Children's War Game (A TAN what if story)
Chapter One: First meeting, shall we reminisce?
Miles apart we were…when we first met behind those computer screens.
We were all different in many ways…but there was one thing that we all had in common.
We all shared a common place in the internet that we felt at home at, a place…where we felt that we belonged.
Fast forward seven years and here we are, sitting awkwardly around table no. 16.
Three boys and three girls, shy faces present on every one of them.
That was till the smallest but most outgoing of the bunch started the ball rolling.
"So…what are we going to have? Roti Prata for starters?" Ciara asked the guy to her left.
Xin shook his head before replying, "It's night time Ciara, hawker centers don't serve that during the night."
Seeing the two of them talk to each other with such ease, Gary felt better and starter to join into the conversation.
"I know a place that does though. There's a shop at Jurong Point that serves Prata 24 hours." He said with a big grin on his face.
The tallest girl of the bunch soon joined in.
"I have a question…what's Prat-ah?" Lindsay asked while raising up her hand like as though she was in class.
I couldn't help but let out a chuckle when I saw that.
"Why don't we go and then you can find out for yourself?" I suggested before standing up to lead the way.
The six of us soon made our way to the nearest bus stop. Letting Gary and Xin lead the way in my place, I slowly moved to the back of the group to find out what was going on with my oldest friend.
She hadn't uttered a single word since I've first saw her today.
"Are you alright Caroline? You've been awfully quiet today." I asked her softly, however she did not reply.
Instead she took out her phone and started typing something on it. At first I thought that she was ignoring me…or maybe she didn't hear my question.
However my phone vibrated as soon as she was done, and I realized that she was smsing me.
Curious, I quickly took out my phone to read what she wrote.
"I'm perfectly fine. Let's just enjoy the rest of the night!" was what the message said.
In response I decided to reply her through sms as well.
"Then why aren't you talking?" I wrote…with a sad smiley face at the end.
She typed out her reply fairly quickly but hesitated before sending.
"I know it seems silly...but…I don't like my voice."
After reading it I recalled she had told me something similar a year ago. For some reason I had always been good at remembering little stuff like that about her.
"It's alright, I'm sure your voice sounds fine. You know how we all watch anime and the girls in them all have squeaky voices too. So it isn't a bad thing to sound anime-ish."
Upon hearing what I had to say I saw her expression in her face changed from hesitation to joy. A small smile lit up on her face as she began to say her first words to me since arriving here.
"Thank you."
I smiled to her before saying the words she already knew I was going to say.
"You know you're always welcome."
The night went well. The prata shop was more than happy to welcome us even though we arrived there at 12 am in the morning. Everything was great. Good food and awesome company…what more could one asks for? And for a moment there I felt that this bliss could last forever.
I wished.
I like to think that I'm an optimistic person. However there's always some part of my heart that silently screams to my self-conscious that good things don't last forever. They never do.
I just didn't think that a giant blurry like monster was going to be the thing that spoiled our night together.
We couldn't actually see it as it rampaged around the shopping mall, but wherever it was, the area around it blurred for some reason. As though our eyes just weren't accustomed to see it so all our brain showed us was a blur. All of us quickly ran for cover when we realized what was happening. Out the sliding doors of the mall and into a shop opposite the road, we ran and hid.
"What in the world is that thing?" Ciara asked with a tone more filled with curiosity than fear, perhaps hoping that this thing was common place in Singapore.
"No idea, but what ever it is, it seems to be heading this way." Xin replied as calmly as he could, suppressing the anxiety in his heart.
The blurry distorted image was indeed coming closer…we could all hear it's breathe sounding louder and certainly heavier. It was getting excited at the thought of finding us…that much I was sure.
That thought however scared the crap out of me. This thing wasn't just attacking random people. It was focused.
It was targeting us.
However what I couldn't figure out was why? Why would a monster possibly be attacking us for? Why would there be a monster in the real world in the first place? So many questions were running through my head as we hid. All of which I couldn't find the answers to.
Just then all our phones started to vibrate and our ringtones started ringing simultaneously.
We had all received a similar message, but it was from an unknown number that none of us had.
"If you wish to escape, please dial the number attached to this message."
We looked at each other with scared and confused faces. The timing of the message was too convenient to be a coincidence or a prank. But who was the one who sent it? How would calling him safe us?
Meanwhile the weird concoction of our different tunes had alerted the monster to our location behind the cash register. It was sniffing us out. In less than a minute it was going to get us.
However everyone was still hesitating…I just couldn't stand it anymore.
Swallowing my doubts, I dialed the number while giving them a confident smile.
"Don't be scared. Don't be afraid. There is still hope."
Was what I had wanted to say.
However before I could, I blanked out as a white flashed engulfed my body. When it was over, my body was no longer there.
Seeing that it was indeed an escape route, everyone else soon followed suit.
When we had awoken, we found ourselves floating in a giant white spherical room as large as a small town. In the center of it was a grey modern looking castle. The kind you would probably see in a final fantasy game.
We had no idea where we were. But that didn't matter, because at least for now…we were safe.
We had escaped.
"Where are we?" Gary asked while rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't looking at an illusion.
"I don't know…but there's an awesome looking castle over there. Maybe we would find the answers there?" I suggested, feeling anxious to find out who our savior was.
We soon agreed that it was probably the right course of action to take at this point and started swimming towards the room. The feeling was like as though we were in space. There was zero gravity, but there was still air present. If we weren't likely in mortal danger, this would have definitely have been a fun experience.
Seeing it up close, we realized that the castle was bigger than we first thought. Its doors were as big as a two storey building. The whole castle itself was likely to be bigger than any building constructed in all of time.
When we reached the door steps of the castle, it automatically started to open. Someone knew were here. And he or she or…what…is welcoming us into their home.
The funny thing was even though it looked alien to us…when we entered and started walking properly again as gravity returned to normal inside, it didn't feel weird.
Strangely…it felt a little like home.
We started exploring as soon as we all had landed safely in the large corridors of the castle. There were large portraits of familiar images hung at the sides of the wall as we walked further into the building. Bellow each image were also familiar names like "Night Dancer" and "Crystal Yamaki".
"I think I know what these images are!" Caroline exclaimed with great confidence.
Everyone then turned to look at her, waiting for her answer.
"They're the display pictures we used to use during our times at The Anime Network forums! Look! There is mine!"
Sure enough a pink image of an anime character we saw a lot was there, and the title of the portrait was named Caroline.
Running further ahead we started searching for our own images and sure enough we found them.
The persona images we used to use for ourselves. The memories soon flooded back to the good times we all had in our forum.
After the initial amazement by the portraits, we explored further and found rooms that were named after the different categories of our forum. RP corner, Anime discussion, etc.
Each room lead to a hundred other rooms, each named after a different thread we had started in the forum.
We started having fun despite our situation. We played arcade games based on our RP battle corner and started watching movies in small cinemas that played out the RP stories we used to come up with and joined.
The discussion corners were like giant digital libraries with digital e-book readers and we laughed at the old jokes and funny things we used to say.
The SPAM forum however was a weird place with someone shouting out a random phrase from an anime every five minutes.
Our precious memories…they were all there.
It was as though this castle was a great big archive of what our forum used to be. No…that's wrong…this IS our forum. For some reason we had been transported here by the bright light.
And that means that the person who saved us was probably a member of this forum as well. We should be safe here…or at least that's what I thought until the castle started shaking violently all of a sudden.
We all stopped what we were doing and waited…sure enough there it was again, except that this time it was accompanied by an explosion.
'It can't be…did what attacked us followed us all the way here?' I thought to myself. However before I could find a window to make sure, a voice from the ceiling speakers started giving us instructions.
"Attention all AN members, this is Takeru speaking. I'm sorry to interrupt your time of reminiscence, but our forum is currently being under attacked. Please proceed to the central chamber immediately. I'll light up arrows so that you all know where to go."
"Takeru! Is it really you? How? So you were the one who saved us?" Caroline asked out loud.
"There's no time for explanations, please proceed to the central chamber." Takeru replied as holographic arrows of pink, yellow and blue started appearing to point the way.
"Let's go then." Gary said before leading the way.
As we followed the arrows past many rooms and corridors, the shaking and explosions continued none stop. Upon walking past a room with windows for walls, we saw what was going on outside. A blue android like monster with a red scarf was fighting against a demon like monster with stretchable arms and feet. I quickly recognized them…it was the most unbelievable thing…they were digimons! Justimon and Diaboromon!
I couldn't believe what I was seeing but there was no doubt about it. Digimons! We all just couldn't help but stare out the window, watching the fight like ten year old kids who were watching their favorite Saturday morning cartoon.
"Who's the one fighting outside?" I asked out loud, hoping that Takeru could still hear us and was willing to answer more questions.
"Huh? You mean who is Justimon's partner?" the speakers replied.
"Yeah."
"You'll know soon enough. For now just keep moving. We need you all in the central chamber before we activate the castle's defenses. The sooner you guys get in, the sooner we can stop the fight."
However before we could continue, all of a sudden the glass walls shattered as Justimon came crashing into the room. His body tumbled on the floor before coming to a crashing stop with the help of the inner room's walls.
From the room in front of us, a young teenage boy came running in to see if he was okay. The young teenage boy with smooth black hair and jet black eyes shouted his digimon's name as he did.
"It's Optic!" Lindsay announced as she recognized the young man.
We were all surprised when we realized she was right, but on hind sight it shouldn't have been such a big surprise…after all Takeru and Optic did control a lot of the forum's administrative work for a long time.
"Yes it's me, but you have to keep moving you guys. I can barely handle one Diaboromon…more would be coming soon."
After which Justimon carried Optic, and the both of them jumped back out of the glass wall to finish their fight.
All of us then continued to make our way to the central chamber…all except me.
I didn't like the idea of leaving someone we know to face off a threat alone…
I watched them duel it out, circling each other as Diaboromon spited out fire balls one after the other. Justimon dodged them with ease but whenever he tried to attack the demon like digimon, it dodged his efforts just as easily as they dodged his.
The fight was going nowhere…I couldn't tell who was wining. It was then that I decided that it's probably best for now to do as I was told. I then ran as fast as I could to catch up with the rest of our friends.
The central chamber was a dark room. At the heart of it was a weird matrix like object floating in a protective tube. It glowed with a soft blue light and was constant spinning slowly.
"This, my friends is the Digi-core. This is what Diaboromon's after…but for now this is our best hope to fight against him. It'll grant you your respective partners after a scan. Please step into the white circles on the floor." Takeru spoke through the speakers again.
We did as we were told and stood in the circles encircling the Digi-core. A white light then soon engulfed us as the scan began.
Digi-destined registration process activated.
Users recognized.
Caroline.
Lindsay.
Ciara.
Gary.
Xin.
Livan.
Attributes calculated…please hold till compatibility simulations are completed.
Caroline's partner has been chosen.
Lindsay's partner has been chosen.
Ciara's partner has been chosen.
Gary's partner has been chosen.
Xin's partner has been chosen.
Error has occurred on Livan's partner.
Rectifying problem…
User is already registered with a partner.
Reuniting process activated.
Process completed.
Welcome to the Digital world Digi-destines.
Your digi-eggs will hatch in 12 hours.
Thank you in advance.
Please save the worlds.
"Alright you guys, the process has been completed. I'm going to teleport you all back to the real world now while we deal with Diaboromon here. Please visit our old forum. Everything will be explained there."
After that, we blanked out and woke up in different rooms.
The girls woke up in their separate hotel rooms while the guys woke up back home.
All of us woke up in front of computers…so I guessed that's how it works.
On the forum was a message for us.
For all AN members.
Dear AN members,
I bid you welcome back.
It saddens me that we could not reunite under better circumstances. But none the less it is of great importance that we did.
What you witness in the white room is the reason why you were summoned.
The threat known as Diaboromon has discovered the location of the Digi-core that I and Optic had hidden years ago in the digital sever of our beloved forum.
Before I go on I should explain…me and Optic are the original Digi-destines of the Digital World. Children chosen to protect both worlds. It happened years ago when we accidentally came into contact with the Digi-core on the internet…strange as it might sound. But it's the truth.
What followed were numerous battles to protect the Digi-core, the epic center of the Digital world. If fallen into the wrong hands, the already weakened barrier between our worlds would no doubt shatter and the evil Digimons like Diaboromon would have enough power to take over both our worlds.
In his previous attempts, Diaboromon almost succeeded in doing so. We were unable to defeat him. Thus we decided to run and hide deeper into the internet. Using our forum as a cover, we have evaded him for years…until today.
But my friends, it is impossible to run away any further now. We have run out of options…it is time to take a stand and fight!
That is why we summoned you…besides saving you…we hoped that you would join us in our battle to stop Diaboromon. He's already made holes into the barrier between our worlds. However he can only stay in the real world for a short period of time without the Digi-core.
If he gets a hold of its power…I'm afraid war would be upon us my friends.
So please, I beg of you to join us.
The fact that he decided to attack Singapore on the day where your real life reunion took place is not just mere coincidence my friends.
It is destiny.
It's our destiny to stop him.
So I hope all of you can find the courage to help us in our cause…
Thank you for reading.
PS: Yes the shaking image of an egg on your phone is a digimon.
PSS: Yes Digimons are real.
After reading it I received a call from Caroline.
"So are you going to join him?" she asked.
I paused for a moment before replying.
"Yeah. I'm not going to stand idle as the world pass me by."
And so…this was how it all began.
The war that we children had to stop.