Disclaimer: I neither own the Kirby franchise nor the Digimon franchise. I at most own the original characters and two fan-made Digimon evolution lines I made myself.
Enjoy.
Fall Away
Destruction. Madness. That was the last thing he could remember before everything he had was reduced to nothing. Anything in the way of the beams was disintegrated to dust, never to be seen again as the two-headed dragon continued its rampage. He had jumped in at the last second, his noble attempt to protect his friends from their inevitable doom.
A blinding light. Intense, searing pain.
For the briefest of moments, he saw his life flash before his eyes and disappear, his memories gone with the wind.
And then there was nothing.
Slumping over his still-unpacked school bag, Trevor let out a long sigh. He straightened himself and glanced at his electronic watch for what seemed like the millionth time that day. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself otherwise, the date remained the same: August 26. School - more specifically, Year 7 - would start the next day. How had three months worth of summer break gone by so quickly?
He had to admit, the dread had ruined his whole day.
Still not wanting to face reality, Trevor grabbed his phone off the bed, intending to surf the net for a while. He checked his social media sites - no notifications, much to his dismay - before he went on YouTube. None of the videos he watched, however, could make a dent in his mood.
He was about to put down his phone and sort out his bag when a message notification popped up on his screen. Like any normal person, Trevor immediately checked it out, and then was rather disappointed to see that it had come from no one particularly special.
Do you wish for freedom?
Yes No
"Huh. Weird," he muttered, wondering if he looked as puzzled as he was while staring at the question. The chestnut-haired teen tried to exit the app, with a perplexed expression growing on his face when he just couldn't, no matter how many times he pressed the "Home" button. "Okay, even more weird."
Well, looks like I'm stuck with this. "But maybe if I answer the darn question…" He said to himself as he quickly typed in and sent his answer, a new text bubble reading "Yes" appearing on the screen.
Suddenly, the bed disappeared from under him, with Trevor screaming as he tumbled in a free-fall. His room was gone, instead replaced by blue skies and the dense forest below him. Panic set in and flooded his mind.
I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'M GONNA-
The teen blacked out long before he hit the ground.
Even on her sick day, Nicole was still adamant about revising for her upcoming preliminary tests, and was currently going over her science textbook while scribbling down her notes and blowing her nose. She couldn't have chosen a worse time to fall ill - about two weeks or so before the exams.
"So like poles repel each other and - achoo!" The girl sneezed, then quickly grabbed a tissue and proceeded to blow the mucus out of her nostrils. She checked the digital clock on her study table - nine o'clock in the morning on August 27 - then turned to face her book once more, jotting notes down like there was no tomorrow.
The sudden, faint vibrations of her phone on the table drew her attention away from her work, prompting Nicole to grab the device and unlock it. Who would message me at this time? Everyone's busy at school!
What she found was most peculiar - a text from someone she didn't know, asking her a rhetorical question.
Do you want to succeed?
Yes No
What people go around asking these sorts of stupid things? Nicole thought to herself, tapping the "Yes" on her screen absentmindedly. It wasn't a link, so what could possibly go wrong?
She definitely did not expect to be falling through the air seconds later, flailing helplessly as the ground rushed up to meet her. All she heard next was the sound of her impact, and nothing more.
The two kids crashed through the doors to their room, both falling flat onto their parents' bed. "I win," Marcos said triumphantly, exhausted from spending the day traversing mountainous terrain, with his little sister only responding with a tired grunt.
The boy was very much like his father; an adventurous soul who would often tire himself out exploring new places. The man was snoring loudly on his bed, too deep in slumber to care that he hadn't even washed himself yet. His wife sighed, also exhausted from the day's events, and planted a kiss on his cheek before turning to her kids.
"I'm gonna bathe first, so you two don't fall asleep like your father before I come out." Marcos heard his mother warn lightly, before disappearing into the bathroom and locking the door, leaving the kids with nothing to do. So Marcos did whatever any bored eleven-year-old would do: turn on the television and hopefully find some late-night cartoons to watch or something.
Of course, hotel televisions have a rather measly variety of channels to pick, with only one channel even showing something similar to cartoons, while the rest focused on the daily news and other boring adult stuff. Disappointed that any of the shows he watched weren't on the cartoon channel, Marcos surfed through the list of channels available, hoping that at least one of them would show Ninjago or something.
"You find anything?" His sister asked tiredly, about as bored to death as he was. "Not yet...hey, what's this?" In response, Francisca rubbed her eyes and eyed the white text on the television's dark screen.
Do you seek adventure?
Yes No
"Mano, which channel is this?" "No idea, a moment ago it was showing some news report before this happened," Marcos replied, somewhat confused when his attempts to shut down the television didn't work. "Strange, now it won't turn off." Both siblings considered the situation for a moment, before the young boy came up with the idea of touching the screen ("What? It could work," Marcos reasoned).
The moment he pressed his finger to the "Yes" onscreen, the television flashed a vivid array of colors, and the boy quickly jerked his finger away from the screen. Suddenly, the hotel room was replaced with blue sky, Francisca was nowhere to be seen, and Marcos was falling towards a forest below him.
He didn't exactly have time to comprehend what was going on before he crashed onto the grass.
Sonia was one of the few people who still visited the library to pick out new books, in contrast to the many who would either purchase e-books on their phones, read fanfiction online, buy their own books at the local bookstore or just not read at all.
For the past three years she had been visiting the library, and was such a regular there that all the library staff at the very least knew both her name and her favorite book genres. "Welcome! We have a few new additions to our Adventure genre, if you'd like to take a look," One librarian greeted Sonia as she entered the building.
"Thanks, though I'm currently looking for something else. Do you have a copy of Allegiant here?" The dark-skinned girl queried, watching as the librarian gestured towards the row of library computers. "I think so, but I'm not sure which floor it's on. You can use the search tool to help you out, if you'd like."
Sonia nodded in thanks, walking over to the library's computers. Usually she had no need for them, often going up to the bookshelves to find new books herself. But this time she had a burning question in the back of her mind, one that could only be answered with that specific book. The girl started typing the moment she'd reached the keyboard, then pressed "Enter" and waited for the results.
Strangely enough, the screen turned black just as the library website finished loading her results, and white text appeared on it. Why a simple question was appearing out of nowhere, she had no clue.
Do you want to learn more?
Yes No
"Mrs. Helen?" Sonia called out, unsure of what to do next. There was no option to close the message website, with her only choice being to answer Yes or No. Maybe there's some kind of virus… The girl moved her mouse and clicked "Yes", thinking that her computer would redirect her to the troubleshooting page.
Instead, the screen flashed an odd array of colors, and Sonia found herself falling from the sky.
The last thing she registered was the forest below before she hit the ground.
"Hey mate, what's this?" One of the guys seated behind Jake asked. The Australian stared at his Nintendo Switch, trying to figure out why a cryptic message was flashing on the screen instead of his game. "No idea…"
Literally everyone was excited when Jake brought his new Nintendo Switch to school. Throughout the day, a crowd followed him around whenever he took out the game console, even forming on the school bus home though everyone was supposed to stay safely on their seats. The bus driver tried to warn the kids about their safety, but obviously no one was listening to the guy over the sound of Jake playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate.
A rather loud chorus of "Oh, come on!" and other irritated comments erupted when the strange message appeared on the screen, interrupting Jake's game just as he was about to land his Final Smash. Practically everyone got a good look at it.
Do you want to meet new people?
Yes No
"Really, what the heck is this?" Jake questioned, still rather upset that his game was interrupted. "Yeah, what does this question even mean? 'Meet new people' - we do that every darn day!" Another boy commented. "Maybe you could try turning it off and restarting," a girl at the end of the crowd suggested, and a murmur of agreement rose from the kids. However, Jake wasn't really up for the idea. "What about my save data?" He argued back, and a mini quarrel ensued.
Suddenly, the bus made a sharp turn right, causing Jake's finger to accidentally hit the "Yes" answer on the screen. In the blink of an eye, the group around him disappeared, and he felt himself tumbling through the air, catching a fleeting glimpse of the forest below before he passed out.
Abigail stared at the strange, rectangular object in her hand. Considering the blank screen and the row of buttons on it, she guessed that the device was a toy of some sort. But what kind of toy?
She had found the toy in the attic earlier, initially hesitant to clean out the old, dusty room but soon intrigued by the numerous antiques hidden within, one of which was the old object in her hand. When Abigail asked about it, her mother said that the device was some kind of virtual pet toy that used to belong to her father, forgotten until now. The short-haired girl still didn't fully understand - how was this "Digital Monster" thing supposed to work with a screen that small?
So Abigail pressed a few buttons at random, until black pixels suddenly appeared on the screen, with instructions to set the time and date. After she'd done so, the image of an egg appeared, with small pixelated cracks forming on it until the thing cracked open. Replacing the egg was a small, black...well, blob, with white dots for eyes. Odd, you usually don't raise slime in virtual pet games…
Whatever goals that existed were pretty easy to achieve - simply feed the slime creature, clean up its poop and turn off the device lights whenever it was time for bed. Of course, she didn't need to do the last one just yet, since night hadn't fallen. It got pretty boring after Abigail finished everything she needed to do, so she left the virtual pet toy on her study desk and climbed back upstairs to the attic, intending to find out what else lay hidden in the old room.
An hour passed. Abigail did find some photo albums and an old trophy from back in her grandfather's day, but otherwise nothing really special. With nothing better to do, she headed back into her room and checked on the virtual pet toy. At first, nothing interesting happened - the black blob just moved around on the screen.
Suddenly, pixels swirled around the slime creature, and the black blob disappeared in the twister of monochrome pixels. Abigail briefly wondered whether the virtual pet was undergoing evolution, just like how a Pokémon would. And then at the final second before her slime creature could reveal its next form, the screen went blank, a sentence - no, a question - appearing on it:
Do you believe?
Yes No
"Abby, let's go! Dinner!" Her mother called out from downstairs, voice echoing through the house. "Hold on!" Came Abigail's reply as she stared, dumbfounded at the question. Believe? Believe in what, exactly? Religion? Truth? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?
Unsure what to answer and with a need to get going quick, Abigail selected the "Yes" on her screen.
She never expected the device to light up like a disco ball, nor did she expect the long drop into a forest that awaited her.
Author's Notes:
Yeah, new fanfiction. I apologise if you were hoping for a new The Ties That Bind chapter, that one's kinda discontinued. Sincerest apologies and thanks to Kawaii Emolga for all her support for that fanfic, and deepest thanks to that one guy on Wattpad who got me back into writing that when I was stuck around chapter 6 with a simple encouraging comment.
No guarentee I will ever finish this one, since my imagined plot looks a little bit too similar to Adventure and I usually don't write. But I'll do what I can for this one, and two more ideas I'll hopefully upload someday.