Cardiff, Wales/March 31st, 2009/Time Unknown
He woke up. He wasn't used to what he saw before him. Powerlines, Modern Houses, interposed between ancient homes and farms. Farmers tended to their flocks of sheep, and walls made of old stone created boundaries between the various properties. Cars rode down both the old dirt and new paved roads. It was all so surreal, he was sure this couldn't be what is was, but…
"How… did I get here?"
BBC Headquarters/London, England/One Year Later/8:14 AM
"Be seated, ladies."
The two of them sat down, wondering why their boss had called them into his office. Generally such things only happened for top secret assignments… or being released. And Lily Burkhoff really didn't want that to be the case. She noticed that Natalie, her camera-woman and partner in crime, seemed to be nervous as well. She was sweating up a storm and desperately trying to cover it up, with obvious results. Both of them seemed gulp simultaneously. It was obvious the tension was getting to them. Their boss, noticing their anxiety, merely smiled.
"No, the two of you aren't being fired."
They both breathed a sigh of relief, then stood straighter. If they weren't being fired, then..?
"As you two know, there have been many recent incidents with the "Digital Monsters" in Japan."
They nodded, the images they had seen before fresh in their minds.
"We have been getting reports of similar creatures in Rome from locals over the internet. They have been taking pictures of these things and posting them on various social media websites. The Italian government has been doing their best to silence all of the outcry generated from these encounters. Obviously they can't generate revenue from tourists if all of their tourists are being eaten."
"What?" said Natalie, "they're being eaten?"
"Apparently. Which is why I'm sending you two out there to verify this information. I know you're not war correspondents, but we have too many people out on their various duties, and honestly, it helps to have such a linguist be our woman on the scene."
Lily blushed at the praise. It was somewhat known around the office that she loved to learn languages and was already fluent in several. Although how her boss found out was beyond her.
"Please. We need people out there so we can find out what's really going on. I'll give you 24-"
"We'll do it."
Her quick response startled her partner. Natalie's fear of strangers (and strangers fear of her) was just as heard about in the office break room as Lily's linguistics. She stammered when she gave her reply.
"But Lily, we still need to think this through, there's the room and board-"
"We've providing that, along with the food."
"-or our clothes, or the how the people will think of us, or-"
"Come on, Natalie! How did you manage to get a job in the media industry? We don't need to worry about the people, they're probably too shell-shocked by all that's happened to care about reporters!"
Her boss interjected.
"Actually, Natalie has a point. We don't know how the people will react. We're banking on how they've been wanting the facts to get out, but we don't know how this will work with some of the more… sedentary locals."
"Sedentary?"
"There are some words one should never say in public."
"Ahhh…"
"In any case, Natalie, your partner has already accepted the assignment. What about you?"
Natalie looked back and forth between the two of them, before nodding her head weakly.
"If Lily is confident about this… why not?"
"Excellent. We have the plane tickets already sorted out, we just need you to pack your belongings and to gather any equipment you need. The flight will be Saturday. Are you sure you two don't need any other people to help?"
Natalie thought about this, but Lily, being quite impulsive that day, shook her head.
"We don't need anyone else! This is just a simple series of interviews with the local populace! It shouldn't be too difficult."
Natalie was caught tongue-tied once more, but a part of her really admired her partner's amazing courage. If only I had that kind of self-confidence.
A Hotel, Rome, Italy/April 3rd, 2010/0700 Hours
He got up at the ring of the alarm. He had spent too many weeks at boot camp to ignore the morning alarm, despite 21 years. He was on what his buddies called a vacation, despite how unusual if felt after such a long life of structured time slots; a just reward to himself after finally retiring from the Army. He got done onto the floor and began his daily workout.
He always did his workout, no matter what. That's just what happens after a life in the military. The regiments become habits, then habits become lifestyles. He always understood why other people were often so lax about their own physical health, however. It was a hard thing to do, and he had long since learned that this day and age people didn't want stuff that took a long time or large amounts of effort. They wanted instantaneous burgers and fries, bought from a kid, or nowadays an old woman, working at the counter. He understood why, but he just couldn't bring himself to slouch so much. It… took too much of an effort to just try and not do anything, as strange as that sounded.
When he had finished, he showered, got dressed and walked down to the hotel café. Admittedly, if there was anything he was actually lazy about, it was breakfast. He really loved it when he wasn't the one making it (most likely due to how his comrades kept on joking about his inability to cook eggs.) It was just that one time, and they never stopped talking about it. He picked up a plate and got his usual: eggs, sausage, an apple, along with a glass of milk. Then he picked up a paper that was on one of the tables and looked at the headlines. He found newspapers, on average, were slightly better than television news broadcasters in actually talking about the facts. One of the headlines caught his eye:
More mystery attacks occurring, facts still unknown.
He was grateful that his Italian was still up to par. He had heard about these attacks when had arrived here, but no one in the government seemed to be saying anything. Usually that meant only a few possibilities: Either the government didn't want the information to spread in order to prevent a nationwide panic attack, or because they didn't want to admit that they had no idea how to deal with this. Sighing, he turned to the opinions page.
A Nearby Apartment Complex/8:10 AM
Maria was cooking breakfast. It had been sometime since had first moved here, and while she hated the cramped space and lack of quality everywhere, the place did allow pets.
Which she supposed she did have.
"Davimon, breakfast is almost ready."
Her partner woke up, the sleep still evident in his eyes, well really, eye. He looked just like a little boy with a few minor differences. Namely, the one eye and the little goat's horns on his head. He was dressed in a rather plain medieval garb, and carried a small harp. He was adorable… in his own strange way.
"Okay, okay. You know, this apartment is really stuffy and full of dust."
"Yes, but it's the only one which will allow you! I'm not even sure why that man allowed us to rent this apartment!"
"Well, he did look a little tipsy…"
"I try to ignore those kinds of qualities in people."
"It's not a quality, it's a fact. He was red in the face and had trouble walking in a straight line. It's pretty obvious what happened."
"Still, it's pretty harsh to say it out loud."
He shrugged his shoulders, then began folded his arms and began to pray. While Maria was an atheist, she found it a little cute. Though, he never spoke his prayers out loud enough for her to understand what he was praying for. Once he was done, he immediately went to digging into his portion of the food.
Maria sighed, then began to eat herself. Once she had finished eating and cleaned the dishes, she put on her coat and shoes and began to walk out the door.
"Have a good day at work!"
She smiled at his almost carefree wish. He complimented people as easily as others breathed. She supposed it was just in his nature. It was almost the punchline for a joke. An atheistic human and a religious digimon walk into a bar… Hmm, could work. She closed the door behind her and went off to her job.
She worked at a hotel café near the apartment. It was decent work, though it was only just enough to pay for food, the rent and night school. She put on her uniform, then went to the kitchens to help finish making the rest of the breakfast food. On her way there, she saw a familiar man jogging outside the window. He had only come to the hotel recently, but it was obvious that he didn't really loosen up like the other people who stayed. Probably was just used to a high-stress job.
Turning away, she went to her station and cracked open a few eggs in a bowl.
Another Apartment Complex, this one not so Nearby/8:40 AM
*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*
"Ugh... remind me why we decided to room together?"
"Because we're twins who decided to attend the same university."
She got up off the bed stared sleepily at her brother, who had been sleeping on the couch. It was his alarm that had been beeping and while it helped to wake them both up she still appreciated her beauty sleep. She went to the bathroom to shower and get changed, then, refreshed, walked out to the "kitchen" of the little hole she and her brother now called home. Her brother was reheating some pasta from last night to be "breakfast" and went into the bathroom right after she got out. She sighed. Leftovers, as always.
She sat down to eat while her brother got changed. In truth, she wished she didn't have to room with her twin, but it was really convenient for the two of them. She yawned as she took a look at her reflection in the window.
The two of them had dark brown, almost black hair, which she wore long and he had trimmed. Her hazel eyes stared back at her, almost… questioning. Questioning what? She paid no attention to it. The rest of her face was average, nothing special really, the same for her brother. She was a whirlpool of averages, defying the odds by becoming one with them. I really need to lay off those poetry classes.
"You really need to lay off those poetry classes."
She yelped in surprise. Her brother just looked at her quizzically.
"Was it something I said?"
"No, no, it's nothing…"
He looked at her for a moment more, then shrugged his shoulders. He began to eat his bowl of pasta while she gathered her things. Her literature class was first this morning, and she wanted to get a good seat.
"Barri, you off?"
She turned back to him at the sound of her nickname. She never liked the name she had gotten, Barbara, and the standard nickname for the name was sacrilege in her eyes. She wasn't a doll! She was a woman!
She closed the door behind her. Baldur just sighed. Their mother had… an interesting sense for naming. Barbara and Baldur. One's basically American, and one's Scandinavian. And we're ITALIAN! When he was sure she was gone, he pulled out a duel monsters deck. It was a Constellar deck, one which he had secretly saved up for. His sister really didn't like Duel Monsters (who knows why!) and so he tried to hide his cards from her. He still wasn't sure why she never asked about it, they lived in a tiny apartment, how could she have not found them by now? He didn't know, so he didn't ask.
Outside the City Borders/9:25 AM
He looked at the city in front of him, then smiled.
"So this is Rome. It looks peaceful, yet animate, just like…"
He cut off that train of thought. Best not to think of it. Something caught his attention, something which confused him. A group of men were leading another man into the wilderness outside of the city. He watched them, curious, then realized what was going on.
"They can't be… it's broad daylight! Are they doing an EXECUTION NOW? And why…"
He ran off in their direction.
Elsewhere, a pair of glowing eyes stared at the man who just ran off.
%\%\%\%\%\%
Author's Notes: Welp, this is the introduction for Exalted on High, a fanfiction of another fanfiction, YuYugiDigiMoon. Please note that I have not recieved word back from the author of whether I have permission to create this series. Should his response be negative, I will immediately take it down.
Having got that out the way, this is Exalted on High. Like I said, it is a fanfiction of another fanfiction, taking place in Rome, Italy. I chose Rome to be the setting for this story because I know the Author already has plans for Japan and the U.S. and so I wanted my story to be disconnected from all of that.
I've introduced most of our characters so far. Their will be more as this goes along, but these guys will take center stage. Another thing to note, due to the fact that I would rather not add anymore Sailor Senshi to the setting, I am instead including some elements from the tabletop game Exalted, hence the name. There are also two other franchise I will be including some elements from, but we'll get to those eventually :) .
So far for characters we have Lily and Natalie, our BBC reporters, Mr. Military Dude (his name is Joseph, it'll get mentioned in the story eventually), Maria and Davimon (our digimon representative), the Twins and a mysterious man (his name won't be mentioned for a while). Other's will eventually enter the playing field, but these are the main people.
Another thing to note (and yes, I do say this a lot while writing, it's a problem I have) is that I do not have any beta readers. Anyone who wants to do so will be most appreciated.
Well, I'll be working on the next chapter now. May you continue reading to your heart's content...