I jumped into a fighting stance and swatted it to one side with an open palm. My tail started waving back and forth all by itself: That had been fun!
The man gaped at me and leaned forward, squinting for a better look. I bared my fangs at him as I felt strange energies rising within me. My turn!
But the man didn't wait for my attack. He suddenly yelled, jumped back through the door and slammed it behind him. I didn't understand. Had I done something wrong? First he wanted to fight and then he didn't. It was very confusing.
Then I heard footsteps from around the corner and turned eagerly, my tail starting to wag again. Someone else was coming. Maybe they would want to fight?
The person that turned the corner was much smaller than the man with the cans. He held a little plastic thing that projected a glowing semi-transparent disk with lots of moving symbols on it. He was looking at the disk so intently as he walked that he almost ran into me before he noticed I was there.
When he saw me he gasped and took two quick steps backwards. I felt just as surprised. This wasn't an opponent-- I knew that instinctively-- and if I hadn't known it, my frantically thrashing tail might have given me a clue. I knelt down to be on eye level with him and gave him a happy, open-mouthed grin.
"Coyomon?" he said in almost a gasp.
That was it! My name-- he knew my name! I groped for words and all I got was one that was wholly inadequate to express everything I was feeling right then.
"Hi!" I yipped happily.
He dropped the plastic thing and it dangled from his belt by a strap, the glowing disk vanishing. He reached out a hand tentatively and I lifted one of mine to meet it. We touched palms and curled our fingertips around in a grasp that felt proper to me. His eyes went wide and he said, "You're real! You're really here!"
I didn't understand. How could I not be real? But I was too happy to ask questions so I just said, "Yep yep! I'm Coyomon. I'm real!" I was really getting the hang of this talking thing.
The little person-- no, boy was the right word-- the boy threw his arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. I was so happy. This was better than fighting.
The door that the Can Man had gone through slammed open again and this time three men came out. Can Man started shouting, "There it is! That's the thing!"
"Hey," yelled one of the others, "what's it doing to that kid?" He picked up a board from the pile of rubbish by the door and began to advance on us.
The boy jumped away from me and stared at the men, trying to stammer out something but I didn't need to be told what to do. Three opponents at once? What fun!
"Yipee!" I yelled joyfully as I leapt at Board Man, kicking aside his weapon and giving him a punch that doubled him over. Can Man fled back into the building. Couldn't he make up his mind whether or not he wanted to fight? The last man had a big chopping cleaver in his hand that still had bits of green onion sticking to it and he threw it at my head. I didn't even have to dodge-- Mr. Cleaver's aim was terrible. I caught the cleaver by the handle as it went by me and then grabbed Mr. Cleaver by his shirt collar as he tried to follow Can Man back into the building. "Here," I said, handing him back the cleaver, "try again!"
"NO!" the boy yelled from behind me. "Coyomon, stop!"
I turned to face him in dismay. Had I done something wrong again? I wanted to please my new friend more than anything else I could imagine. "I'm sorry," I said, "wasn't I doing it right?"
Mr. Cleaver took the opportunity that my distraction provided to slam his weapon into my neck right where it joined my shoulder. It really stung. I quick stepped out of his range, still facing the boy. I could feel my inner energy healing my minor wound almost instantly. If that was the worst Mr. Cleaver could dish out, he'd never be able to beat me.
"Tell me what to do!" I pleaded with the boy.
His advice was short and simple. "Run!" he yelled and sprinted off down the alleyway.
I jogged alongside him as he ran. "I could have easily beaten them all," I reassured him.
"It's-- not-- that!" he panted, "You're not-- supposed to-- fight-- people!"
"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't know. But--" I added, "they attacked me! Maybe we should go back and explain the rules to them?"
"No--" he gasped, "no, I don't think-- that would be-- a good idea."
He squeezed through a gap in an old board fence and I hopped over it. We hid there in a narrow brick yard until we were sure nobody was following.
"I'll do better next time. I promise--" I stopped, realizing I didn't know the boy's name.
He gave me a brilliant grin. "My name's Danny."
"Danny." I said, enjoying the sound of it. "Danny, Danny, Danny!"
"Coyomon, Coyomon, Coyomon," he smiled back at me and we just sat there grinning like idiots for a few minutes.
"Oh man," Danny said eventually and the smile dropped from his face. "How am I going to get you home?"
I was confused again and my expression must have shown it.
"There are a jillion busy streets between here and the Watanabe's apartment," Danny told me. "Everybody would see you!"
"I don't mind." I told him.
"But they'd be afraid of you. Some of them might even attack you like those men did."
"You can just tell them the rules," I said.
"Ahh--" Danny sounded frustrated. "It doesn't work like that."
My ears drooped. I didn't want him to be unhappy but I was still confused. "Would it be okay if the other people didn't see me? I really want to go with you."
"Well, yeah-- but how am I going to hide a six-foot talking coyote from crowds of people?"
I brightened up. "Oh, I can do that!" I said, and jinked a bit out of phase with the world.
Danny's eyes went wide. "Coyomon?"
"Still right here." I told him and then phased back in.
"Wow!" he cried happily at seeing me reappear, "that's just like what Renamon does!"
"Who's Renamon?" I asked.
"Another digimon," Danny told me. "She's-- well-- oh boy, this is going to be hard to explain."
"Can I fight her?"
"Um--," Danny frowned, "no-- I don't even know if she's real like you are. But she's really, really tough."
"Good!" I said and bounced up and down a bit in eagerness. "Those men were way too weak and slow for a good fight! Can we go find Renamon now?"
"No, Coyomon!" Danny said. "I have to go home now."
"Oh," I said, a bit disappointed, "but I get to come with you, right?"
"Oh yeah," he said, "as long as you stay invisible until we get there."
"Yay!"
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